Sam Graham's Before the Beginning

[michelej1]

Houston Press New Books Explore Fleetwood Mac's Vast Appetites and Sam Graham's book

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/..._tr.php?page=2

By Bob Ruggiero Wed., Dec. 3 2014 at 4:00 AM


For an additional take on Fleetwood Mac, there is former Record World Assistant Editor Sam Graham's eBook, Before the Beginning: A Personal and Opinionated History of Fleetwood Mac.

The title is somewhat misleading, as it is largely a sort of postmortem on Graham's brief time with the band as a traveling reporter on the Rumours tour and as he gathered interviews for the 1978 (long out-of-print) book Fleetwood Mac: The Authorized History.

There are really no recording insights or road tales, save one incident when Stevie Nicks accidentally falls into Graham's lap during a plane ride -- surely the epitome of a memorable incident, at least for a reporter. And much of the book actually traces the band's history before Rumours.

What makes the eBook interesting, though, are the more than 30 audio-interview clips rescued from Graham's long-moldering cassette tapes. The info he elicits from Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and Christine McVie at the near-cusp of their fame (and hearing their actual voices) are all fascinating, especially McVie's.

Graham seems just as interested in charting the band's earlier history, and audio segments also include comments from former Mac members Jeremy Spencer, Bob Welch and early producer Mike Vernon.

Other interactive elements include Graham's handwritten notes from a talk with Mac founding father Peter Green (his cassette recorder was on the blink), as well as former manager Clifford Davis, who put a completely fake lineup of the band on tour during a legal and musical downtime for the band.

[michelej1]

I have this book and it's really great. On almost every page there's a little audio "play" button and you hit it and can hear the band member being interviewed. I wouldn't say that the excerpts are exciting in and of themselves, but hearing them in the band's own voices without having to sift through Youtube content or old recordings collected from 35 years ago is magical.

As for Stevie falling into Graham's lap while fooling around on the plane, it was just a funny thing. He knew it was either (1) an accident, (2) she did it on purpose to give the naive writer a little thrill, or (3) she wanted him. But he says that last bit quite tongue in cheek.

But it's interesting to hear the interviews of Christine talking about auditions to replace Jeremy and then hiring Bob Welch without him having to play a note or Bob Welch talking about Danny and how he didn't feel he could say anything because he was new. He mentions once how Danny didn't do a show, but sat and watched them play in his absence and then critiqued their show afterwards. It made me laugh. It reminds me of reading about the Brady Bunch production fights. Robert Reed would get mad at the producers and he wouldn't work, but he would be on the set watching them tape the show without him.

Anyway, Graham's stories aren't new, but the ebook let's us experience (hear) them in a new way. In fact, the only multi-media ebook I've ever enjoyed more is the one with Jacqueline Kennedy that allowed you to listen to Jackie's interviews and see video clips, as you read.

Michele

[Sam]

Many thanks to Michele for her kind words about my book, Before the Beginning. One minor thing: The Stevie-in-my-lap bit happened on a tour bus, not a plane -- but while the story is real, I appreciate that you get that my take on it is tongue in cheek.

I'm in the final stages of a website for the book. For those who haven't seen/heard it (a free sample is available in the iBooks store, by the way), the new site will have a brief video with some of the audio clips excerpted; I'm working on a second video as we speak (as it were). I hope Mac fans will like it, and consider giving my book a shot - it's only $4.99!

I'll post again here as soon as the site is up, which should be within a week at most.

Sam Graham

[michelej1]

[click to hear the audio interview]

http://wgnradio.com/2015/03/04/delvi...active-e-book/

Delving deep into the lore of Fleetwood Mac with an interactive e-Book

Posted 11:48 PM, March 4, 2015, by dlongwgnam

Rick Kogan visits with author (and former classmate) Sam Graham, who is following up on his authorized history of Fleetwood Mac with a new e-Book: “Before the Beginning: A Personal and Opinionated History of Fleetwood Mac”. The book features an interactive array of audio interviews, letters, promotional materials, hand-written transcripts and other visuals to explore the long history of the band.

[michelej1]

http://www.heraldrecorder.com/entert...und-h1810.html

Herald Recorder

E-book is a Fleetwood Mac flashback in words and sound

To have an understanding of keenly the modifications that have taken spot in well-liked music over the final decades one will need only to listen to Sam Graham inform of the New Year's Eve 1968 concert he attended at the extended-gone Kinetic Playground...

To have an understanding of keenly the modifications that have taken spot in well-liked music over the final decades one will need only to listen to Sam Graham inform of the New Year's Eve 1968 concert he attended at the extended-gone Kinetic Playground on the North Side. He was 16 and a student at the Latin College (exactly where we were classmates). He does not don't forget who he was with but he certainly remembers who he saw.

"Fleetwood Mac was the opening act," he says. "Then there was Muddy Waters and his band. He was fabulous, not the avuncular, just-delighted-to-be-right here Muddy of his later years but a more unsafe version. The headliner was the Byrds. They have been OK, not wonderful. Fleetwood Mac made a lasting impression. And I believe tickets for the complete thing were $five."

