Don't they look happy? Why can't Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham just love each other? I supopse there are a million reasons: Lindsey was a controlling freak who treated Stevie like shit. Stevie fucked around with Mick Fleetwood and a million other rock-n-roll men (among them Don Henley and Tom Petty). Lindsey's married now and has a couple of kids. Stevie and Lindsey didn't talk to one another for over a decade - he even publicly declared how much he hated her.

But now they're friends again. I swear, there's has to be something going on with those two. All but four or five of the eighteen tracks on "Say You Will,"Fleetwood Mac's newest album, are about relationships that sound suspiciously like the legendary Stevie-Lindsey love affair. (Check out the song lyrics.) On the VH1 Destiny Rules special, Lindsey mentioned that it can be really hard to sing the songs Stevie wrote about him, and Stevie said that she's still writing about Lindsey 25 years after the big breakup. Right. And there's nothing between them.

A sample of the lyrics:

He fell for her again, she watched it happen
Every day, day by day
But more important, night by night
She watched it all come into play
He held her hands, she listened to what he had to say
Thrown down like a barricade
Maybe now he could prove to her
That he could be good for her
And they should be together

Stevie says that she wrote that song about Lindsey right after the Dance tour, the big reunion that came decades after Lindsey left the band. Anyway. That's the song Lindsey was referring to when he said it's hard to sing about himself. I wonder what went on in their hotel rooms after the shows? Gee, how convenient that he wasn't married yet. And here's a sampling of Lindsey's lyrics:

I let you slip away
There was nothing I could do
That was so long ago
Still I often think of you
I fall down, I get up
And I've always had to fight
Everything that was wrong
For the things that were right
Now I finally found my way
Now I know just what to do
Once you said goodbye to me
Now I say goodbye to you

(And, is it a coincidence that the track immediately following this one is called "Goodbye Baby" and is written by Stevie?)

I'm not quite sure why I care whether or not those two are involved; I don't know why I give it thought every now and again. I guess Stevie and Lindsey are just one of those legendary couples. It's like...if there's something between them, even if it's not public or even official, then maybe there's hope for the rest of the world. And not just romantic hope - I mean hope in general. If something as irreconcilable as Lindsey and Stevie can survive in some small way, then maybe we, with our ordinary failures and shortcomings, can survive too. Not that a love affair could actually impact reality - but it could impact a person's perception of reality. Bringing hope, in other words.

Maybe I've been in Alaska for too long. I think all this darkness is starting to get to me.



Strangest line from the album? "Think of me, sweet darling, every time you don't come." -Lindsey