Poor Lindsey Buckingham. My man officially got sacked by his Fleetwood Mac bandmates just last year, and the parting does not appear to have been amicable. Sounds like the band took Lindsey’s own lyrics to heart; after all, he was the author and vocalist of “Go Your Own Way”, a song that is not only one of the most bitter breakup songs ever written, but was written specifically about Lindsey’s relationship with Stevie Nicks, who has gamely participated in performing the song on tour year after year for over four decades. Can you imagine singing a song your ex wrote about (basically) what a tramp you are? Either Stevie is a forgiving soul or the money was incredibly good for a long time. I’m betting on the latter.

Stevie has had something of the last laugh by having significantly more name recognition than her former partner. Stevie’s solo career was something to be reckoned with at the outset, while Lindsey has only scraped up a handful of hits on his own. The best of the bunch was 1984’s “Go Insane”. Unlike his previous hit, “Trouble”, which sounded very Fleetwood Mac (actually, it sounded exactly like “Gypsy” from the band’s contemporaneous Mirage album), “Go Insane” was danceable and a bit of a departure, dependent as it was on synthesizers. It’s total ear-candy, though. Much of Lindsey’s subsequent solo work has been a bit esoteric and left of center. “Go Insane” is one of his few tunes that I don’t have to try to enjoy, I just enjoy it.

And even THAT song was written about Stevie Nicks. The more you know about their history, the more you wonder why they stayed together for so long (although, granted, there was a 10 year gap during which Lindsey, then Stevie departed the group before they both returned in 1997).

Oh yeah–money.