"The Chain" is a song by the British-American rock bandFleetwood Mac, released on their 1977 Rumours. It is the only song from the album credited to all five members. "The Chain" was created from combinations of several previously rejected materials, including solo work by Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie. It was assembled, often manually by splicing tapes with a razor blade, at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, with hired engineersKen Caillat and Richard Dashut. Following the critical and commercial success of Rumours, "The Chain" has become a staple of the band's live shows, typically the opening song. It was featured as the opening track on The Dance, a 1997 live concert CD/DVD release, as well as several greatest hits compilations. It has attained particular fame in the United Kingdom, where the instrumental section has been used as the theme tune for the BBC and Channel 4's television coverage of Formula One.
Background
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. 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. Other elements were worked in from an early project of Christine's called "Keep Me There", which removed the blues-style motif, but retained the chord progression. To complete the song, Buckingham recycled the intro from an earlier song from a duet with Nicks, "Lola ", originally released on their self-titled 1973 album, which was attached manually using a razor blade to cut and splice the tapes. Due to the spliced nature of the record and its sporadic composition and assembly from different rejected songs, "The Chain" is one of only a few Fleetwood Mac songs whose authorship is credited to all members of the band at the time. The finished song itself has a basic rock structure, although it has two distinct portions: the main verse and chorus, and the outro. Influences of hard rock, folk, and country are also present. The Dobro, a type of resonator guitar, supplies the verse riff. The guitar uses double drop D tuning: D A D G B D with a capo on the second fret and Travis picking. It is in E minor, which is the relative minor key for G.
Release and reception
Rumours garnered widespread critical acclaim upon its release. Subsequent analysis of "The Chain" has also led many to cite it as one of the most evocative expressions of the internal fracture among various band members at the time. Buckingham and Nicks were ending their relationship at the same time that John and Christine McVie's marriage broke down, as did that of Fleetwood and his wife, Jenny Boyd. 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. It has also appeared on 25 Years - The Chain and The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. The vocal range is G3 to C#5.
Charts
''The Dance'' version
Original version
Certifications
Personnel
Lindsey Buckingham – electric guitars, Dobro, lead vocals
The song was recorded by the American rock band Tantric, released as the second single from their 2004 second album, After We Go. Though being released as a single the song lacked much promotion, debuting at number 36 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Tantric's cover of the song was used as the theme song for the HBO Documentary series Family Bonds.
American rock band Evanescence released a cover version of the song. It was released as a digital download on November 22, 2019 by BMG.
Background
The song features in the launch trailer for the video game, Gears 5, the sixth installment of the Gears of War series. The cover misses out the instrumental section. Amy Lee said, "This cover was so fun to make. We love Fleetwood Mac and wanted to paint a dark and epic picture with our take on 'The Chain'. The lyrics make me feel the power of standing together against great forces trying to pull us apart, perhaps even from the inside. I really wanted to drive that home in our version, and even made everyone in the band sing by the end of it! We're beyond excited to share this with our fans and I'm really looking forward to playing it live."
Music video
An official music video to accompany the release of "The Chain" was first released onto YouTube on January 9, 2020.
The BBC's Formula One coverage used the ending bass line as a theme tune from 1978 until 1996 and again from 2009 to 2015, thus making the song highly recognisable in the United Kingdom. On 29 March 2009 the song re-entered the UK Chart at #94 through downloads, following confirmation from the BBC that it would be reintroduced, the BBC having regained broadcasting rights from ITV. On 20 March 2011, "The Chain" peaked higher at #81 in the UK chart following a campaign on Facebook to try to get the song to number 1 for the start of the 2011 Formula One season. By April 2018, the song had been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry based on download sales alone.
