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Fleetwood Mac

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Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac
There are essentially three Fleetwood Macs: the first, a British blues-rock band in the vein of the Yardbirds; the second, a dreamy, laid-back California-style pop outfit; and the third- well, that's the '70s hit-making, dysfunctional, made-for-TV, hippie family unit we've all come to know and love. Fleetwood Mac's earliest albums are difficult to find, but they comprise such an essential part of the band's catalouge that you can't just pretend they never existed. Fleetwood Mac began life as a straight-ahead blues band, named after its rhythem section: drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. The group's calling card, however, was the twin-guitar attack of Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who wielded a sure, sensitive hand with their oft-abused source material. Fleetwood Mac and English Rose revolved around Green's economical lead lines and slide work. Carlos Santana plucked the guitar solo nearly intact for his own enduring version of Mac's "Black Magic Woman" off of English Rose. Fleetwood Mac in Chicago finds the band playing in the Windy City with its American blues heroes, including Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon. Then Play On is Fleetwood Mac's transition from blue purists to a band that blends elements of psychedelia and British folk rock into a cool, blues-based stew. Adding third guitarist, Danny Kirwan, and emphasizing Mick Fleetwood's adventurous rhythmic sense alongside Green's virtuosity, the group conjures a sparse, propulsive sound that's more reminiscent of the American West than Chicago or the Memphis Delta. On the epic "Oh Well," an itchy electric-acoustic shuffle turns into a stately semiclassical with echoes of that old spaghetti-western soundtrack music. More compact cuts like "Coming Your Way" and "Before the Beginning" pack the tangled guitar lines into clear melodic structures, while "Rattlesnake Shake" proves those guitar strings can still sputter and burn when required. The gentle harmonies of Kirwan's "Although The Sun Is Shining" showcase British progressive folk rock at its most spare and beautiful, as well as hints of Fleetwood Mac's future, more pop-oriented sound. After Then Play On, Green split the band. With Kirwan and Spencer in control, Kiln House is a low-key charmer, radically different from what folks were expected from the blues-based Mac. Balancing spare folk and country songs with earnest nods to early rock & roll, the album is at once electric and cohesive. The gently rocking tributes to Buddy Holly (all three of them!) point out the difference between loose and sloppy, while the orgasmic guitar workouts (all three of them!) build to lazy, quivering peaks. Spencer left shortly after the album came out, and Fleetwood Mac was down to one guitarist. The addition of Christie McVie on keyboard and vocals turned out to be an important choice. Spencer's replacement, Bob Welch, was another matter: he never quite gelled with the rest of the band despite his years of trying. Flashes of Fleetwood Mac's latter-day pop can be found throughout the band's next set of transitional albums: the smooth talk of Kirwan's title track to Bare Trees; Christine's disarming "Show Me A Smile" (from Future Games); her breezingly, melodic "Remember Me" (from Penguin) and "Just Crazy Love" (from Mystery to Me); and her stately ballad "Come a Little Bit Closer" (from Heroes Are Hard To Find). Taken individually, these fair-to-middling albums are too scattershot to hold much interest. When Kirwan left the group shortly after Bare Trees came out, Fleetwood Mac floundered for several years- split between the heavy-handed pseudo-mysticism of Welch and the gentle, mainstream pop-rock balladry of Christie McVie. The group nearly split up for good and when Welch left in 1976, the McVies and Fleetwood were back at square-one. Insert Stevie-mother-fucking-Nicks! Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were a young, Southern California folk-rock duo with one unremarkable album (Buckingham Nicks) under their belt when they joined Fleetwood Mac. Nick's sultry voice and Buckingham's songwriting knack focused the group's fledgling pop ambitions. On Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album of 1975, Nicks and Buckingham not only fit in, but stimulated the core trio, turning the group into a hit-making machine at the point Fleetwood Mac was about to become has-beens. Christie McVie responded to Buckingham-Nicks material with a brace of catchy songs, while John McVie and Mick Fleetwood lent their blues-rock punch to the smoothed-out mix. The result is easy-listening pop with a kick, and it was just what mainstream fans were looking for in the mid '70s. By the following year, Fleetwood Mac was at #1, easily outdistancing all the band's previous efforts. The album kicks off with Buckingham's infectious "Monday Morning" and then builds to new levels of pop-music pleasure with each subsequent track. "Rhiannon" established Nicks' seductive,  serene-like presence, while "Say You Love Me"  unfurls Christine McVie's wry melodic age. Unlike many blockbusters, the surrounding songs nearly equal the hits. In addition to the bouncy opener, Buckingham struts his tuneful stuff on the heavy centerpiece "World Turning" and soulful closer "I'm So Afraid." What's more, the slow tracks never impinge on the album's overall pace. Rumours is even better. Using the same formula that propelled Fleetwood Mac, the band upped the quality of songs. Not only did the album go to #1, it stayed there for 31 weeks! Fleetwood Mac's cast of voices cuts even deeper when you consider that the two couples in the band were breaking up as the album went down. Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way" and Nicks' "Dreams" spell out two clear takes on  a romantic dilemma. Rumours can be heard as a conversation among a loose circle of estranged lovers,culminating with "The Chain" (which was written by the entire group). After striking such a perfect balance between self-expression and commercial appeal, Fleetwood Mac succumbed to studio artiness. The double-disc Tusk reveals Buckinham's secret fixation: to become Brian Wilson with a touch of Brian Eno thrown in. "Sara" maintains the band's pop profile, but the bulk of Tusk sounds cold and fussy next to the emotional heat of Rumours. On Mirage, Fleetwood Mac returns to simple pleasures, but the band seems to have lost its spirit. Reconvening five years later on Tango In The Night, the group carries on as if it were still 1982- or 1977. The hits "Big Love" and especially Christine McVie's "Little Lies" surge with all the relaxed soft-rock grace of yore but none of the quiet fire, hinting at a premature nostalgia. Buckingham quit the band prior to the 1987 tour; in retrospect, this was the last straw that broke this venerable band's back. Buckingham's replacements added very little to Behind the Mask. When Nicks left shortly after that album's release, Fleetwood Mac entered yet another phase, though short-lived. In spite of a new line-up change with impressive vocals and guitar-work, Time proved to be a full on bore. Fleetwood Mac's '70s-era lineup reunited for The Dance, but it seemed to be more of a business decision than an atheistic one. In an MTV Unplugged-like setting, the band unavoidably devotes most of the album to repeats of its peak-era hits, bringing nothing fresh to the table. The best cuts are the new ones by Buckingham ("Bleed to Lover Her" and "My Little Demon"), but they get buried in the nostalgia fest. For a band that practically became a brand-name franchise in the late '70s, Fleetwood Mac set a standard of quality that's proven tough to maintain- or equal. Not surprisingly, for an act as schizophrenic as Fleetwood Mac, none of its greatest hits adequately captures the band. The Pious Bird of Good Omen is an excellent overview of the group's early Peter Green period, and The Very Best Of packages a decent collection of the Nicks-Buckingham era. The band members have kept busy since then. They even did a farewell tour, kicking Lindsay Buckingham out (in typical Fleetwood Mac fashion) right before heading out on the road. Who knows? If you ask Stevie, she'll tell you it's because she wanted to enjoy the last couple of years of the band touring. Lindsay and Christie McVie did an E.P. together recently. But nothing will ever capture the magic of this band's rise and ultimately, their demise. This band's evolution from blues outfit to pop superstars came slowly but dramatically. Few bands last as long or deserve as much praise as this band gets. That's just a fact.
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Fleetwood Mac

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