Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham Turns Another Corner

BAM Magazine, Jan 1981

It only seems like Fleetwood Mac has been making hit records forever. In fact, it was just five years ago that the one-time English blues band, rejuvenated by the addition of Californians Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, virtually took over American radio with the smash album Fleetwood Mac, which yielded the hit singles “Rhiannon,” “Say You Love Me,” “Over My Head” and “Monday Morning.” And as astonishing as that album’s success was, no one could have been prepared for what happened when the group’s next LP, Rumours, came out in 1977. Behind the strength of hits like “Second Hand News,” “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way” and “Don’t Stop,” Rumours became the top selling album in the history of pop music, eclipsing works by The Beatles and other legendary chartbusters. Fleetwood Mac was the most popular band in the world.

The secret was chemistry. The band offered a combination of the five very distinctive individuals whose talents seemed to lock into place like the gears of a machine. The rhythm section, consisting of founding group members John McVie on bass and Mick Fleetwood on drums, cold play with the power of a heavy metal band or the finesse of a light combo. Vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie brought a dark melodicism still based a little in the blues to her work with the band. Stevie Nicks, with her classic good looks, breathy voice and fairytale princess stage demeanor, added a deeply romantic feel to the group’s sound. And finally, there was Lindsey Buckingham, the man who made the machine roll. Aside from writing many of the group’s catchiest and most commercial songs “Monday Morning,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Second Hand News,” “Never Going Back Again” he played all the guitars on the albums, mixing acoustic and electric axes in fingerpicking and conventional rock stylings; did most of the vocal arrangements, which became Fleetwood Mac’s trademark; and had a heavy hand in the production of Rumours. And as his subsequent production work with John Stewart on Bombs Away Dream Babies and Walter Egan’s Fundamental Roll showed, the Fleetwood Mac “sound” derived largely from Buckingham’s ideas about mixing and instrumental layering.

But Buckingham’s genius really came to the fore with the release of Tusk in late ’79. A double record set of incredible depth and scope, it was anything but the predictable follow-up to Rumours, and that was mainly because of Buckingham’s eccentric, sometimes downright bizarre compositions. The tone of the entire album was set by Buckingham’s title tune, which, much to everyone’s surprise, was a bona fide hit single like its predecessors on Rumours and Fleetwood Mac. On top of a truly strange drum beat, an almost incantatory vocal emerged from a cacophony of odd noises. The song built to a fever pitch as the USC marching band punctuated the song’s second half, and Mick Fleetwood unleashed a maniacal, out-of-control drum break. Peculiar stuff, to be sure.

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham – BAM Interview (Jan 1981) →