Who did Stevie Nicks write the Fleetwood Mac song ‘Dreams’ about?
As its title alludes to, the landmark Fleetwood Mac album Rumours is filled to overflowing with suspicion, mistrust and heartbreak. Nowhere more so than in the second song on its track listing, ‘Dreams’. Penned by Stevie Nicks, the song drove a dagger into the wedge being opened up between two of its band members.
The devastating line “Players only love you when they’re playing” is one that demonstrates Nicks wasn’t pulling any punches. She was in a hopeless situation with her relationship, hurt, and ready to hurt back. She paints a lousy picture of the man she’s singing to as she imitates him saying, “Women, they will come, and they will go”. If he’s going to make her suffer so badly, the least she can do is expose him. And do so with one of the album’s high points, a beautiful mid-tempo ballad that moves as much as it chides.
During the recording of Rumours, Nicks’ tumultuous relationship with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was coming to an end. The man she’d been with since she was a teenager was turning into someone she couldn’t stand to be around. And he didn’t want to be with her anymore.
Amid the turmoil of this break-up, Nicks also embarked on a brief affair with the band’s founding drummer and namesake, Mick Fleetwood. Indeed, it’s Fleetwood and Nicks who feature together, hand-in-hand with legs intertwined suggestively, in the front cover artwork photograph for Rumours.
So, which of them is the song’s subject?
Fleetwood might have served as a romantic rebound for Nicks, but she immediately regretted what they’d done, particularly to Fleetwood’s wife and children. She later told Uncut that she was “horrified” by what had happened and ended the affair almost as soon as it had started.
The relationship with Buckingham wasn’t so easy to end. It resulted in mutual acrimony and resentment that festers until today. As recently as 2017, Buckingham claimed that Nicks had him fired from the band soon after their recent reunion tour because she believed he’d undermined her during an awards acceptance speech. And back in 1977, feelings were extremely raw.
Not least after Nicks heard Buckingham’s song about their breakup, the iconic ‘Go Your Own Way’. ‘Dreams’ was her response to that song, aimed squarely at her partner in and out of music for ten years.
It’s unfortunate how things ended between the vocalists front-and-centre of Fleetwood Mac’s most successful period, especially given the formative role Buckingham and Nicks played in each other’s young lives and budding music careers. But at the same time, it’s undeniable that they brought about songs we couldn’t do without.
