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

 

"I have enjoyed Fleetwood Mac all my life."

"So much genius in one band."

"One of the most talented musical groups of all-time...lyrics, music, musicians, vocalists...Long Live Fleetwood Mac!"

"Every song is epic!"

"The smoothest band of all-time.  Everything felt so natural.  It was like they were born to play those songs."

"Legendary band."

"They are awesome!"

"Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are magical together.  The Mac was a solid band before, but when those two came aboard, they became a supergroup!"

"Magical!"

"There's so much to love about this group.  The songwriting and vocals are incredible, but how about that rhythm section of Fleetwood and McVie!"

"Pure perfection!"

"One of the all-time best."

"They have made some incredible music!"

"That groove they generate.  Could listen to them all day."

"One of the greatest bands of all-time."

"Almost unprecedented to have three incredible songwriters and vocalists in one band."

"Timeless music."

"They have awesome songwriting and brilliant musicianship."

"So much extreme talent in Fleetwood Mac."

"Isn't it amazing that no matter creed or color their music has the same effect on all of us? harmony..peace"

"My favorite band of all-time."

"Fleetwood Mac songs touches one's soul."

"Great band; they are iconic.  Stevie had a magical voice."

"Fleetwood's steady, dependable, awesome drumming has been the constant that has kept this band together."

"Timeless musical art."

"What a fantastic array of great songs they have done!"

"The combined talent in this group is incredible."

"So original....and so great!"

"I have so many favorites from this phenomenal band."

"Their music will forever inspire me."

"The layers of instrumentation are insane!

The story of this supergroup is one of unending determination and patience, and one of the enduring of constant struggles between two married couples within it to persist and become one of the legendary acts of the Rock Era.  Never has a band gone through so many lineup changes and still made it to this level, and much of those lineup changes are at the very core of the British Rock Family Tree*.  This group has taken so many twists and turns in its history that it is truly incredible they made it.  Guitarist problems galore.  It's an amazing story!

Fleetwood Mac formed in July of 1967 in London, England when 21-year-old guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood, and bassist John McVie left the group John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.  Fleetwood taught himself to play drums in his bedroom while playing to the music of the Everly Brothers on his stereo and by adopting the style of Tony Meehan from Cliff Richard's band the Shadows.  McVie also learned how to play from listening to Shadow music, modeling himself after bassist Jet Harris.  Green had replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers prior to forming his own band.  

Mayall granted Green free recording time, which he, Fleetwood, and McVie used to record five songs.  One of these was an instrumental that Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac".  Liking their sound together, Green suggested to Fleetwood that they form a new group.  Both wanted McVie on bass and even named the group Fleetwood Mac to encourage John, but McVie felt the project too risky and the concept of steady employment with Mayall sounded like the better option at the time. 

(Fleetwood, Green, Spencer and McVie--photo from Keystone Featuers/Hulton Arcive, via Getty Images)

Green and Fleetwood were inspired, however, and soon had slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning aboard, with Brunning joining on the understanding that he would leave if McVie joined.  That quartet debuted at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival on August 13, 1967, known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. McVie was aware of the performance and that was the impetus he needed to join Fleetwood Mac, taking the place of Brunning in the group.

 

The group signed a recording contract with Blue Horizon and released their self-titled debut Blues album in 1968.  It reached #4 in the U.K. and is notable for containing the original version of "Black Magic Woman" that Santana would turn into a classic in 1970.

Later in the year, Fleetwood Mac released the album Mr. Wonderful.  For their second release, the group brought in horns and a keyboardist who was a friend, Christine Perfect of the group Chicken Shack.  The group and Christine first crossed paths at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival.  

Danny Kirwan, 18 years old at the time, joined as a third guitarist of the group.  Kirwan contributed immediately on the single "Albatross", a moody instrumental which reached #1 in the U.K. and the Netherlands.  An albatross is a bird that sailors believed brought bad luck to them; hence the expression "an albatross around your neck".  "Albatross" inspired the Beatles song "Sun King" for their 1969 album Abbey Road.

