Music To My Ears | Billboard Magazine

Billboard Magazine
by Timothy White
April 8th, 1998

A quarter-century ago, Stevie Nicks penned a tune about embracing a paradox, its music an upward spiral that predicted a corresponding descent, its lyrics contemplating the change that only comes from awareness of the unchangeable. The song ultimately celebrates the victory that arrives by agreeing to allow others to triumph.

On the eve of the release of “Enchanted” (Atlantic, due April 28) the engaging three-CD, 46 track retrospective – with eight unreleased cuts – of Nicks’ lengthy solo career, it seems the soon-to-be 50-year old sing/songwriter, who wrote the lovely “Long Distance Winner” as half of an early – ’70’s duo Buckingham-Nicks, has finally found the wisdom to learn from the intuition of her 25-year-old self.

“Back then, ‘Long Distance Winner’ was very much about dealing with Lindsey,” says Nicks, referring to Lindsey Buckingham, her artistic and emotional partner in the interval before their act merged with a subsequently revitalized Fleetwood Mac. “How else can I say it?” she wonders aloud, quoting a passage of the “Enchanted” track resurrected from the long out of print “Buckingham-Nicks” album: “I bring the water down to you/But you’re too hot to touch.”

“What the song is really all about,” Nicks confides, “is a difficult artist, saying ‘I adore you, but you’re difficult. And I’ll stay here with you, but you are still difficult” And the line ‘Sunflowers and your face fascinates me’ means that your beauty fascinates me, but I still have trouble dealing with you – and I still stay. So it’s really just the age old story, you know?” Meaning the inability to live with someone and the inability to live without them.

According to Nicks, who starts a 40-date US solo concert trek May 27 in Hartford, Conn., Buckingham’s stubborn but admirable streak lay in his unwillingness to compromise his composing to play in clubs, playing four sets a night in a steakhouse, whereas I was much more able to be practical.” That was then, and this is now, an era in which Nicks and the tempestuous Fleetwood Mac were able to set aside their collective differences, focus on teamwork, and reunite for the hugely fruitful “The Dance” live record and tour.

Stevie is quick to assert that the Mac now “plays way better than we did in the beginning” and readily agrees that the material selected for ‘The Dance’ boasts even better arrangements than the vintage renditions. Yet she admits her own personal and artistic intransigence of old: ‘Gold and Braid’, another song on ‘Enchanted’ is an unreleased track from my (1981) Bella Donna’ (solo debut) sessions, and it’s about Lindsey wanting more from me in our relationship. But wanting to know everything about someone, which goes hand in hand with being in love, was never something I’ve ever wanted to share with anybody. Professionally, everybody always wanted me to be their idea of what I should be. I’d flat-out look at people and say, “you know I’m not gonna do what you want, so why do you bother?”

“I’ve learned from mistakes,” she adds. “I got fat, and on the Dr. Atkins diet I had to lose 30 pounds I had been trying to lose for four or five years. But people have come into my career and wrongly told me, “Change your music, reinvent yourself! I just stayed what I am.”

Which is a real rock’n’roll character; a true one-of-a-kind piece of work. “Thank you!” she responds, erupting into giggles edged with her trademark throaty rasp. “People used to laugh at my musical style or my black handkerchiefy stage clothes, which make me look like an orphan out of ‘A Tale of Two Cities,’ and say ‘Oh, that’s very Stevie Nicks.’But now people in the fashion industry (like designers Anna Sui and Isaac Mizrachi) are giving me these accolades. If you believe in something and stick it out, it’ll come around, and you’ll win in the end.”

