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MICK FLEETWOOD: WORD OF MOUTH
Word Magazine
December 2004
MUSIC: I listen to Coldplay a lot. I was playing them
in the car today here in Hawaii ' I'm out here with my wife and my
twin daughters. I've got a house out here and it's great. There's
something about the tempo of life that's timeless and magical: it's
like Ireland with better weather. Coldplay are fantastic driving
music. They're melodic and really creative, they've a very strong
emotional connection, especially with the vocals, very cleverly
done. They've obviously done their listening ' The Beatles and Pink
Floyd by the sound of it ' but they're enough of their own property
to sound individual. Everyone has influences, and it's appropriate
to use them. People look to their mentors whether they realise it or
not.
Marvin Gaye I love ' he started off as a session player drummer in
fact. If you were a square white guy ' which I wasn't as it happens
' you understood Marvin Gaye a lot easier than the Wilson Picketts
and Rufus Thomases. If you heard In The Midnight Hour you were
either going to instantly get it or it was going to freak you out,
but Marvin Gaye transcended a lot of barriers, his whole demeanour,
the way he wrote, the elegance, the way he phrases. He covered so
many bases. Incredibly handsome and loved this fairly cracked life
but a man of style and taste. It was terribly sad when his father
shot him. There was a side to him that was very dark. I met him in
the 70s after a Radio City show. I want back to his hotel and was
amazed to find him surrounded by security guards at this big old
dining-room table counting the money. I was a little taken aback. I
don't know what I rather foolishly expected to find, but in our
world this sort of thing didn't exist! He had this great big attach'
case and was counting all the money. About an hour later he came out
in his silk dressing-gown, like a prize fighter, and was thoroughly
charming. Fleetwood Mac were having a lot of success at the time and
he was totally clued into who we were. He was very smooth, just like
you imagine he'd be, very polite.
I like Jet too. They're from Australia and sound like the early
Rolling Stones. And I don't go far without listening to the Stones
themselves. Between the Buttons I like best. I just love their early
songwriting period which documents the reality for me ' which is
that Mick and Keith don't get the credit they deserve. They're so
cavalier about being Rolling Stones and they've never tried to
position themselves as 'we're craftsmen songwriters'. But they wrote
so many fantastic songs ' Under My Thumb, Backstreet Girl,
Satisfaction. I toured with the Stones in the early 60s; me and
Peter Bardens in The Cheynes, we were the backing band for the
Ronettes who were on the same package ' the Stones, the Ronettes,
and then some of the old brigade, Marty Wilde and The Swinging Blue
Jeans ' and the Stones just totally blew me away.
FILM/DVD: I usually get called in by my wife (she's 40) to look at
new stuff, but otherwise I like the old favourites. I love The
Shawshank Redemption. An incredible film, should have got an award.
I love the way it resolves' Tim Robbins is a genius. I love Being
There. I'm a huge Peter Sellers fan and he tried for so long to get
this film made and no one would touch it. He got it down and then he
kicked the bucket straight after [in 1980]. I just like the premise
really ' it had a twinge of what the Kenneth Williams character
always used to say on Round The Horne ' 'The answer lies in the
soil!' It's that childlike answer to everything that produces his
character [Seller's Chance The Gardener is mistaken for Chauncey
Gardner]. It's so refreshing for me, that film. Everyone is so close
to being a simpleton and a genius and everyone is hoodwinked into
thinking that he was just a simple chap who was tied to his garden.
Even the President ends up using his phrases in a speech ' 'It will
grow in the spring'. I like The Bourne Identity too, a pretty good
flick, and I'm trying to rent Fahrenheit 9/11 but every time I go to
the shop around the corner the box is always empty.
BOOKS: I'm not an overly-read guy, but I loved David Icke's The
Biggest Secret. Some of it does push the envelope, but I find that
sort of stuff really interesting. Power structures that have been
controlling the planet for longer than you or I realise. What are
they? Mostly things called 'banks'. I mean, who decides the interest
rates? Who really decides? Why have they got a right to do that?
They invent and print money that doesn't belong to them. Over here
in the US I never see anything in the press about it. Look at
Freemasonry. The Capitol was designed by freemasons. A lot of the
American presidents have been freemasons. How many? Sixty-three per
cent. Nixon was, Bush could well be ' nearly all the founding
fathers were freemasons. The dollar bill is covered in Masonic
insignia, the pyramid and the eye. I'm not saying there's anything
sinister about it, but it is debatable in terms of 'why is that?'. I
have awful feeling they control more than anyone ever questions.
I've skimmed through Clinton's My Life. Rhodes Scholar, educated
man, I really admire him. The personal thing that happened to him in
his life doesn't bother me. The scallywag part of his reputation
really doesn't matter a damn. Eisenhower had a mistress. Used to sit
next to him all day dressed in a WREN's outfit. But she was his
mistress! And all the press knew about it but could be trusted and
wouldn't write about that sort of thing. And I think that's right.
You just do your job. What happens in the bedroom is none of
people's business.
Article transcribed by trackaghost with thanks
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