Well, you can’t get much bigger than Fleetwood Mac, can you?
In the wake of Lindsey Buckingham’s much-publicised departure and their combined chart success.
Dave Zimmer talks to the band that just refuses to lay down and die….
Record Mirror (UK)
April 1988
Somebody should write a soap opera based on Fleetwood Mac’s career. They’ve been plagued by jealousy, bankruptcy and alcoholism; and when guitarist Lindsey Buckingham left the band last year, it looked like the end of the road.
Buckingham had been with Fleetwood Mac since 1975 when he and Stevie Nicks helped catapult the rather obscure ‘hippy’ band into the big time with the LP ‘Rumours’. To date, it’s sold over 30 million copies worldwide. But the relationship between Nicks and Buckingham soured, as Stevie explains.
“If Lindsey said the wall in the studio was grey, I’d be absolutely sure it was pink. In order to get one of my. songs on a record I’d have to say ‘Okay, the wall’s grey Lindsey’. Otherwise it was back on the bus.
One reason this is such a splendid concert tape is that director Marty Callner, who has worked with Hall and Oates, Heart and Whitesnake, doesn’t seem compelled to show off his technique. He has a gorgeous setting, the outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver. And he has one of pop music’s most physically attractive, musically interesting performers in Nicks. Callner’s cameras record the event faithfully, without distorting it. The second reason the tape is so enjoyable is that Nicks herself, about 10 minutes into what begins as a listless performance (taped in summer 1986), literally puts her foot down. In the middle of Talk to Me, she stomps three or four times, as if to pump herself up, and the effect is galvanizing. Impassivity is part of Nicks’s style, but from that moment her singing seems to take on an undervoiced passion. Her backup musicians also seem to take themselves up another notch, particularly drummer Rick Marotta, guitarist Waddy Wachtel and Robert Martin, who plays saxophone for Talk to Me. The appearances by ”special guests” are overbilled. Anyone who turns away to eat a potato chip could miss the contributions of Peter Frampton and Nicks’s Fleetwood Mac colleague Mick Fleetwood. And Callner lapses during Dreams, patching in a phony sky full of lightning. There’s nearly an hour of solid music, though, with such Nicks hits as Stand Back and an extended Edge of Seventeen, complete with a real dove in honor of the song’s refrain (”Just like the white winged dove sings a song/ Sounds like she’s singing it to you”). When Nicks is shown under the closing credits walking out to the edge of the audience (where she is loaded down with stuffed toys and flowers), the crowd’s affection seems well earned.
Up in the hills of Bel Air is Lindsey Buckingham’s house, Lindsey Buckingham’s croquet-perfect lawn, Lindsey Buckingham’s pool, Lindsey Buckingham’s radio-controlled toy submarine that’s busted, but could be fun in the pool, Lindsey Buckingham’s home studio, The Slope-where the final work on Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night was done-and, indeed, Lindsey Buckingham himself.
Lindsey, like everyone in Fleetwood Mac, will tell us something of this latest record-and something of this immensely popular band. Their times and their troubles, stuff like that.
Fleetwood Mac’s saga has been a strange one: since Lindsey and Stevie Nicks joined up in 1975, the band’s made five studio albums, including Tango. The first four have sold something like 33 million copies-about 20 million of those courtesy of 1977’s monstrous Rumours.
You can perceive that, despite their relatively sluggish output, this band has a lot of fans. As I write this, Tango is safely ensconced in the Top 10, where it may well remain for eternity or the next Fleetwood Mac album, whichever comes first. But, coming almost five years after Mirage, we can correctly assume that there’s a story behind the story, so let’s start here . . .
People Weekly, Oct 1, 1984
Go insane. (sound recording reviews)
GO INSANE by Lindsey Buckingham
Buckingham–along with his former girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie–provided the composing talent that boosted Fleetwood Mac to such overwhelming success in the ’70s.
Go Insane, Lindsey’s second solo album, is a manifesto of his intent to remain a rock ‘n’ roll force, even while the group itself seems to be a tabled proposition. The record is studded with power pop gems such as the title cut and I Want You, as well as Slow Dancing and Loving Cup. All of these continue in the tradition of songs that sold 35 million Fleetwood Mac albums after Buckingham joined the group in 1974. (Kind of makes you wonder why Mick Fleetwood has filed for bankruptcy.)
Lindsey flies off the handle of mainstream appeal with D.W. Suite, a seven-minute eulogy of Dennis Wilson that mixes Beach Boys-influenced harmonies with elements of prayer and traditional Irish music. There is also Play in the Rain, which closes out one side and continues as the opening cut on the other. An off-the-wall composition, it begins with high-tech surrealism before hitting a funk groove tinged with Indian sitar sounds. Those are, however, the only indications that Buckingham is indeed going off his commercial rocker.
Lindsey Buckingham has never exactly set out to make a solo album. A confirmed studio addict, he methodically experiments with sounds and structures until enough of the pieces form the basis for songs that then cry out to be completed and recorded. On his second Elektra album, Go Insane, lyric ideas inspired some of the experiments, and the songs are tied together by a common thread.