Other familiar criticism of Nicks center on her devotion in both composing and common-day activities to a heavily mystical life view. Possibly the single most recurrent image in her material, as illustrated by the “Sleeping Angel” cut that “Enchanted” retrieves from the 1982 “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” soundtrack, is a supporting cast of heavenly spirits. “I am religious,” Nicks explains. I wasn’t raised in any religion, because we were always moving when I was a kid and didn’t get involved in any church. But I believe there’ve been angels with me constantly through these last 20 years, or I wouldn’t be alive. I pray a lot. In the last few years I’ve asked for things from God, and he’s given them to me. And there were things I thought were going to kill me, and he fixed them. I felt that because I was fat I wasn’t talented anymore; I was destroying this gift God gave me and asked for help. Now I’m happy, even outside my music, and enjoying my life.

Stephanie Nicks was born May 26, 1948, the daughter of General Brewing president Jess Nicks and the former Barbara Meeks. “My mother’s mom and dad were divorced very early,” says Stevie, “and her stepfather worked in a coal mine in Ajo, Arizona, and died of tuberculosis. She had a hard life, was very poor, was 19 when she got married, had me at 20. My dad went after a big job in a big company, got it, did very well, and liked to move around and travel a lot. My mom got used to it and had a lot of fun, but she’s much more practical, frugal – she still sniffs her nose at my dad’s and my experience tastes – and she wanted more than anything else for her daughter and son (Christopher) to be independent and self assured.”

“I didn’t want to be married or have children,” Nicks confesses, “because then I couldn’t have worked as hard on all this. I would have split the whole thing down the middle, and I wouldn’t have been a good mother, or a good song writer either. If I got a call from the love of my life and a call from Fleetwood Mac saying you have to be here in 20 minutes, I’d still probably go to Fleetwood Mac. And that’s sad, but it’s true.”

Over the years Nicks has overcome substance abuse, serious eye surgery, the Epstein-Barr virus, and a host of detractors eager to diminish her musical contributions. Yet “Enchanted” documents a resilience and a wry candor – “I’m no enchantress!” she pointedly exclaims on the albums “Blue Lamp” – as well as a parallel path to her Big Mac experience, characterized by productivity and solo success equaling or exceeding that of her talented bandmates. Nick’s work is un-apologetically feminine in the face of the boys’ club that is rock. Consistently tuneful and sure in its spell-weaving , Nicks’ music also has surprising staying power, as show by “If Anyone Falls,” one of the best and sexiest pop/rock singles of the ’80s, and Enchanted’s” frank “Thousand Days,” which could close the ’90s on a similar note.

“‘Thousand Days’ was written about my non-relationship with Prince,” says Nicks, who had earlier composed “Stand Back” with him – although she notes he’s never called her back “to set up his payment on 50%” of the latter. “Days” recounts an abortive, all-night ’80s recording session with him at his Minneapolis home during a Fleetwood Mac tour, climaxing with Nicks “smoking my pot – he didn’t agree with my lifestyle – and going to sleep on Prince’s floor in his kitchen. I like him, but we were just so different there was no possible meeting ground.”

With current colleagues/collaborators does she most admire?

“Alanis Morissette, Joan Osborne, Sheryl Crow (who co-authored “Somebody Stand By Me” on “Enchanted”), and Fiona Apple, who’s very young and angry. I care about her and hope she’s OK. Fame is dangerous ground when you are young. You have gotta pace yourself.”

Rumours Tribute and Stevie Nicks box fans Fleetwood Mac Flames | ICE Magazine

ICE Magazine
February 1998

In 1997, the RUMOURS-era lineup of Fleetwood Mac returned to the spotlight with a highly publicized live album (The Dance), an MTV special of the same name and a mega-successful reunion tour. Two new projects are likely to keep the Mac’s profile high through the first quarter of 1998: RUMOURS REVISITED, a various-artists salute to the band’s 1997 magnum opus, and ENCHANTED, a three-CD Stevie Nicks box set featuring two best-of discs and one CD filled with soundtrack songs, unheard outtakes, home demos and the like. The tribute album is due March 17 from Lava/Atlantic, while the Nicks box arrives a week later, on March 24, from Modern/Atlantic.

