Here is song number four of my Desert Island Discs:
Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac
In 1987 I discovered Fleetwood Mac. I heard Big Love on the radio and immediately knew I had to find out more. I bought the album Tango In The Night the next day and realised that these bunch of songwriters knew how to make a great song.
During the summer of 1987, one of my brothers gave me a tape with Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977) on it and I vividly remember sitting in the lounge of the overnight ferry to Holland listening to the albums over and over. I couldn't sleep in an upright chair and anyway, I was drawn in by the amazing music. It also reminds me of first going to college and the people I met there.
During the summer of 1987, one of my brothers gave me a tape with Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977) on it and I vividly remember sitting in the lounge of the overnight ferry to Holland listening to the albums over and over. I couldn't sleep in an upright chair and anyway, I was drawn in by the amazing music. It also reminds me of first going to college and the people I met there.
I could easily have chosen Rhiannon, Landslide or The Chain, but Go Your Own Way is, in my opinion, one of the finest rock songs ever made and comes from Rumours, a near perfect album. The production, the performance, the guitar sounds, the drums, the hooks... they all work perfectly.
I would like to have chosen a Stevie Nicks song for song number four as I regard her as one of the best songwriters, but I hope this pick makes up for it as this song is all all about her. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham wrote the song when they were breaking up and he pulls no punches. She wrote Dreams for him and he threw it back in her face with Go Your Own Way.
I didn't know this one at all (hardly for the first time) - and I doubt if very many people will know it.
ReplyDeleteYour choices seem to be well 'off the beaten track' - which makes them particularly fascinating. I never know what's going to come next!
Clearly there are your own personal associations at play here - as there inevitably will be with most people's choices. And your method of a drip-drip revelation of your choices adds a pleasurable suspense to your postings. Thanks.
Oh Ray! It was a top 10 single in both the US and UK!
ReplyDeleteAnd Rumours, from which it comes, has spent 488 weeks in the UK Top 100 album chart and is the 14th best-selling album in UK history and is certified 11× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, the equivalent of three million units shipped in the UK alone...
From this I mean that many people will know the song!
Oops! Foot-in-mouth (again)! Though, in my defence, looking it up in my pop music 'bibles' I see that 'Go Your Own Way' only reached #38 in the U.K. in 1977. (Used on the soundtracks of both 'Forrest Gump' and 'Casino' apparently - which you may have known anyway).
DeleteI was, of course, aware of 'Rumours' (who couldn't be?) but not familiar with most of the individual tracks. I also know that the album figures in very many people's lists of all-time greats from ANY group. Seems I've been missing out on a rich slice of life!
VERY good choice! It's the perfect summer roadtrip song.
ReplyDeleteIn our house we have the album, cassette and CD!