Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac

fleetwoodmacSONG OF THE DAY

“Silver Springs” by Fleetwood Mac (The Dance, Warner Bros./ Reprise Records, 1997). Written by Stevie Nicks.

MY TAKE

This song seems to seriously want me to blog about it this week! First, I’m singing along to it as I’m creating a birthday playlist for my Aunt Di (find the playlist below! The song makes the final cut!), and it stays with me hummingly for a few days after I finish that project. Then, when I’m not even over humming the song on a daily basis yet, I see Kate Hudson a capella crooning the song on Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project—jigga what!?! Here’s the video link for that clip, it’s about one minute in.

So then I’m like “okay okay I’ll write about you, song!” and I begin this blog entry, only to then discover that the version I know and love is actually from the 1990’s and is live, not from the Fleetwood Mac heyday of the 1970s and studio-produced (which if you know me, you know I prefer a good studio production to anything with crowd sounds and bad mics). Stevie Nicks’ voice apparently did not change through the decades. I included both versions in the Video of the Day section below for your comparison. I think it’s rather obvious that the live stripped down 1997 version is superior, but judge for yourself!

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– “Silver Springs” was originally intended for the band’s 1977 album Rumours, but became a B-side to the song “Go Your Own Way”, and was eventually released as a single from the 1997 album The Dance.

– Years after the fact, Nicks commented that in a way, its lack of inclusion on the effort marked a growing tension in the band. The group has three great writers, and only so many slots.

– The track’s inherent longing reportedly came from the ending of the romantic relationship between Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

– Years later, the band went on a world tour to promote the Fleetwood Mac album Behind The Mask. After the tour concluded, Nicks left the group over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, who would not allow her to release the track “Silver Springs” on her album Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks, because of his plans to release it on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac box set. The song eventually appeared on the 1992 box set 25 Years – The Chain.

– In 1997, the song got a second life on the reunion album The Dance. During the filming of the reunion concert that brought Nicks and Buckingham back to the fold, “Silver Springs” was on the set list.

– Nicks earned a Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination for this live version from The Dance.

– The Dance is a live performance by Fleetwood Mac, released on CD and VHS in 1997, and later on DVD. It hailed the return of the band’s most successful line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood,Christine McVie, John McVie and Stevie Nicks, who had not released an album together since 1987’s Tango in the Night.

– The Dance was the first Fleetwood Mac release to top the US album charts since 1982’s Mirage.

– Debuting at #1 in the Billboard 200, The Dance became the 5th best-selling live album of all time in the United States, with over 5 million copies sold there.

– The concert was recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s MTV Special “The Dance” at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California on May 23, 1997, and features the University of Southern California Marching Bandwho perform on the tracks “Tusk” (having played on the original studio recording) and “Don’t Stop”.

– Although predominantly a live greatest hits package, The Dance also features new material written by each of the primary songwriting members of the band (two from Buckingham) as well as popular album tracks. For example, “Bleed to Love Her” was a previously unreleased track when this album was released, although the song was later recorded during the Say You Will sessions.

– The album cover, taken by David LaChapelle, has Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks partially recreating their pose from Rumours, the band’s most successful album.

– This album spawned two singles; “Landslide” and “Silver Springs”.

– Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in 1967 in London. The only original member present in the band is its namesake drummer, Mick Fleetwood.

– The two most successful periods for the band were during the late 1960s British blues boom, when they were led by guitarist Peter Green, and from 1975 to 1987, with more pop-orientation, featuring Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

PLAYLIST

This is the playlist I recently created for my Aunt Di on her birthday. She has incredible taste in music, and loves Dar Williams and Wilco, so this playlist attempts to stay in that vein of music, if that can even serve as a definition:

1. With a Little Help from My Friends / Joe Cocker 5:05
2. One Day At A Time / Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) 4:54
3. Sunshine On My Shoulders / John Denver 5:15
4. Life Is Unbelievable / John Southworth 1:57
5. With A Little Luck / Paul McCartney & The Wings 5:47
6. 100 Years / Five For Fighting 4:11
7. Sugar Mountain / Neil Young 5:43
8. Across The Great Divide / Nanci Griffith 3:57
9. Silver Springs / Fleetwood Mac 5:42
10. Be Here Now / Ray LaMontagne 6:25
11. Days Like This Keep Me Warm / The Polyphonic Spree4:06
12. This Woman’s Work / Maxwell 4:26
13. After All / Dar Williams 4:48
14. Brand New / Emilie Mover 3:05
15. Kite Song / Patty Griffin 3:10
16. Meanings Will Change / Noel Paul Stookey 5:44
17. For You / Coldplay 5:42

TOP 10 ALL-TIME FAVORITE FLEETWOOD MAC SONGS

  1. Over My Head (Fleetwood Mac/ 1975—They had two self-titled albums, this is the 2nd one; the first one was in 1968)
  2. Hold Me (Mirage)
  3. Little Lies (Tango In The Night)
  4. Monday Morning (Fleetwood Mac/ 1975)
  5. Secondhand News (Rumours)
  6. Silver Springs (The Dance)
  7. Beautiful Child (Tusk)
  8. The Chain (Rumours)
  9. World Turning (Fleetwood Mac/ 1975)
  10. Say You Love Me (Fleetwood Mac/ 1975)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Live performance from 1997’s The Dance (my preferred take and instrumental arrangement of the song:

The original studio/ album version, for comparison with the 1997 live version’s instrumental arrangement:

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