Modern/Atlantic has March 24 slated for ENCHANTED, the new three-CD box set covering Stevie Nicks’ career (apart from Fleetwood Mac). The first two CDs present the best tracks from Nicks’ five solo albums: BELLA DONNA, THE WILD HEART, ROCK A LITTLE, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR and STREET ANGEL. Also included are four non-album B-sides mixed in with the album tracks: “Edge of Seventeen” (the unedited eight-minute live version, only released promotionally), “Garbo”, “One More Big Time Rock and Roll Star” and “Real Tears”.

All tracks on the first two discs are being presented in their original mixes. At the beginning of the decade, Nicks remixed much of her best material for a greatest-hits disc called TIMESPACE. So the thinking was, ENCHANTED would be a good forum to re-present the original mixes.

The third disc of ENCHANTED contains all of the collector’s items, and its contents were still being finalized at press time. Tentative plans called for the following 15 tracks to be included:

“Crying in the Night” ~ from the coveted BUCKINGHAM NICKS album that Nicks recorded with lifelong collaborator Lindsey Buckingham back in the early ’70s. The marks the first official CD release of any track from that album, generally considered to be “America’s most wanted” missing CD. We asked a source closely involved with the project how this particular track was chosen. “We sat down with the tracks that had the bulk of her lead vocals on them,” our source says, “and we all agreed that this was the catchiest track, and the one that people would probably enjoy the most. It was also the first single from BUCKINGHAM NICKS back then.”

“Whenever I Call You Friend” ~ sung with Kenny Loggins, from the latter’s 1978 album NIGHTWATCH.

“Gold” ~ done with John Stewart, from Stewart’s 1979 album BOMBS AWAY DREAM BABIES.

“Blue Lamp” ~ from the HEAVY METAL soundtrack, a cult item itself which was unavailable on CD for years. A track from the BELLA DONNA era.

“Sleeping Angel” ~ from the 1982 soundtrack for FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.

“Golden Braid” ~ unreleased outtake from THE WILD HEART. Fans may be familiar with it from Nicks’ concerts, but this is the unreleased studio version. Both “Sleeping Angel” and “Golden Braid” are outtakes from THE WILD HEART.

“Violet and Blue” ~ from the 1984 soundtrack to AGAINST ALL ODDS.

“I Pretend” ~ performed with singer-songwriter Sandy Stewart, from the latter’s 1984 album CAT DANCERS. “Sandy wrote and performed with Stevie during THE WILD HEART/ROCK A LITTLE era,” says our source. “She co-wrote, and performs on, ‘Nightbird.’ So this duet, from Sandy’s album which is out of print, is kind of a payback.”

“Battle of The Dragons” ~ from the 1986 soundtrack to AMERICAN ANTHEM.

“Thousand Days” ~ an unreleased performance.

“Somebody Stand By Me” ~ from the 1995 BOYS ON THE SIDE soundtrack.

“Free Fallin'” ~ from the 1996 PARTY OF FIVE album.

“Twisted” ~ Nicks’ songwriting demo of the song that wound up on the 1996 TWISTER motion picture soundtrack. “It’s her playing guitar, with something like a percussion loop, and Jesse Valenzuela of Gin Blossoms adding a little mandolin part,” says our source. “It’s structurally different from the version that ended up on TWISTER. It’s really nice, kind of pure and sweet. Recorded in her living room, by her, on 4-track.”

“It’s Late” ~ a cover of Ricky Nelson’s 1959 hit, also with Valenzuela on guitar. “It’s an unusual side of her,” says our source. “It has kind of a rockabilly feel.”

“Reconsider Me” ~ an unreleased outtake from ROCK A LITTLE, written by Warren Zevon, with vocal parts added by Don Henley.

The new box set will be housed in a 6×10-inch package with digitrays, much like the box sets by Abba, The Police and Bob Marley. Tentative plans call for a 64-page booklet with lyrics to all the songs, musician credits, liner notes by Larry Flick of BILLBOARD, an introductory essay by Nicks, and lots of unreleased photos, including some taken by the artist herself. Superimposed over some of the photos will be handwritten extracts from Nicks’ diaries, revealing personal reflections on particular moments in her career. Her brother, Christopher, served as art director for the project, and our source says that Nicks “has been extremely involved in every aspect of the box set.” Published reports also indicate that Nicks will tour this spring in support of the project.

