The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 547

Number 547

Fleetwood Mac

"Go Your Own Way"

(1977)

Genre:Rock

Go Your Own Way. How many times have you wanted to say that to someone? Now, me ole cobber from England Perilous Pierre also fondly known to his "non sim" friends as Peter Rayner, sent me this list from Wikipedia titled: Songs for the last Century" (If not Millennium). Now if your like me you would expect to see the 'Beatles", "Rolling Stones", "Doors" & "Zeppelins" (Exactly what you would expect to find here too), but wait ... hold the phone. Here is a Dave Letterman's Top 10 for a taste............

1. "Over the Rainbow"Judy Garland 2. "White Christmas" Bing Crosby 3. "This Land Is Your Land" Woody Guthrie 4. "Respect" Aretha Franklin 5. "American Pie" Don McLean 6. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" The Andrews Sisters 7. West Side Story (Album) Original Cast 8. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" Billy Murray 9. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" The Righteous Brothers 10. "The Entertainer" Scott Joplin [Source:Wikipedia]

Well, its not what you would a "Knee's rollicking adventure in a convertible" mix would you?But, Bill Murray? Huh? Bill Cosby maybe (and just), but Bill Murray? Must be another Bill Murray ... surely. Now i wonder why there are no British artists listed? Hmm.

Go Your Own Way

Stevie Nicks

The new lineup that Fleetwood Mac successfully unveiled with their eponymous 1975 album became even more successful with the multi-platinum Rumours, which became the band's most celebrated album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. To be sure, this was a very different sounding Fleetwood Mac than the blues-rock outfit of the late '60s. This edition of the band generally wasn't well received by rock critics (who tend to be critical of all things commercial). But as commercial and slick as Rumours is, the music has a lot of heart and never comes across as insincere. From Christine McVie's optimistic "Don't Stop" (which President Bill Clinton used as his campaign theme song in 1992) to Lindsey Buckingham's remorseful "Go Your Own Way," Rumours is consistently memorable. And the folkish "Gold Dust Woman" (covered by Courtney Love and Hole in 1996) and the melancholy hit "Dreams" made it quite clear just how much depth and substance Stevie Nicks was capable of. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

Just Rumours

Christie McVie

In the two years since the previous album, things had become rather difficult within the group. Mick Fleetwood separated from his wife Jenny. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who were in a relationship when they joined the group, were separated, and John McVie and Christine McVie also separated, although all five remained in the band. This meant that, as Stevie Nicks later pointed out, long hours were spent and some very awkward times were had between people who would otherwise not be in each others' lives. Christine McVie later remarked that they were all writing about each other, hence the title of the album. They didn't realize this immediately, but finally realizing that they had created such a good album together lifted them out of their misery.

Look Lindsey..

Lindsey Buckingham

"Go Your Own Way" was believed by Nicks to be a gloomy reference to the break-up of their relationship, and she and Buckingham argued about it. "Dreams" was her attempt to be more optimistic. "You Make Loving Fun" referred to an affair between Christine McVie and the group's lighting director. "Gold Dust Woman" was a reference to cocaine. "Don't Stop" was written by Christine McVie after her divorce with John McVie, and it provided an optimistic outlook on their newly separated lives. "Oh Daddy" was almost certainly a reference to Mick Fleetwood, the spiritual father of the group who largely held it together, and the only member who was a parent at the time. "Songbird" Christine McVie described as "a little anthem" and said it was for "all of us". It took a long time to record because it had to be one continuous take. "The Chain" was an oddity. The final section, the last minute and a quarter or so, was written first, but at that point there wasn't a song for it to be the end of. Stevie Nicks had written that quite separately, and as she put it "gave it to them". Lindsey Buckingham then had an idea about how it should begin and the first section was re-recorded. ~ [Source:Wikipedia]

For the Beatles see Number 947, 894 & 587

For Rolling Stones see Number 767 & Number 689

For The Doors see Number 851, Number 746 & Number 729

For Led Zeppelin see Number 957 & Number 577

For Bing Crosby see Number 750

For Aretha Franklin see Number 563

For more Fleetwood Mac see Number 591

For Stevie Nicks see Number 707

For Bob Welch see Number 865

What does Rolling Stone think about Fleetwood Mac?

Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" hasn't become a dated Seventies artifact, mostly because it sounded odd even then. Its brainy guitar solos were rather more frequent than those of other Southern California sunny soft-rock outfits; and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham pushed the production into a magnificent combination of intricate and spare, an alloy comfortable to drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, who thought they had formed a blues band back in 1967.

The group's second album with its most famous lineup -- Fleetwood, Buckingham and his then-girlfriend, singer Stevie Nicks, and McVie and his ex-wife, singer and keyboardist Christine McVie -- Rumours tracks the twin couples as they split. It's not a classic breakup record; it wasn't built as a soundtrack to whatever heartbreak you're trying to sing along to. But it's their breakup record, and in its idiosyncratic way it mirrors all the lost loves of the world. The two couples confess, blame, sigh and ride a deep, chugging groove toward some kind of resolution.

You can see the outlines of the couples' relationships -- both musical and romantic -- in the rubble. Here is the cool tenderness with which Nicks inserts her harmony on the words "been tossed around enough" during Buckingham's "Second Hand News"; here is Christine McVie coming out all generous like the sun on her smiley-face ballads "Songbird" and "Oh Daddy" and the mellow boogie "You Make Loving Fun." When Nicks isn't being tough on hits such as "Dreams" and, particularly, "Gold Dust Woman" -- as nasty a bit of business as her cute, torn voice ever got into -- she's inviting the whole group in for the countryish "I Don't Want to Know." Nothing explodes when it promises to: not the chorus of "Go Your Own Way," no matter what Fleetwood does to his drum kit; not the full-band invocation of coming darkness and cramped emotional interdependence on "The Chain." Instead, Rumours is splendid and pleasant and somehow too dense, like being trapped in an open meadow. [ARION BERGER(RS 896 - May 23, 2002)]

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number 119 and the Album ranked at Number 25

This song has a crowbarred rating of 73.7 out of 108 pts