And here I find myself exploring my Top 10 Fleetwood Mac tracks. A couple of surprises for me, many are not surprising. The winning album is 1975’s Fleetwood Mac which scores three of the Top 10 songs. Biggest surprise was that Rumours is only represented once. And most surprising? Neither of those albums show up in the Top 3! I was also surprised that 6 different Mac albums have songs in the Top 10. Much more spread out than I would have expected. Now let’s see how things play out, with Stevie Nicks kicking us off.
#10 – Angel (Nicks) Tusk (1979)
I’ve always loved this upbeat, jaunty Tusk cut by Stevie Nicks. If I were to describe “Angel” using shorthand, I would say it was Stevie Nicks’ version of a Christine McVie song! Stevie wanted to right a light-hearted rock & roll song when she started writing “Angel.” And while it starts out like that, lyrically and stylistically it gradually morphs into a more traditional Nicks number.
There are a couple of theories as to the themes of the song. I read somewhere that it “Angel” references Nicks’ affair with Mick Fleetwood. Another source cited “Angel” as the second song Nicks wrote about the Welsh Rhiannon legend. I do love the line, “I still look up when you walk in the room.” There are those people who have been in your life, whether long-term or short, that just capture your attention whenever they’re in the same room as you. Stevie does a great job capturing that reflection of a past relationship well.
Musically, it’s actually quite stripped down and bare. Simple bass, drums, electric piano kick things off, and pretty much carry the entire song. Lindsey adds his guitar licks throughout, but they are not flashy, and are there really to add texture. During the long coda, there are some layered, “ooohs,” to fill out the sound, but otherwise, it’s spare sound fits well on Tusk. The distortion on Christine’s electric piano at the start adds to that feel. John McVie’s got a great, rolling bass part throughout. I also enjoy the way the harmony parts throughout jump from person to person. Most notably it’s Lindsey, then there’s a section with Christine, then there are a couple of parts where Stevie overdubs herself. It adds a layer of interest for the listener.
Stevie is also known for her long, ad-libbed fades where she often introduces new heretofore unheard lyrics. “Angel” has one of my favorites, just before the fade out, “Oh they tried hard, but you’ll never catch me, yeah, yeah.” For videos Ive included the 2015 remastered track from Tusk, and also a live version from the Tusk tour. Stevie and the whole band actually look like they’re having a lot of fun performing the song, and it’s so funny how the audience just goes nuts whenever Lindsey and Stevie interact. And the three-part harmonies sound great. Glad to see this long-time favorite from Tusk made it to my Top 10.
#9 – Hold Me (McVie, C., Patton) Mirage (1982)
Mirage hasn’t aged as well as its earlier ’70’s counterparts. It’s overproduced and slick, nearly to the point of coldness, but “Hold Me”, its lead single, and another stellar Christine McVie/Lindsey Buckingham duet has a special place in my heart. I remember hearing it for the first time. It had been a long time since Fleetwood Mac had released Tusk (1979), at least for those days, and to hear Christine’s piano prominently featured in the opening bars thrilled me. Christine wrote the song with her friend Robbie Patton (whose second album she produced) and then reworked it with Fleetwood Mac. It was inspired by the recent ending of her relationship with former Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson. It is one of Fleetwood Mac’s most successful songs, spending four weeks at #4 on Billboard’s Top 100.
Underneath all the slick production, there’s a pretty standard Christine McVie “longing-for-love” song at the heart. An early version of the song was recorded that was sung as a solo part by Christine, and features Stevie’s harmonies much more up front, rather than washed into the mix. As often is the case, like “Angel” and many of Christine’s songs, the song if powered by the solid bass, drums, piano combo, so essential in Fleetwood Mac. Christine plays both acoustic and electric piano, and kicks things off with a highly recognizable piano riff that repeats in the break after the guitar solo. Some surprising power chords come in on the chorus, and lead up to a frankly soaring electric guitar color and some acoustic guitar flourishes high up in the mix before the chorus repeats to the end. Lindsey adds a lot of odd flourishes, like what sounds like the bark of a dog repeating in the chorus. It’s what takes this standard pop song and gives it some quirkiness. Surprisingly, for a song that did so well for the band, it’s not performed live too often. It was played during the Mirage tour, Buckingham and McVie’s recent tour, and then their latest tours without Lindsey, and Neil Finn on vocals.
Perhaps most memorable about “Hold Me” is it was the band’s first release post-MTV launch, and featured an elaborate video, shot in the Mojave Desert, in the middle of summer, with temperatures over 100 degrees! The surreal video, based on several Magrettie paintings, was apparently a nightmare to shoot. The relationships between band members were strained, and the videos director said they were not easy to work with. The entire band was never seen together in any scenes. Stevie Nicks was quoted: “It was so hot, and we weren’t getting along.” Lindsey Buckingham was still not over their breakup six years earlier, nor her subsequent affair with Mick Fleetwood with whom the rest of the band was pretty angry because he had then begun an affair with Nicks’ best friend who left her husband as a result. Director Steve Barron said, “Four of them, I can’t recall which four, couldn’t be together in the same room for very long. They didn’t want to be there. John McVie was drunk and tried to punch me. Stevie Nicks didn’t want to walk on the sand with her platforms. Christine McVie was fed up with all of them. Mick thought she was being a bitch, he wouldn’t talk to her.” To make matters worse, Christine added, “And I’d be the first one to admit that none of us were stone-cold sober. There was a fair degree of alcohol and drugs going on.” Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the result is one of my favorite Mac videos.