Growing Up in Public Lindsey Buckingham steps out of the cradle | Westwood

By Michael Roberts
April 7-13, 1993
Westwood

To learn all you need to know about Lindsey Buckingham, just ask him the name of the most perfect pop single he’s ever heard. He’ll take a long pause – since he’s as much a fan as a musician, he takes this kind of question very seriously – before responding with an enthusiastic gush that paints a surprisingly succinct picture of his singular talent.

“I’ll give you three,” he says. “‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ by Frank Sinatra – the Nelson Riddle arrangement. ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys. And ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen.”

After completing his list, Buckingham offers a gulping laugh, seemingly amused at how weird it must sound. But given the work he has produced as a member of the most popular version of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist whose latest disc, the Reprise release Out of the Cradle, was among last year’s finest, each selection makes a great deal of sense. Like Sinatra, Buckingham values crooning – the art of caressing a rich, varied melody until every last drop of joy or pathos has been squeezed from it. Like Brian Wilson, the blessed lunatic behind the Beach Boys’ most memorable tunes, he is an obsessive studio craftsman who tries to turn each number he records into a pristine gem. And like the Kingsmen, the dopey garage band that earned a kind of immortality thanks to one of the simplest ditties ever committed to wax, he loves stupid, sloppy rock and roll.

When he’s clicking, Buckingham manages to synthesize what’s best about these three artists and these three songs. But Out of the Cradle, co-produced by Richard Dashut and featuring Buckingham on virtually every instrument heard on the record, is something more than a tribute to its creator’s influences. The album is a personal exploration of a dark period in Buckingham’s public life. In his words, “It’s a little reflective and even a little sad about the death of things, but it’s also about putting all of those things in the best possible perspective, and with that clarity moving forward and finding the other things that are alive in your life.”

Clearly, this is no collection of three-chord love songs. Named for a Walt Whitman poem, “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking,” the album is an extremely ambitious effort featuring beautifully played instruments (one, “This Nearly Was Mine,” is part of the score from the musical South Pacific), dreamy ballads (“Soul Drifter”) and lyrical excursions built of equal parts loss and hope (“Say We’ll Meet Again”). With a few exceptions (the raucous “This is the Time” and the biting music-biz exorcism “Wrong”), the disc is reserved, careful, a bit dour – a non-commercial work by an inveterately commercial artist. Only brave radio programmers played it, and as Buckingham acknowledges, there aren’t many of those around right now.

“Radio’s running a little bit scared from itself, it seems to me,” he says. “But I don’t think I have it in me to try to second-guess what I thought was interesting for the sake of radio. I’d be lying to you if I said I would not have liked to have heard this album on the radio, but I think after a period of time you develop a sound that you can call your own, at which point you have to be very careful about dumping on the style du jour.”

For a good chunk of the Seventies, the sound being imitated was Buckingham’s. A California native, he became involved both musically and personally with another unknown songwriter, Stevie Nicks. In 1973, the pair got a record deal with Polydor and released Buckingham-Nicks, a minor work that only hinted at Buckingham’s abilities. Two years later the pair were approached by Mick Fleetwood and the husband and wife team of Christine and John McVie – the then-current members of Fleetwood Mac. The group, formed in England during the Sixties, had a shifting membership that had just shifted again, thanks to the departure of Bob Welch, and Buckingham and Nicks were offered the job of replacing him.

Given the success of 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours, which rank high among the best-selling records from that decade, the decision was a good one. Nicks, an extremely limited performer who wrote the Mac’s most commercial songs, became the act’s most prominent figure, but Buckingham was its secret weapon. His instrument acumen and production smarts made his cohorts’ weakest numbers interesting, and his own tracks codified a West Coast sound that was as individual and quirky as it was hugely accessible. His “Go Your Own Way,” from Rumours, was as good as Seventies pop-rock got.

