Someone Hard To Lose

Lindsey Buckingham “I Want You”

“I guess I had to prove / I was someone hard to lose.”

That’s an interesting line. He sounds embarrassed by his vanity and insecurity, and maybe even his self-awareness. But this is a common feeling, I think — this desire to make someone regret letting you go.

Lindsey Buckingham wrote the album Go Insane while breaking up with Carol Ann Harris, his girlfriend of six years. They met while she worked as a receptionist at the studio where Fleetwood Mac mastered Rumours. From what I’ve read, the dynamic of their relationship was very different from his romance with Stevie Nicks. When Stevie and Lindsey were down and out in the years before joining Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey insisted upon Stevie being the breadwinner. She supported the both of them as a waitress while he hung around all day, playing his guitar and honing his skills.

Years later, when Lindsey met Carol, he was a big rock star. He supported her for years, and took care of her after they broke up. Despite the differences, both women say they were focused on making him happy. “It was very lonely,” Harris told Rolling Stone in 1984. “I think I lived my life for Lindsey. I really felt it was important for me to be there for him, whether or not he was there physically, but for him to know I was there at home. He needed me there emotionally. It was rough. I don’t think I can remember relaxing the whole time I was with him.”

This context adds a lot to the music on Go Insane. Getting beyond the “someone hard to lose” thing, “I Want You” sounds desperate but oddly happy. He sounds glad to be dependent on someone, and eager to set things right, if just to get back on balance. The music has a manic, antsy quality that is exaggerated by the vocals, which bounce around the channels in a way that makes the track feel as if it has no center. He plays a somewhat straightforward guitar solo near the end, but somehow the sound of a guitar is inexplicably weird in this context. Every time I hear that part it sounds surprising to me. Maybe it’s the expressive high notes in that part — even in a song that can be best described as “light-hearted yet hysterical,” that bit is especially bugged-out.

Buy it from Amazon.

Buckingham Nicks “Crying in the Night”

Buckingham Nicks, the album Lindsey and Stevie recorded as a duo before joining Fleetwood Mac, has been out of print for nearly 30 years and has never been issued on CD. At this point, this is just sort of weird. Obviously, we live in the internet era and if you want it, you can find it, but at least on a symbolic level this music should be out there to buy. “Crying in the Night,” a Stevie number, is the album’s best cut. Their personalities certainly come across in this song, but they aren’t fully formed just yet. Stevie sounds great on this — she’d evolve into a more witchy persona later on, but here she’s witty and down to earth. (Something about the way she repeats the phrase “wreck your world” a second time for extra emphasis makes me smile very hard.) Lindsey’s guitar style isn’t quite there at this point, but his guitar parts here are very impressive regardless. The chords have a great breezy quality, and the chord changes are dynamic and ambitious without disrupting the flow of Stevie’s melodies. As it turns out, he was always very good at arranging her songs and framing her voice.

One more Lindsey Buckingham post tomorrow!