How the Members of Fleetwood Mac Wrote ‘The Chain’ With Licks and Lyrics Written For Other Songs

YouTuber Polyphonic, who does incredibly informative video essays about music took a fascinating look at the Fleetwood Mac song “The Chain“, noting that it was the only track on the iconic Rumors album to feature each member of the band as a writer. What’s most interesting about this fact is that the individual members took licks and lyrics from other songs written separately from the band and incorporated it into this highly symbolic song about staying together while breaking free of tethering relationships. As cited in the video, the opening lick of the song is actually from the Buckingham Nicks song “Lola My Love“, the iconic bass riff in the middle of the song was written by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie for the Christine McVie song “Keep Me There“. It’s as if they each brought a piece of themselves to the table as an offering of peace.

Everything about ‘The Chain’ mimics the band’s life. At a time when the group was fragmented, kept together only by their music, the song structurally pulled together from each of their creative minds.

Here’s a live performance of “Lola (My Love)” by Buckingham Nicks in 1974

Here’s the studio version of the unreleased “Keep Me There”

The original demo of the song.