Say Goodbye (Fleetwood Mac song)

Last updated
"Say Goodbye"
Song by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Say You Will
Released15 April 2003
Recorded2001–2002
Studio
  • The Village (Los Angeles)
  • Lindsey Buckingham's home studio (Bel Air)
Genre
Length3:26
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriter Lindsey Buckingham
Producers

"Say Goodbye" is a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, written by guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham. It was released as the seventeenth track on the band's seventeenth studio album, Say You Will (2003). Buckingham composed the song around a Travis picking technique on the acoustic guitar several year's prior to its inclusion on Say You Will, after which he performed it for a few Fleetwood Mac tours.

Contents

Background

Lindsey Buckingham wrote "Say Goodbye" about his relationship with Stevie Nicks after his departure from Fleetwood Mac in 1987. [1] [2] He commented that "most of our experience together was behind us" by the time he wrote "Say Goodbye", which he described as "a very sweet song". [3] Buckingham wrote the lyrics to "Say Goodbye" before the instrumentation, which he said was an atypical compositional approach for him. [4] Commenting on the specifics of the lyrics, he said that the song was about his perceived lack of closure with Nicks. [3]

This song was written quite a long time ago, after I had left the band. I don't know if I was going for anything in particular, but I was in a place where I could feel compassionate, understanding, and nonjudgmental about the other people in the band, and about everything that had happened. The lyric was really important to me, and the fingerpicking part makes it a really nice guitar piece. [1]

The song's composition is built around a Travis picking guitar part. Buckingham cited "Say Goodbye" as an extension of the approach he employed on acoustic renditions of "Big Love" where he centered the arrangement around a single guitar. [5] In addition to the melodic motifs, the guitar on "Say Goodbye" also takes on a more percussive role by supplanting the rhythm section. [6] He commented that the guitar part was "not an easy thing to work out." After attempting different arrangements that he was unsatisfied with, Buckingham took one of his guitars and detuned the G string down a step, which rendered it easier for him to handle the guitar parts he envisioned. [4]

Prior to its inclusion on Say You Will, an unmastered version of the song was leaked online in 2001. [7] During the Say You Will recording sessions, which were documented in the Destiny Rules documentary, Buckingham and Nicks worked closely to refine the vocal harmonies. [8]

Live performances

"Say Goodbye" was included on the Fleetwood Mac's 2003–2004 Say You Will Tour. [9] It was also one of the songs performed on Sound Stage Presents – Lindsey Buckingham, which aired in 2005 on PBS. For this rendition, Buckingham performed the song as a duet with Nicks. [10] On the band's 2013 tour, "Say Goodbye" was also the only song that Fleetwood Mac played from their Say You Will album. [3] Buckingham performed the song as a duet with Nicks as the final song of the setlist. [11]

Personnel

References

  1. 1 2 Thompson, Art (April 2003). "The Eternal Return". Guitar Player. Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2023– via The Blue Letter Archives.
  2. ↑ Soeder, John (11 June 2003). "Fleetwood Mac still a dialogue of ex-lovers". The Ann Arbor News . p. E4. Retrieved 22 December 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 Greene, Andy (7 May 2013). "Lindsey Buckingham Talks Fleetwood Mac Tour, New EP" . Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 December 2025.
  4. 1 2 Zollo, Paul (October 2003). "Taken by the Wind". Acoustic Guitar . Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2025– via The Blue Letter Archives.
  5. ↑ Lanham, Tom (June 2003). "Mac Daddy". Guitar One . Vol. 6, no. 6. Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2025– via The Blue Letter Archives.
  6. ↑ Roubin, Olivier; Ollivier, Romuald (1 April 2025). Fleetwood Mac: All The Songs. New York: Black Dog Leventhal Publishers. p. 218. ISBN   978-0-7624-8630-4.
  7. ↑ "The Missing 90s". Still Going Insane - A Lindsey Buckingham Resource. Archived from the original on 30 June 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  8. ↑ Destiny Rules (Documentary DVD). Warner Bros. 2004.
  9. ↑ Finn, Tim (15 August 2003). "Mac reunion has feel of a swan song". The Kansas City Star . p. E6. Retrieved 21 December 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Soundstage Presents Lindsey Buckingham". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  11. ↑ Kot, Greg (15 April 2013). "Angst yields to hits for Fleetwood Mac". Chicago Tribune . p. 5. Retrieved 28 December 2025.
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