My Obsession with the 1997 Live Performance of Silver Springs

I feel like every music lover has that one live version of a song that they absolutely can’t get enough of. For me, it is the Silver Springs performance by Fleetwood Mac during the 1997 The Dance tour. As mentioned on my “All Time Favorite Songs” post, Silver Springs, specifically The Dance version, is one of my all time favorite songs so I figured it was time for me to completely obsess and nerd out over one single live performance of a song.

For starters, if you continue to read my posts, you will soon find out that Fleetwood Mac will be a common topic, so heads up! Now for some back-story on the song itself:

So Stevie Nicks wrote Silver Springs about her breakup with Lindsey Buckingham with the intention of including it on the upcoming Rumours album. Stevie had said in an interview that she got the name and idea from driving by a sign for Silver Springs, Maryland and thought that it sounded like a nice town and imagined the happy version of what could have been between her and Lindsey. Her song then ends up being left off of the Rumours album, which would end up being a source of controversy for years to come. Flash forward to 1997 when the band decides to reunite with the original Rumours line-up of Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. Silver Springs ends up on the set list after over 20 years of history and drama between Lindsey and Stevie with the chance for Stevie to finally give the song the performance it deserved.

So the song starts out soft and beautiful with Stevie blessing us with her perfectly aged vocals. As the performance continues you can see both Stevie and Lindsey sneak peaks at each other. After Lindsey delivers a beautiful guitar solo, you can just feel the tension build up once Stevie begins to sing again. Starting at 3:35 in the video down below, Stevie turns to Lindsey and starts singing directly to him while they both lock eye contact. From 3:35 to the end of the song, you can just feel the history, drama and love between the two of them and Stevie holds nothing back while reminding him of those lyrics she wrote so long ago. The line “you’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you” has to be the most haunting line in the song and if you’re a big Fleetwood Mac fan, you’ll know how true those lyrics became after all those years. The part where she is singing “never get away, never get away, never get away” really looks like she is reminding him and making sure he knows that she still means it. Also, to add to all this tension during this performance, it has actually been rumored that while on the 1997 The Dance Tour, Stevie and Lindsey somewhat ignited that old flame until Lindsey’s girlfriend at the time ended up pregnant. That being said, even by just knowing what the public knows about their relationship, this song feels so tense. I cannot even imagine what was actually going through their heads with all the years of history between them that fans don’t event know about. With lyrics that couldn’t have aged any better, years of drama about the song itself being included on albums, and the history of their relationship, this performance acts as the explosion of the Stevie-Lindsey love story.

Sometimes I like to even think about what the other band members were thinking while watching that go down between the two of them. Knowing all that they know and with decades of dealing with their bullshit, I can only imagine their points of view and reactions to it.

Now I may sound like a crazy person, and maybe I am, but I seriously watch this performance like once a week and it absolutely wrecks me every time. This song and performance is like a drug to me and I think about it all the time. Sometimes I even stop myself from watching it because I don’t have the mental capacity to handle the performance and the emotions it embodies. As someone who has excessively studied Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks and her relationship with Lindsey, this performance feels like watching a season finale of one of my favorite shows. I will have a whole post regarding their relationship another day but I just had to share my entire thought process and dissect this entire performance for you to explain my reasoning for being so obsessed with this song and performance.

I urge you to give the video below a watch if you haven’t seen it yet. And for those that have, please please please tell me that I am not crazy and confirm that my obsession is justified.

Happy listening!