Chicago Sun-Times article

Livia · #1 03-03-2009, 11:50 AM

CONCERT PREVIEW | Buckingham: 'There are still things for us to work out emotionally'

March 3, 2009

BY THOMAS CONNER tconner@suntimes.com

Lindsey Buckingham is attempting to explain why his on-again, off-again megastar band, Fleetwood Mac, is on the road again without an album to support. Nothing to sell. Just the classic band (himself, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood -- still no Christine McVie), together again, playing the hits. He provides lots of deeply considered reasons, yadda yadda -- but then he says something extraordinary.

"Maybe someone came to the conclusion that it might not be a bad time to go out and do some dates to use as hang time, as a proving ground," he says. "It's an inverted model, for sure, but there's something to it."

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Proving ground? What could Fleetwood Mac -- author of one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, 1977's "Rumours" -- possibly have to prove at this point?

Buckingham chuckles. He's used to people straining to square his massive insecurities with his equally massive successes.

"In a general sense, every time you get together to do something new, you have to start thinking after all these years there are still things for us to work out emotionally, historically. We are a band of couples who broke up and got through it living in various states of denial and never getting closure -- at least from my perspective -- and it leaves a lot of stuff hanging out there.

"I took off in '87 to regain my sanity, and the band died a slow death without me. That didn't make me feel too bad," he snickers. "Without sounding too vindictive, it was nice to know they needed me. ... But we're still a work in progress in terms of those interactions. There are still things that need to be worked through."

Kind of amazing, isn't it? More than 30 years after Buckingham and Nicks split up at the dawn of the band's success, the "issues" remain that palpable between them. He still considers the band a "band of couples who broke up." And that was always part of the appeal -- the telenovela-like drama and tension between two of the fiercest artistic personalities in Southern California.

Buckingham, at least, still hopes to harness that tension for more musical magic. He and the other members seem to be viewing this tour as a casual way for the quartet to settle a bit, to get back into some kind of rhythm that would produce a new record.

It's the elephant in the room that each member treads carefully around.

"There have been discussions, for sure, that we would love to make some more music," said founding drummer Mick Fleetwood, during an earlier teleconference with the band. "I think it's really down to the whole sort of biorhythms of how everyone is feeling and what's appropriate."

They're still so careful when speaking of each other, except Nicks, who remarked -- with discernable astonishment -- how well they were all getting on so far and added, "Lindsey has been in incredibly good humor since we started rehearsal. When Lindsey is in a good humor, everybody is in a good humor."

They still look to him, take their cues from him, and he remains the band's creative linchpin. The last few Mac albums he was on -- you know, the successful ones -- each began as Buckingham solo projects that the record label and the band begged to turn into band efforts. "Tango in the Night" sounds like his crystalline solo work with a few warmer Nicks and McVie songs added. Buckingham had asked Fleetwood and bassist John McVie to back him on another solo album that, with the addition of four Nicks songs, became Fleetwood Mac's 2003 comeback CD, "Say You Will."

But he'd like that pattern to change.

After "Say You Will," Buckingham told the band to leave him alone for three years, during which he exorcised two back-to-back solo discs: the quieter, almost indie-rock outing "Under the Skin" in 2006, and last year's slightly harder rocking "Gift of Screws." As a result, Buckingham says he feels refreshed and at the height of his creative powers.

"Having accomplished what I wanted to do with both solo albums, I'm really in the best place I've been artistically," he says. "I tapped into things I wanted to get to for a long time. And I have a lot of new material -- I could drop another solo album at any time -- but no one's talking yet about a new Mac album, at least for a while. Still, I'm pointedly not fleshing out my new stuff, so that I might be able to show it to the band and let it take on a life in the context of that.

"The way we used to do it, we'd each have rough ideas and would get together and the songs would get formulized and brought into some sort of life for the first time through a set of Fleetwood Mac eyes. More often than not, over the last few experiences it's been my solo material that had to be slightly altered to make it feel more Fleetwood Mac-like. So I'd really welcome the chance to come to these people with things a little less fleshed out, something that might be born as Fleetwood Mac rather than being just ... painted like it."

So he speaks of this tour as a "way to create a level of ferment" among the band again, and adds uncharacteristic optimism of "bringing things to light in a more organic way by being together without a real reason."

The question is: Do you want to pay $50 to $150 for a ticket to watch four grizzled but talented music makers "hang" and "ferment"? Buckingham says the band is not using the tour as an expensive woodshed.

"We've very pointedly stuck to catalog for this tour," he says, adding, "There is still validity in looking at this body of work, the irony being that this is what most people want to hear from us, anyway. I figure, let's make our mantra just hanging and working on the rough edges in terms of personal interactions with band members. That in itself will be part of the preparation for making an album, whenever that does happen."

skcin · #2 03-03-2009, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livia

"The way we used to do it, we'd each have rough ideas and would get together and the songs would get formulized and brought into some sort of life for the first time through a set of Fleetwood Mac eyes. More often than not, over the last few experiences it's been my solo material that had to be slightly altered to make it feel more Fleetwood Mac-like. So I'd really welcome the chance to come to these people with things a little less fleshed out, something that might be born as Fleetwood Mac rather than being just ... painted like it."

