By: Brad Gallagher
Fleetwood Mac is one of the greatest musical groups of all time. We all know their songs. Go Your Own Way, The Chain, You Make Loving Fun, Hypnotized just to name a few. But several of their songs were named after women. Some real, and some fictitious. Like Sara, Rhiannon, and Gold Dust Woman. But do we know who these women are, or were?
As The Story Goes:
“Rhiannon” was Released in 1975 on their self titled album “Fleetwood Mac”. Stevie Nicks got the name from a novel she read called “Triad”. The novel was the story of a Welsh woman who believed that she had been possessed by another woman who’s name was Rhiannon. In the song, Rhiannon is an old Welsh witch who cannot handle being tied down to any specific lifestyle. It was later learned that Rhiannon was also a character from Welsh mythology.
The last song on their 1977 album, “Rumors”, is titled “Gold Dust Woman”. This is a song about a woman who has a sexual obsession, and an addiction to drug use. The song melds the two together as if they were the same thing. The origins of the song are based in the early days that the band has been known to refer to as the “serious drug days”. Stevie Nicks wrote this song about people she had known back then, and possible also about herself.
Their 1982 album “Mirage” gave us the song “Gypsy”. This song is truly about Stevie Nicks. It goes back to the early days when she and Lindsey Buckingham were nothing but another pair of struggling song writers living in San Francisco, wondering where their next meal was coming from. She would often go into a clothing store called the Velvet Underground. It was the store where famous artists like Janis Joplin shopped. She could not afford any of the clothes at the time, but she would fantasize about being able to someday. The line in the song says, “Going back to the Velvet Underground – Back to the floor”.
And then there is “Sara”, a song from the 1979 album, “Tusk”. This song is about a baby girl. You see, back in the late seventies, Stevie Nicks and Don Henley of the Eagles had an affair. According to Henley, Nicks became pregnant with his baby but decided not to keep it. The baby, had it been born, would have been named Sara. Years later, Nicks said that that was only part of the story of the song. Apparently she confirmed that if she and Don had gotten married and had the baby, she would have named her Sara. But she went on to say that the song Sara is also about Mick Fleetwood’s wife Sara, who Nicks was very close to.
So now you have been introduced to a few of the women in some of the songs by Fleetwood Mac. Now go tell your friends. And come back and see me real soon here on: As The story Goes.
AS THE STORY GOES 