1975, `76, `77, `78. `79.....
Look, I was a kid. I didn't listen to the radio or rock music much. I liked Alice Cooper. And The Beatles (arguably, this has pretty much defined my tastes ever since). Most of the rest I heard I found pretty boring. In retrospect, that's because it was pretty boring.
Oh, and I heard Fleetwood Mac. Boy, did I hear Fleetwood Mac.
And I hated Fleetwood Mac.
Even the name sounded like a fast-food cheeseburger.
Yooooooooooooooo - yoo make luvvin' fun!
Gack! Whadda buncha shit!
And it was everywhere. Everywhere! You couldn't escape it! It came at you in the store, on the street, on TV, every damn place.
As I got older and my tastes expanded (artist, if not style-wise), I hated Fleetwood Mac even more. "Mellow Rock" they called it. Bleauch! El Lay Cocaine Barf Music is what I'd call it. And that's that. I hated Stevie Nicks' coked-out scrape and everything else about the damn band.
Over the years, I did become aware that earlier editions of FM had been a blues band with a hot guitar player who was said to have given Eric Clapton a run for his money. So what? By my 20's I'd developed a significant jones against white blues bands (outside of the Stones, Animals, and Yardbirds - and maybe a few others). I didn't give a shit they'd played with John Mayall.
No, Fleetwood Mac sucked, probably had always sucked, and damn if they still didn't suck.
In the late 80's, I had this job in a bookstore. After closing, we'd often crank a little music while we cleaned up. One night, the gal in charge of the shift threw on Fleetwood Mac. Oh, blech, I thought to myself. Stuck with this shit.
Then I heard the stuttering beat, the guitars that seemed to come tumbling down the rhythm section.
Loving you, is it the right thing to do...
Okay, dammit, I had to admit - this was catchy.
Okay, dammit, I had to admit - this rocked.
Okay, dammit, I had to admit - "Go Your Own Way" was damn good - make that great - fucking song.
You know you're onto something really good when you like something you emphatically don't want to like.
I didn't go out and buy Rumours, though.
(meanwhile)
So I went on with my life and very happily never heard Fleetwood Mac. And then, maybe two dozen years later...
(interlude two)
It's early 2001 and I'm sitting in a movie theater. And they're playing rock music over the PA. And, oh joy - it's fucking Fleetwood Mac! Bleeuch! Stuck listening to this shit. Damn.
And then, the rather mysterious music, creeping out of the speakers...
Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise
Eerie, simple, almost like a haiku
Run in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies
The song builds. An ominous beat. The singer demands sex, love, surrender. Love me NOW; you will NEVER love me again; you must NEVER break the chain. It is all commands. So much force. This is no pop song. The music and the lyrics are too menacing, too demanding. As they ride the bass line out, I know I've just heard myself a mother of a record.
(meanwhile)
Well, in case you're worried that I became a convert to the Mac, or to seventies soft-rock in general, fear not. After the two big hits (Fleetwood Mac and Rumours) they made the very weird Tusk, which contains the title track, as song I actually found interesting back when (using a high school marching band as the backbone of a pop song is pretty unique). Then they completely succumbed to pop and that was as far as I've ever cared to follow FM.
But what about the early days? Well, I paid no further attention till I heard their version of "Rattlesnake Shake" on Launchcast one day. Son-of-a-bitch - that ROCKED! All bad blues vibes and stormin' guitar and a singer sounding like he was about to blow. So I finally got interested in the early Fleetwood Mac.
I would like to report that the Peter Green-era Mac stuff was loaded with genius, but that's not quite the case. In fact, I'd say they were good for one or two outstanding songs per album; the rest were solid but unspectacular British blues-rock; well played and yes, Green's guitar playing is remarkable, but not so much as to thrill me.
Except those one or two outstanding tracks per album...
Because when they stepped out, they stepped out all the way. They suddenly metamorphose from a standard-issue British blues band into an overpowering blues-rock monster ("Black Magic Woman", "Love That Burns", "Rattlesnake Shake"), bordering on Beefheart-ian intensity and ramshackle power ("Shake Your Moneymaker"). Then there's the truly bizarre (and awesome) Buddy Holly rips onKiln House, Jeremy Spencer's insane solo album (which is of a piece with the early Mac catalog), the rockabilly rave-up "Somebody's Gonna Get His Head Kicked In Tonight" - which wouldn't sound inappropriate coming from Graham Parker, or The Cramps, or Tav Falco or Billy Childish, and flat-out weirdness such as the country pastiche "Blood on the Floor" or "The Green Manalishi", which sounds like what might have happened if Derek and the Dominoes had wandered into Alice Cooper's Love It To Death sessions (right around the time they were laying down "Black Juju") and started joining in the fun. This stuff is seriously powerful, weird, unexpected - and your jaw's gonna drop when you hear it and think this is Fleetwood Mac???Well, time fades away and Fleetwood Mac are now something mom and dad (or shit, maybe grandma and grandpa, now) listen to. And I don't have to hear their shitty 70's soft rock anymore. But I have nice little homemade compilation (I love MP3's) with "The Chain" and "Go Your Own Way" and "Tusk" and a few of the better moments off of Fleetwood Mac/Rumours/Tusk, and every now and then I get the yen to hear it again and - damn those songs still kick in hard for me.
And I have another nifty homemade comp of the Peter Green days, and every now and then I pop that one in and it makes my jaw drop to think this is Fleetwood Mac - and also because it kicks ass.
Essential Listening
I don't know what to tell you. None of the early albums are great, most are good, and all contain one or two outstanding moments, some of which are listed above. Explore for yourself. Live at the BBC, credited to both Peter Green and the Mac, is a good place to start - several winners there. There's several compilations from this era - none of them definitive, to me. My vote is to download the best tracks and make your own, as I did. I'd rate the Green-era albums, roughly in order of preference as, Kiln House, Then Play On, English Rose, The Original Fleetwood Mac, Mr. Wonderful, Fleetwood Mac (first album), and Jeremy Spencer's first solo album.
I have no use for anything in the Bob Welch era, or anything after Tusk, so that leaves Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk. Even a grouch like me managed to get a CD's worth out of those. Go nuts.
Wiki
Allmusic
Cool private page with all kinds of info on all the incarnations
