Think About It (Stevie Nicks Bella Donna song)
 

I recently read that special edition of Rolling Stone with the 50 best Fleetwood Mac songs and in the section about Stevie going solo, it said Think About It was about Christine. Does anyone have more info on this?

In the liner notes to "Bella Donna", the words "For Christine" are written near the lyrics on the album sleeve. It appears that the song was written in the 70's when Christine very briefly toyed with the idea of leaving Fleetwood Mac following her divorce from John. I suppose the tune is a persuasive piece to convince Lady McVie not to jump ship.

Post-1976/77, would Chris REALLY want to return to the days of playing gigs for $200 a night, traveling by cargo van, and lodging at The Holiday Inn? Honey, who would have to "think about it"? I think NOT. Bravo! With her uplifting tune, The High Priestess succeeded in delaying Chris' departure for at least two decades. Kudos!

I always thought it was about thinking about leaving John.

The copyright date for the song in Bella Donna is 1974, which is odd because Stevie has always said it was written for Christine, a woman she didn't really meet until 1975. Maybe I remember it wrong?

Anyway, I do know the song was ostensibly written for Christine because she told Stevie she wanted to pack it in with the Mac presumably because she wanted to leave John and life on the road. This is believable: Bob Weston says Christine was talking this way in 1973.

Stevie has talked about it ostensibly in interviews, basically the song is dedicated to Christine and she wrote it simultaneously about her break-up with John and her own break-up with Lindsey, here are some examples:

I wrote that for Chris when she and John were really seriously getting divorced... on the road, which was one of your larger, unpleasant times. And Lindsey and I were sort of the same thing, except that you know, when somebody else is going through it, too... one person gets strong and the other person gets weak. So you know, Chris and I would be constantly be like, 'Okay, I'm gonna be strong now and you can fall apart, and then she'll be strong and I'll fall apart.' And that was on a particular time when she was falling apart and I was being strong. I didn't want her to quit. And so I was trying in my little philosophic way to give her some strength and hold her up a little bit. You know, people are asking me about these dedications and I just really wanted everybody to know that I wrote that for my friend, Chris... when she was sad.
- 1981

I wrote Think About It in 1975 for Chris [McVie] and for myself, too... I wrote it for her because I needed to write it for somebody else. She was going through her divorce with John, and in those days there were no wardrobe mistresses or speech therapists or anything, there was just me and Chris. So all she had, really, was me. And so I really had to be her friend and really be strong beside her at that point because she was really going to leave. And I had had my problems with Lindsey and *I* was really going to leave. And so this was just a song to remind her and remind me at the same time that we were giving up a lot if we left. And that it was really something that should be taken to the heart and thought about heavily before we walked out.
- WLIR New York interview, 1981

This particular song was written because Christine and John were breaking up. And she was very upset. And this was in the very beginning of Fleetwood Mac, and we had no wardrobe mistresses, no makeup artists... it was just us. And so she and I just had eachother to lean on. All over the country, alone. And so I was really her backbone for a few weeks in that period of time. Oh, and it turned around many times... but that was when I wrote that song. I didn't want her to leave, you know? And I was telling myself 'don't leave,' too. We knew... I mean, 'what are you going to do, Chris, what am I going to do? Work in a restaurant?' It's ridiculous. We can't give all this up... the music is fabulous, we can't just give it up because our men are messing up our lives.
- WMMR Pennsylvania interview, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTlvPP5d5h0

Here's an interview excerpt regarding the song. Pretty much corroborates what was stated above. Good song. The lyrics are what makes it stand out for me.

Thank you for this! I guess the copyright WAS 1975 and not 1974 as I wrongly remembered it.