“I have to strain”: the one song too high for Stevie Nicks to sing
Most singers know how to be professional when approaching their more challenging songs. Even if a note might not be in the most comfortable spot in their range, it’s easy for them to either work around it when they play things live or put every muscle in their body to the test when belting it out. Although Stevie Nicks has had moments of annihilating every song she wrote, she admitted that one Fleetwood Mac classic was a nightmare for her to sing night after night.
Granted, it’s not like Nicks didn’t have to worry about her own problems when working on her stage act. Aside from dressing like the Welsh witch Rhiannon every time she took to the stage, hearing her play the song of the same name made her look possessed whenever she walked out, channelling something between Janis Joplin and dark magic to get in the right headspace for a song.
When working on Rumours, though, there were bound to be more than physical limitations that got in the way of things. Since Lindsey Buckingham was writing every one of his songs about their breakup, Nicks couldn’t be bothered to stick around to hear some of the material, even walking out of the studio when her old flame started working on ‘Second Hand News’.
Then again, it’s hard to argue when the hooks sound this good. As much as ‘Second Hand News’ or ‘Dreams’ may have sounded like a nightmare to have lived through, the fact that they both found ways to spin it into gold must have been a blessing and a curse when they had to perform them onstage every night and seethe with anger at the person standing next to them.
But ‘Go Your Own Way’ was a bit different than usual. Aside from the same pent-up aggression that Buckingham had for Nicks in the lyrics, what Nicks couldn’t get over was the background harmonies on the song, which seemed to push her farther than Buckingham knew that she could go.
Even when the band sat down for interviews with Rolling Stone, Nicks was bitter about having to sing something that put strain on her voice so much, saying, “That song! The harmony part is too high, and I have to hurt and strain every time I sing it.” Then again, if someone had you singing a tune about how you were shacking up with everyone else, there’s a good chance that you’d probably not want to sing it, either.
Given their relationship, it’s easy to think that Buckingham did this as a way of pushing Nicks whenever they performed. There had always been a certain fiery energy between them once they hit the stage, and if they could capture that in song, there was a good chance that the crowd would have gone nuts.
And despite Nicks having to strain herself to hit every note perfectly, that’s probably why the piece sounds so magical. No good rock and roll song comes without putting everyone through their paces, and even if it was draining on her voice, somewhere in between those hours of vocal fatigue was where the true magic of the band’s sound was.
