Circus Magazine
April 14, 1977

Fleetwood’s Future Is Just Unfolding, Their Potential Barely

It is what it is at the time. Whatever comes out is what Fleetwood Mac is,” says John MeVie, that’s always been the way.”

And, probably, it always will be the way. Fleetwood Mac has traveled the roads of rock and roll a for almost a decade — spanning a musical range from electric blues to soft rock, surviving various personnel changes and a management burn that booked a bogus Fleetwood Mac on tour, and, finally, rising to “success-dom” in midst of some very heavy emotional difficulties last year. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 after Bob Welch left the band to form his own group. The Buckingham/Nicks combination seemingly provided a refreshing impetus to Fleetwood Mac’s ongoing longevity. A few short weeks later, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks went into the studio to record.

The result was Fleetwood Mac (WB), the album that took the temperately successful Mac and catapulted them to the top of the charts, an album that was still on Billboard’s charts after 90 weeks. But, there’s a paradox in being successful in rock and roll. Once a rock band does meet with success, everytime they pass “GO” on rock’s Monopoly board, they’re attacked by critics for being commercial. “No one ever sits down and says “This seems to be popular, so let’s do this.’ It’s just whatever it is, which is really healthy and which, I think, has a lot to do with the longevity.”