MSN Article: Re:Masters: Fleetwood Mac
 

Re:Masters: Fleetwood Mac

After a five-year break, 'rock-'n'-roll's greatest soap opera' hits the road and remembers the turmoil behind 'Rumours'

By Alan Light
Special to MSN Music

Posted March 1, 2009

Re:Masters is a monthly interview column dedicated to exploring a veteran artist's body of work.

A few weeks ago in Los Angeles, the members of Fleetwood Mac -- Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Stevie Nicks -- gathered to run through songs in preparation for their Unleashed Tour. "We did the entire set, totally unplugged," says Stevie Nicks. "We laughed about the songs, about what was going on when we wrote each one -- what we thought it was about, and what it was really about. One of our backup singers was asking all these questions like she was interviewing us. It's such a shame we didn't film all the little stories, because it was really all coming out."

If this band was truly revealing old secrets to each other, it's a bit of a miracle they walked out of there alive. There is simply no other group that can match the offstage drama of Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood and McVie -- the rhythm section that gave the band its name -- are the only members who have stuck it out through multiple lineups since the Mac's early days as a British blues-based band in the '60s. In 1975, the Bay Area duo of Buckingham and Nicks joined the fold, and all the parts fell into place. The resulting "Fleetwood Mac" album sold five million copies and spun off three hit singles.

But that was just a warm-up for 1977's "Rumours." Recorded while Buckingham and Nicks were breaking up romantically; McVie's marriage to the group's third songwriter/vocalist, Christine, was disintegrating; and Fleetwood and his wife were divorcing -- played out amid numerous affairs and copious amounts of drugs -- the album became a perfect chronicle of the promise, excess and chaos of the late '70s. It spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on the charts and has sold, to date, a staggering 19 million copies. (A new CD/DVD box-set reissue of "Rumours," with previously unreleased demos, outtakes, live recordings and video footage, was to be released in conjunction with the new tour, but is delayed while some clearance issues are being resolved.)

For the past few decades, Buckingham and Nicks have bounced between solo careers and Fleetwood Mac reunions; his sixth solo album, "Gift of Screws," was released in September, and she has a live album and DVD coming out later this month. The Unleashed Tour, which kicked off March 1 in Pittsburgh, is the band's first outing in five years. Unfortunately, this time around, Christine McVie -- an often-overlooked secret weapon in the Mac arsenal -- opted not to participate (there was talk of Sheryl Crow filling her chair, but the idea fizzled out), and there is no new music attached.

Instead, there is an unprecedented sense of loyalty and camaraderie between the band members, as Buckingham and Nicks both expressed during separate telephone conversations on break from rehearsal. For a band whose music is forever linked to its personal relationships, its high-wire act of romance and heartbreak, Fleetwood Mac has even started to fully embrace maturity.

"I'm a first-time parent in the last 10 years -- at age 59, with three kids under 10," says Buckingham. "That transforms your life, that sensibility and stability, and it informs everything I do. Being adult carries over into the group setting."

MSN Music: Do you find it difficult to connect to the old songs? Especially because you don't have a new album for this tour, is there any extra challenge in relating to that material again?

Stevie Nicks: The way we always start is that we go back to the original. We listen to the record once or twice, all of us together -- and then we don't listen too much more after that. So every time we play a song, of course, there's a lot of the original in there, but it also tends to morph a little bit, depending on our mood and what's going on in the world. After 9/11, everything took on a different meaning. For this show, a song like "World Turning" is such a premonition of our world in chaos, spinning out of control.

Lindsey Buckingham: I was definitely a little ambivalent about the mentality going in to this. We knew that we wanted to get out and do something, and there was talk of making an album, but it didn't work out. But the last album we made [2003's "Say You Will"], we worked for almost a year, in the same house, and by the end, there was a lot of tension that carried into rehearsals and the shows that followed.