Buckingham took advantage of the Mac’s popularity on 1979’s double album, Tusk, which sports some of the most bizarre cuts ever from a multiplatinu8m group. After that, however, much of the fun went out of the band. Buckingham stayed loyal, providing the best moments of 1982’s Mirage, but in his mind he was already on his own. His first pair of records under his own name (1981’s Law and Order and 1984’s Go Insane) spawned modest hits and provided a forum for the full range of Buckingham’s work – from wild humor to melodramatic excess. They were strange and, more often than not, glorious.

Buckingham remained a part of Fleetwood Mac until 1987. “I was just about to start a third solo record,” he recalls, “when the band came in and said, ‘We’ve got to make another album.’ At this point, I knew that I wasn’t going to be around much longer – I definitely had one foot out the door. They told me, you can keep working on your solo album and we can get some producer to come in and you can do guitar and whatever you want. And I thought, this is a symptom of what’s already wrong. This is not the way Fleetwood Mac ever did things, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let things end this way.”

As a result, Buckingham put his solo project on hold and produced Tango in the Night, an album highlighted by “Big Love,” written by Buckingham for his own record. Then he was gone, and he has solemnly resisted overtures to return – overtures that reached a fever pitch after “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow),” a Rumours composition he’d written with Christine McVie, became the official theme song of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. “Not being overly political, it was a curious thing to see it work its way into the fabric that way,” he says, adding, “Christine actually wrote most of the lyrics about splitting up with John, and how he wasn’t as devastated by it as she was, which makes it a little more ironic the way Clinton is using it.”

After Clinton was elected, Buckingham reluctantly agreed to rejoin his former bandmates for an inaugural gig. “I didn’t feel overly connected to any of it, really. It was short and sweet,” he says. “There were a lot of questions about whether this suggested a long-term reunion, and those were quickly put to rest by me. And that was it.”

Perhaps the most positive aspect of this rather ragged performance was that Buckingham decided it was finally time to play live again. In short order, he assembled ten largely unknown musicians. “I stayed away from the session boys and the tour boys,” he says. “They can get a little jaded, and since I’m as hungry to express myself now as I was twenty years ago, I wanted people around me to feel the same way.”

Just as important, he is planning to get started on a new recording immediately after his current tour. “I’d like to think that you will see another album from me in the next eight months,” he says. “Maybe a year.” He laughs: “Maybe I’m being optimistic.”

Probably, given the lilt that comes into his voice when discussing the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” Released in 1966, that song wasn’t a smash – it only made it to number 39 on the Billboard charts – but it remains one of the most gorgeous pop numbers ever. Buckingham doesn’t even want to consider whether he could ever equal its achievement. “I can’t judge myself by ‘God Only Knows,’” he says. “No one writes songs as good as that.”

That may be true – but it hasn’t stopped him from trying.

 

Lindsey Buckingham Live Review | Billboard Magazine, Mar 1993

Billboard, March 20, 1993
By Chris Morris.

Former Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham thrilled audiences during his first solo concert in Los Angeles, CA, last Feb 22, 1993. Fans were treated to Buckingham’s unique and animated live style. A surprise treat was the talent exuded by Buckingham’s nine backup musicians. Buckingham also gave in to requests for encores and displayed a talent for live performance that many believe is one of the best in the concert scene.

FLEETWOOD MAC’S one time axe-slinger/singer/songsmith enchanted an adoring crowd of fans at his first-ever solo show in L.A. proper Feb. 22. Forging a live style that dramatically re-created the opulent studio architecture of his records, Buckingham alternated between solo performances of breathtaking intimacy and full-blown band numbers that showed off the well-drilled skills of his nine backup musicians. Performing with always apparent delight, the highly animated Buckingham received a local hero’s welcome. He kicked off the evening with richly detailed acoustic versions of “Big Love,” the last major hit he penned for his former group, and “Go Insane,” the title track from his 1984 solo album.

