This is a crushing loss for music, and so sudden -- even Stevie Nicks, in a handwritten note posted to her Twitter account, said that it was only last weekend that she found out that McVie was sick.
It goes without saying that Fleetwood Mac are one of the only bands in history that can boast three genius songwriters. What's more, none of them played the George Harrison role, taking a back seat to their more famous bandmates. The partnership between McVie, Nicks, and Buckingham couldn't have been more equal. Considering the colossal sales and fame of the band, and the egos involved with sustaining that game, it's remarkable that this arrangement held steadfast as long as it did before people started storming out. "Rumours" featured four songs by McVie, and three each by Nicks and Buckingham ("The Chain" is credited to the entire group). Fleetwood Mac's 1988 Greatest Hits album featured three songs by Buckingham, five songs by Nicks, and eight by McVie. That breakdown speaks to her strengths as a pop songwriter and her impact on the creative direction of the band.
Once McVie left in the 90's, Fleetwood Mac toured the world many times over but they only made one additional album of all new material and came within an eyelash of imploding while recording it. They always seemed like a happier band when McVie was involved. Everyone liked her, everyone loved being around her.
McVie's songs bear repeat listening (that is, listening to the same song or songs on repeat) more than either Buckingham or Nicks. Buckingham is the perfectionist and the experimenter, frequently evolving, often hitting, but sometimes missing. Nicks' songs carry an emotional heft that the others can't match, but they're always full of heavy shit that I'm not always in the mood for. McVie's songs flow effortlessly, they exude an almost childlike wonder for the most beautiful things in the world. The lyrics to "You Make Loving Fun" summarize her songwriting M.O. In popular song, love takes on many personas but pure, miraculous fun is hardly ever one of them. McVie perfected it.
"Hold Me" and "Everywhere" are my favourite McVie-penned singles, and it was nice the latter get its due in the recent Chevrolet ads. The world might be full of problems, but for a scant thirty seconds, "Everywhere" comes across like the car karaoke anthem that people of many different ages and races can agree on.
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