Liner Notes: May/Fleetwood Mac/Silver Springs

I know I say this every week, but it's imperative that you not just listen to this particular version of the song "Silver Springs," but you watch this live version from the televised concert The Dance. You need to see it before we talk about it.

The Dance was released in 1997, the year I graduated from high school. I was listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac around this time while also doing my 90s teenager job of listening to Tori and Nirvana and all the Riot Grrrls and Grunge Boys. I remember watching The Dance with my parents, one of the few times I think they voluntarily watched something on MTV. And I remember watching this song and being absolutely captivated by what I saw on the screen. Let's talk a little bit about "Silver Spring," the song that is/isn't on Rumours. 

The song was supposed to be on the original album. It's one of the solo songs Stevie wrote for the album. The original version came in around 8 minutes long, which was too long for the album. There's a limit to the length of a vinyl record before the sound starts to distort, so the song was originally deemed too long. Stevie trimmed it to around 4 minutes, but it still didn't make the original album. It was released as a B-side to "Go Your Own Way," which is actually very appropriate. 

If "Go Your Own Way" is Lindsey's version of events, then "Silver Springs" is Stevie's. It was written when the two were on tour as Buckingham Nicks and she saw the exit sign for Silver Spring, Maryland. As she says in the Classic Albums documentary, "It sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me. It's a whole symbolic thing of what [Lindsey] could have been to me." Maybe the timeline we're in now was actually caused by the fact that Stevie and Lindsey could never get their lives together together. 

Or something. 

Once CDs became a thing, song length and album length wasn't as constricted so more songs could be included on new albums or reissues. On the 2013 reissue I own, "Silver Springs" is the last song on the album. It follows "Gold Dust Woman," another Stevie song. I remember listening to this version of the album when I first bought the CD and saying to myself, "there is no way Lindsey would have let those two songs end this album." And then I laughed and listened to "Silver Springs" approximately 700 times. 

Flash forward to 1997 and The Dance. People reacted to that moment more than pretty much anything else in the show. It's a great concert, so try to watch it if you haven't seen it before. Christine looks elegant and lovely. John is sort of in the shadows but he's never out of sight. Mick is dressed like a pirate and living his best life behind his kit. Lindsey looks cool and confident. And Stevie is all witchy vibes and twirling skirts. The band had been slowly moving back together after the successful use of their song "Don't Stop" during Bill Clinton's campaign in 1995. They had played some shows in support of his campaign, so things were moving in a way that was bringing the original five back together. I think this is a little bit of the magic of Fleetwood Mac; they come together at a precise moment in time when they need to do so.

(Side note: "Don't Stop" is my least favorite song on Rumours followed by "Oh Daddy." Both have grown on me a bit since working on this piece, but I still skip both more often than I listen to them.)

The emotion of this particular song during this particular performance is its own living thing. Taylor Jenkins Reid the author of Daisy Jones and the Six (loosely based on Fleetwood Mac) saw this performance as a teen too. She didn't know all the drama behind the band but loved the song and the performance. She talked about how she didn't realize until later that Stevie and Lindsey weren't together when this concert was filmed and she didn't understand how that could be true because she saw what she saw and what I saw while watching this performance. Courtney Love described the performance as "opera." I don't often agree with Courtney Love, but I think she got it right.

I've joked over the years that if I was going to start a cult, it would be entirely based on this performance of "Silver Springs." I don't know what the cult would do other than watch this video on a loop, but people have founded cults with less material than this, so I think I'm good. 

This was a completely vibe-based embroidery piece. I haven't done that since my 2022 project where I stitched whatever I felt like that day and created a large piece (currently hanging up in my living room). I enjoyed using variations on the chain stitch. I probably could have used more variations than I did, but I'm happy with the ones I used. I learned two new stitches: the butterfly stitch and the back stitched chain stitch. Like the album Rumours, it just works. It may not make sense on paper, but it works in thread. Rumours absolutely shouldn't have worked but it did. The fact that people are still discovering it or continuing to listen to it speaks to its power and awesomeness. I had a blast making this piece. I didn't know what it was going to be but I'm happy with what it is.

Here is the final week of the Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Liner Notes:

May 24

May 25

May 26

May 27

May 28

May 29

May 30

May 31

May's Liner Notes: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (and a study of the chain stitch)

A Note About June's Liner Notes

As I shared last week, I'm having surgery on June 2. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to feel next week or if I'll be able to get something stitched every day. I may end up starting June the following week or doing a little here and there next week as I feel up to it. The first blog for June will most likely be up on June 13 rather than June 6, but I'll just have to see how this week goes. 

There will be a June Liner Notes and it's all about David Bowie. Bea helped me with fabric choices earlier this week. I have two designs I'm trying to decide between, so that may be the focus of the first week in June. Less stitching, more designing. 

Bea has excellent instincts when it comes to fabric choices. If it makes her look dramatic, it's a winner. Such a good helper. 

WIPs, Mushroom Needlepoint, and Other Small Joys

Y'all, the mushroom needlepoint is done! It only took me four months of absolutely inconsistent attention to this piece to finish it. I still haven't found a frame but that can be a June project. It turned out pretty good for my second needlepoint project. I have another one to work using bargello, a type of needlepoint I've never done before. We'll see how that goes. 

I hooped up a new WIP yesterday. I bought this Nest Embirdery kit almost a year ago and it's been sitting in my projects basket waiting for me. I'm going to have some time on my hands as I'm recovering from surgery and thought this would be a nice kit to work on when I felt like it. The frog is super cute. 

I treated myself to a little thrifting adventure last weekend including the book sale at my local library and a random purchase at Upcycle. I've started collecting vintage needlework books and I need to stop sleeping on the library book sale for these books. I got six or seven books for $6 and they're all good condition. Most are from the 1970s and they're all a little unhinged. I would like to live in the cover of this one:

I've also been reading a lot about Rosey Grier lately. I'm not sure why his needlepoint work has come back to light all of the sudden, but it's been fun reading about him and his focus on needlepoint in the 1970s. He wrote a book, which I absolutely need. If you ever see this book in the wild for under $100 please buy it for me and I'll pay you back.

I also found a fun painting by Urbain Huchet, a French artist I know absolutely nothing about. I don't know where it's going to go in my house, but it's lovely. The frame is also great.

But the best thing I found last weekend was at Upcycle. I walked into the back where we sort donations and this was just sitting there, waiting for me. 

It's a sewing cabinet. I found this great blog about sewing cabinets. Sewing cabinets were popularized in the 1920s and there was one company, Sew Tidy, that manufactured a lot of the cabinets that pop up in vintage and antique stores. They were meant to be customized by the user for whatever type of sewing or needlework they were doing. The one I have looks like it was owned by someone who sewed rather than did needlework, based only on the supplies that were left in the cabinet. 

I have no idea where this is going to go once I'm done fixing it, but I love her. She needs a little love, but it's such a fun piece. The sewing cabinet and the trinket shelf I found in March are my big summer projects. Wish me luck. 

I leave you with my favorite photos from last week - the raccoon who lives in my parents' backyard made an appearance while I was at their house on Monday. Just vibing and eating bird seed. Don't you think he and Bea would be great friends?