Fleetwood Mac, The #12 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 (Continued from Part One)

So once again, the band had to stop what they were doing and search for a new lead guitarist.  Auditioning for a musician is a long and important process, and Fleetwood Mac had had to do it so many times.  Only to see that the person didn't work out.  Fleetwood once again was on the lookout.  This time, fate was smiling on Mick and Fleetwood Mac.  Fleetwood was in Sound City Studios one day and engineer Keith Olsen knew Mick was once again in need of a guitarist.  Olsen played the track "Frozen Love" from the 1973 album Buckingham Nicks that he had recorded.  Fleetwood was impressed and it so happened that Lindsey Buckingham was in the studio that day recording.  

Fleetwood asked Buckingham if he would be interested in joining Fleetwood Mac, to which Lindsey replied that he was, but only if the other person on the album, Lindsey's partner and girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, could join.  It was one of the great package deals of the Rock Era, and one has to wonder if Fleetwood knew what a great coup he had just scored at the time.  

Fleetwood, the other members of the band, and the music world would soon come to understand that this was one of the historic meetings of all-time in rock & roll.  The group not only got the guitarist they had been searching for, and one that would stick around, but they got his songwriting talents and his great vocal abilities as well.  Plus, they got the incomparable Stevie Nicks, superb songwriter and amazing vocalist.

Buckingham and Nicks joined the group on New Year's Eve, just four weeks after Welch had left. The new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac busily got to work rehearsing, writing, and recording their new album.  Reflecting that this indeed was a new beginning in many ways, the band released their new album as another self-titled LP.  

Magic.  Destiny.  All those trials and tribulations you just read about were rewarded.  "Over My Head", which Christine wrote on a portable Hohner electric piano in a small apartment in Malibu, California that she and John stayed at, became the group's first worldwide hit, eight years and many tears after they first formed.

Fleetwood Mac not only was the first solid album for the group; it reached #1 in the U.S., #2 in Canada, #3 in Australia, and the Top 5 in most countries and has now sold 7 million copies.  Christine's great song "Say You Love Me" followed, and with a peak of #11, her second consecutive Top Underrated Song of the Rock Era*.

The hiring of Nicks was paying huge dividends.  She's always had a mysterious element to her songwriting, as evidenced by her classic single "Rhiannon".  Stevie wrote it about a Welsh goddess and she and Buckingham were going to record it for their second album as a duo.  But when they were accepted into Fleetwood Mac, they saved it for this album.

"Rhiannon" has since proven itself to be one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*, but back then, Billboard magazine in their wisdom showed a peak of #11 for the song, making it the third straight Top Underrated Song of the Rock Era* for Fleetwood Mac.  I will tell you that any decent radio station had all three in the Top 10 and most had at least the last two in the Top 5.  So it is a Billboard error.

"Rhiannon" allowed Nicks to wear flowing shawls and black outfits on stage, which gave her a mystical look.  Olsen has always been a fan of Buckingham and waxes on his guitar playing on "Rhiannon" in the book Never Break the Chain by Cath Carroll:  "Lindsey's really good at that stuff.  If you listen on 'Rhiannon', he is such a musician.  Being a self-taught guitar player, it comes from his heart, it comes from his soul."

Christine's romantic and mellow "Warm Ways" is another highlight.

Buckingham proved his songwriting worth with this great track from the album which could have been another big hit had it been released--"Monday Morning".  Like "Rhiannon" and others, it was written for a second Buckingham-Nicks album but brought to the group when they joined Fleetwood Mac.

The methodology behind this music special rewards not only hits but each artist's other great songs.  This is an important distinction from other artist rankings.  Hits are important, because they show that large numbers of people actually like a song, but it is also important to know that there are a lot of "undiscovered" gems on albums as well.  

 

Fleetwood Mac ranks #12 because they not only have scores of hits, but have a bevy of deserving album tracks, have sold a ton of albums and concert tickets and have won awards.  They have a lot of great songs that only Fleetwood Mac fans know.  This is just one of many Top Underrated Songs of the Rock Era* that the group has.

This song has since been re-released as a live version, but Mac fans have known it since 1975--another great Nicks song called "Landslide".  Stevie wrote it in Aspen, Colorado the night before her father was operated on at the Mayo Clinic.  Here are her recollections of the origins of the song:

            My dad did have something to do with it.  I 

            guess it was about September, 1974, I was 

            home at my Dad and Mom's house in 

            Phoenix (Arizona), and my father said, "You

            know, you really put a lot of time into this 

            [her singing career], maybe you should give

            this six more months, and if you want to go

            back to school, we'll pay for it.  Basically, you 

            can do whatever you want and we'll pay for 

            it"- I have wonderful parents, and I went, 

            "cool, I can do that."  Lindsey and I went up 

            to Aspen, and we went to somebody's

            incredible house, and they had a piano, and I

            had my guitar with me, and I went into their 

            living room, looking out over the incredible 

            Aspen skyway, and I wrote "Landslide." 

           Three months later, Mick Fleetwood called.  

            On New Year's Eve, 1974, he called and asked 

            us to join Fleetwood Mac.  So it was three 

            months.  I still had three more months to go

            to beat my six-month goal that my Dad gave me.

 

"Blue Letter" was written by brothers Richard and Michael Curtis.  It is the only song on the album (and one of the only ones in the group's history) not written by a group member.  The Curtis brothers met Buckingham and Nicks through Polydor Records and the four worked on two demos which, like many songs of the period, were intended for the second Buckingham/Nicks album before they were invited to be in Fleetwood Mac.  The first demo was "Blue Letter"; the second was called "Seven League Boots", which was later reworked to become the Crosby, Stills and Nash hit "Southern Cross".

 

The first collaboration between Christine and Lindsey resulted in "World Turning", which is loosely based on "The World Keeps On Turning", written by Green and included on the group's debut album from 1968.  "Lindsay had this lick and didn't know what to do with it," Christine told Uncut.  "We knocked around some vocal ideas and it happened very quickly - about half an hour."

As good as this self-titled album was, and as good as the Peter Green years were, Fleetwood Mac's fortunes were about to about to see a tremendous upside.  Join us for that amazing story in Part Three!