{"id":593601,"date":"2026-05-20T02:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593601\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:24:13","slug":"five-words-in-1979-made-lindsey-buckingham-question-fleetwood-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593601\/","title":{"rendered":"Five words in 1979 made Lindsey Buckingham question Fleetwood Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lindsey<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Buckingham Records<\/p>\n

Tue 19 May 2026 18:45, UK <\/p>\n

In Dante\u2019s Inferno, the Italian writer Dante Alighieri lays out the nine circles of hell, the ninth being the making of Fleetwood Mac<\/a>\u2019s Rumours.<\/p>\n

Embroiled in affairs, addiction, divorce, displacement, and harmonised pop-rock, the making of the 1977 masterpiece sounds so gruelling that it can give the weak-stomached reader a second-hand panic attack. Professor Brian Cox has even decreed that \u2013 far exceeding the chemical megastorms of Jupiter \u2013 the Record Plant, Sausalito, circa the spring of \u201876, is the most unstable environment ever observed in our solar system. <\/p>\n

So, if Buckingham could survive that and happily keep swinging, then which five measly words eventually made him leave? In retrospect, his departure is often deemed an inevitable emotional response. But that doesn\u2019t quite add up. Rumours was the apex of the band\u2019s turmoil<\/a>, so why wouldn\u2019t he simply have said \u2018Sayonara\u2019 after the payday of the release and subsequent global tour and be done with it? <\/p>\n

Well, simply put, because he could stomach the stress and instability provided the art was still to his taste. At some point in 1979, he heard a phrase that suggested Fleetwood Mac\u2019s chaos was no longer in pursuit of artistic ambition, and the days when integrity trounced the tribulations were coming to an end. The words were as simple as they were sharp: \u201cYou can\u2019t do that again\u201d.<\/p>\n

The beginning of the end for Lindsey Buckingham<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hugeness of it all\u201d hadn\u2019t bothered him too much when he felt like the music justified the turmoil. In fact, he even thought it was beneficial in some ways. \u201cThe voyeurs and the care that many of our fans had invested in Fleetwood Mac was exciting and enabling,\u201d he told The Star Telegram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On another occasion, he even admitted that the drama imbues Rumours with an embellishing quality. \u201cIt\u2019s equally interesting on a musical level and as a soap opera,\u201d he happily admitted. But he was a serious musician, and the progressive sound of the band had to come first. That\u2019s why he took immense pride in their 1979 follow-up, Tusk.<\/p>\n

Buckingham had taken on lead orchestration duties, acting as a de facto producer alongside Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut for the album. He pushed the group in a new direction and later reflected that its radical sound was \u201cthe moment that validates everything\u201d. It even made Rumours better, positioning it as a dramatic cultural juncture rather than a prefigured pantomime. <\/p>\n

\"Loving<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Buckingham Records<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

As Buckingham reflected, \u201cIf we had tried to make Rumours II, it would have been the beginning of what others expected us to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

They decided not to play to the gallery<\/a> and made a far more experimental album. \u201cBy subverting that expectation, it allowed me to say, \u2018This is what\u2019s important to me\u2019,\u201d he later opined.<\/p>\n

But, even though it sold in excess of four million copies, it didn\u2019t sustain the same level of success as Rumours, and that rang alarm bells. \u201cWhen [Tusk] didn\u2019t sell 60 million copies<\/a>, the record company said, \u2018We want you to produce, but you can\u2019t do that again.\u2019 For me, that was the line in the sand \u2013 you gotta follow your instincts and try to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckingham translated that cutting remark as a preclusion to growth and artistic progress. He now saw Fleetwood Mac as a commercial engine of income, and while he was still happy to be part of that in a more passive sense for a while, he signalled his soft departure by following Tusk with an ambitious solo record.<\/p>\n

He went into 1982\u2019s Mirage less inspired than he might have been, having already put all his effort into his debut solo album, Law and Order, the year before. Hot on the heels of that release, he managed to squeeze Go Insane in between Mirage and Tango in the Night with the Mac, and it was increasingly clear to the group where his passions lay.<\/p>\n

Commercial fortunes might have returned to the band before he departed soon after Tango in \u201887, but this spike in sales almost correlated directly with his dissatisfaction. Those five words, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that again,\u201d in relation to the validating moment of his entire career, still rang in his head\u2026 begging the question: how might have Fleetwood Mac sounded in the 1980s had they never been uttered?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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