How would ‘Silver Springs’ have changed Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’?
There aren’t many albums that can truly be considered perfect. Even if it’s impeccably produced and as musically accurate as possible, there’s a good chance that the best albums from legends like The Beatles are still going to hit a sour note with some fans. But in the case of Fleetwood Mac, an album as iconic as Rumours does have an asterisk next to it, considering one song’s notable absence.
Listening back to the record, though, most can already see the writing on the wall of the band’s fracturing relationships. Both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were hardly on speaking terms outside of the studio, and if ‘Go Your Own Way’ was any indication, it didn’t sound like the guitarist was ready to kiss and make up yet. In fact, ‘Second Hand News’ might be the most cynical way to kick off the record, even if it has some of the best hooks on the entire record.
But the real tragedy of the album comes from the fact that Nicks never got to tell her side of the story properly. ‘Dreams’ is a good way for her to leave that relationship behind, but listening to the rest of the record, ‘Silver Springs’ feels like the one piece of the puzzle to tie everything together. The lyrics are a much better way of both putting Buckingham in its place and wishing everyone in the band peace after things fell apart, so why the hell wasn’t it on the album properly?
Even though the physical medium of the time may have limited the number of songs put onto the record, not giving proper time to ‘Silver Springs’ is still one of the biggest crimes of the band’s career. If we switch around the track order and throw out a few pieces, is there a way to make a new and improved version of Rumours that the band would have been satisfied with?
The only thing we have to deal with is shaving off a few minutes, so the first order of business would be to relegate ‘I Don’t Want To Know’ to the B-side slot ‘Silver Springs’ had. It was already put in that place since it was shorter than Nicks’ song, and it could carve out some space that we need for this kind of move. Considering that a lot of the other songs on the record are flawless, it comes down to keeping everything balanced for every songwriter.
And if we’re talking about placing the song in the right position, that might mean getting rid of Buckingham’s ‘Never Going Back Again’. Despite it working fine within the context of the record, getting bogged down with too many Buckingham vocals right out of the gate with ‘Second Hand News’, ‘Never Going Back Again’, ‘Don’t Stop’, and ‘Go Your Own Way’ might get too monotonous, so bringing in another song is a good way of setting things apart.
But we’re not looking to bring ‘Silver Springs’ all the way up to the top of the tracklist. No, there’s some finality to the track, and similar to the way ‘The Chain’ opens up the second side of the record, ‘Silver Springs’ can take the place of ‘Gold Dust Woman’ on the final version of the record.
And looking at the placement of Nicks’ drug-addled exorcism, it’s probably better to put the song right after ‘Songbird’ on the track listing. After all, ‘The Chain’ already invites people for a moodier listen on side two, so after hearing Christine McVie’s breathtaking song of heartache, hearing Nicks talk about the horrors of drug abuse is a good way of previewing the darkness on the back half while also showing the nasty side of their habits behind the scenes.
Would this have made Rumours the same masterpiece it was? Probably not, but including ‘Silver Springs’ in this capacity is a much better statement of what the band were supposed to be. All of the standout singles are still intact on the final record, but having everything end on Nicks’ final prayer to herself and the band is a far better depiction of a band in shambles that hopes for the music to be their guide.
