Expressionism undoubtedly plays a significant role in the decision-making process. Different people respond differently to music and have different motivations for creating it. Since the Romantic movement, people have utilized music to help with love, loss, and desperation. It’s an extremely effective way for them to express their emotions.
Fleetwood Mac was the only band that had more to say than anyone else, and they only looked within the band itself for inspiration. The band’s complex relationships, long-term substance abuse, and touring demands all contributed to the drama that was going on. It meant that if any of them felt like writing a song, they just needed to think back on the previous few days to find inspiration.
The drawback, of course, is that we listeners sometimes find it difficult to identify a song’s exact meaning. This is true of the popular song “Gold Dust Woman” from 1977. The band released the song on the Rumours album during their heavy cocaine use. As a result, a lot of people assume that the class A substance served as the song’s inspiration; nonetheless, some people think it has another meaning.
Lindsey Buckingham, the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Nicks may have had a significant influence on the song. At the time of writing, they had recently broken up after a trying time. Cris Morris, the recording assistant, seems to believe as much when thinking back on the songwriting session.
“One of the best parts of recording ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was Stevie’s intense focus on perfecting the vocal performance. He remarked, “She worked through the night on it and finally did it after loads of takes. It seemed like she was directing it straight at Lindsey and letting it all out.” Later on, they added the sounds of animals howling, breaking glass, and wailing.
Stevie Nicks’ dedication to the recording process is another aspect of it that suggests she was writing about a subject that was dear to her. She insisted on staying in the studio until the vocals were flawless and her passion was audible in every moment.
During the recording process, Mick Fleetwood recalled seeing her. He described her as “hunched over in a chair, alternately choosing from her supply of tissues.” She also had a Vicks inhaler, a box of lozenges for her sore throat, and a bottle of mineral water.
Ironically, Buckingham was needed to propel the track to the heights it eventually reached in the song, which was probably directed at him. “Five or six months into it, once John had gotten his parts down, Lindsey spent weeks in the studio adding guitar parts. That’s what really gave the album its texture,” recollects Cris Morris
