In 1976, Fleetwood Mac released “Go Your Own Way”. Part of their Rumours record, the band’s Lindsey Buckingham is the sole writer of “Go Your Own Way”.
The chorus says, “You can go your own way / Go your own way / You can call it another lonely day / You can go your own way / Go your own way.” “Go Your Own Way” became one of Fleetwood Mac’s many Top 10 singles. It also remains among their most notorious songs today. So it’s surprising that Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks actually took offense to what remains one of their biggest hits, but it’s true.
Buckingham and Nicks dated for most of the first part of the 1970s. “Go Your Own Way” was written about the end of their romantic relationship. However, the two still remained part of Fleetwood Mac.
Part of “Go Your Own Way” says, “Packing up / Shacking up’s all you wanna do.” The lyric suggests (incorrectly, according to Nicks) that she was already moving on with other relationships.
“He knew it wasn’t true,” Nicks says. “It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come out onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him.”
What Lindsey Buckingham Says About Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”
Buckingham later opens up about “Go Your Own Way”. Although Nicks perhaps had a right to be upset about the song, Buckingham insists it wasn’t a personal attack on his former girlfriend.
“It was the beginning of my having a dialogue with Stevie, who had been my lover and musical partner pretty much through the time that the first album was made, and we were sort of on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again,” Buckingham tells Song Exploder. “But, by the time we got to Rumours, she had sort of split. And ‘Go Your Own Way’ was written almost as a stream of consciousness.”
Buckingham also admits that “Go Your Own Way” was his way of coping with his heartbreak over the end of the relationship. The pain was even more intense because of their working relationship.
“I sort of was coming to terms with the fact that I may not be over this person,” Buckingham acknowledges. “And, at the same time, I’m aware that I’ve got to accept what’s happened and move on. I don’t think there was ever any worry in my mind about trying to mask who I might have been talking about.”
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