‘Songbird’: The most brutally honest Fleetwood Mac breakup song
When Fleetwood Mac first began work on Rumours, they couldn’t have asked for a more perfect storm of controversy. Every single member of the band was breaking up with each other, and looking at every track on the record, it reads like one of the most uncomfortable sets of lyrics anyone could have put down in writing, given the problems that they were dealing with. But in between all of the hurt feelings and the broken hearts that were left in the studio, the true professionals were the ones who were able to be honest about their problems.
Then again, any look at the songs on here may as well be an autopsy in itself. Many pieces of the tracks have throwaway lines that may or may not be about a certain person, but given the venom in their voices, it’s easy to hear that they would have rather been anywhere than in the studio making the record at that point. And when talking about the problems in the group, it always comes back around to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
They had already come into the group as a couple, and since they were two of the main songwriters, having them throw musical stones at each other should be a prime candidate for being brutally honest. However, it does get a little bit murky when talking about the real problems with their relationship. ‘Dreams’ is a far more gentle way for Nicks to let Buckingham down easy than ‘Go Your Own Way’, and while the latter does have some damning lines, it’s hard to pin down the evidence behind Buckingham’s lines about Nicks “shacking up” with people.
But there was a wild card in the mix all this time, and her name was Christine McVie. She had already begun separating from John McVie before the sessions started and had moved on to working with one of their stage directors, but whereas ‘You Make Loving Fun’ is one of the most joyous songs about infidelity in their catalogue, ‘Songbird’ is the definition of what a breakup song is supposed to be about.
Because throughout the entire tune, Christine isn’t trying to cut John into pieces with every single line. It’s clear that she’s hurt about the relationship falling apart, but she knows that there’s no way for her to carry on in that relationship. And while it’s a sad parting, she sounds at peace at this point when she says that she won’t be crying for her old flame any longer.
It takes the emotional strength of an Olympian to translate something this heartbreaking without breaking down, but the reason why the track is so brutally honest comes from how Christine delivers it. She knew that was breaking John’s heart along with her own to some degree, but the only thing that she can hope for is to come out of the whole thing as a stronger person, including the one heartbreaking line where she wishes John all the love in the world.
Outside of the raw music, though, the production is what makes the song so genuine. This is as authentic a take as they could have possibly got on tape at the time, and listening to her sing her heart out in this lavish hall makes the whole thing feel like it was being beamed down from the heavens rather than meticulously thought up in a lab.
Although Christine had most of the best songs on every Fleetwood Mac album, this is the moment where she put both Nicks and Buckingham to shame on the record. Both of them had their issues to work out, and it wasn’t going to be easy, but while it’s fun to be a little bit bitchy listening to ‘Go Your Own Way’, ‘Songbird’ is the moment in any relationship where there is no room for tiptoeing around the subject. It’s clear that things have fallen apart, but Christine found a way to put a little bit of sunshine into the mix as well.
