For this week, I’ve decided to continue discussing Fleetwood Mac since my new group members seem to love them as I do! 

 

One of my favorite songs by Fleetwood Mac is a song that I’ve banned my friends from playing around me. Landslide, the heartbreaking anthem of love and loss (a common theme for Fleetwood Mac, huh?), never fails to bring me to tears. So, let’s talk about this moving song. 

 

As we already know, the members of Fleetwood Mac were always finding themselves in the midst of romances and heartbreak with their other band members, or in the case of Christine and John McVie, a divorce. Once again, Stevie Nicks took her pain and crafted it into a beautiful melody for all of us to cry to. 

(Christine and John McVie, 1970s)

 

Landslide is written and sung solely by Stevie. She opens the song by creating the image of an avalanche:

“I took my love, I took it down

Climbed a mountain and I turned around

And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills

‘Til the landslide brought me down”

 

 

Within this, is describing the love that she still holds for the partner that is no longer hers. She must “take her love down” and allow herself to fall with it. Her life feels like a crumbling mountain as she is devastated by the loss of this relationship. 

 

Landslide is originally released as a part of the famous 1977 album Rumours. As you may remember, the songs within this album were inspired and fueled by the ever so turbulent relationship between Stevie Nicks and co-lead singer Lindsey Buckingham coming to an end. 

(Lindsey Buckingham (left) and Stevie Nicks (right) early in their career and relationship.)

 

Stevie addresses these changes and questions if she will be able to cope or move on:

“Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’

‘Cause I’ve built my life around you.” 

 

Buckingham was originally invited to join Fleetwood Mac by drummer Mick Fleetwood and refused to join without Stevie being promised a spot, too. The lovers joined together and completely changed the sound of Fleetwood Mac from a rough, guitar-heavy rock band to the poetic, soft rock sound we know as Fleetwood Mac today. 

 

Stevie question’s what love means if it isn’t what she had with Lindsey Bucking and if she’ll be able to start over: 

“Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?”

 

Stevie and Lindsey’s lives were so connected and entangled that their romantic separation caused the destruction of Stevie’s life and the illusion she may have had about what life was going to be forever. Landslide perfectly describes the fear that Stevie has as she rides the landslide of life to the next part of her journey. 

 

In addition to the meaning that the lyrics have for Stevie, this song has been used as an anthem for members of the LGBTQ+ community and their journey with growing up, learning about love and themselves, and coming out. It was featured in Glee and sung by two characters, Santana and Brittany, as a way to come out to the rest of the club and show their relationship (as shown below).