Gosh, I can’t for the life of me remember who said this, but I remember reading something along the lines of “If I had a nickel for every popular 70’s rock band that was formed in the 60’s, but went through a drastic change in style/genre when they lost their frontman to likely drug-induced schizophrenia, I’d only have two nickels, but it’s weird that it happened twice, no?” Oh right, it was me, I said that. Well back then (3 weeks ago) I said that we weren’t gonna talk about Fleetwood Mac just yet, but the time has come, let’s talk about ‘em.

Part 1: “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac” (1968)

It’s been brought to my attention that Fleetwood Mac is seeing a bit of a resurgence in popularity because of my generation. And I can’t blame them, who doesn’t love “Rumours”-era Mac? But I think the young girls on TikTok would be pretty shocked to hear this debut. Much like “The Piper At the Gates of Dawn”, this first record sounds absolutely nothing like the glory days. And we owe this sound to a few people, the (brief) list goes as follows:

#1: Jeremy Spencer, slide-guitarist and vocalist until 1971 when he left the band to join “The Children of God”, a religious “organization.” (cult) Since joining, multiple former members of this “organization” have accused him of sexually assaulting them as children. Let’s just say it was for the best that Jeremy parted ways with Fleetwood Mac.

#2: Peter Green, founder, “frontman”, guitarist, and vocalist until 1970 when he began messing around with LSD and decided to leave. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia in the mid-70’s, so maybe his departure was also for the best.

But forget the outcome, I’m here to talk about their time with the band. Up until the departure of Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac was a hardcore blues band. Which essentially means that all you’ll find here is the AB AB CB rhyme scheme, re-skinned as many times as they can get away with. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, allow me to elaborate.

The AB AB CB rhyme scheme is the blueprint for just about every classic blues song. You start with an ‘A’ phrase and a ‘B’ phrase, you repeat those phrases, you add a ‘C’ phrase, eventually ending with a rhyme for the ‘B’ phrase. And when I say this pattern is used in every blues song, I’m only sort of exaggerating.

Fleetwood Mac: “My Heart Beat Like a Hammer” (1968)

A: My heart beat like a hammer

B: My eyes plumb full of tears

A: My heart beat like a hammer

B: My eyes plumb full of tears

C: She’s been gone about an hour

B: But it seems like a thousand years

Elmore James : “The Sun Is Shining” (1960)

A: The sun is shining

B: Oh, but it’s raining in my heart

A: The sun is shining

B: Oh, but it’s raining in my heart

C: I’m in love with my baby now

B: And I hate to see us part

Robert Johnson: “Cross Road Blues” (1937)

A: I went to the crossroad

B: Fell down on my knees

A: I went to the crossroad

B: Fell Down on my knees

C: Asked the Lord above

B: Have mercy, save poor bob if you please

Preston Foster: “Got My Mojo Working” (1956)

A: Got my mojo workin’

B: But it just won’t work on you

A: Got my mojo workin’

B: But it just won’t work on you

C: I wanna love you so bad

B: I just don’t know what to do

Is this a repetitive method to making music? Yes, which is why I won’t spend too much time on this album. But I think it’s a pretty effective method too, my favorite tunes from this record follow this pattern exactly. And if you add some exciting slide guitar, harmonica, whatever really, it doesn’t feel too tiresome.

We open with “My Heart Beat Like a Hammer”, which has quite a strange intro if you ask me. It almost feels like you’re intruding on the band, but I do think that captures the messy vibe of this album perfectly. Getting into the actual song though, this is quite possibly the record’s strongest moment. It’s highlighting everything that was great about Jeremy Spencer (musically that is), his vocals and his slide guitar. This isn’t anything revolutionary if you’ve heard even a little blues before, again, it’s just that AB AB CB pattern, and we’ve even got that classic blues turnaround everyone loves. If you don’t know what that is, it’s essentially these notes.

Anyway, it’s got a good groove with a lot of energy, and it gives you a lot of hope for the tracks to come. Solid opener, it has my approval.

I like track 3, “Long Grey Mere” for its rock n roll kind of beat. It’s also the first we hear of Peter Green’s harmonica which was pretty cool. But the real rock n roll tune is track 5, “Shake Your Money Maker”, an Elmore James song I could totally see Elvis singing.

Track 9, “I Loved Another Woman” is probably my favorite of the bunch. I sort of see it as the predecessor to “Black Magic Woman”, which I love. This is definitely the best Peter Green’s guitar has sounded, that tone is great. And this is definitely one of John McVie’s best bass lines, it’s so loud and clear.

