Fleetwood Mac | Go Your Own Way (1976)
"Go Your Own Way" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their eleventh studio album, Rumours (1977).
1976-12-14 19:00:00 - Fleetwood Mac
The song was released as the album's first single in December 1976 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Written and sung by Lindsey Buckingham, it became the band's first top-ten hit in the United States.
Lindsey Buckingham wrote this as a message to Stevie Nicks. It describes their breakup, with the most obvious line being, "Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do," and concluding that he is better off without her - she can go her own way as far as he's concerned.
Stevie insisted she never shacked up with anyone when they were going out, and wanted Lindsey to take out the line, but he refused.
Stevie Nicks told Q magazine June 2009: "It was certainly a message within a song. And not a very nice one at that."
"Go Your Own Way" has been well received by music critics and was ranked number 120 by Rolling Stone magazine on their list of 500 greatest songs of all time in 2010 and re-ranked number 401 in 2021. They also ranked the song number one on their list of the 50 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.
Recorded in three separate studios, the track was developed over a period of four months.
As with most tracks on the Rumours album, none of the instruments were recorded live together; the tracks were instead completed through a series of overdubs.