Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me

Stevie Nicks always got more attention in Fleetwood Mac but I’ve always favored Christine’s songs. McVie has written some superb pop songs. This video I saw many times on the still new MTV.

Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboard player Christine McVie wrote this song with Robbie Patton, a singer who had a US hit in 1981 with “Don’t Give It Up,” which features guitar by Lindsey Buckingham.

This song was inspired by Christine McVie’s relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. After she split with Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie, Christine dated Wilson for several years before they broke up in 1981. Wilson died in 1983 in a drunk-drowning accident.

Hold Me was on the Mirage album released in 1982. The band recorded the album at the Château d’Hérouville outside of Paris… they filmed the video for this song in the Mojave Desert outside of Palm Springs. The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in the UK, and #4 in Canada in 1982.

Fleetwood Mac - Mirage (1982, Vinyl) | Discogs

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #94 in the UK.

Christine McVie on Mirage getting overlooked:  “It does, and I don’t know why,” she says. But, she adds, “As it stands today, a lot of people know every track on it. Which is quite unbelievable. So I just take it for what it is.”

I suppose we all felt in a way that what we were doing was kind of an homage to Rumours, in the sense that, obviously, after Rumours we went completely the opposite way and made a double album of an entirely different nature with Tusk. And for Tusk we had done this hugely long tour. Two world tours, I believe. Then we all disappeared for a few years. But we have a habit of doing that, Fleetwood Mac. Just kind of taking quite long hiatuses. And as we got together again, I think it was Mick who had this idea that perhaps we should enter another bubble-like situation, which was similar to what we had done for the Rumours album, when we recorded in Sausalito. Just taking us away from familiar things, like our families. There was the idea that maybe something would emerge from there that was completely different. Maybe it would make us more creative. And I think it worked, to an extent. It was definitely an unusual experience.

From Songfacts

Robbie Patton toured as an opening act with Fleetwood Mac in 1979 and McVie produced his albums Distant Shores (1981) and Orders From Headquarters (1982).

The video for this song was inspired in large part by the works of the Belgian painter Magritte, whose paintings appear in the clip. It was directed by Steve Barron and shot in the Mojave Desert. The combination of extreme heat and band tension made for a very difficult shoot. Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had all started solo projects, and getting the band to collaborate was a lesson in futility. The video’s producer Simon Fields said in I Want My MTV by Craig Marks, “John McVie was drunk and tried to punch me. Stevie Nicks didn’t want to walk on the sand with her platforms. Christine McVie was fed up with all of them. They were a fractious bunch.”

The video was subpar, but it was a fresh Fleetwood Mac video, which was good enough for MTV, which in 1982 was desperate for new clips by rock artists, especially established ones. Fleetwood Mac’s video for “Tusk” was one of the few they had available when they launched on August 1, 1981.

Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham share the lead vocals on this track.

Hold Me

Can you understand me
Baby don’t you hand me a line
Although it doesn’t matter
You and me got plenty of time

There’s nobody in the future
So baby let me hand you my love
Oh, there’s no step for you to dance to
So slip your hand inside of my glove

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

I don’t want no damage
But how am I gonna manage with you
You hold the percentage
But I’m the fool payin’ the dues

I’m just around the corner
If you got a minute to spare
I’ll be waitin’ for ya’
If you ever want to be there

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

22 thoughts on “Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me”

  3. a pretty good song, I don’t think I remember the video though. By then they were victims of their own success – if they’d only been a quarter as popular in the 70s, ‘Mirage’ might have done better. But by ’82, half the population was sick of hearing them and the other half (of which I guess I was one ) kind of said “meh- not awful but it’s not Rumours.’

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    1. I saw the video by this time more than heard it on radio…I was the same as you at the time…now I like it much better.

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    1. I just listened to the demo…it is one dimensional without Lindsey…
      I also found an “early version” and I love that one. Lindsey’s guitar is more up front. He is running hooks through it. I really like it. It sounds more like Rumours.

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  5. Nice write-up Max. I’ve always loved this song, but the production felt a bit restrained to my ears, that it could or should have been more resounding, if that makes sense. I’ve long thought the same about U2’s “Beautiful Day”. That said, it’s still a great song, and I love or at least really like everything I’ve ever heard from Fleetwood Mac in all their many iterations.

    It’s also amazing the great trouble and expense so many artists and bands go through to record their albums and film their videos. They went all the way to France to record “Mirage”, then out into the hot California desert to make the video for a song that has nothing to do with the desert.

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    1. I was talking about this with Aphoristical this morning. There is an “early version” of the song on youtube and Jeff…it sounds like it would have fit on Rumours the way it was mixed.

      Yea back in the 80s I think it was more of “spare no expense” but now it’s not as big of a selling tool…I don’t think but I still like well made videos.

      If you want to hear that version here it is. You hear Lindsey much more.

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      1. Yes! I like the clarity and strength of the guitar and piano on this demo. It all just sounds rather muffled on the official track, like there’s a layer of cotton over the speaker. And god, Stevie and Lindsey were sure pretty back then! Christine was always lovely too.

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      2. I actually like this much better…It is much more clear.
        I had a crush on Stevie ever since I saw her for the first time. Her and Lindsey looked great together…too bad they couldn’t get along.

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      2. LOL… her and Tom went together well. It’s a wonder they didn’t end up with each other.

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  8. Lindsey always did compliment Christine’s songs beautifully, like melodic honey. I loved this one but it flopped in the UK, and criminally so did the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Gypsy from Stevie. The UK had moved onto New Romantics and synths and the Old Guard were out. Lindsey’s Trouble was a bigger UK hit, and that was just wonderful.

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