*It’s really about going insane in the mildest possible sense, he explains. “It’s about having your sense of reality tested through various circumstances until you’re not really sure where reality lies and you have a choice of letting yourself continue to be insane on some level or of reeling yourself back in.”
Buckingham admits that he particularly “reels himself in on” Side One, which contains the hit single “Go Insane” followed by the tune “Slow Dancing.” “Both of those songs have certain esoteric aspects about them, he says, “although their form is not as challenging as some of the other things on the album. They draw you right in.”
The first side finishes with “Play in the Rain”, a song that continues onto Side Two. “We originally had the version that ends Side One” explains Lindsey, “but it seems like it would be very interesting to continue that particular thing which is probably the most experimental piece on the album.
“That, as the beginning of Side Two, and the next song on that side are rhythm pieces, Then it goes into ‘Bang the Drum’, for which we sent John, the second engineer, into a schoolyard to record kids playing. That song is certainly influenced by the Beach Boys use of vocals, and it is a prelude to ‘D.W. Suite’. It shifts from being non-melodic and purely rhythmic into harmonies in major keys. In fact, the whole second side is pretty much in that frame of mind, going from minor to major keys.
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine Mcvie takes off in solo flight with a new boyfriend under her wing
Singer-songwriter in Fleetwood Mac has been a pretty good gig for Christine McVie. Plenty of travel; lots of perks; long stretches between albums. Pay hasn’t been too bad, either, what with some 35 million albums sold worldwide. As a result, among other things, she has been able to furnish her four-bedroom Beverly Hills home without ever eyeing a price tag. And yet McVie, 40, has managed to keep it all in perspective. “I mean, anybody can spend all their money if they work hard enough at it,” she says. “It’s not like I’ve got a piano-shaped Jacuzzi or walls full of Picassos and Monets or anything like that. I do put limits on myself: I haven’t bought the Queen Mary.”
Fair enough. Another, more concrete example of McVie’s sensible adjustment to fame and fortune at the top of rock is Christine McVie, a finely executed solo album containing the jaunty hit single Got a Hold on Me, and the follow-up, Love Will Show Us How. McVie’s LP is in the great tradition of solo efforts by members of Fleetwood Mac, following one in 1981 by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, two platinum monsters by Stevie Nicks and two obscure releases by drummer Mick Fleetwood. Only Christine’s ex-husband, bassist John McVie, has yet to try a solo and record sans Mac.
McVie may have thrust Christine from the shadow of her megaband, but it does have guest appearances by fellow L.A.-area residents Fleetwood and Buckingham. And ex-husband McVie, who lives on the island of St. Thomas, devotedly popped into the Montreux, Switzerland studio to check on Chris. “They all said they loved the album, and I have no reason to doubt them,” she says wryly. Only Nicks hasn’t weighed in. In fact, McVie hasn’t spoken to Nicks for a year “because our paths just haven’t crossed.” Like any major act, Mac is constantly rumored to be disintegrating—and Nicks’ solo triumphs have hardly silenced that kind of talk. Still, McVie downplays any intraband melodramas. “Any competitiveness—if that’s the right word—is all quite friendly,” says McVie, who certainly doesn’t want to rock the boat. “The album is a project, not a career for me. My main interest in life is still the band.” Continue reading Christine McVie takes off in solo flight…| People Weekly→
People Weekly, March 19, 1984
Christine McVie. (sound recording reviews)
CHRISTINE McVIE by Christine McVie
There’s a loose, good-time feeling to this album. The tunes, most of them written by McVie and sometime Hall and Oates guitarist Todd Sharp, are snappy and full of rhythmic rock and roll hooks. The production by Russ Titelman is slick. For all that, there’s not much excitement in McVie’s first solo album since 1970 (shortly after she’d left the British group Chicken Shack to join then-husband John McVie in Fleetwood Mac). The subtle harmonic skills that make McVie a peerless ensemble singer and musician with Mac don’t necessarily translate into a solo act.
Her singing seems colorless at times and her keyboard work is overshadowed by her sidemen. Mac mates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood sat in, as did Eric Clapton, Elton John, drummer Ray Cooper and rock ‘veteran Steve Winwood. McVie, in fact, calls Winwood “my idol,” and their vocal duet on One in a Million is the LP’s most striking track, though the no-frills rock tune Got a Hold on Me has become its hit single.
Maybe McVie’s heart wasn’t totally in this project–“It had reached a point where this record was expected of me,” she has said–but if nothing else, she has it out of her system.
by Michael Lyons
September 1983
Arizona Living Magazine
ONCE UPON a time, there lived a golden-haired princess named Stephanie. She grew up with dolls and toys and all the worldly things which make little girls happy. But Stephanie wanted more from life. In her mind, she saw crystal visions of a mystical world filled with gypsies, angels, good witches and white-winged doves. But try as she might, she couldn’t fulfill her dreams.
