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Live versions appear on The Dance (1997) and Live in Boston (2004)
Single version appears on the Rumours DVD-A
Rough outtake and single versions appear on the Rumour Reissue (2004)
WEBMISTRESS speculates:
I love this song, but it's so tragic! It starts off with what could have been: Stevie had all this love for Lindsey, like an "ocean crashing" (see Crystal for more water imagery). But Lindsey has found someone else. She doesn't want to hear about it, though - it still hurts (yes, I know Stevie left Lindsey, but it still must have been hard for her when he was seeing other women). The next question is an important one - "Was it worth it?" Was the love worth all the pain? But she's afraid to ask - what if the answer's no? If so, she'd rather not know.
Time may have made them drift apart, but she tells him he'll never forget what they had. She blames him for the break-up here: she tried to love him, but he "would not let [her]." He wanted different things than her and, in her opinion, forced her to break up with him. She promises him that he won't be able to forget her - when he hears her voice, whether in person or on the radio, that memory will always "haunt" him and cause him to regret what happened, no matter how hard he tries to escape it (see Dreams for a similar dire prediction for Lindsey)! This was written around the time they were breaking up and it really reflects the fact that Stevie did not feel she had any choice, that she didn't want to leave but she had to. She's saddened by the way it turned out, too, even if she did officially initiate the break-up. I just love the passionate way Stevie sings the song on The Dance - she really puts her heart into it. This is the song that made Fleetwood Mac my favorite band. It's awesome.
ANNALISA speculates:
[A]fter the breaking-up of Lindsey/Stevie as a couple I think that the two songs : "Go Your Own Way" and "Silver Springs" are the most representative. And about Silver Springs all I can say is that Stevie had written this song about Lindsey (obviously) but the title was inspired by a country or a highway exit named Silverspring.
JOJO speculates:
In *Silver Springs*, Stevie is trying to get over Lindsey. She thinks that he never really loved her, but she always loved him.
DEBORAH speculates:
My favorite Stevie song!! The imagery is beautiful at the beginning, with a honey-laced vocal- like the sweet memory of a love affair's beginning. Then the imagery is sad, with a jolt of realization that the affair is doomed, and so she tries to distance herself from her pain. She wants to know he feels this pain as well. So she says- she begins not to love him, and pauses for his response, which isn't forthcoming. Then she denies his love for her ever existed, while she always loved him. He finally responds by flaunting his popularity with other women in a cavalier way, just to piss her off! She tries to be as blase in her response to him, but as the song gains intensity, so does her determination to force him into admitting there is no one who could take her place in his heart, his soul, and his mind, while simultaneously confessing the depth of her own love! "I'll follow you dow! n til the sound of my voice will haunt you" Oh! Agony at its absolute best! The sparks (still) flying from Stevie & Lindsey could light fires that would engulf the entire planet!
LAUREN speculates:
This is my favourite Stevie song, the sheer emotion out into this song is amazing. Everyone knows this song is about Lindsey, I think this song shows the true depth of feelings Stevie had for Lindsey, it is a beautiful song. I think it is a song about what Lindsey and Stevie could of been to each other, if a whole lot of other stuff hadn’t got in the way.
"You could be my silver springs" tells us just how much Lindsey could of been,
"And did you say she was pretty, and did you say that she loves you, Baby I don’t wanna know" This part shows how even though it was Stevie who broke up with Lindsey it was still so hard for her to see him with other women.
This is a very bittersweet song, expressing the sheer tragedy of their relationship, It also shows how Stevie believes Lindsey will never truly get away from her and that "The sound of my voice will haunt you"
DW speculates:
Oddly enough, when I listen to this song now, in the full context of Lindsey’s and Stevie’s entire relationship, what I’m most struck by is the irony of the wish she made in this song. The wish she made came true, but perhaps not as she expected. It played out in such a way as to keep Lindsey away from her for years as he deliberately removed himself from her life entirely, thus making her, arguably, the most unhappy of all.
In this song in 1976, she promises…even "threatens" to follow Lindsey in a haunting way, hoping he’s spooked, bothered and troubled by her forever. He was bothered enough to remove himself from her life and her music to the point that by the early 1990s, Stevie was giving tremendously bitter interviews in which she was alternately very angry or extremely sad that Lindsey would not be friends with her the way she wanted him to be. Some years down the line, in 1997, when Fleetwood Mac reunited and Lindsey and Stevie together began to decide that they could be friends again, Stevie was quoted as saying, "It's nice to think I might go to my grave being Lindsey's friend and not a thorn in his side for all eternity." An interesting sentiment and one that seems contradictory to the original "curse." I almost think it was Stevie who learned the biggest lesson from her own song: Be careful what you wish for.
MARIA speculates:
Silver Springs is one of my favorite Stevie songs, and it tells the whole story of Lindsay and Stevie! It is magical on stage to see her sing it to Lindsay and it is very sweet the way he acknowledges the song just by listening to her and giving her eye contact. Even though this song was written when they were breaking up it has a sweetness to it how. It is a sign of maturity that they have both healed and their love for each other is still intact but it is gentler and more hopeful than full of furious passion that could not last.