Getting back into the big machine could be seen as resting on our laurels. So the mantra has had to be not what new statement we are making, but how we have moved along as people trying to become adults, who were admittedly living in a state of arrested development, without ever getting closure and never really working our problems out fully.

What becomes meaningful to me is that we've got this body of work, so let's relax into that and enjoy it and see what comes, rather than go through the pressure cooker again. And, as a result, these are probably the smoothest rehearsals I've ever been involved in.

So much of your writing, particularly on "Rumours," grew out of your personal relationships. How do those songs evolve as your own lives change?

Buckingham: It becomes easier to look back and appreciate the struggles we went through. I think that, especially with "Rumours," there really was a transformative, redemptive purpose in that music. We somehow survived all of our personal difficulties because of the music. On that album, I think there's a staying power that comes from being very authentic in terms of what we were going through. I can hear these opposite emotions going on in those songs that really lend themselves to a very timeless quality. But it takes time to be able to appreciate that.

Nicks: When you're singing, you definitely throw yourself back into that time. You can't sing "The Chain" without throwing yourself into it. You can't sing "Damn your love/Damn your lies" without becoming those people again. Lindsey and I haven't been in a relationship for 20 years, but you go right back to that -- I mean, if we didn't, it would be pretty stupid to even do those songs.

Lindsey and I will never be pals, never just hang out. We will always be that ex-couple where it all blew up in the middle of being so rich and so famous and so indulgent. But we're still able to be a power couple onstage. We can be nothing to each other when we don't see each other for three years, but when we come back together, we can have that relationship, and we're still working out our problems onstage.

We never found the peace that we'd like to find. We've known each other since we were 16 or 17, and I think we'd like to know before we die that we finally found a peaceful place together.

The reputation of "Rumours" is that it's the greatest rock-'n'-roll soap opera of all time. Do you think the focus on its history distracts from the music?

Buckingham: I think you have to be realistic about the fact that "Rumours" was a success for reasons other than the music. There got to be a point where it did clearly detach from the music and bring out the voyeur in listeners. We put ourselves out there, and people started to invest in us more emotionally. And that was part and parcel of the phenomenon -- it had to do with the mythology around the record, and it would be unrealistic to not acknowledge that. I don't think that it diminishes the appreciation of the music in any way; it was just a scope that went beyond the music.

I will say I'm glad it didn't happen in 2008 or 2009. I think the way the tabloids work today, it would have been exploited in such a different way. At the time, though some of it was reported, it really was more word of mouth, and there was an authentic sense of a lore that grew up around it.

Nicks: It is inextricably part of it, and you have to embrace that.
And when you hear it, it's like being back there -- even for me. It puts me right back there, and it makes me understand why I'm going out on the road with Fleetwood Mac again, because it is that good.

Right now, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Bruce Springsteen are all on the road -- it could be the touring calendar for 1979, not 2009. Does it surprise you that you're all still standing and still out playing?

Nicks: If you'd asked me 25 years ago, I would have said that I think we would all still be going, but that I also hope there are some great new bands who are firmly established by the time I'm 60. And there are a few, but it's not what I expected, and I really fault the music business for that. Artist development really died about 15 years ago, and it's killing the ability of talented kids who are just as good as Fleetwood Mac, just as good as Led Zeppelin -- and I know they're out there -- from ever seeing the light of day.

Buckingham: We obviously had a lot of commercial success at that time, but they weren't the happiest days for me personally, or the most artistically satisfying. And in those days, the studio was crazy and the road was five times crazier. People always ask now, isn't it tiring being on the road? It used to be, when we were doing all that nonsense, but now with everyone behaving, the whole day is really geared around having the energy for those two hours onstage. It's very Zen, a very pared-down environment, if that's what you choose for it to be.

Any time there's a band with a male and female singer -- from a rock band like Rilo Kiley to a country group like Little Big Town -- they get compared to Fleetwood Mac. Do you think that kind of harmony singing is your most defining legacy?