Proclaiming his intention to “reclaim some sense of creativity for myself,” he then introduced his truly startling group. Featuring five guitarists, three percussionists, and six singing voices, the tentet was adept at recreating the densely layered vocal and instrumental overdubs that have made works like last year’s Reprise release, “Out Of The Cradle,” such engrossing rococo pleasures. Buckingham led the group through its stormy paces on memorable Mac oldies like “The Chain” and “Tusk” and solo-album numbers such as “Trouble” and “You Do Or You Don’t.” The concert hit a raging midshow peak with “I’m So Afraid,” in which Buckingham constructed one of his few extended solos with near-mathematical precision and heart-halting emotion. After this show-stopping display, Buckingham dropped the energy level again with a couple of solo turns, then shifted into high gear again (with the remark, “All these guitars–give me a break!”), rampaging through “Doing What I Can,” “This Is The Time” (in which all five guitarists traded furious fours) and the inevitable set-closer “Go Your Own Way.” Buckingham obliged the crowd with a pair of encores that included a spirited “Holiday Road” and a wrenching solo “Soul Drifter.”

No doubt about it: One of America’s best-known studio hermits has acquired the band and the on-stage attitude to deliver his eccentric, ornate pop music totally live. Buckingham’s show is one of the best on the boards at the moment.

Article A14038762

Buckingham’s Out Of The Cradle Again Lines Up Dates With 10-Piece Tour Band | Billboard

BY CHRIS MORRIS
Billboard Magazine
March 13th, 1993

LOS ANGELES—Warner Bros. is  optimistic that a tour by singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham’s 10-piece band will ignite fresh sales of Buckingham’s much-lauded 1992 Reprise album “Out Of The Cradle.”

Out Of The Cradle Press Image

The group, which performed two shows at the Coach House in San
Juan Capistrano, Calif., in December and a concert at the Wiltern Theatre here last month, launches the month-long first leg of a national tour of clubs and medium-sized halls Monday (8) in Solana Beach, Calif. On Tuesday (9), the Buckingham band will be showcased on the half, hour VH1 show “Center Stage”; an hourlong version of the broadcast, co-produced by the cable network and PBS and taped live at WTTW-TV in Chicago, will be aired on the public broadcasting network later this spring. Westwood One aired 90 minutes culled from the group’s Dec- 10 and 11 Coach House performances (Buckingham’s first-ever live solo shows) on its Feb. 27 “Superstar Concert Series” broadcast.

Although two singles from “Out Of The Cradle” failed to chart last year; the company will release a third, “Don’t Look Down,” within the month to coincide with the tour.

Says Buckingham of the tour, “Best-case scenario is that we might pump life into the record, and this is basically what [Warner president] Lenny [Waronker] and Warner Bros. would like to do. I think it’s to their credit that they’re even willing to do that at this point, because it would be just as easy for them to say, ‘Yeah, go out and do the [tour] leg, and then make another album.’ ” Continue reading Buckingham’s Out Of The Cradle Again Lines Up Dates With 10-Piece Tour Band | Billboard

The Return of Lindsey Buckingham | Chicago Tribune

Chris Heim
March 12, 1993
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

In the pop world, four years is a long time. The attention span of the audience is short and the staying power of the talent, like the musical ephemera it produces, is shorter still. So it must have made many a corporate suit sweaty (happy thought) contemplating how the return of Lindsey Buckingham would be received.

It had been four years (eight if you go back to his last solo album) since Buckingham had been in the pop arena.

Buckingham came to prominence as part of the most successful incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. The band, which started as a British blues-rock group (heavily influenced by the greats of Chicago blues) and went through a semi-successful psychedelic/”Oh Well” phase around 1970, was on the verge of collapse when the California pop duo of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were recruited. A string of artfully crafted hits (“Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Say You Love Me” and that popular campaign theme, “Don’t Stop”) followed, along with multimillion sales for the “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours” albums.

