Go Your Own Way Lyrics

[Verse 1: Lindsey Buckingham]
Loving you isn't the right thing to do
How can I ever change things that I feel?

If I could, maybe I'd give you my world
How can I when you won't take it from me?


[Chorus: Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham, Lindsey Buckingham]
You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day
You can go your own way, go your own way


[Verse 2: Lindsey Buckingham]
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

[Chorus: Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham, Lindsey Buckingham]
You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day
You can go your own way, go your own way

[Instrumental Bridge]

[Chorus: Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham, Lindsey Buckingham]
(Ah!) You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day, another lonely day
You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day, another lonely day
[Outro: Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham, Lindsey Buckingham]
You can call it another lonely day, another lonely day
You can call it another lonely day, another lonely day
You can call it another lonely day, oh, yeah, oh, yeah
You can call it another lonely day
Lonely day

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About

Genius Annotation

Go Your Own Way” was the first single from Fleetwood Mac’s award winning eleventh LP Rumours, from 1977.

This album was written during the fallout of many relationships within the band. This song was written by their lead male vocalist Lindsey Buckingham. At the time Lindsey was dating their other powerhouse female vocalist Stevie Nicks. They were together for eight years. Stevie Nicks has said that this song is the hardest to sing live in concert with Buckingham – but its considered a fan favourite song, so she struggles through it.

One story says that the band gave an early demo of the song to a Los Angeles DJ to test audience response. The DJ then responded, saying the song would not work on the radio because of its complicated rhythm. Only then did Lindsey Buckingham add the acoustic guitar, later saying that the acoustic guitar part

was the glue that brought the whole song into focus.

This song and album is regarded as one of their best songs/albums and one of the greatest records of all time.

This song was covered by NOFX on their 1989 classic album S&M Airlines.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Fleetwood Mac say about "Go Your Own Way"?
Genius Answer

Stevie Nicks did not leave the “shacking up” qup unanswered:

I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do."

Sourced here

What has producer Kevin Caillat said about the song?
Genius Answer

Caillat told Music Radar:

Lindsey was beating his acoustic guitar as hard as he could and screaming his lungs out. The first time I heard it, I thought, ‘What the heck is going on?’ [laughs] It sounded so non-musical. I didn’t know if anything would come from it. As the months went on, we filled it out and it became a song. Lindsey figured out some fantastic guitar parts to lay down. In particular, he did an acoustic part on the 1, a flourish overdub, and that really drove the rhythm.

There’s two guitar solos, the tag and the first one. For both, Lindsey didn’t know what he wanted – the song had progressed from an acoustic piece into this searing electric rocker. I gave him seven or eight tracks and he comped the solos. They sound seamless, as if they were totally composed, but they weren’t.

What has the media said about the song?
Genius Answer

Rolling Stone named it the #1 greatest Fleetwood Mac song, saying:

In 1976, early in the recording process of what would come to be Fleetwood Mac’s epochal album Rumours, they took some time off from touring and rented a house in Florida to work on
new material. With the two relationships at the center of the band unraveling, it may not have been the best time for a family vacation: ‘Aside from the obvious unstated tension, I remember the house having a distinctly bad vibe to it, as if it was haunted, which did nothing to help matters,’ Mick Fleetwood wrote in his memoir. While there, Lindsey Buckingham wrote a bruising new song that channeled the darkening anger brought on by his impending breakup with Stevie Nicks. ‘“Go Your Own Way” was filled with anger, it was filled with angst,’ he recalled. With an inverted stomping drumbeat and a taut, aggressive guitar part, it was also a hard-driving departure from the ‘light rock’ with which Fleetwood Mac were being grouped. ‘I had this idea taken from “Street Fighting Man,” by the Rolling Stones,’ Buckingham said of the song’s rhythm. ‘And Mick couldn’t quite get that, and he did his own thing.’ Released as the first single from Rumours, ‘Go Your Own Way’ became a Top 10 hit as well as their tempestuous set-closer, reigniting the drama at the heart of the band’s music every night. ‘I very, very much resented him telling the world that “packing up, shacking up” with different men was all I wanted to do,’ Nicks told Rolling Stone in 1997. ‘He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come out onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him.’

Credits
Percussion
Mastering Engineer
Bass Guitar
Assistant Engineer
Release Date
February 4, 1977
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