‘Go Your Own Way’ is a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their eleventh studio album, Rumours (1977). The song was released as the album's first single in December 1976 in the United States. Written and sung by Lindsey Buckingham, it became the band's first top-ten hit in the United States. Like their last three singles from the album Fleetwood Mac, ‘Go Your Own Way’ charted in the US. The track made its first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated January 8, 1977, where it entered at No. 71. Two weeks later, the single ascended into the top 40. On March 12, 1977, the song reached its peak of No. 10, a position it held for two weeks. The song spent a total of 11 weeks in the top 40.
‘Go Your Own Way’ was written at a house the band rented in Florida between legs of their Fleetwood Mac Tour and was the first song Buckingham presented to the band for the Rumours album. Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer, remembered that the house had a "distinctly bad vibe to it, as if it were haunted, which did nothing to help matters…". The lyrics at this stage had yet to be fleshed out, so Buckingham sang musical notes as placeholders in certain locations.
Buckingham wrote ‘Go Your Own Way’ in what he described as "a stream of consciousness". "There was nothing about it that was thought out. It was just the raw expression of the emotion behind the song." When Buckingham presented the song to producer Ken Caillat, the latter was unsure if it had any potential. "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? It sounded so non-musical. I didn’t know if anything would come from it." Buckingham wrote this as a message to Stevie Nicks. It describes their breakup, with the most obvious line being, "Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do," and concluding that he is better off without her - she can go her own way as far as he's concerned. Stevie insisted she never shacked up with anyone when they were going out, and wanted Lindsey to take out the line, but he refused. Stevie Nicks told Q magazine June 2009: "It was certainly a message within a song. And not a very nice one at that."
‘Go Your Own Way’ was ranked number 120 by Rolling Stone magazine on their list of 500 greatest songs of all time in 2010, and re-ranked number 401 in 2021. It is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list. Rolling Stone also ranked it No. 1 on its list of Fleetwood Mac's 50 Greatest Songs. In 2012, ‘Go Your Own Way’ was listed by music magazine NME in 33rd place on its list of "50 Most Explosive Choruses." The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number two and number eight, respectively, on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs. ‘Go Your Own Way’ was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement in 1978, but lost to ‘New Kid in Town’ by the Eagles.
Label – Warner Bros.
Songwriter – Lindsey Buckingham
Producers – Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut, Ken Caillat
SONG 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