The Genius of The Chain

Track 7 of Fleetwood Mac's hit 1977 album is and tense, fragile song that feels like it's waiting to implode. The Chain has achieved more widespread fame in the United Kingdom after its bass driven outro was used as the Formula 1 theme music on the BBC. I consider The Chain Fleetwood Mac's best song, rivalled only by Gold Dust Woman, and what makes it so brilliant is more simple than how its fleeting guitar fills may make it seem.

Rumours was an album birthed in anger and sorrow. Fleetwood Mac was not the happiest of bands at the time of its conception. The bassist John McVie and keyboardist Christie McVie has seperated after 6  years of marriage. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks had an on-off relationship, leading them to fight often. Fleetwood himself was struggling, after discovering his wife had an affair with his best friend. With all these emotions in the cauldron, The Chain is what emerged.

"If you don't love me now, you will never love me again, I can still hear you saying you will never break the chain." Goes the song's chorus. The Chain was a lyrical metaphor for the chain that held the band together, and they promise to one another that even with all these issues betweem them, they won't let that split them up. Fading vocals at the end proclaim "Chain, keep us together." showing that they may not have total confidence in their own ability to hold the band together.

But the song's beauty emerges in the dueling vocals of Nicks and Buckingham, with beautiful sweeping harmonies. No two singers in the world could harmonise as brilliantly and interweave seamlessly like those two. They grew to hate each other, but often times during The Chain, their voices become one. Despite all the angst and tension within the band, they came together perfectly, in vocals, and instrumentally, to form a piece of music that ultimately would hold them together for many years to come.