The Chain

Song infobox
Name = The Chain


Artist = Fleetwood Mac
from Album = Rumours
Published =
Released = February 4, 1977
track_no = 7 on original; 8 on reissue
Recorded = 1976
Genre = Rock
Length = 4:28
Writer =
Composer = Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Stevie Nicks.
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Producer = Fleetwood Mac, Ken Caillat & Richard Dashut
Tracks =
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Misc = Audiosample
Background=#E6E8FA
Upper caption = Audio sample
Audio file = The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.ogg

"The Chain" is a song from Fleetwood Mac's best-selling album "Rumours". "The Chain" is unique in being the only song written by all five members of the "Rumours"-era Fleetwood Mac lineup: Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Stevie Nicks; this is partly due to the fact that John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are generally not songwriters. The band has used the song as a signature, citing the lyric, "Never break the chain."

According to interviews on the writing of "Rumours", the final section of "The Chain" — beginning with a bass progression — was created by John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. It seemed like an ending, not a beginning. Stevie Nicks had written the lyrics separately and thought they would be a good match; she and Christine McVie did some reworking to create the first section of the tune. Lindsey Buckingham then created the guitar riff at the beginning and end.Fact|date=August 2007 Thanks to its use as a TV theme (for the BBC's F1 coverage), the ending bass line is one of the most recognizable in the world, and although not released as a single, it does get air play.

The song itself has a basic rock structure, although it has two distinct portions: the main verse and chorus, and the outro. The song would be classified as rock, but shows the influence of hard rock, folk, and country.

Personnel

*Lindsey Buckingham - Guitar, vocals
*Stevie Nicks - vocals
*Christine McVie - Keyboards, background vocals
*John McVie - Bass
*Mick Fleetwood - drums

Re-releases

*In 1992, Warner Bros released a 4-CD Fleetwood Mac retrospective boxed set titled "25 Years - The Chain".

*In 1997, Fleetwood Mac released a live concert CD/DVD package called "The Dance", which featured the reunion of the "Rumours"-era Fleetwood Mac members. The rendition of "The Chain" reached number 30 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

*In 2002, Warner Bros. released the 2-CD set "The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac", including "The Chain".

Television

*"The Chain" (particularly the ending bass line) was used as the theme song for the BBC's Formula 1 coverage (the programme was called "Grand Prix") from 1978 until the BBC's loss of TV rights to ITV Sport in 1997. ITV did not continue its use as the opening theme. Due to the BBC regaining the F1 TV coverage rights for 2009, it is speculated that the song may also return as the BBC's F1 theme.

*The ending bass line was also featured in a British advertisement for the Fiat Mirafiori in 1982, perhaps in recognition of the popularity of the song on BBC Sports programmes. [http://www.matthewrutledge.com/2008/09/23/fiat-supermirafiori/]

*This song was the opening song sung on the December 2, 2006 edition of CMT's "Crossroads" featuring Fleetwood Mac band member Buckingham and country music group Little Big Town.

Trivia

This song was sampled by rap artists Bone Thugs-n-Harmony in the song "Wind Blow" off their album "Strength and Loyalty", and rapper Project Pat used the bass line in the last section of the song on his song "Don't Save Her" off his album "Mista Don't Play."

"The Chain" is also sampled in a song by Sway DaSafo titled "Up Your Speed."

Rock band Tantric covered this on their second album After We Go. It was also released as one of their singles.

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie have a feature on their BBC Radio 2 show called "The Chain" which is a long list of songs, each track has something in common with the one before it (whether it be a legitimate or tenuous), which began with "The Chain". They also use this as the theme music for the feature.

Hurt included a short reference to the song in their single Ten Ton Brick by including the lyrics "I could never break the chain" and a melody nearly identical to the original.

References