Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac has been on my radar lately. Last weekend there was a withering review of a concert of theirs in the New York Times and this weekend a huge newspaper ad ran for some Stevie Nicks projects (and her first ever in-store signing!). I thus have to come to grips with something that isn't exactly the hippest thing I've ever said: I really like Fleetwood Mac. Specifically, I am a big fan of Stevie Nicks. Gosh, that confession took a lot out of me.

Many know that Fleetwood Mac has had several incarnations over forty years. The only constant has been Mick Fleetwood on drums, although bassist John McVie and his one-time wife, Christine, have been on a good percentage of the albums. Early on they were a British blues band, fronted by Peter Green, and then for a time Bob Welch was the lead singer, with limited success. It wasn't until 1975, after Welch left, that the band took off into the stratosphere, when they added California guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks.

An album called Fleetwood Mac was successful, with Nicks' first hit songs, "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." Then, in 1977, lightning struck when the album Rumours was released. It has since become one of the biggest selling albums of all-time, selling 30 million units worldwide and spawning several hit singles that are instantly recognizable today, such as "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way," "Dreams," and "Gold Dust Woman." The backstory behind the music (and Fleetwood Mac's episode of VH1's Behind the Music is one of the more entertaining of the series) is that all of the members were going through break-ups: the McVie's, Buckingham and Nicks, and Fleetwood and his wife. The album is full of songs about the snarls of love, none more than "Go Your Own Way," in which Buckingham tells Nicks to hit the bricks. What's strange is that the two were able to perform it on stage repeatedly, knowing what it was about.

I was in high school when Rumours came out, and I liked it fine, but my real infatuation grew over time. After a few years they followed up with Tusk, a double album that featured a lot of experimentation. In comparison with Rumours it was a disappointment, but has some good stuff on it, most notably from Nicks: "Sara," "Storms," "Sisters of the Moon," and "Angel" are good tracks. Then Nicks released her first solo album, Bella Donna, and that really cemented her image as the wispy, witchy sprite twirling in lace and chiffon and singing about subjects found in fantasy novels. I would imagine that she appealed largely to a kind of female nerd, the distaff version of guys who play Dungeons and Dragons. I am the only guy I know who admits to liking her.

During the eighties I continued to get Nicks' solo albums, but they declined in quality. I picked up a couple of Fleetwood Macs records (I still have them in vinyl): Mirage and Tango in the Night. I've always liked Mirage, which I think has Nicks' best song, "Gypsy." I also have one of Buckingham's solo records, Go Insane, which I think is very strong. I've never seen Nicks in concert, but some years ago I did see Buckingham, who put on a good show that had an interesting sound: there were five guitarists.

Fleetwood Mac is from an interesting chapter in the history of rock. The Buckingham-Nicks incarnation came at the tail end of the period that is now referred to as "classic rock," a period in which most of the giant bands of the British invasion had broken up, and when disco was in vogue. They, and groups like the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, kept the tradition alive, but eventually punk and new wave would coalesce into what became known as "alternative." They're still very listenable to today--I drove around today listening to Rumours, and it sounds amazingly fresh. I really don't have any interest in what they're doing today, though. Fleetwood looks like he should be playing chess in the park, and Stevie Nicks is sixty! God I feel old.