Song of the Day 10/27: Fleetwood Mac, “Dreams”

These are strange times in America, and not just because one of our political parties has gone full fascist. We live in a country where a 42-year-old song can re-enter the pop charts just because an Idaho warehouse worker posted a video of himself lip-synching the song and drinking cran-raspberry juice as he skateboarded down a highway.

Nathan Apodaca’s Tik-Tok video has been viewed more than 16 million times, helping boost the song to the top of the iTunes download chart and the “Rumours” album it appeared on back into the Top 10.*

“Dreams,” written and sung by Stevie Nicks, was the only Fleetwood Mac single to reach No. 1. Though Nicks is the band’s most popular member, I always found her the least interesting of the its songwriters. Both Christine McVie and Lindsay Buckingham wrote more melodic pop tunes. Granted, Nicks had a good voice before cocaine turned her into Muddy Mudskipper, and she had a talent for mesmerizing crowds with her trance-like compositions, but they’re musically simple. She wrote “Dreams” in 10 minutes in the studio, and Christine McVie said, “It was just three chords and one note in the left hand. I thought, ‘This is really boring.’” But it wasn’t boring when Nicks sang it in concert.

Less appreciated by the public is Lindsay Buckingham’s skill at arranging her raw material (not to mention his ability to soldier on while Nicks stood right next to him on stage and sang what’s basically a “hey, asshole” note to him night after night). Buckingham crafted the band’s sound for decades until his recent dismissal, and you can glimpse his process through the demo tapes and early takes included on extra-track re-releases of some of their classic albums.

*Apodaca has prospered, too — Ocean Spray gave him a new truck (he was skateboarding to work in his video because his car had broken down), and he’s gotten $10,000 in donations, surely a boon to a guy who lives in a trailer with no electricity. The most impressive thing about his moment of zen is that Apodaca didn’t post the video to ask for a handout — he was just rocking his vibe. Such resilience in the face of calamity deserves all the recognition he’s gotten.