Buckingham left/was dismissed from Mac in 1987 when he declined to go on tour (two players, Rick Vito and Billy Burnette, were required to fill his shoes). And though he did return to help with the “Tango in the Night” album and make a brief cameo appearance onstage with Mac in 1990, Buckingham was largely invisible until last summer, when he emerged from his home studio with a new solo album called “Out of the Cradle.”

This was to be the acid test for Buckingham. Could the man who many said was the real genius behind Mac’s pop gems deliver more rock jewels? Despite working almost entirely on his own and spending some two to three years on the project, Buckingham delivered one of his (or even Mac’s) most lively, consistent and accomplished albums. His music sparkles with bright, insistent pop hooks and an endless stream of shiny sounds. Listening to “Cradle” is like opening a jewel box or looking out at a star-filled night sky. Twinkling back is a multitude of lights (sounds, tones, instruments), densely packed yet brightly and discretely shining.

In December, Buckingham took the stage for the first time as a solo artist in a showcase California date that won critical raves. He has now launched his first solo tour with a 10-piece band (five guitarists, three percussionists, a bassist and a keyboardist), and his performances are expected to offer a mix of solo material and Mac favorites, solo playing and band numbers. Lindsey Buckingham appears Thursday at Park West.

 

LIFE AFTER MAC : At the Coach House, Lindsey Buckingham Will Be Playing His First Concert Since His Old Band Broke Up | LA Times

Lindsey Buckingham is scheduled to lose his virginity tonight at 8 in front of 500 people. He says he isn’t nervous.

Before defenders of the public virtue take alarm, it should be noted that Buckingham’s rite of passage, while it may involve some loud noises and sweating, will be purely musical.

At 42, Buckingham is no blushing bride in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. To the contrary, he is a tremendously savvy pop-rock craftsman whose contributions as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and, most crucially, as an arranger and recording studio auteurwere indispensable in transforming Fleetwood Mac from a dogged band of hard-luck barnstormers to a paragon of pop success. This is one guy who chased after musical fame and fortune and found out what it was like to go all the way.

However, he has never played a show in which he had to go all the way on his own. That will change at the Coach House tonight, when he will play the first concert of his life in which he’ll be leading a band by himself (he and the band will be back again Friday). Continue reading LIFE AFTER MAC : At the Coach House, Lindsey Buckingham Will Be Playing His First Concert Since His Old Band Broke Up | LA Times

Buckingham plays way out of trouble |  The Canberra Times

 By BEVAN HANNAN
The Canberra Time
1st Oct 1992

Out of the Cradle. (Phonogram)

FOR THE time it took Lindsey Buckingham to put out this release, the cynics said it should have been called Out of the Rocking Chair rather than Out of the Cradle.

After all, it has been more than four years since Buckingham left super group Fleetwood Mac, went into hiding in his personal studio and set about recording his third solo album.

Buckingham’s insistance on doing things his way — and only his way — was to ensure his guitar playing talents took a higher profile. And if there is one lingering doubt about the whole project, it is why didn’t he do it earlier?

On Out of the Cradle, Buckingham delves into some interesting instrumentals, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s This Nearly Was Mine from the South Pacific theatre score. This is one of the more gentle acoustic caresses, but the crisp guitar sound ventures into a pounding rhythm reminiscent of Freddie Mercury and Queen in their heyday on This is the Time.

Continue reading Buckingham plays way out of trouble |  The Canberra Times

Lindsey Buckingham – Out of the Cradle review | The Independent

RECORDS / The smug and the paranoid:
Lindsey Buckingham – Out of the Cradle (Mercury 512 658-2)
Glenn Frey – Strange Weather (MCA MCD10599)

WHEN the former creative mainsprings of mega-grossing West Coast harmony groups get round to releasing solo albums, the potential smugness quotient can reach toxic levels. At its worst, it’s as if commercial success afforded a greater insight into world problems and higher consciousness than that of mere mortals. The situation is just about avoided here by Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), but is vaulted into feet-first by Frey (The Eagles).