Buckingham: It's hard to analyze your own work. You concentrate on the process and not the impact that it's having. So it's hard to know what's passed on. I mean, I can tell that Death Cab for Cutie has listened to Fleetwood Mac, I can hear the chordal structure. But I think about the construction, the complexity that makes up Fleetwood Mac; I don't necessarily think about the most obvious things. You just have to let it go, out into the ether.

Nicks: I think two girls and a guy really worked. It adds that spark of romance, no matter what. I mean, the Eagles have romantic songs and they're all guys, but having a woman in a band of great guys is a big selling point. And if she's as good as the guys, it's a huge selling point. So if I were a kid, I'd definitely be looking to make that next Fleetwood Mac.

Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. He is the author of "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" (Three Rivers Press, 2006) and is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing.

great article thanks for sharing that with us.

That was really good!

So the holdup on the reissue of Rumours is rights clearance.... Makes sense I suppose... It's gotta be the live tracks or footage...

What a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, it is. :mad:


20, huh? Interesting. :cool:

Yeah, is her math off or . . . Michele

I'm not an expert or a shipper, but there was love going on circa The Dance.

Yeah I caught that 20 year thing to I wonder if she got confused, or it was a misprint I would imagine she would know when her and lindsey ended their relationship. :confused:

She's only off by 12 years...

Thanks for posting the article.

:nod: :xoxo:

Hmmm... the way I interpreted that statement was that they haven't had any kind of a personal relationship, even as friends, since the whole chase-Stevie-around-the-block-n-slap-her incident back in 1987. That moment was literally the end of an era. Accordingly, I don't buy all of the happy-family rhetoric coming out of camps Buckingham and Nicks as of late. I mean, they barely speak when they aren't working together. How can you have any kind of "relationship" with someone when you can't even stand to be around each other socially? :shrug:

I don't buy any of it either. I stopped buying it after Tango articles when Lindsey said that they were getting along better than ever, during the recording... (RS)... then after the Dance, then after SYW, etc. etc...

He says the same thing every time... We have issues, but we are resolving them... organic... crap.... reconvening... artistic outlet... Stevie and I are friends, Mick and I are better than ever..... etc etc etc...

Hmm. I am not sure you can believe anything that comes out of Stevie's mouth. I mean a year ago she was never, ever, EVER touring again without Christine. She exagerates and says things when she is angry, too. How do we really know they "barely" speak to each other when they aren't working?? Both Stevie and Lindsey like to play that love, hate, hot, cold game. They both admit to talking on the phone often. :confused:

Well... this little gem tipped me off that they're not exactly BFF's:

Of all the articles being posted this is one of the best. Thanks for posting it. This quote really got me.

"We never found the peace that we'd like to find. We've known each other since we were 16 or 17, and I think we'd like to know before we die that we finally found a peaceful place"

Why am I so impressed at this? And why did I go "Ahhh!Go lindsey!" when I read it?:laugh:
Bucks aint that old..;)

I would LOOOOVE for them to quote as saying they are influenced by Fleetwood Mac, a friend of mine says they are his favorite band, and says they are not like fleetwood mac.:lol:

I wouldnt say they sound too like Fleetwood Mac, but theres definitely an element there.
It's weird actually, but Ive only felt the same kind of "fresh, free alpine landscape" (strange I know, but I'm a music therapist, its my job..:laugh:) feeling that I get from Landslide, Crystal and If You Ever Did Believe on one album; DC4C's 'Transatlanticism'. Always always felt the connection.

'We Looked Like Giants' has a Stevie feel, methinks..

Yeah, they don't get along, but do you really think they're "nothing to each other"?