Then one day, her fairy godfather, who lived in the enchanted world of Fleetwood, heard her melodic musings. He asked her to join him in a quest to discover musical adventures unknown. During their journey, they encountered enticing rumours and entangling chains. They saw silly penguins and mysterious tusks. Soon, everything Stephanie found turned to gold and she became the queen of rock & roll. Now, at last, she is contented.
PS–She expects to live happily ever after.
When Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix on May 26, 1948, rock & roll was only a gleam in Bill Haley’s eye. It would be another eighteen years before Elvis Presley checked into Heartbreak Hotel and help create the kingdom which little “Stevie” would one day conquer. In some ways, her story is a dream-come-true fantasy. But her seemingly fairy-tale journey was also fraught with nightmarish interludes.
Herbert Worthington III photo
When Stevie was born, her father, Jess, was about to begin his own conquest–climbing the ladder in the corporate world. He eventually would become president of the Lucky Lager Brewing Co. of San Francisco, chairman and president of Armour & Co. as well as executive vice president of the Greyhound Corp.
Jess’ ambitions steered the family through a non-stop meandering trek around the country. Though Stevie actually lived in Arizona for less than a year, she still calls it home.
“She always felt that she was an Arizonan,” her father said. “We never really stayed in one place long enough for her to feel that she became a Californian, let’s say, or a Utahan or a Texan. And I was born in Phoenix and her mother was born in Busbee, so her roots have always been tied closely to this state.” Continue reading Stevie Nicks: Arizona’s Bella Donna Comes Home | Arizona Living→
Fleetwood Mac Star Proves That Beauty And Talent Go Hand In Hand.
by Stan Hyman and Vicki Greenleaf
September 1983
Hit Parader
There’s a certain mystique surrounding Stevie Nicks. Maybe it’s her spellbinding voice. Maybe it’s her bewitching good looks. Or maybe it’s her enchantment with the shadowy unknown. “I just like thinking that everyone is kinda magic,” Nicks said smiling. “It’s nicer than thinking it’s not.”
Whatever the magic that surrounds her, Nicks captivated audiences last year with her triple-platinum, debut solo album, Bella Donna. Not one to be intimidated by that success, the lead singer-songwriter of Fleetwood Mac fame has now released her follow-up solo LP. The album, The Wild Heart, retains much of the sound of her previous effort, according to Nicks.
“But,” she interjected, “it’s like Bella Donna’s heart is wild all of the sudden. It has that James Dean/Natalie Wood feeling to it. It’s just Bella Donna a little more reckless,” she said, explaining the new LP’s title and over-all feeling. “She’s just more sure of herself now, so she’s taking a few more chances. I’m very pleased with the album,” she added, “because there are no holds barred on it. It’s real strong and emotional.”
Nicks said she was encouraged, not intimidated, by the phenomenal success of her first solo effort. She foresaw such success intuitively, she claimed, and hopes for a repeat performance from The Wild Heart. “I just saw it in the stars that it would work,” Nicks recalled, “and it did! I’m almost sad that it went by so fast. It was over too quickly and I didn’t get to spend enough time with Bella Donna. It was very special. I knew it would be. I knew in my heart that it would be exactly what it was. Continue reading Stevie Nicks: That Magic Touch | Hit Parader→
One day soon, there will be no more stuffed animals in the world. No stuffed koalas or pandas or ocelots or giraffes will remain for parents to bring their brave little tykes in the pediatric wards of hospitals. Pubescent girls will have no more stuffed leopards or ponies or lynxes to snuggle while they jabber on the telephone. And no stuffed teddy bears will be found in the rooms of Elvis impersonators who are intent on recreating every phase of the King’s life.
One day soon, all the stuffed animals in the world will have been presented to Stevie Nicks while she is on stage with Fleetwood Mac. Or on stage without Fleetwood Mac. Industry insiders assure us that it won’t be long before Stevie Nicks goes her own way, for she has her own manager, who won’t let her talk to Rolling Stone, and a hit solo album and tour to her credit. Likewise, Lindsey Buckingham, the other half of the duo whose recruitment in 1976 transformed Fleetwood Mac from the blues band that time forgot into mega-platinum ultra superstars, makes no secret of the fact that he much prefers working on own projects these days. And John McVie gives the very distinct impression of not being long for this world, let alone the group. Which means that the time to get to know these five nice people who make nice music for nice people is right now, before they scatter every which way.
An electrician who did some wiring in her home assured CREEM that keyboard- ist Christine McVie, in marked contrast to her boyfriend at the time, Dennis Wilson, is as unaffected and gracious person as one might yearn to do wiring for, her deportment on stage serves to affirm this impression. The only time she gets stuffed animals or bouquets is when somebody who’s about to be throttled by a security gorilla despairs of getting Stevie’s attention. But she neither glowers or sulks about this, nor makes a spectacle of herself in an attempt to pilfer some of Stevie’s thunder. In doing so, she represents the English temperament at its noblest.
INNERVIEW – Stevie Nicks
You must be logged in to post a comment.