PETE speculates:
As far as I'm concerned, Silver Springs is total "sour grapes"....Especially in the lyrics "I'll follow you down til the sound of my voice will haunt you......You'll never get away from the sound of the woman who loves you". In a way, that became a self fullfilling prophecy, considering the fact that these sentiments made it onto an album! The hook (while I'm on the subject) has that transcendental quality that defines really good Nicks & Fleetwood Mac. The harmonies and the textures conjure up really tingly feelings and that's why I have always loved the group.
RHIANNON speculates:
This is such a great song. I love it. I think in this song Stevie is talking about what could have been and what her Lindsey could have had. They had a great time with each other and she always thought it would last. She knows that she loved him and probably always will, but she wasn't sure about how he felt. In the song I think she is saying that Lindsey will never be able to escape her, because they were like one for so long, and no matter what he is going have to remember that. Even though she ended things with Lindsey she still wonders what could have been, and she wants to know if it was worth it.
A. speculates:
I had a soulmate… and honest to god one, the type poets try to describe die on me in the early seventies… I was from New Orleans And I decided to not feel any more.. So I went to bourbon Street.. Became a suicidal bouncer.. I mean I fought biker gangs, cops, anyone and anything trying to get someone to kill me.. I did not have the guts to do it myself…
And after years of drug addiction and alcoholism something had to give.. .I was in so much pain..I was sitting in this bar ..One that served me only because they were afraid not to.. In a mood.. If anyone had looked at me I would have hit them.. You have to understand How messed up I was… I would black out from violent outrages and wake in the mornings covered with blood, not mine, not knowing if I had killed someone…
But I sat in this bar… and this song came on.. and all of a sudden the stud of bourbon street sat sobbing… People were stunned…
So that night was the beginning of a turn around.. The song had made me feel.. and everyone I talked to did not like the song.. They liked the A side of the 45… Well I decided to tell my story via Tattoos.. And on one shoulder a topless dancer that was double jointed… eerily looking like a witch.. on the other side a puma trying to kill a flying Pegasus.. The meaning there was me and the human race usually strive for unobtainable goals… SO in the center was t portait of the singer.. IT was taken by a graphic artist from the Buckingham/Nicks album and the only color in it is in her earring. He did a little with her hair that I really liked.. and then on her arm, he put a tattoo of the word nicks… Anyway after all these years it has barely bled… I attach a copy.. Sorry but I took it in the mirror… And it took 18 hours to put on.. She really saved my life…
Then in 97 my health started failing big time. I just this week turned 50 and have been disabled since 98.. The next surgery I have they are going to have to go through her face… But I made it to the Dance concert in San Antonio.. It will be the last concert I can ever see.. I fell paralyzed one night after that… But I was so glad to see that the song had finally made it on it’s own for to me it was the most beautiful song she ever wrote… Of course it is Silver Springs…
GARY speculates:
I never really gave much thought to the lyrics, love the music so much, but reading them now and hearing Stevie's recent comments about "Go Your Own Way" and the decadence of the '70s has made me realize what's going on.
Interesting that "Silver Springs" was the B side of "Go Your Own Way" (the 45) which never made it onto an album until "The Chain" and later "The Dance". It is painfully obvious that Lindsay is shouting angrily at Stevie on "Go Your Own Way". Lindsay was always so wrapped up in his music in the early years that Stevie would clean toilets so Lindsay didn't have to work a day-job. You know that Stevie had to really love and admire him to do that. She thought he was the real artistic genius and she was always going to be second fiddle to him. Mick actually just wanted to hire Lindsay to replace Bob Welch on guitar, but Lindsay insisted that he and Stevie were a package deal!
Once they became famous, the drugs, touring, sex and all the trappings made the relationship more precarious than in the days of poverty. Stevie admits that the cocaine addictions made them unable to "feel" (emotions) like people should be able to, and that led to the demise of the relationship. Still, she remembers what it had been like to feel undying love for Lindsay back in the early years. Lindsay was just pissed off about being dumped, but hurting and realizing he screwed up.
Stevie's "Silver Springs" is a straightforward ode to her memories of her past love and how Lindsay continued to hurt her (recently after she split with him) by flaunting his new relationships. Stevie didn't ever totally stop loving Lindsay, but they were very angry with each other. Stevie thought Lindsay was her soulmate, (should or could have been). Had fame not happened and screwed up everybody in the band, they might have become in life (and love) what she had hoped for and sings about. I guess the roads to love or fame go in different directions.
It is ironic but somehow fitting that these two songs are perhaps the best and most emotionally moving songs ever done by FM, specifially Stevie and Lindsay. Most artists are moved to greatness by emotional turmoil. Even the numbness brought on by the cocaine abuse did not kill the memory of love or the hurt that comes from squandering and losing it.
KIAS speculates:
I'll never forget this song & I've never loved a song so much & understood it. My favorite is the repeat of the chorus at the end adding the other 2 lines. Those 2 lines say it all. There is so much pain in that song but its pain anyone & everyone can identify with cause we've all been there. Loving someone who doesn't love you back or at least not as much as you love them & you know that nothing may ever come of it. But also knowing even though you may never be able to love them like you want to, they will never forget you no matter how hard they may try to.