The Story Behind The Song: Fleetwood Mac explore relationship regret with ‘Little Lies’
Fleetwood Mac are a band that has pretty much always had a history of tragedy, heartbreak and disarray following them around. Even as early as the Peter Green days, the band were surrounded by turmoil, with Green becoming mentally unwell given his over-the-top use of LSD.
When the third main iteration of Fleetwood Mac arrived in 1974, original drummer Mick Fleetwood and bass player John McVie – who the band were named after – were joined by Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine Perfect – who married McVie and then became Christine McVie.
The new formation of Fleetwood Mac now had several contributors to songwriting, and together they developed a contemporary pop-rock orientated sound, particularly noticeable on 1974’s self-titled album and 1977’s Rumours. One of those contributors was the keyboard player, Christine McVie, though she has previously admitted that she doubted her ability when compared to her other bandmates.
Christine McVie once stated, “I started writing songs when I was very young, but I wasn’t very good. In fact, I was quite paranoid about it. Then I joined Fleetwood Mac, and Mick encouraged me to keep trying. I wrote all the time during that time, and my pop developed into more of a blues style. It was Mick who told me to persevere, and eventually, I wrote a few good songs.”
And good songs she did write, particularly in the form of ‘Little Lies’, which was the third single from 1987’s Tango In The Night, the band’s first album in five years. McVie wrote the track with her husband Eddy Quintela, who she had married just before Tango In The Night was released. The song wasn’t necessarily written about her relationship with Quintela; it’s more likely to be about her failed relationship with her first husband and bandmate, Mick Fleetwood.
McVie said of the lyrics: “The idea of the lyric is, if I had the chance, I’d do it differently next time. But since I can’t, just carry on lying to me and I’ll believe, even though I know you’re lying.” Fleetwood Mac’s inter-band relationships were the subject of much press surrounding the band, and this, coupled with the fact that they were in relationships with one another at all, created many tensions within the group.
‘Little Lies’ sees McVie speak from the viewpoint – perhaps her own – of someone who has been tortured by the emotional uncertainty that romantic relationships bring. They have ultimately brought the curtain down on a past relationship but cannot help but think, “what if?”. This is most clearly exemplified when she sings the lyrics, “If I could turn the page/In time then I’d rearrange/Just a day or two”.
However, wistfully mourning a relationship that has been and gone is unfruitful and can only lead to more pain. The narrator suspends this manner of thinking even though what they are searching for may have ultimately proven to be accurate and turns instead to the ‘little lies’ that new relationships provide, covering up the potential alternatives of the past. McVie sings, “No more broken hearts/We’re better off apart/Let’s give it a try”.
Creating Tango In The Night had become quite an ordeal for the band, though they had been used to working in stressful, tense and even hostile environments, particularly when they were recording 1977’s Rumours. However, the tensions of Tango In The Night had proved too much to bear for Lindsey Buckingham, and he left the group just before the band went out to tour the album.
