#class rock

Iggy Pop and David Bowie 1976-1978 in Berlin

Fleetwood Mac: "Go Your Own Way" / "Silver Springs" (1976)

Is there a better Valentine's Day band than Fleetwood Mac?

And not just because they were one of the few classic rock bands composed of both men and women in the chauvinistic '70s (also Heart, Blondie, who else?), but because they so often expressed their romantic entanglements in song.

1977's mega-selling Rumours was the most famous case in point, and yet even its drama-drenched grooves didn't tell the whole story, because they omitted the heart-breaking Stevie Nicks-penned outtake, "Silver Springs," in which she candidly told her side of her break-up with band mate Lindsey Buckingham.

"Don't say that she's pretty; And did you say that she loved you? Baby, I don't want to know ..."

When faced with the prospect of confronting his accuser on stage every night, Buckingham vetoed the song's inclusion in Rumours and exiled it to this German single, where it was the B-side to his own "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya" anthem, "Go Your Own Way."

What's more, the 7-inch you see here was issued several weeks ahead of Rumours, in December of '76, so it barely registered with U.S. fans and was but a vague memory by the time the LP went stratospheric, later on in '77.

And that was the sad end of this story, right?

Wrong, because all of 20 years later, when Fleetwood Mac's 'classic' line-up reunited to record 1997's massively successful live album and TV special, The Dance, Nicks mustered enough leverage to impose upon Buckingham to resurrect "Silver Springs."

Just watch as Mac's riveting performance transforms a once docile, country-flavored love song into an impassioned, cathartic power ballad, before climaxing in an epic stare-down, decades in the making, where Stevie serves Lindsey her revenge, at last -- ice-cold, and like a gypsy's curse!

"Time cast a spell on you but you won't forget me; I know I could've 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 ... Never get away! Never get away! Never get away!"

As one YouTube commenter astutely put it: "playing guitar at your own funeral is wild."

So, the moral of this story, kiddos, is that music built on raw and real emotions lives on forever.

And this maxim was proven yet again just recently, when TikTok, of all places, witnessed a viral trend (nowhere near as big as the skateboard and "Dreams," but still) reviving and recounting the story behind "Silver Springs," like a Gen Z, short-form version of VH1's Behind the Music.

And if you think I turned this into a "catalog strategy" for my digital marketing artist clients at work, you're darn tootin'!

In closing, I sincerely hope your Valentine's Day isn't anywhere near as complicated or traumatic as the story of "Silver Springs."

Comfortably Numb 2022 ~ Roger Waters