For Fleetwood Mac, the other side of Southern California’s “peaceful easy feeling,” this was the Bohemian manifesto of sparkle, sunshine, chiffon and wanderlust on a cloud of creamy synthesizers from Christine McVie-with a confectionary video that was every hippie girl’s dazzling fantasy embodied by Stevie Nicks in full regalia. In some ways, it felt a little like “Stevie does Stevie,” but it’s hard to argue with the free-spirited declaration of self. Here are the 20 best songs from Fleetwood Mac: 20. When Bill Clinton made his ran at the White House, it was “Don’t Stop” that fired up his team for his Inauguration, the band reunited to play.
They followed with the progressive, challenging two-record set Tusk, the more conventional Tango in the Night and Mirage. Aggressive playing, pop-inflected melodies and sexual frisson ignited rock that was palatable in the malls as well as back rooms, yet some of pre-Buckingham/Nicks songs remain pivotal in the catalogue.Īnd what a catalogue! The self-titled “white album” lead to the 45-million selling Rumours-inescapable for a period of almost three years. Ironically, it was the merger of two Northern California dreamers-Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks-that provided the solid rhythm section of Britain’s ferocious Mick Fleetwood on drums, velvety vocalist/B-3/pianist Christine McVie and melody-driven bassist John McVie the catalyst for superstardom. Post-disco, it was the illusion of earthy, mystical post-hippie magic, the return of electric guitars and rhythm sections that echoed. Equal parts British blues rockers, folkie bohemians and thick South California soft-pop harmonies, they crafted a songbook rife with strife, long on eroticism and charged by the cocaine-fueled reality of the era. Within two years, Fleetwood Mac were one of the biggest groups in the world, their new sound (far removed from the blues rock of old) defined by 1977’s blockbuster Rumours, the archetypal Californian soft-rock album.Fleetwood Mac embodied the high gloss, tube-topped reality of the late ’70s like few others.
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Having relocated to Los Angeles, Fleetwood, McVie and his wife Christine (née Perfect, a singer and keyboard player who’d joined the band in 1970) brought in a new Californian guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, plus his girlfriend, singer Stevie Nicks. In the early 70s, Fleetwood Mac were in disarray. A fourth, Bob Weston, was also fired after he had an affair with Fleetwood’s wife. And a third guitarist, Danny Kirwan, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after being fired in 1972. He later resurfaced as a member of American religious cult The Children Of God. A second guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, also afflicted by drug-related trauma, vanished 10 months later in the middle of a US tour, after saying he was popping out to get a magazine. Green quit the band in May 1970, his mental health damaged by drug use. Green was so good that he’d been picked to replace Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (where he was later joined, albeit briefly, by Fleetwood and McVie), and his innovative style would inspire future generations of rock guitarists, from Tony Iommi and Gary Moore to Noel Gallagher. The band was named after drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – partly as a ploy to persuade the latter to join – but the real star of the original band was guitarist/vocalist Peter Green.
Fleetwood Mac formed in London in 1967 at the height of the British blues-rock explosion.