The Not-So-Hidden “Dialogues” in Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ Between Each Bandmate

For the vast majority of us, working with an ex-partner wouldn’t be something we’d typically do—or advise others to do. But if everyone followed that rule of thumb, then we wouldn’t have the seminal Fleetwood Mac album, Rumours, would we?

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Indeed, few pieces of art better serve as a testament to the fact that some ex-couples really can continue to co-exist. Even if it’s painful and requires beaucoup amounts of drugs to ignore the sheer awkwardness of it all. But then again, maybe that has something to do with the cathartic process of not only writing a song about your ex-lover but then also watching them sing it night after night.

Or, perhaps even more accurately, the members of Fleetwood Mac simply had no other choice. (Not if they wanted Fleetwood Mac to continue to exist with themselves in the lineup, that is.)

As Lindsey Buckingham recalled in an interview with Dan Rather, “Normally, when people break up, when there’s, uh, pain involved like that. Disappointment. Heartache. People are allowed a requisite amount of distance and time in order to let the dust settle before they move on. We did not have that luxury.”

Closure Looked Different for the Ex-Couples of Fleetwood Mac

Of all the luxuries Fleetwood Mac did have as a successful rock band, the fact that the one they were missing—the ability to heal from a failed relationship at a comfortable distance from that person—was so emotional is an eye-opening revelation into the darker side of rock ‘n’ roll stardom. The musicians transformed this pain and discomfort into some of the greatest songs of all time, which, coincidentally, they largely wrote to and about each other. Lindsey Buckingham, who had been dating Stevie Nicks when they joined the band, likened the tracks to “dialogues.”

“Stevie was writing songs, basically dialogues, to me,” Buckingham said. “I was basically writing dialogues to her, and Christine McVie was writing dialogues to John [McVie]. You could say that what we did beyond the music was really tap into voyeur in the audience.”

“People were really able to invest in us as people because they could see—and it was very well-documented, thank god it wasn’t today when there’s no decorum at all. But, you know, there was nothing to hide,” he continued. “Everyone knew that this was what was being written about. Everyone knew that these songs, the subject matter, was what we were living.”

So, Which Song Was About Whom?

Every songwriter on Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours had at least one song directly written to or about one of their bandmates. For Stevie Nicks, her breakup song to Lindsey Buckingham was “Dreams”. In it, she painted a hopeful picture of both of them recovering from their pain. It was a direct response to one of her least favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, “Go Your Own Way”, which Buckingham obviously wrote from the perspective of a scorned ex.

The musicians wrote some songs after they had already moved on with someone else, whether as a rebound or an extramarital affair. “Never Going Back Again” was Buckingham’s sonic representation of the former. Christine McVie’s “You Make Loving Fun” was about an affair with the band’s lighting director. McVie also wrote songs about her actual bandmates, including “Don’t Stop” about her divorce from bassist John McVie and “Oh Daddy” about Mick Fleetwood’s separation from his wife.

For as much individual songwriting as there was on Rumours, the band was also able to come together in the only Fleetwood Mac track in their entire discography that gives writing credits to all five members. In that way, it’s the musical amalgamation of all the complex emotions that were running through the band at the time.

Unsurprisingly, Buckingham told Dan Rather he believed “the appeal of Rumours went beyond the music itself.” It was about the storyline of troubled stars as much as it was a great example of 70s rock ‘n’ roll, which became an integral part of Fleetwood Mac’s legacy.

Photo by Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images