By the time Fleetwood Mac‘s fourth album Kiln House was released in later 1970, their first following the departure of founding member Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood was predominantly behind the drums but and was listed as a co-writer on the track “Jewel-Eyed Judy.” Though credited on the song, along with John McVie and Danny Kirwan, in his 2014 biography Play On, Fleetwood said his bandmate Christine McVie and then-wife Jenny Boyd wrote the lyrics about Judy Wong, Fleetwood Mac’s longtime secretary.
Fleetwood had other earlier credits on the instrumentals “Fighting For Madge” from the band’s 1969 album Then Play On to “What a Shame” on Future Games in 1971 and a handful of other tracks inside Fleetwood Mac’s catalog.
He was also credited with other tracks that showed up on some of the band’s later compilations including his spoken word “Lizard People,” and other instrumentals like “On We Jam,” “Jam No. 2,” “For Duster (The Blues),” and “Mic the Screecher.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Along with Todd Smallwood, Fleetwood also co-wrote “Passion” on his second solo album Something Big in 2004 but nothing else with his side project with Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo.
During his Fleetwood Mac era, here’s a look behind three songs the drummer had a hand in writing along the way.
“The Purple Dancer” (1971; released in 2003)
Written by Mick Fleetwood, Danny Kirwan, and John McVie
Origially recorded in 1970, “The Purple” Dancer” was released as the the b-side to the band’s 1971 single “Dragonfly.” In 2003, the song was rereleased on the Fleetwood Mac compilation Madison Blues – Live & Studio Recordings, a collection of previously unreleased post-Peter Green sessions tracks and BBC Iive recordings from 1970 through ’71.
I love the purple dancer
Dancing in the space of time
She can surely know the answer
Standing in the steps of mine
Will I leave her, will I wonder?
Will I fall down to the ground?
Is it love that is the answer?
Or will she lift me to the sound?
Must I stay a minute longer?
Eyes bewitching me does more
Tries to keep me from my wonder
Knowing her though I must go
“The Chain” (1977)
Written by Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and John McVie
The only Fleetwood Mac song credited to all five members, circa ’76-1977, “The Chain,” featured on Rumours, came out of a jam,” according to Mick Fleetwood. “That song was put together as distinct from someone literally sitting down and writing a song,” said Fleetwood. “It was very much collectively a band composition. The riff is John McVie’s contribution, a major contribution because that bassline is still being played on British TV in the car-racing series to this day—the Grand Prix thing.”
At first, “The Chain” didn’t have any lyric, until Stevie Nicks contributed some words. “Originally we had no words to it, and it really only became a song when Stevie wrote some,” recalled Fleetwood. “She walked in one day and said, ‘I’ve written some words that might be good for that thing you were doing in the studio the other day.’ So it was put together.”
Then Lindsey Buckingham added an arrangement out of “all the bits and pieces” that band had pu ton tape. “And then once it was arranged and we knew what we were doing, we went in and recorded it,” said Fleetwood. “But it ultimately becomes a band thing anyway, because we all have so much of our own individual style, our own stamp that makes the sound of Fleetwood Mac. So it’s not like you feel disconnected from the fact that maybe you haven’t written one of the songs.”
Fleetwood added, “What you feel when we’re all making music together, is what Fleetwood Mac ends up being, and that’s the stuff you hear on the albums. Whether one likes it or not, this is, after all, a combined effort from different people playing music together.”
Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night
Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies
Break the silence, damn the dark, damn the light
And if you don’t love me now
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain
“These Strange Times” (1995)
Written by Mick Fleetwood and Ray Kennedy
The closing track of Fleetwood Mac’s 1995 album Time is a spoken work piece Fleetwood wrote with Ray Kennedy (The Beach Boys, Jeff Beck). Though not outwardly reglious, the song centers around something divine, and the struggle between good and evil.
“The project is about the energy of choice, of deciding if you want to be a part of the dark or the light when push comes to shove, which seems very apropos at this moment in history,” said Fleetwood. “It’s about how you read things, which is very important today. Everyone needs to be carefully paying attention to the information coming our way. There is subtext to everything and we need to be aware of that. “
The recorded version of “These Strange Times” also samples Fleetwood Mac’ 1968 debut single by Peter Green, “Albatross.“
“I hope the song conveys that life is about choice,” added Fleetwood. “God is everything, no matter what your belief system is. Being in love is God, no matter your creed. There’s a rejoicing at the end of the song when the narrator chooses the side of the light. The song is about all of us making that choice ourselves and the relief we feel when we are no longer caught in the middle.”
These strange times I think of a friend
They said was a man of the world
When all the time he was in a fight
Between the dark and the light
Yes, I too my friend, find the devil
Trying to make me do things I don’t want to do
And now I find myself crying out
God is nowhere, god is nowhere
These strange times I look in my heart
And see the dark not the light
And how I’m sad and wished I was in love
And I look to the sky and cry out
God is nowhere, God is nowhere
And this is hell
Being caught between the dark and the light
As part of his Dadaism project in 2020, Fleetwood revisited “These Strange Times” and released an official video for the song with imagery addressings the pandemic, poverty, and injustice.
Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.