Summary.
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was one
of the most creative and competent British bands of the blues revival.
Black Magic Woman (1968), Albatross (1968),
Man Of The World (1969) and The Green Mahalishi (1970)
became well-respected standards.
Relocated to San Francisco in 1974, and re-shaped by
guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks,
the Fleetwood Mac
became a sophisticated vocal and percussive group, heir to folk-rock and to
Brian Wilson's baroque arrangements, aware of the new wave and of Pink Floyd's
artificial studio sound, and, from this unlikely fusion, they managed to
concoct two of the all-time best-sellers and production masterpieces:
Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979),
for which
Buckingham composed some of the most memorable melodies of the time.
Full bio.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Fleetwood Mac, one of the landmark bands of the British blues revival, formed in 1967 from the ashes of the lineup that made Hard Road, the album by John Mayall. On guitar was another enfant prodige discovered by Mayall, Peter Green Greenbaum. John McVie on bass, Mick Fleetwood on drums (both from the Bluesbreakers with Green), and Jeremy Spencer on bottleneck guitar completed the quartet. Green and Fleetwood had already played together in 1965 in Peter Bs Looners (with Peter Bardens, future Camel) and in 1967 in Shotgun Express (with Rod Stewart, future Faces).
Fleetwood Mac (Blue Horizon, 1968), Mr Wonderful (Blue Horizon, 1968), featuring the instrumental Evening Boogie, and English Rose (Warner, 1969), with a third guitarist, Danny Kirwan, were very different from the many albums of the time that imitated the Chicago electric blues style. The public, surprisingly, showered them with ovations. In 1969 they traveled to Chicago for a spectacular session with the priests of the temple themselves (Otis Spann, Will Dixon, and others), documented on Blues Jam At Chess (Blue Horizon, 1969). Meanwhile, Then Play On (1969) was released, the culmination of this period (the epic shuffle of Oh Well), followed by Kiln House (1970).
Peter Green, the main songwriter, sketched out eccentric and engaging pieces (all released as singles): the voodoo primitivism of Ramblin Pony (1967), his darkest track; the esoteric tribalism of Black Magic Woman (1968), his most famous theme (inspired by Willie Dixon and Otis Rushs All Your Love); the Hawaiian instrumental Albatross (1968), his first mystical confession; the elongated serenade Man Of The World (1969), his most lysergic song; and the transcendent anthem The Green Mahalishi (1970), all distinguished by the poetic guitar accompaniment and a deliberately archaic and understated sound.
The majority of their repertoire, however, consisted of faithfulif electrifiedreproductions of blues classics. If the Savoy Brown were the most fiery exponents of boogie, Fleetwood Mac were the most refined devotees of the slow blues. Vintage Years (Sire, 1977) is an anthology of these early years.
Victims of religious crises, both Green and Spencer (who converted to a Los Angeles religious sect) left the band, but Christine Perfect (formerly of Chicken Shack and now McVies wife) joined on vocals and keyboards.
The new guitarist Bob Welch dominates the albums of their weakest period: Future Games (1971), featuring an eight-minute title track; Bare Trees (1972), the last with Kirwan (who sketches Bare Trees, Dust, and Sunny Side Of Heaven) and the one with Sentimental Lady; Penguin (1973); Mystery To Me (1973); and Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974). The sound had become a pop music with little artistic ambition.
After firing Welch, the group which had moved to California in 1974 hired a San Francisco duo, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks, who had been the leaders of the psychedelic combo Fritz from 1968 to 1972 and had recorded Buckingham-Nicks (Polydor, 1973). Buckinghams arrival marked a decisive turning point. As composer, producer, singer and guitarist, the seasoned hippie (the same age as Mick Fleetwood) managed to blend the original rhythm section with the dreamy and ethereal vocal harmonies of the two singers and with his own gothic melodies, forging a high-class vocal-percussive group, heir to folk-rock and melodramatic pop. Buckingham carried out a unique operation: he fused Brian Wilson-style arrangements with the quirky harmonies of the new wave, thus laying an ideal bridge between two very different decades.