Good idea. Maybe that's why SYW wasn't quite right. I still love the album, and I think it's good. But it is somehow missing some of the magic of the older albums, and I think LB just hit the nail on the head. I guess I never realized it until he actually said the words. Makes total sense to me now.

Phoenix · #3 03-03-2009, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skcin

Good idea. Maybe that's why SYW wasn't quite right. I still love the album, and I think it's good. But it is somehow missing some of the magic of the older albums, and I think LB just hit the nail on the head. I guess I never realized it until he actually said the words. Makes total sense to me now.

That did make LOTS of sense.

HejiraNYC · #4 03-03-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livia

"I took off in '87 to regain my sanity, and the band died a slow death without me. That didn't make me feel too bad," he snickers. "Without sounding too vindictive, it was nice to know they needed me. ...

Wow, Lindsey... tell us what you really think!

I mean, I have to begrudgingly admit that he is probably correct in feeling this way, but there is also a lot to be said about humility. I could just imagine how well this little gem is going to down with the others. If memory serves correctly, FM didn't really fall off a cliff until Stevie left. Sure, BTM was not the best FM album ever, but it is/was a solid batch of songs.

michelej1 · #5 03-03-2009, 01:13 PM

Hey, "painted like" Fleetwood Mac is really good. Way to use your favorite analogy in a fresh way, precious.

Talking about biorhythms makes me remember the seventies. It's like mood rings and disco balls. Does anyone remember getting your biorhythm chart? I think it had 3 colored lines on it and it told you how you were going to be feeling in the future. Like you could look at next week's chart and see whether the lines were up and down and see whether it was going to be a good week for you. Cheesy. But I remember going to a fair when I was a teen and paying to have my chart done.

Michele

OldTimer · #6 03-03-2009, 01:26 PM

Quote:

"I took off in '87 to regain my sanity, and the band died a slow death without me. That didn't make me feel too bad," he snickers.

What a pompous, self-worshipping, classless asshole.

I used to adore this guy, but now he just makes me sick.

skcin · #7 03-03-2009, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldTimer

What a pompous, self-worshipping, classless asshole.

I used to adore this guy, but now he just makes me sick.

Well, he's not totally wrong. However, to still bring it up & "snicker" about it over 20 years later? Nice.

shackin'up · #8 03-03-2009, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldTimer

What a pompous, self-worshipping, classless asshole.

I used to adore this guy, but now he just makes me sick.

Why? He was an even more pompous, classless and self-worshipping asshole during the times you worshipped him.

shackin'up · #9 03-03-2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

If memory serves correctly, FM didn't really fall off a cliff until Stevie left. Sure, BTM was not the best FM album ever, but it is/was a solid batch of songs.

That's what he said: died a slow death, not in an instant.

michelej1 · #10 03-03-2009, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skcin

Well, he's not totally wrong. However, to still bring it up & "snicker" about it over 20 years later? Nice.

That "snicker" makes me laugh -- even snicker. Makes me think of the dastardly villain tying the helpless damsel to the train tracks and then twiddling his mustache in satisfaction.

Just can't create that image with "chuckled."

Michele

OldTimer · #11 03-03-2009, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shackin'up

Why? He was an even more pompous, classless and self-worshipping asshole during the times you worshipped him.

Point well taken. Chalk it up to those rose-colored glasses of my youth.

HejiraNYC · #12 03-03-2009, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shackin'up

That's what he said: died a slow death, not in an instant.

But his fallacy is that he seems to feel that he alone was singularly responsible for the slow death of FM, which is just simply not true (although I can totally understand why he would feel this way). I think FM would have endured and prospered if Mick hadn't written the tell-all book and been such a numbnut with regard to "Silver Springs." Sure, they wouldn't have been nearly as interesting, but they could have had more gold albums and toured arenas forever...

HejiraNYC · #13 03-03-2009, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michelej1

That "snicker" makes me laugh -- even snicker. Makes me think of the dastardly villain tying the helpless damsel to the train tracks and then twiddling his mustache in satisfaction.

Just can't create that image with "chuckled."

Michele

Livia · #14 03-03-2009, 01:58 PM

Did Stevie say on the Tusk documentary, "This band will never die a slow, long, painful death" or something like that?

Betsy · #15 03-03-2009, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Sorry to be off topic...but...

That was very clever, classic and appropriate.

That's what I find so appealing about the Ledge. What quick wit people have.

I come here inbetween bouts of stress at work and you guys make me smile.

(Michele's description of the "villain tying the helpless damsel to the train tracks and then twiddling his mustache in satisfaction." is worthy of mention too.)

You guys crack me up.