The record ends with “Got to Move”, which doesn’t really stand out to me. It’s not a bad closer, but they could’ve gone with a more distinctly different sound for this like “I Loved Another Woman.”

Overall thoughts on this record, and really on this era of Fleetwood Mac in general, yeah they were pretty good. I wish these songs got more attention, but I understand why they don’t. They have the foundation of a group like Cream or Led Zeppelin, who were similarly merging the blues with rock n’ roll, but they don’t have that extra something special that still catches the distracted eyes of today’s youth. So unfortunately, much like Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac is destined to live in the shadow of the band they would become.

Highlights:

1. I Loved Another Woman

2. My Heart Beat Like a Hammer

3. Long Grey Mere

Final Score: 6.5/10 (Decent)

Part 2: “Rumours” (1977)

A few lineup changes later, it’s 1977 and Fleetwood Mac has released their 11th studio album, “Rumours.” It is so crazy to me that this was record eleven, and it was their biggest hit by far. But it totally deserves to be, I can’t imagine how someone could hate this.

Courtney Love tells a story about this album that I like. She was making brunch one day with a friend and her daughter, and they had “Rumours” on in the kitchen. Everything was going smoothly until she received a noise complaint from her upstairs neighbor, David Bowie. She apologized thinking the music was too loud, but he specified that his issue wasn’t with the noise, but with the music itself. But regardless of his thoughts, this is 39 minutes of soft-rock perfection, so let’s talk about it.

I’ll start by stating the obvious, we are not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Long gone are the days of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, now we’ve got pianist, vocalist, and now ex-wife to John McVie, Christine McVie, guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham, and finally his soon to be ex-girlfriend, vocalist Stevie Nicks.

We begin with “Second Hand News”, which definitely isn’t a highlight per se, given its … scatty(?) nature. But it’s cute enough, as silly as it sounds. I’d say it sets the tone nicely, but I really don’t feel this album has much of a tone. Its opener, “Second Hand News”, and its closer, “Gold Dust Woman”, are fundamentally nothing alike. But I think that’s okay when you take into consideration everything that was going on behind the scenes here relationships wise, it’s a miracle they made a good record, leave consistency to a band not tearing at their seams.

Track 2 remains their most streamed song on Spotify, it’s “Dreams.” “Second Hand News” gave us a taste of what this dynamic between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks is like from Lindsey’s perspective, and “Dreams” is sort of telling us about Stevie’s side. It’s such a beautiful song, and it has some really poetic lyrics that in hindsight make “Second Hand News” sound a little childish. And that’s before you learn that said lyrics were written in just ten minutes. Now this isn’t me saying I can’t appreciate “Second Hand News”, because I do for what it is, but the stark contrast between “Second Hand News” and “Dreams” is what I think makes me appreciate “Dreams” that much more when I’m listening to this record in its entirety. Aside from the lyrics, I just think this is a really well done song all around. That’s such an iconic opening drum fill, and once again, I just love a good John McVie bass line, he never misses.

We’re back in Lindsey country with track 3, “Never Going Back Again.” This song makes it abundantly clear why Fleetwood Mac needed 2 guitarists to replace him, there doesn’t exist another riff quite like this one. Although I’m sure every studio intern to ever do the job is glad there’ll never be another “Never Going Back Again”, because it required a new set of strings every 20 minutes to retain “brightness.” While I don’t think that’s necessary for every song, I do think it paid off here, that guitar has a very special sound to it. Unlike “Secondhand News”, this one has a real chorus with real words, but Lindsey still calls its lyrics “naive.” I don’t think the lyrics are bad, but you have to admit he is objectively right, like he did in fact go back there again.

Track 4, “Don’t Stop” is a look into the second messiest relationship within Fleetwood Mac, that being the recently divorced John and Christine McVie. Of course, John being the guy he was, did allow her to gaslight him into believing it wasn’t about him. Anyway, it’s a nice song, I’ve gotta give it props for getting the band back together for the Democratic National Convention of 1992.

You won’t believe who’s back stealing the show on track 5, “Go You Own Way”, it’s Lindsey, again. Lovely song though, as much as it pissed Stevie off. Its preview clip on Spotify has a great shot of her glaring at him while singing backup. That aside though, it’s got a great chorus, and call me basic, but this is definitely one of Lindsey’s best solos.

Next is “Songbird”, the second of Christine’s songs. John is quoted as saying, "When Christine played 'Songbird', grown men would weep. I did every night." And like, he’s totally right, it’s so simple but so effective. Apparently she wrote this in just half an hour in the middle of the night, and because she was worried she wouldn’t remember it in the morning, she just didn’t sleep that night.

