As soon as the new series Daisy Jones & the Six was released, it was inevitable some Fleetwood Mac material would start appearing in all corners of social media. The show, based on the book of the same name, is reminiscent of the time when the band were together. It also depicts those similar events that led to the Fleetwood Mac’s breakup.
Anyone who has been on any virtual platform in the past week will have most likely seen a snippet of Stevie Nicks singing her heart out onstage to guitarist and former beau Lindsey Buckingham. For some, this is their first introduction to the song and to this particular performance.
The Dance reunion show
‘Silver Springs’ is the song that has all ages talking at the moment, whether it’s about the track’s lyricism or the sheer intensity and emotion Nicks it sings with. The clip itself is from Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 MTV special The Dance, a reunion for the band, whereby halfway through the song, Nicks turns to Buckingham and sings directly to him.
She sings: “Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me / I know I could have loved you but you would not let me.
“I’ll follow you down ’til the sound of my voice will haunt you / You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.”
Fellow band member Christine McVie, who played the accordion, explained the rehearsals for the show proved Fleetwood Mac were better than ever. She said: “We were friends who had been away for a long time, and this reunion was not just musical, it was personal.”
Track history
The history between Nicks and Buckingham is nothing new or surprising, but the story behind ‘Silver Springs’ is. Beginning back in the 70’s, the song has been a constant mirror to the band’s life, in that it hasn’t had the easiest ride since being penned by Nicks herself. She had written it for the highly regarded Rumours album, known to still be inspiring the greatest musicians today.
However, it was later relegated to the B-side of Buckingham’s hit ‘Go Your Own Way’. She told MTV in 1991 that she would be lucky to have gotten two or three songs on an album. Nicks admitted she left Fleetwood Mac because she “wrote too much” and it was “getting wasted”, which the star described as “frustrating”.
What does the song mean?
Following the reunion, Nicks revealed to the Classic Albums documentary about Rumours that she had written the piece about Lindsey. She said the title of the track had come to her upon seeing a sign for Silver Spring, Maryland.
“Silver Springs sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me,” she said. “You could be my silver springs… that’s just a whole symbolic thing of what you could have been to me.”
Director of the concert film Bruce Gowers told Rolling Stone that he hadn’t noted any particular tension. He said the raw moment didn’t happen until taping.
The song offers up a side of this relationship previously untold to the public. Nicks treats it as a release as she sings to Buckingham. She makes sure he knows he has haunted her since the end of their relationship.
This particular performance of the song feels like the missing puzzle piece in the mess that was the pair’s breakup. It offers a form of closure to both as they communicate their feelings for each other onstage for all to see.
What does it have to do with ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’?
Amazon Prime’s ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ stars have since spoken about the moment in a number of interviews. Sam Claflin and Riley Keough, who play leads Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones, admitted they hadn’t seen the clip prior to filming the series.
Buckingham himself commented on the interview, saying “quite the moment indeed!”
He later posted a video from the recording to TikTok. His caption said: “I heard we’re talking about the ’97 Silver Springs again…”
Author of the book, Taylor Jenkins Reid openly admitted her story is inspired by the band. She said she was particularly drawn to the relationship between Nicks and Buckingham, describing Fleetwood Mac as ‘a band and a soap opera’.
“I wanted to write about the conflict between characters who have this amazing ability to create things together, but personal relationships that are more fraught,” she said. “We’ve seen many examples of that in rock, the most obvious being Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.”
Jenkins Reid added that she had watched the MTV reunion show and had caught the now viral ‘Silver Springs’ moment. The raw emotion she saw in the performance inspired her to start writing.
Words by Gemma Nettle
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