Fleetwood Mac went on a tour of North America, and it was during that tour that they recorded the double album Fleetwood Mac in Chicago at the famous Chess Records Studio, inviting some of the all-time greats in blues--Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon, and Otis Spann to play on the album.

Fleetwood Mac switched to Immediate Records and released a single "Man Of The World" that was a European hit but success was contained there.  

"Man Of The World" reflected a lot about Green's then mental health state.  Peter at the time was struggling with the group's success and his own fortune.  "It's a very prophetic song," Fleetwood told Rolling Stone.  "When he made those songs, we had no idea that he was suffering internally as much as he was," Mick continued.  "But if you listen to the words, it's crucifyingly (sic) obvious what was going on. But a beautiful song. A poignant song".

 

The band had to change labels again when Immediate fell into financial difficulty, and manager Clifford Davis steered them to Reprise, a division of Warner Brothers Records.  Fleetwood Mac released the album Then Play On in 1969.  The release signaled a change from purely blues to rock & roll, and the single "Oh Well" (#1 in the Netherlands and #2 in the U.K.) has become a concert staple every since.

 

The instrumental "Underway" is one of several songs on the album that Green developed from jam sessions.

 

In 1970, the Mac released the album Kiln House, with Christine Perfect again playing keyboards and singing backup vocals.  Christine and McVie had married by this point and after the album, Christine joined the group permanently.  The album's title is taken from a converted house in Truncheaunts Lane in Hampshire, England.  The band leased the house and lived there with their families for six months in 1970.  Mick was married to his wife at the house on June 20.  Here is the instrumental "Earl Gray" written by Kirwan, featuring wonderful interplay between piano and guitars.

CBS released the compilation The Original Fleetwood Mac.  

Green ended up giving away most of his money, a good part of it to the London charity called War on Want, which gave aid to developing nations.  "Last thing at night they used to put pictures on telly of starving people," Green said in a 1996 interview with Mojo, "and I used to sit there eating a doughnut and thinking, 'Why have I got this big stash that I don't need when probably I'm going to die with it and all this is going on?'"  This is Peter's "The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown)".

Although Spencer (who sat out most of the previous album) played a larger role on Kiln House, Kirwan's songs are a big factor too.  Danny wrote "Jewel-Eyed Judy".

During a tour of Europe, Green took LSD in Munich, Germany and according to Davis, "He was never the same again."  Green recorded another song with the group and toured the U.S. and Europe, but left the band shortly afterwards.  From this point forward, Fleetwood became the new leader of the group and would prove to be the glue that held it together even in its darkest moments.  The members of Fleetwood Mac were shaken by Green's departure.  It was Fleetwood who persuaded the others to remain.

You remember the preface to this feature saying the story has lots of twists and turns?  Here is where it really gets strange.  While touring in February of 1971, Spencer told the other members he was going to "get a magazine".  He never returned.  The hours slipped into days and the band looked for him everywhere.  Finally, they located Spencer in a religious cult group called the Children of God and Jeremy wouldn't leave.  

Spencer essentially disappeared and wasn't heard from until years later.  It wasn't until 1979 that the music world heard the name Jeremy Spencer, when he finally returned to Earth One and made a record called "Travelin'".  It, by the way, is one of our Top Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*, which you can check out on our website.

Desperate for a guitarist to be able to fulfill the concert dates, they turned to Green, who came back temporarily for that purpose.  The group returned home and held auditions.  A friend of the group recommended her friend Bob Welch, who was living in Paris, France at the time.  The band heard a tape of his songs and hired him without hearing and seeing him perform live.

(John, Christine, Mick, Danny, Bob)

Welch's tenure in the group was important in that he introduced them to Jazz and most notably Country Rock.  In 1971, Fleetwood Mac released the album Future Games.  The group had gradually been building a base in Europe, but Future Games did not chart in the U.K. and did better in the U.S.  