Track 7 is probably the best of the bunch. This song is 4 and a half minutes of everything that made this time in Fleetwood Mac’s history so great. It will never grow old, nothing will ever break “The Chain.” It’s the product of about a million different could’ve-been songs, which I actually encourage you to check out if you’re curious, they’re all available on streaming platforms. The intro comes from a Buckingham-Nicks song, “Lola (My Love).” Fantastic song, fantastic album, it’s just been released, go listen if you haven’t already. The chorus, “And if you don’t love me now, you will never love me again. I can still hear you saying, we would never break the chain”, comes from an untitled song Stevie had written, you can find it under “The Chain - Demo” on Spotify. That untitled song stands incredibly strong on its own, although it wasn’t ever really finished. The coda, featuring that exposed bass line and guitar solo, comes from “Keep Me There”, a Christine original that was considered for “Rumours.” Again, I think it holds up on its own, and sometimes I think I might’ve gone with this one over Christine’s fourth and final pick, “Oh Daddy.” Anyway, this all comes together to form “The Chain”, this monster of a track. There’s no one person carrying this song, it’s showcasing the absolute best of everyone involved. (hence why all 5 members received a writing credit) It’s perfect, no notes.

Then comes track 8, “You Make Loving Fun”, another Christine original. She wrote this one about Curry Grant, the band’s lighting director, but once again, John let her tell him it was about her dog. When will he learn to just stop believing her? I don’t know, maybe I’d gaslight him too, she got a fire bass line out of him, his best work in my opinion. Not much more to say about this one, but I do really like it, some of Christine’s best songwriting.

I’ll skip over track 9 and 10 because I don’t have much on those, but I will note that I think track 10, “Oh Daddy” is the weakest of this record. I like it well enough, but nothing about it stands out to me.

“Rumours” closes with track 11, “Gold Dust Woman.” Well, if you’re listening to the 2013 deluxe edition, it actually closes with “Silver Springs”, but “Silver Springs” actually didn’t fit on the original release of “Rumours”, so it was released as the b-side to “Go Your Own Way” instead. And we’ll get to that later, but right now I’m gonna talk about “Gold Dust Woman.” The take we hear on “Rumours” was done at 4 AM after what sounds like a pretty grueling recording process. But I guess it worked out in the end, because this is the perfect ending if you ask me, although I think “Silver Springs” would’ve worked just as well. I love its eerie vibe, and this is definitely one of, if not the best of Stevie’s vocal performances. I mean, if you hear weird avant-garde ad libbing in a Fleetwood Mac tune, it’s fair to assume you’re hearing Lindsey, especially post-”Rumours”, but not here, that’s all Stevie.

So that’s all I’ve got on “Rumours”, the messy, brilliant, drug-induced Fleetwood Mac-terpiece. And I’d like to stress that drug-induced part, never before have I heard a band wish to thank their drug dealer in their album credits. They didn’t of course, but not because they didn’t want to, he (the dealer) just didn’t live to see its release.

Highlights:

1. The Chain

2. Gold Dust Woman

3. Dreams

Final Score: 10/10 (Perfect)

Part 3: “The Dance” (1997)

There’s this YouTuber, Isaac Brown, that claims to be a “Gen Z Music Producer.” He makes videos reacting to various classic albums and performances, swearing he’s never heard them before. But honestly I don’t know how he possibly could’ve made it this far in the music business without hearing something like “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Anyway, he’s done a couple Fleetwood Mac videos, and he’s got one called “Wait … They’re Just as Good Live?” I can shame him all I want for waiting until his mid to late 20’s to hear Fleetwood Mac live, but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t my reaction as well.

I’ve been going back and forth about this review for a while. I thought about reviewing “Tango In the Night”, or “Say You Will”, but in the end I think “The Dance” is the way to go. It’s one of my favorite live albums, and it’s got some pretty memorable moments.

But before we get into the music, I should note that I’ll be reviewing the VHS/DVD edition of this performance, not the edition that appears on Spotify, and not the CD edition. I’m noting that because it means I’ll be discussing the DVD track list, which includes tracks left off of the CD edition.

Okay let’s get started, looks like we’re talking about “The Chain” again. I think it works well as an opener here, and honestly, it probably would’ve made a better “Rumours” opener than “Second Hand News” did. Listening to this live really makes me appreciate all those harmonies. The original has Lindsey’s vocal mixed higher than Christine’s and Stevie’s, so he’s effectively singing lead, but you can hear all three lines very clearly here, which I think gives it a very different sound.

