I was recently reminded that Stevie Nicks had written a song in 1976 that was originally intended for Fleetwood Mac‘s multi-platinum (i.e., 40+ million) Rumours album though, in the end, removed from the track listing and conscripted, instead, as a B-side. This song, interestingly enough, is named for the place where Zero to 180’s home office is located — Silver Spring, Maryland — a small “city” that, unfortunately, is unincorporated and thus impossible to define.
It is unclear, for instance, whether Silver Spring includes the nearby communities of Lyttonsville, Burtonsville, Forest Glen, Glenmont, Kemp Mill, Aspen Hill, Hillandale, White Oak, Wheaton, Colesville, and Cloverly — all unincorporated areas, like much of Montgomery County itself.
Silver Spring, possibly
Stevie Nicks, amusingly, seems to have misremembered the name in the plural – “Silver Springs” — not singular, a not uncommon occurrence and easy way to spot folks who are from “out of town.”
It’s not easy being Silver Spring:
Exhibit A
However, the decision to exclude “Silver Springs” from the album’s final running order was no laughing matter and would serve – I now know – as a source of tension that helped drive a wedge between Nicks and the rest of the band. Ironically, as notes Joe Benton in his “September 6th” interview with Stevie Nicks, “Silver Springs” ended up being the comeback single twenty years later (with “Go Your Own Way” serving as B-side, in a reversal of roles) for Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 live reunion album, The Dance:
“Silver Springs“
1997 picture sleeve
Benson:
Besides “Sara,” there’s another song that’s very special to Stevie Nicks. It’s called “Silver Springs,” and it was supposed to appear on the Rumours album, but without her knowledge, at the last minute it was pulled and relegated to a B-side, only to emerge twenty years later as the song that launched the band’s reunion.
Nicks:
Well, their reasons are, it was too long, and so, without asking me… or telling me… they recorded “I Don’t Want to Know” …. and put “Silver Springs” on the back of “Go Your Own Way” …. which was probably one of the most devastating things anybody has ever done to me in my life …. and I remember vividly running out into the middle of the record plant studio parking lot, and screaming …. because I knew that “Silver Springs” deserved to be on that record, and that “I Don’t Want to Know” was really just a really fun …. guitar song …. and “Silver Springs” was …. “Silver Springs” was all about me and Lindsey, you know, and all – I mean …. I mean, he didn’t write beautiful love songs about me, but I did write some beautiful love songs about him.
1977 pictures sleeves
“Go Your Own Way” b/w “Silver Springs“
As Nicks would explain “in her own words“:
I wrote Silver Springs uh, about Lindsey [Buckingham]. And I ~ we were in Maryland somewhere driving under a freeway sign that said Silver Spring, Maryland. And I loved the name. … Silver Springs sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me. And uh, ‘You could be my silver springs…’ that’s just a whole symbolic thing of what you could have been to me.
~Stevie Nicks
Classic Albums: Rumours
(1998 video)
I wrote it for Rumours, and fourteen years ago I walked into the studio and the record was basically done. It was at the Record Plant, and Mick said, “Stevie, I need you to come outside to the parking lot cause I need to talk to you for a minute.” And I knew it was really serious ’cause Mick never asks you to go out to the parking lot for anything.
So we walked to the huge Record Plant parking lot and he said, “I’m taking ‘Silver Springs’ off the record.” And, of course, my first reaction was, “Why?” And he said, “There’s a lot of reasons, but because basically it’s just too long. And we think that there’s another of your songs that’s better, so that’s what we want to do.” Before I started to get upset about “Silver Springs,” I said, “What other song?” And he said, “A song called ‘I Don’t Want To Know.'” And I said, “But I don’t want that song on this record.’ And he said, “Well, then don’t sing it.”
And then I started to scream bloody murder and probably said every horribly mean thing that you could possibly say to another human being, and walked back in the studio completely flipped out. I said, “Well, I’m not gonna sing ‘I Don’t Want To Know.’ I am one-fifth of this band.” And they said, “Well, if you don’t like it, you can either (a) take a hike or (b) you better go out there and sing ‘I Don’t Want To Know’ or you’re only gonna have two songs on the record.” And so, basically, with a gun to my head, I went out and sang “I Don’t Want To Know.” And they put “Silver Springs” on the back of “Go Your Own Way.”
~Stevie Nicks
BBC radio interview
(1991)
streaming audio link
“Silver Springs“
Fleetwood Mac
(1976)
Mick Fleetwood, on the other hand, provided a different take on the matter when interviewed by Hit Parader for their May 1977 special “Interviews” issue:
HP: The single from the album was released before the album. Why was that? “Go Your Own Way” is from the album, but the ‘B’ side is “Silver Springs,” and it isn’t on the album.
Mick: The album was taking so long to get out, we wanted to put the single out before Christmas. It’s a number of Lindsey’s, and I really think it’s great.
As for the flip, well, that’s Stevie’s song. It’s a really long song that she’ll be doing onstage this tour. “Silver Springs” is something couldn’t go on the album because it was long — you can’t start putting too many tracks on an album without reducing the quality of the sound. So it was a neat way to get the song out and let people hear it.
“Silver Springs“
CD promo single
(1997)
LINK to Musical Misspellings
LINK to Silver Spring, Maryland