The group followed with the album Bare Trees in 1972 and went on tour to promote it.  Kirwin by this time had become an alcoholic, which alienated him from the group.  Before one show in August, Kirwan smashed his guitar and refused to perform, then criticized the rest of the group afterward.  Fleetwood fired him after the incident.

(Christine McVie, Walker, Welch, Fleetwood, Weston, John McVie)

So in September, the group brought in guitarist Bob Weston, formerly with Long John Baldry,  as well as former Savoy Brown vocalist Dave Walker.  This lineup recorded the album Penguin, released early in 1973.  John favored the band mascot the penguin.  He had been fascinated watching birds when he lived near the London Zoo.  McVie was a member of the Zoological Society and would spend hours at the zoo studying and watching the penguins.  But Walker didn't fit in, and he too was fired after the accompanying tour.

 

Later in the year, Fleetwood Mac released the album Mystery to Me.  The song "Hypnotized", written by Welch, got some airplay. It is about the possibility of a visit from alien life.  Weston played a great guitar party making the most of limited effects available to guitarists at the time.  

"'Hypnotized' was primarily inspired by [Carlos] Castaneda's books, the [Charles] Hickson Pascagoula UFO sighting (in Pascagoula, Mississippi), some stories told to me by friends, and some personal experiences," Welch told American Songwriter.

But the group were eight albums in, and there were problems creeping into the marriage between Christine and John.  And during the subsequent tour, Weston did the worst thing he could do, both as a human being and as a member of the band--he had an affair with Fleetwood's wife.  Fleetwood naturally was devastated.  The group fired Weston and the band was unable to complete the final 26 concerts and thus, the group had a lot of unfulfilled promotion for the album.  Fleetwood Mac was close to splitting up, and in fact, they gave it serious thought.

Manager Clifford Davis, meanwhile, was thinking about Clifford Davis.  He was afraid that the canceled dates would affect his reputation.  He claimed that he owned the rights to the name 'Fleetwood Mac' and recruited members to tour the U.S. in 1974 under the name of 'The New Fleetwood Mac' to perform rescheduled concerts.  Worse yet, Davis told these musicians that Fleetwood was committed to the project and had given the go-ahead to hire musicians and that he would join them when he could.

That tour of unauthorized musicians began and initially was successful.  But soon people found out that this was not the real Fleetwood Mac and audiences and promoters reacted accordingly.  Finally after a concert in Edmonton, Canada where bottles were thrown onstage, the band quit and the rest of the tour was scrapped.

But Davis kept the name, and the battle
over who owned the rights to the name resulted in the original group being inactive for nearly a year and the case being active for four years. Welch urged the rest of the group to relocate to L.A. to be closer to Warner Brothers Records, and they agreed. And rather than hire a new manager, they decided they would manage their own activities.

A letter written by promoter Bill Graham to Warner Brothers convinced the label that the real Fleetwood Mac could resume recording, and the group recorded the album Heroes Are Hard to Find.  

So now we're nine albums in and they were attracting a following but not selling albums in mass numbers.  That's a long, long time and a ton of hard work and sweat (and as we've seen, lots of trouble, heartaches, and turmoil to go through).  Their perseverance to get this far and knowing how they were finally rewarded in spades is highly admirable.  The casual fan roots for people like this to make it--knowing how hard it is to make the hard climb to stardom makes one feel like Fleetwood Mac really deserved to make it.  And they did.

Up to this point, the group had achieved three Top 10 albums in their native U.K. (none since the first three), and success was contained there.  The band that went through more guitarists than they probably cared to had to do it once again.  Bob Welch had been frustrated with all the legal problems and he wasn't one for constant touring, and he too, like Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, and Bob Weston had done before him, left Fleetwood Mac and had a moderately successful solo career ("Sentimental Lady", "Precious Love", and others).

The unique story of this legendary hard-working band continues.  You can hear it exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!