Skipping over a very powerful performance of “Dreams”, we come to “Everywhere”, the third track off their 1987 release “Tango In the Night.” This is another one of my favorites from Christine, rock solid writing, amazing vocal harmonies, and some tasteful synthesizers for the 80’s. I really enjoyed this performance, you can hear Christine hitting a pretty insane note for being 54 years old and not having an especially wide vocal range.

Next is once again “Gold Dust Woman.” I have nothing to say about it other than wow, what a performance. The eerie energy of the original recording is absolutely recaptured.

Track 5 hands the mic to Lindsey for “I’m so Afraid”, originally featured on their 1975 self-titled record, and his first with Fleetwood Mac. I’ve never been a fan of that studio recording, it’s kind of an underwhelming closer to a near-perfect album. But I do enjoy this performance, those vocals sound far less timid and shy which I appreciate, and I can criticize Lindsey’s experimental music all I want, but a brilliant guitar solo will save just about anything.

The camera is back with Christine for track 6, a “new” song, “Temporary One.” Temporary indeed, this song never saw the studio, and that’s a damn shame if you ask me, it’s one of my favorites. But honestly, this performance was so well done you could’ve fooled me into believing it was a studio recording.

Another previously unheard song sneaks its way in on track 7, “Bleed to Love Her.” Unlike “Temporary One”, this song did get its well deserved studio time, but I much prefer this performance to that later recording. Lindsey’s vocals sound far smoother here.

Track 8 is another favorite of mine, it’s “Gypsy”, originally featured on their 1982 release, “Mirage.” I don’t think “Mirage” is a very strong record when you compare it to its glory days counterparts, but I’ll always love this song. It’s some of Stevie’s best writing, those lyrics tell such an interesting story.

I’m gonna jump forward a few tracks now and talk about “Landslide.” If I’m remembering correctly, I think this was the performance I came across that led me to this record. I was out at dinner with family, and I can’t seem to remember what we were talking about that night because all I could focus on was the most beautiful rendition of “Landslide” that was playing nearby. I haven’t quite decided if I prefer it to the original, but I find myself coming back to this recording a lot. All anyone ever wants to talk about is “Silver Springs” (which I’ll get to later), but the look Lindsey gives Stevie during this performance will never fail to amuse me.

Failing to keep it professional I see. 👀

Track 14 is another new addition to the catalog, it’s “My Little Demon.” It’s just as strange as the title would lead you to believe it is, but it’s charming. Unfortunately, it’s immediately overshadowed by the following performance, everyone and their mother has seen it, it’s “Silver Springs.”

There were about a million unresolved emotions that must have gone into this performance. Emotions that came from the relationship in question, from watching it receive little to no airplay being released as a b-side, from having to release it as a b-side for “Go Your Own Way”, the song Stevie hated most, from the argument it caused that led her to leave the band in 1990, I could go on and on, really. All of this to say it was basically guaranteed to be one hell of a performance no matter what. And a hell of a performance it was, the attention it receives isn’t for nothing, this is without a doubt better than the live recording if you ask me. If you haven’t yet seen this performance, PLEASE, go watch it when you have the chance. I’ll even link it below, you have no excuse now.

It takes a lot of slowly but surely taking over someone’s mind to be able to give them this look and know that they’ll still be hopelessly in love with you for another 50 years.

Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’ll give a mention to one final song before I wrap it up, and that’s “Tusk”, originally featured on the album of the same name. This is the conclusion to the CD and Spotify editions of this record, but the DVD edition uses “Songbird” as its final track. I think “Tusk” makes a far better closer, so I’m gonna talk about it. They hired the USC Trojan Marching Band for this performance, and while I’ll admit that I was initially skeptical, I think it works. One of these years I’ll finally convince my band director to let us play “Tusk.” Just as soon as I can find me an arrangement.

So that’s all I’ve got on Fleetwood Mac’s classic live album, “The Dance.” Well, almost all I’ve got on it, one more thing, ignore everything I just said, my favorite part of this record is getting to watch Mick Fleetwood. My goal is to one day experience half the joy he seems to be experiencing in these 105 minutes.

Highlights:

1. Silver Springs

2. Temporary One

3. Landslide

Final Score: 9.5/10 (Amazing)

Ahhh, it’s finally done. Hope y’all enjoyed this one, I certainly enjoyed writing it. If Fleetwood Mac manages to creep their way into the number one artist slot this year when Spotify Wrapped comes around, you’ll all know why.

You know the drill, I’ll be back … eventually, ready to talk about a band supposedly made entirely of rocks, sorry, stones. (I’m told that’s an important distinction)