Other strange coincidences link the two: both, for instance, work with a sole collaborator; and both choose to preface some of their songs with little instrumental preludes which serve as plinths, the better to gaze upon the ensuing artwork. Both, too, claim their current albums showcase their guitar work more than previous outings. But from there, the two diverge, their musical differences signalled by their widely differing characters.

Frey is an outdoors kinda guy, an all-skiing, all-golfing, home- run-hitting sports nut whose obsession with games has run to caddying on the PGA tour and appearing on sports programmes as a trivia buff. The view from his Colorado home is reassuringly straightforward, comprising routine social griping like ‘Love in the 21st Century’ (impersonal sex); tired old sex-as-food metaphors like ‘Delicious’; and escapist fantasies like ‘River of Dreams’. At its most aware, a song like ‘He Took Advantage (Blues for Ronald Reagan)’ begins as a standard lament for love betrayed, and ends with a conclusion specifically aimed at ol’ sleepyhead: ‘And now he’s walking away / He doesn’t care what we say / We weren’t too hard to deceive / We wanted so to believe’. At its least aware, ‘I’ve Got Mine’ is Frey’s ‘Another Day in Paradise’, a scold for the rich in a world marked by poverty, another case of blasting away at one’s own foot in the name of self- righteousness.

Buckingham, on the other hand, is a shy, reclusive type. Many of his songs deal with loneliness and paranoia, without making grand claims for themselves as lessons to set the world to rights. Musically, Out of the Cradle is more varied and interesting than Strange Weather (and the last Fleetwood Mac LP, come to that), ranging from the Chris Isaak- styled rock classicism of ‘Street of Dreams’ to the Latin pop of ‘Soul Drifter’, an almost too deliberate stab at a summer-holiday song. There’s even a lighter re-run of Buckingham’s ‘Big Love’ riff, for a song called ‘Doing What I Can’ – which is only fair do’s, seeing as the original was a solo piece generously donated to keep the Mac’s Tango in the Night afloat.

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham – Out of the Cradle review | The Independent

Lindsey Buckingham: Out Of The Cradle Review | People Weekly

People Weekly, July 6, 1992
Out of the Cradle. (sound recording reviews)
By Craig Tomashoff.

OUT OF THE CRADLE by Lindsey Buckingham

Out Of The Cradle

You could drive a convertible down a bucolic country road on a sparkling summer day. You could take a stroll along an unspoiled tropical beach on a starry night. Or you could settle into your favorite chair and listen to this third solo outing from Lindsey Buckingham, former guitarist of the late unlamented supergroup Fleetwood Mac. Whichever you choose, you’ll soon be feeling that, despite its bad publicity, earth isn’t such a bad place after all.

Nobody in pop music these days creates better feel-good melodies than Buckingham (who wrote or cowrote 11 of the 13 songs here, including six with partner Richard Dashut). The only bad thing you can say about the project is that it took too long to arrive: It’s been eight years since Buckingham released his last solo record (Go Insane), five since he left Fleetwood Mac. If Out of the Cradle has had an unusually long gestation, it’s a very healthy baby.

The record is enhanced by quirky guitar intros and songs brimming with the sort of aural oddities that mark Buckingham’s style. Familiar and fetching hooks are turned into something new, thanks to the thick layer of guitar effects that replicate everything from harp to mandolin to power drill. Whether the song skips along like the sweet-natured, Top 40-friendly “Don’t Look Down” and “Countdown” or crawls like the quiet and contemplative “All My Sorrows” and “Streets of Dreams,” the melodies nuzzle up irresistibly against your brain. Buckingham titled Out of the Cradle well. Not only is his career reborn, the music has all the innocence, charm and energy of a toddler. (Reprise)

CRAIG TOMASHOFF
Review Grade: B