[Blueletter18]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Here's a bit from 1973, from Mick's book

Mystery to Me was probably the best Fleetwood Mac album since Peter Green had left the band three years earlier, and was also the biggest hit we had in the early 1970s. Bob Welch wrote most of the record, including the album's best-known song.

" 'Hypnotized' was originally written for Dave Walker as a 6/8 blues screamer," Bob says. "After Walker was fired I rewrote the piece in Christine's kitchen so I could sing it instead. At the time I was very influenced by the books I was reading, like Carlos Castaneda and material on the Bermuda Triangle that whole area where the paranormal intrudes upon reality. The other influence on that song was the general atmosphere at Benifols, which was rather spooky and strange, even in the summertime. There was an odd, ethereal mood around those grounds all the time, and a feeling that anything could happen. I was reading about, as the Iyric says, 'a place down in Mexico where man can fly over mountains and hills,' and one night I had a vivid dream that a UFO piloted by a Navajo shaman landed on our overgrown grass tennis court one moonlit night. That was the feeling that went into 'Hypnotized.' Chris helped a lot with the new tempo and the mood. I remember listening to the playback with her. She looked at me and said, 'It gives me the willies, Bob.' I felt the same way, even after a hundred playbacks."

Bob wrote most of the album, whose title comes from a phrase in his song "Emerald Eyes." He also authored "In the City," "Somebody," a great tune called "Miles Away," and "Keep On Going," which Chris sang. We had another track as well, "Good Things," but it was dropped for a version of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" at Bob Weston's suggestion. We were very laissezfaire in those days, and said what the hell.

I do love Mystery to Me- I think it's really underrated (as most pre-BN Mac albums are), and I especially like Emerald Eyes, Just Crazy Love, and Why. The band did seem much more fun and relaxed in those days.