← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
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- [00:01]
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Janda
Welcome to the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.
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It's one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded, a song that feels almost like a subconscious dream. And that's fitting because Songbird, which holds the center space on Fleetwood Max Rumors album, came to the late, great Christine McVie while she slept. She was so afraid of losing it when she woke up that she forced herself to stay awake for the rest of the night, replaying the melody and the lyrics that came so fully formed to her. In her head, she said that it was as if she'd been visited by something, a spiritual muse that dropped the song off for her to bring to life. When it was recorded for the Rumors album, lots of care was taken to get that feeling onto the recording and into our ears. Let's get into the story of Songbird in this episode of the behind the Song podcast, and if you like it hit, subscribe and let us know in the comments. It's interesting that Songbird sits squarely in the middle of the track listing for the Rumors album among all those other songs about breaking up, jacking up, and shacking up. Because it was this song that ultimately became the glue that kept Fleetwood Mac together during the emotional rollercoaster that each member of the band were personally on at the time. Songbird made all the members of Fleetwood Mac realize what they had in each other, and it very likely was the reason that the band finished making this album at all. Things were unraveling for everybody when it came to their personal relationships with each other. Christine McVie's marriage with bassist John McVie was certainly on the rocks. His drinking during the production of Rumors had gotten a little out of hand, and Christine found solace with the band's married lighting director, Curry Grant. That affair inspired her to write another song on the Rumors album, you Make Loving Fun, and it ended with Grant being fired from his duties by MCV and Mick Fleetwood. One of the things that makes the Rumours album so fascinating is the fact that these people, the McVie's, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood could function as a band while they were literally being torn apart emotionally by each other. The McVie's had been married since 1968, a relationship that Christine said she thought would go the distance. But by 1976, when they were making this album, their marriage was effectively done, the affair being that final nail in the coffin. Their divorce was finalized in 1978, and McVie has joked that at the time, he and Buckingham were the only ones not having affairs in the band While she and McVie were separated, Christine was living in an apartment with Nicks, who was having well documented issues with her relationship with Buckingham. And here's a fascinating little bit of mystical intrigue. Christine McVie recalled that her mother, Beatrice had had a premonition years before when she first moved from London to Los Angeles. Her mother said that things would go wrong but not to worry, because they would find their miracle in a sunny California orange grove. The apartment that she and Nick shared was on Orange Grove Avenue, and that's where Songbird came to her out of nowhere in the night. In fact, it woke her up at about 3:30 in the morning. She got up and played it on the piano she kept in her room and wrote the lyrics out in about 30 minutes. McVie said she had no idea where Songbird came from, that it was almost like a spiritual visitation. She didn't have a way to record it in the moment, so she stayed up all night so she wouldn't forget it. And the next morning she took it to the band's producer, Ken Kalet, first thing, who quickly recorded it on a two track recorder. He knew there was something special there. In fact, Ken Kalei went to pretty specific lengths to get the singular feeling of Songbird across. When it was finally recorded for the album, he suggested that she perform it alone, as if she was playing it in concert. To achieve this, it wasn't recorded at the record Plant in Sausalito, where most of rumors was cobbled together. Instead, he booked the Zellerbach Auditorium in Nearby Berkeley, a 2000 capacity room, and rolled Christine McVie's piano onto the stage. He ordered flowers to be placed on the piano and arranged for spotlights to shine down on those flowers. While the house lights were dimmed, 15 microphones were placed around the empty auditorium to capture the sound. Lindsey Buckingham was the only other member of Fleetwood Mac in the recording session, brought on to lightly strum along with her while she sat down and played Songbird. And the result was fantastic. The lyrics go like this. For you there'll be no more crying for you the sun will be shining and I feel that when I'm with you it's all right I know it's right Christine McVie has said that this song is about no one and everyone. But it's hard not to look at these lines as a form of apology to John McVie for the heartache her affair had caused, Wishing him happiness and sunshine, the end of tearful exchanges and painful conversations, and hope for new individual beginnings. The song goes on. To you I'll give the world to you I'll never be cold Because I feel that when I'm with you it's all right I know it's right and the songbirds are singing like they know the score and I love you, I love you I love you like never before and I wish you all the love in the world but most of all I wish it from myself. There's such a strength in Christine McVie's vulnerability. It's the very thing that made her so special. She could write songs in a way that had you as a listener rooting for her like a friend. She certainly wrote this from a place of selfless love. She was an optimistic romantic, so evident in these lines that just Popped into her head fully formed one night and the song ends and the songbirds keep singing like they know the score and I love you, I love you I love you like never before she repeats that last line twice more and then it's all over. You can hear how quiet it was in that big auditorium, the silence speaking volumes on this brilliantly recorded, beautiful song that came straight out of Christine McVie's dreams. When the rest of Fleetwood Mac heard this song for the first time, it served as a huge reminder of the love that was there for each of them, for each other, and that, as hard as it was to handle, theirs was a bond unlike any other. Each of them started out in this band as lovers or friends, and Christine McVie's songbird gave them pause to remember that it's a special song that probably came to her at just the right time, a visitation from a muse that wanted the music to go on, even if the romantic relationships between them fell by the wayside. Songbird was released as the B side to the Dreams single, and it was often the last song played at Fleetwood Mac concerts. John McVie has said that when Christine played Songbird live, he would see grown men weep, and that he did every single time he heard it. Mick Fleetwood has said that when he passes, he wants Songbird to be the song played at his funeral. Stevie Nicks has said that the song occupies what she calls and a divine space. Full of admiration for her friend Christine. Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie recorded a duets album in 2017, continuing their long musical fascination with each other. When Christine McVie passed away in 2022, that was it for Fleetwood Mac. Every one of the other members of the band said that without her, there was just no reason to go on as Fleetwood Mac. Songbird became McVie's signature song, the one that she will always be remembered for in lesser hands than hers. The lyrics that came to her in a dream could come off as overly sappy, but she turned it into something that sounds like a love letter to everyone everywhere. And that's the trick, really. She said that not all songs happen the way Songbird did, all at once, almost like she was just a vessel that the song itself found in order to make its way into the world, but that she wished more songs would happen that way. Maybe Stevie Nicks was right. The song does occupy some kind of divine space. It's hard not to think that way when you hear it. So what other songs would you say give you this kind of feeling? Something to think about. Until next time. I'm Janda and this has been behind the song. If you liked this episode, give it a like and subscribe to the channel. Or better yet, tell a friend. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear in these podcast episodes. You can find me on the air at 97.1fm the drive in Chicago and at wdrv.com on the way. Much more Classic Rock and Roll.
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