Caption Fleetwood Mac John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) See much more galleries Caption Fleetwood Mac John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune) See far more galleries Caption Fleetwood Mac John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune Christine McVie (keyboards) of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. Christine McVie (keyboards) of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune) See additional galleries Caption Fleetwood Mac John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac performs at the United Center. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune) See a lot more galleries Caption Fleetwood Mac John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune A concertgoer films the Fleetwood Mac performance at the United Center. A concertgoer films the Fleetwood Mac efficiency at the United Center. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune) See extra galleries
After graduating from high school and attending Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., exactly where he earned a degree in music history, he came back right here to function in a record shop and drive a cab ahead of heading out to Los Angeles in 1976.

"I barely knew what I was doing at that point," he says. "I moved to LA in order to get into the music business. I was a fledgling writer with quite small encounter. By way of a pal of a buddy, I just lucked into the job of writing a book, component of a series of books about rock and roll bands."

The deal came from Warner Music and Warner Books. The band was Fleetwood Mac.

lRelated MusicReview: Fleetwood Mac at the United CenterSee all related8
"The timing was excellent. The band was just beginning to come to be large," says Graham. "It had had a hit single, 'Rhiannon,' from its most recent album, 'Fleetwood Mac,' Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had lately joined the band (which integrated at the time, and still, founder Mick Fleetwood and when-married John and Christie McVie). It was in the process of mixing and recording a new album, and even though I was with them on the road a bit, I spent most of the time in LA as they have been mixing and recording what would be 'Rumours.'"

"Rumours," released in 1977, would make superstars of the band members. It stayed at the leading of the Billboard 200 for 31 nonconsecutive weeks. That magazine and other business publications named it album of the year for 1977. It won a 1978 Grammy as album of the year. It has sold practically 30 million copies, the fourth-finest-promoting album in rock 'n' roll history.

Graham's book, "The Authorized History — Fleetwood Mac," was released in 1978 and did not do really as effectively. It sold, Graham says, "Oh, perhaps 26 copies."

So, flip ahead decades. 3 years ago Graham was approached by a publisher about the possibility of updating his book. "I started rummaging about my old components to see what, if anything, I had kept," he says. "I am not a pack rat, so I was in fact astonished that I identified a lot of my original investigation, like cassette tapes of interviews. Some were in poor shape but there was a lot that was salvageable."

He did not take that book present but as an alternative was determined to produce a thing new. And so, in collaboration with his girlfriend, visual artist and designer Kirsten Huntley, he utilized mementos of his time with the band to style a wonderful and engrossing e-book titled "Before the Starting: A Personal and Opinionated History of Fleetwood Mac."

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"This format was thrilling for us," he says, and it is for readers too. It delivers not only Graham's forthright feelings, crucial eye and truthful memories in deft and polished prose, but also an interactive array of audio interviews, letters, promotional materials, hand-written transcripts and other visuals to discover the extended history of the band.

Click on an icon and you view the poster from the band's long-ago Kinetic Playground concert. Click on an icon and hear the voice of Nicks commenting on the band's legendarily flawed former member, guitarist Peter Green. She calls him a "lost soul."

There are additional than 30 audio clips in the book and, says Graham, with common self-effacement, "Some of my early interviewing capabilities are cringeworthy. If I had it to do more than again I would ask considerably greater queries."

But there is an intimacy to the interviews, supplying frank answers that would develop into not possible in the coming glare of superstardom. And Graham's writing displays a deep information of and affection for the band. He writes, "('Rumours') was, and is, an practically excellent pop record, but when you revisit the turmoil that went into the recording procedure, it really is a minor miracle that it got created at all."

The book is obtainable on iTunes at a expense of $4.99, or less than a shot glass or mug on the band's merchandising website.

Graham nonetheless does some other writing but is mostly busy as a yoga instructor and playing with his Sam Graham Trio. He's the guitarist, and his jazz band plays clubs and private events.

"We are usually competing for jobs with DJs," he says. "I just try to convince possible consumers that there is absolutely nothing like reside music."

Fleetwood Mac is in the midst of its "On With the Show" tour, which began last year in the U.S. and continues into July with concerts right here and in the U.K. (the band was here for two shows in early October at the United Center).

Graham did not see the group when it played eight dates about California in November and December. And he has only seen Chicago — the city, not the band — infrequently over the decades. His final trip was 5 years ago, for his 40th higher college reunion. But he was back a handful of weeks ago with Huntley, and they visited an old buddy of Graham's and a relative of Huntley's, had a handful of fantastic meals, heard some jazz at Andy's and visited the Art Institute.

"There is a high quality (in Chicago) that is so stimulating," he mentioned by telephone after returning to Los Angeles. "It is significantly more dynamic than LA. Getting there filled me with a mixture of fantastic nostalgia and of-the-moment excitement."

They did not travel north to take a look at the web site of the Kinetic Playground, place of the very first Fleetwood Mac-Sam Graham encounter. That club closed for keeps in 1973 and the developing was demolished in 2003 to make way for a condominium complicated. Time moves on. And so it goes.

"After Hours With Rick Kogan" airs 9-11 p.m. Sundays on WGN-AM 720.