Fleetwood Mac ~ Gold Dust Woman 1977 Extended Meow Mix

"Gold Dust Woman" was an album track from "Rumours" that saw limited release on single the B side of "You Make Loving Fun". The song is eerily suspenseful with its sparse drum and cowbell intro that builds as each member adds their part of painting the dark picture that Stevie had envisioned. It was about the groupie type of female who insinuates herself and begins to "stare daggers at the women in the band, but are all smiles as the men approach".

Drugs were also referenced as a crutch to get through a bad relationship. She used her experiences to write it such as her cocaine use to help her get through "the whole rock and roll life" which was "so much work" and "every day was intense". "Being in Fleetwood Mac was like being in the Army. You have to be there and you have to be there as on time as you can be there. And even if there nothing you have to do, you have to be there." She relates that she had never felt so tired in her whole life as while she was using, a habit she overcame in 1986. "I was definitely swept away about how big Fleetwood Mac was and how famous I suddenly was. Me, who couldn't buy anything before, could go in any store and buy anything I wanted. And I wondered what that would do to me on down the line. I might be a ruler, but maybe I'd be lousy lover." "Everybody was doing a little bit. you know, we never bought it or anything, it was just around and I think I had a real serious flash of what this stuff could be, of what it could do to you. The whole thing about how we love the ritual of it, the little bottle, the diamond-studded spoons, the fabulous velvet bags. For me, it fit right into the candles and incense and all that stuff. And I really imagined that it could overtake everything, never thinking in a million years it would overtake me. I must have met a few people who I thought did too much coke, and I must have been impressed by that. Because I made it into a whole story." Stevie also praised Courtney Love's band Hole's version by saying "I thought it was great. It's a little raucous for me, but she's so very true to my song."

WRIF out of Detroit, MI played the hell out of this one, an elegant, moody, moors and fog rock and roll song about a rock and roll woman. "Rumours" was everywhere that summer, and it defined it. The creative juices were flowing throughout the period fraught with tension but it paid off and became Fleetwood Mac's most perfect effort to date. This song and "The Chain" defined the album for me even though I loved You Make Loving Fun and Dreams too. There was so much to choose from when putting together the album, "Silver Springs", a crisply produced tour de force did not make it onto the album, but eventually saw release as the B Side of "Go Your Own Way" has become an FM staple on classic rock stations.