Snapsongs: “Hold Me” by Fleetwood Mac

Friday 28 February 2014 - Filed under Snapsongs

It was fall, the summer heat was fading, and there was a family of toads living in the rock garden under the windows behind the patio in our first house in Texas. It was the perfect time to be out in the backyard tear-assing around with LEGO spaceships blowing things up, even though you really had to watch for stickerburrs that would cling to your socks and hurt like hell to pull out. When repairs were necessary, you could crouch on the patio reaffixing wings, missiles, thrusters or laser guns, listening to the radio coming through the sliding glass door open to the living room, screen in place to keep the bugs out. “Hold Me” was a goofy little ditty, nothing too serious, a side-to-side sway with lots of silly gingerbread in the multitrack. A little barroom piano, some strummy chords every now and then, some syncopated drum fills, odd little vocal riffs. I liked the interplay between Christie McVie and Lindsey Buckingham as they sang the main verses, and I really liked the sound of the guitar in the lead break. It had a crisp, rounded, steel-gray tone that pulled itself from the gold and black of the rest of the song. Even though the lyrics were somewhat sardonic, they still had a touch of hope, a bit of measured optimism rounding out the snark. I’d been in Texas for a year, then, and was finally settling into the new situation, so measured optimism was probably called for. And, really, nothing could be too bad playing with LEGOs out back where a family of toads lived.

2014-02-28  »  Edward Semblance