Song: The Chain Artist: Fleetwood Mac (Originally published March 26, 2012)

Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumours” was actually the 11th studio album by the band, released in 1977 and it sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.  One of the most interesting aspects of it was that there were a great number of personal problems happening within the band during the writing and recording of Rumours that contributed a great deal to the subject matter of the songs.  There are even books out there written all about the album and its creators. “Making Rumours” by Ken Caillat, is the most recent.

There were a number of big hits from Rumours including “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way”, all great songs.  But the only song on that album that had every band member credited with its writing was “The Chain”.  The reason for that is interesting;  because different parts of the song were, in fact, written by different members.  John McVie, the bass player and Mick Fleetwood, the drummer had come up with the second part where the bass has that distinct, repetitive line:

It doesn’t matter if you can’t read bass clef, you can hear it in the video of the song below.   Stevie Nicks had written some lyrics that seemed to work with that, and together, she and Christie McVie came up with the melody to put on top of the ending part.  Lindsay Buckingham reworked an older song he had written with Stevie and came up with the first part of the song.  And that’s how it all came together.

Lyrically, it’s a break up song which is appropriate considering that the couples in the band were all having trouble at the time of the recording, so it more or less epitomizes what was happening to them.  It’s rather simplistic, mostly about being lied to and the chain representing what ties them together.

What makes this a great song for me I think is the true emotion of it.  What is it you always hear from songwriting gurus?  It’s important to keep a song meaning universal, and what’s more universal than a break up song?  But the way it is delivered in the studio is with that element of “real” because for them at the time, it WAS real.  It’s dramatic and powerful because it’s the truth about their anger towards each other and the pain they were experiencing at the time.

The whole Rumours album is great, and it’s worth listening to and reading the story behind.  “The Chain” with it’s interesting instrumentation of banjos and bass lines and drums, has a rather timeless feel to it. Have a listen to the song on the video below. Here are the lyrics:

Listen to the wind blow, 
Watch the sunrise

Run in the shadow, 
Damn your love, damn your lies

CHORUS:

And if you don’t love me now,

You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying                  

You would never break the chain

And if you don’t love me now

You will never love me again

I can still hear you saying

You would never break the chain

Listen to the wind blow

Down comes the night

Run in the shadow

Damn your love, damn your lies

Break the silence

Damn the dark, damn the light

[REPEAT CHORUS]

Chains keep us together

Running in the shadows

[REPEAT AND FADE]

~ IJ