Christine McVie, from Fleetwood Mac, wrote this song in 30 minutes because the band ‘was never happy’

Christine McVie, from Fleetwood Mac, wrote this song in 30 minutes because the band ‘was never happy’

The track emerges as a point of devotion and purity during the recording of Rumours (1977), the band’s most chaotic album

The album Rumours (1977) Fleetwood Mac He entered the history of rock. The album was born in an environment of intense fights and personal chaos, as the group recorded it amid marital separations and open conflicts among its members. Amid tensions, the piano song “Songbird”Was created in one of the few moments of tranquility during the whirlwind of 1976.

The keyboardist Christine McVie He composed and interpreted the track. The drummer Mick Fleetwood He described the ballad as “very similar to a prayer,” stating that it represented a sanity refuge for the band. The song became ironically the most proud moment of the group on the album.

In an interview with Rolling Stone In 1997, Christine McVie He said, “I wrote it in half an hour. I was awake until late one night. I think I was thinking of all the band members – ‘My God, wouldn’t it be good just being happy?’ The composition took only about 30 minutes, with Mick Fleetwood estimating the process in mere ten minutes, given the ease of creation.

Without a recorder in the room, McVie avoided sleeping all night. She played and sang the song repeatedly to fix it in memory. The next morning, he ran to the studio and asked the producer Ken Caillat to record immediately. The composer was never able to explain the origin of the song.

The band recognized the value of the track and invested in its atmosphere. For the recording, the Fleetwood Mac rented the vast Zellerbach Auditorium In Berkeley. They used 15 Microphones to capture the natural reverberation of the empty auditorium. Technical investment has amplified intimacy, doing “Songbird”Contrastically contrast with the rest of the album’s production.

After the death of Christine McVie In 2022, the track reaffirmed its sacred status. “Songbird”Served as a central piece of tribute to the artist in Grammy 2023, interpreted by Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt.

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Kadu Soares is forming in journalism from Cásper Líbero College, spends the day consuming music, sports, movies and series. It has a profile on Tiktok (@soareskaa) and a blog on the substack, where it reviews music projects.

Source: Rollingstone

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