The Chain

The way The Chain was put together is fascinating. It wasn't born as a single piece, but rather as a sonic puzzle. They took fragments of ideas that hadn't fit into other songs, compositions by Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie, and joined them together. The assembly process was quite manual, cutting and pasting tapes with a razor blade, something that was done in Sausalito, California, with engineers Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. Most strikingly, it is the only song in the entire history of Fleetwood Mac that bears the signature of all five members of the lineup from the Rumours era: Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood.

The genesis of The Chain dates back to a song by Christine McVie called Keep Me There, which was the first thing they recorded for the album Rumours. The early takes, from February 2, 1976, featured Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on an Alembic bass, Christine McVie on organ, and Buckingham with his Fender Stratocaster. During one of these early performances, John McVie improvised the bass line that would end up being the foundation of the final version; that section is the only part of that original recording that was kept. Lindsey Buckingham also contributed the initial riff, borrowing the intro from a previous collaboration with Stevie Nicks, Lola (My Love), which had been released in 1973. The lyrics, on the other hand, were written by Stevie Nicks, and originally formed part of another composition. She agreed to cede them for The Chain, and along with Christine McVie, they adapted them for the first part of the song, reflecting Nicks' breakup with Buckingham. The title, The Chain, arose precisely because the song felt like a collection of joined parts.