Fleetwood Mac (1975) thus celebrated the advent of a new band, far more commercial but also far bolder. The album sold seven million copies thanks to Landslide, Rhiannon, Over My Head and Say You Love Me, but that was only the beginning: Rumours (Warner, 1977) sold 25 million (at number one on the sales charts for 31 weeks). The group reinvented its career thanks to a refined and velvety consumer music, well represented by the bubblegum refrain of Second Hand News, the apex of their experiments in rhythm and vocal harmony; by the epic choral Dont Stop and Go Your Own Way, the trio of hits on which the second album hinges, which also includes The Chain, Dreams, You Make Loving Fun. Buckingham took the opportunity to grant himself a few artistic liberties and served up an experimental double album such as Tusk (Warner, 1979), a near-unique case in the history of commercial bands. Tusk is a psychotic piece, layers upon layers of sound in which the vocal counterpoints and rhythmic oddities of the combo are sublimated. Mirage (1982), despite the superb vocal interplay of Hold Me (which echoes the Beach Boys and the Mamas & Papas), is not on a par with those works. Tango In The Night (1987), on the other hand, is a highly underrated album because the members had in fact been separated for years, but which contains the sweet Little Lies and Big Love, and the soft melodic vertigo of Everywhere. From 1975 to 1987 they released only four records, yet sold more than 40 million copies. Internal tensions (the McVies had divorced, Buckingham and Nicks had split up, Nicks had become a sex symbol and was selling solo albums by the truckload) were nonetheless taking their toll on the group.
The lineup changed again due to Buckinghams departure, and the group was unable to recapture that magic on the subsequent Behind The Mask (1990).
The solo careers of the Fleetwood Mac members proved to be quite different. Peter Green gave rock music one of the most bewildering and astounding albums of all time.
Buckingham recorded bold albums that continued the ambitious experiments of the Fleetwood Mac productions: Law And Order (Asylum, 1981), which nevertheless contains the ballad Trouble, and Go Insane (Elektra, 1984), the masterpiece of his eccentric studio genius (DW Suite is his most daring piece, dedicated to Dennis Wilson). It took several years before Buckingham completed his third album, Out Of The Cradle (Reprise, 1992), a more measured and meticulous work an almost entirely self-performed concept album that musically feels like a homage to the history of the 1950s and 1960s, to the Brill Building and Tin Pan Alley (from the country of Soul Drifter to the rockabilly of Street Of Dreams to the folk-rock of Say We'll Meet Again to the bubblegum of You Do Or You Don't and Countdown) and to his personal history (Don't Look Down, Wrong).
The husky doll Stevie Nicks found success in the clubs with melodramatic ballads steeped in a fairly conventional feminine romanticism and absorbed in the mystical allure of her emotions: the fatal Stop Dragging My Heart Around, the driving Sing A Song from Bella Donna (Modern, 1981), Stand Back (1983) from The Wild Heart (1983), Talk To Me from Rock A Little (1985). In 1987 she had to undergo treatment in a rehabilitation clinic and was unable to regain the dazzling form of her glory days. The Other Side Of The Mirror (1988) and Street Angel (1994) caused a swift decline.
The band's main limitation was its leaders struggles with drugs and alcohol. Once rehabilitated, Fleetwood Mac returned to the scene with The Dance (Reprise, 1997), an album largely recorded live (the new hit, Silver Springs, was a leftover from Rumours) that once again managed to reach the top of the charts.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Fleetwood Mac's 2003 reunion
(Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie)
led to Say You Will (2003), another trivial replay of their cliches.
After a long hiatus, Buckingham released his fourth solo album, the acoustic
Under The Skin (2007), an eccentric case of classy muzak for yuppies,
followed by the much less creative
Gift Of Screws (2008) and Seeds We Sow (2011).
Surprisingly Seeds We Sow (2011) went against Buckingham's main skills
(the eclectic and innovative producer) and opted instead for a collection
of quasi-spiritual acoustic tunes
(End of Time, In Our Own Time, Rock Away Blind).
In 2018
Lindsey Buckingham was expelled from Fleetwood Mac.
Lindsey Buckingham (2021) was his first solo album in a decade
(actually written and recorded in 2018).
Christine McVie died in 2022.