Below is the video in question, and I’ve also included the early version referenced above.
#8 – Landslide (Nicks) Fleetwood Mac (1975)
One of Stevei’s most enduring, well-known songs, “Landslide,” like “Crystal” is about reflection… and turning points. Stevie wrote the song in 1973, as a 25-year-old who’d recorded an album with her long-time partner, and was then subsequently dropped from her record label. Lindsey was hired to tour with the Everly Brothers, and Stevie stayed with a friend in Aspen, Colorado, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. During her stay, she pondered whether to give up the musician’s life to go back to school, or work full-time. Obviously, she ultimately decided to keep going, and three months later, Mick Fleetwood asked the pair to join Fleetwood Mac. The imagery in the song, of snow-covered hills, and landslides was inspired by her surroundings.
Musically, the song is just Stevie singing to Lindsey’s acoustic guitar accompaniment. I believe it’s a 12-string on the recording… the sound is very lush and full. There’s a gentle electric guitar solo (that in early concerts, Christine played on electric piano) but that’s it. A beautiful song for its simplicity.
“Landslide” has always been a popular song from the band. It had a resurgence in the late 90’s after the band’s reunion performance and subsequent live album, “The Dance,” where it was released as a single. It’s interesting to think about the song and its meaning for a 25-year-old Nicks, and a 50-year-old Nicks. I actually far prefer the original version of the song, with a young Nicks, whose voice was still strong yet vulnerable. The fragility was there, but so was the control. There’s a purity but also a wisdom in her singing on that 1975 recording. This was the Stevie Nicks before her voice suffered from extensive touring, before the cocaine abuse, before they elaborate mysticism became part of her persona. She was the young and scrappy daughter of a country singer who wanted to make it big. There is hope, and confidence both in “Landslide,” and it remains one of my favorite Mac tracks.
#7 – Think About Me (McVie, C.) Tusk (1979)
About three years ago I rediscovered this song and went nuts for it. I had forgotten all about it! This Christine McVie gem from Tusk is pure McVie, but with the Buckingham’s Tusk-era hard-edged fingerprints all over it. One writer from PopMatters praised the song as “the unlikeliest of things: a McVie rocker — A near-perfect punk number that snuck in below the radar” and that it was “anchored by her electric piano, Buckingham’s fuzzed-up ‘Day Tripper’-esque riff, and the most sarcastic lyrics of McVie’s career,” referring to the couplet, “I don’t hold you down/Maybe that’s why you’re around.” “Think About Me” was released as the third single from Tusk following “Tusk,” and “Sara,” and climbed to #20, but I think it’s an often forgotten hit from the Fleetwood Mac catalog.
It jumps on top of you with bombastic intro that I just love. There a rat-a-tat of snare drum, then Buckingham’s grungy guitar and Christine’s distorted electric piano lay the groundwork, with John McVie’s fantastic bass guitar riff heralding the gorgeous vocals. It’s funny, I always remember this as another fantastic McVie/Buckingham duet, but in fact, it’s not. It’s really Christine on lead vocals, and Lindsey and Stevie providing their trademark three-part harmonies with her on the chorus. In fact, an early version of the song on one of their compilation albums feature just Christine and Stevie singing. There are multiple remixes of this song, and i couldn’t decide which one to leave here, but the more I listen to it, the grungier it gets, and I love that. It really is a nice rascal of a song. I really thought it might get into the Top 5, because I just love this song, but no dice. And at 2 minutes and 42 seconds it’s just way too short.
#6 – Songbird (McVie, C.) Rumours (1977)
Christine’s gorgeous, and generous ballad is certainly her signature number as the concert closer for almost every tour that band has embarked upon. There is certainly no better note to leave a concert on than this sweet piano ballad about love. A heartfelt and powerful expression of love, “Songbird” is about no one and everyone, according to McVie. She goes on to explain that it’s about the members of the band who were going through hard times with longtime couples breaking up. The “songbirds” are the members of the band, and the song is about how much they mean to McVie, and the need for them to get along with each other and keep singing and playing together. It’s a lovely balm to counterbalance the anger of some of the other songs on Rumours.
McVie wrote the song late in the Rumours recording process. Producer Ken Caillat loved the track and suggested she record it alone in a concert style approach. It was recorded live at the Zellerbach Auditorium, on March 3, 1976, with Christine playing the piano and singing while Lindsey strummed the acoustic guitar offstage to keep time. 15 microphones were set up around the auditorium to capture the live feel. To create the appropriate ambience, Caillat ordered a bouquet of flowers to place on her piano. He then requested three spotlights to illuminate the flowers from above. When McVie arrived at the auditorium, the house lights were dimmed so her attention was immediately brought to the illuminated flowers on the piano. I’ve included the album version as well as the live version from “The Dance.” There’s nary a difference over the years. She sounds as beautiful as ever.