The song Lindsey Buckingham wrote for Stevie Nicks: “All these years later”
All of Fleetwood Mac have in some way played a part in the drama that enveloped the entire existence of the band. While they became famous because of their catchy songs and exceptional live show, part of what kept them in the limelight, even after the eventual split, was the amount of tension that surrounded each member.
This arose for a number of different reasons, whether it was persistent drug use, alcohol exposure, the pressures of being a world-famous rockstar, or internal relationships within the band. In the case of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, it was a combination of all four.
The two first met in High School and were connected by music right from the start. Playing in the band Fritz, the duo decided to drop out of San José State University because they wanted to follow their musical dreams. They succeeded, to a certain degree, as Fritz went on to support big names such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. However, the band disbanded, and as the pressures of that music left, Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship turned romantic.
This continued until 1975, when the bandinvited the duo to be a part of the group. However, the two were already on the verge of breaking up when this happened. Managing their relationship in a way that kept things civil was a challenge. It was handled to a certain degree, but there was always tension within the band, which led to the two writing songs about one another and Nicks eventually leaving the group, too.
“I mean, I broke up with Lindsey in 1976. We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined,” said Nicks, “So, we just put our relationship kind of back together, because I was smart enough to know that, if we had broken up the second month of being in Fleetwood Mac, it would have blown the whole thing up.”
When Nicks eventually did leave Fleetwood Mac, she did so on the best possible terms. “It was time. And the band was solid, by that time, so I could walk away knowing that he was safe,” she recalled, “And that the band was safe. And that we could work it out.”
Nicks went on to have a successful solo career. When the band reunited to make music in 2013 on the Extended Play record, she was unable to attend all of the recording sessions due to commitments with her solo work. Still, her absence didn’t stop Buckingham from writing one last time about her.
In talking about the track ‘Sad Angel’, Buckingham said, “I wrote that song for Stevie. She always had to fight for everything. She was coming off a solo album and was in the process of reintegrating herself mentally in the band,” looking back, Buckingham said, “She and I have known each other since high school. So I just wrote, ‘Sad Angel, have you come to fight the war? We fall to earth together, the crowd calling out for more’.”
He reflected on the romantic absurdity of the situation: “All these years later, we are still writing songs that are dialogues for each other.” Fleetwood Mac’s music is timeless, and a large part of that is likely the fact that the feelings that envelop their songs are equally timeless.
