Go Your Own Way?
Preparation is the key to everything—if you prepare for financial independence, you’re laying the groundwork to avoid being overruled and forced into uncomfortable situations because you need the money or because other people know you need the money.
Capital Thinking • Issue #568 • View online
I’ve spent a lot of time recently studying the history and crazy dynamics behind the members of the rock group Fleetwood Mac—a 1970s supergroup that released the album “Rumours” in 1977, which is the sixth-best selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Eagles’ Greatest Hits album, AC/DC’s Back in Black, and the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever.
-The Conservative Income Investor
Fleetwood Mac, Rock ‘N Roll History, and Financial Independence
The Conservative Income Investor:
And in terms of “certified” sales, it is fifth all-time, behind: Thriller, the Eagles’ Greatest Hits, Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard, and Shania Twain’s Come on Over.
I know you probably don’t read my site for my musings on 1970s and 1980s rock, but I want to share with you one story that shows how financial independence is really about autonomy, and how autonomy is partially about freeing yourself from the coercive influence of others, which is really the most important form of power that you can achieve in this life if you prioritize your own self-determination.
In particular, I want to talk about the “behind-the-scenes” story that led to the song “Go Your Own Way” being included on the eleven-track album.
As you may know, “Go Your Own Way” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 100 in 1977/1978, becoming the band’s top song from the album and appearing on many lists of “Greatest Rock Songs of All-Time” to this day.
Heck, the song still gets regular airplay on many classic rock stations nationwide.
But here’s the interesting part—the song, written by Lindsey Buckingham, was intensely personal about his failing relationship with fellow lead vocalist Stevie Nicks.
In particular, Stevie Nicks wanted the song off the album because of the second verse that wrote about her:
“Tell me why / Everything turned around
Packing up/ Shacking up’s all you wanna do
If I could / Baby, I’d give you my world
Open up / Everything’s waiting for you”
Stevie Nicks had a big problem being on stage hearing the line packing up / shacking up’s all you wanna do.
From her perspective, she was livid that she had to be on stage every night singing a song that accuses her of sleeping around and being an unscrupulous lover.
She claimed that Lindsey would bring a string of different lovers backstage after every show, with the implicit intent to make her jealous.
She claimed that she only hooked up with one man during the immediate aftermath of her breakup with Lindsey, and she found it especially galling that she had to be up there on stage going along with a song that attacks her character while she found the lyrics to be a more appropriate description of Lindsey’s behavior at the time.
But if you are anything like me and have a curiosity about the nerd side of rock ‘n roll, you might be asking yourself the question: How the heck did the song Go Your Own Way make it onto the Rumours album if Stevie Nicks—arguably the most influential member of the group along with Lindsey and Mick Fleetwood—hated the song and fought to keep it off the album?
The answer: the power disparity that results when one person in a relationship has financial independence and the other does not.
Your ability to get what you want (when you’re in a bargaining position with someone else) is always controlled by the autonomy you bring to the bargaining table, and the possession of financial independence is the greatest source of financial independence there is.