Also, it's easy to have relationships with people you don't see socially. It's strange when you aren't friends with someone and you aren't family. I've experienced that myself where I spend 10 hours a day with a person for months and an emotional bond develops. We plot, we despair, we rejoice, we figure out problems, but then when our work is done, the cement that held us together comes suddenly undone and it's a very strange place to be in. You relied on this person in many ways as you do family, but then, when the thing you had in common is over, you have no other way in which to relate. It's funny, because when I left my firm, I just moved right around the corner. I'm on the same floor as they are. So, I see these people who I once was with constantly all the time in the corridor and I go from having had so much to say and share with them to just saying, "How're doing?"

Actually, as the oldest generation in my family dies off, I am experiencing that with my own relatives. It's not that we don't love each other and have memories, but if we aren't traveling to Grandma's house every year where we all meet up, there's really nothing that keeps us together. I mean, I like my cousins a lot, but I'm not flying back to Michigan just to see them. If our parents and grandparents aren't keeping us together, we lose touch fast.

In the last years, I've gone from knowing when a cousin bought new shoes, to barely finding out when she just had a baby.

So, no I don't buy the fact that everything is lovey dovey for Stevie and Lindsey. In fact, they could be chummy on Tuesday and bitter enemies on Thursday. That's how it is. But I don't think they don't love each other and don't have a relationship. Heck, I don't know how you can rehearse, travel and perform with someone for months, years on end and not form a relationship, even against your will.

John once said that even though they don't see each other every day, they are like two brothers and two sisters and I don't think he was laying it on. I think it's the truth. He and Lindsey are probably the two most distant in the entire band, yet I believe THEY have a strong bond, a relationship, a true love. There's stuff there and not all of it good, but I don't think it's indifference or not a relationship.

Michele

That is so true. I know many siblings who "get along" but aren't close friends with each other. My estranged best friend and I are like that. Even though we had a falling out over something major, there is still a bond between us - I'm willing to bet, even though we haven't spoken in more than 2 years, if we ran into each other somewhere - that we would get coffee and sit and chat. I can't say we'd part ways being closer than conjoined twins again, but instead would likely be in our own worlds until we ran into each other again.

I do agree with you that they are not BFF"s.
I just was pondering how we can pick and choose what quotes Stevie is being fully genuous in. She seems to say things that are not always completely factual. lol :lol: She was planning on touring with the Mac, then suddenly she was never going to without Chris.......all the while meetings were happening regarding a Mac tour. :shrug:

I find it difficult to know what exactly is reality when they speak in interviews, because it is either planned, staged out stuff they say year after year, OR Stevie's tune does a 180 on the subject six months after she gives a quote. I can find plenty of quotes where Stevie talks about how great her and Lindsey's relationship is now and how they are friends. blah blah (esp. circa TISL) I know their relationship is not peaches and cream and they fight like cats and dogs, I just do not know that I believe they have no relationship outside Fleetwood Mac. The truth probably lays somewhere in the middle of the extreme way Stevie is presenting it right now.

;)

Allegedly...

I don't know. I'm not a shipper, but I definitely think they have a very strong bond & I don't buy that there's "nothing" between them when they're apart for a while. I have plenty of people who I consider very good friends who I've lost touch with for a year or more, whether it be a concious decision to do so or not, and we get right back into our friendship right away when we reconnect.

I interpret the "20 years" comment as being related to their romantic relationship. BUT I don't know how to take it. Time flies - maybe if she sat there & thought about it, she'd go "well, I guess it's more like 30 years." Maybe she'd say "actually, more like 10." :p Who the hell knows. I don't really care, I just think it's funny & interesting.

That is true. Before & during the SYW tour, we were told things were better than ever. :nod: Now they're all saying it wasn't a happy tour. It's not like they're going to come out & say "oh, this tour has become a living hell!"

I don't know if they are getting along now. After Pittsburgh, I didn't get that impression, but Lindsey doesn't always claim they're getting along better than ever.

While they looked close during the promotions for Tango (I mean in photographs and the 7W video), Lindsey's interviews for the most part made it clear there was a chasm and he was also pretty vocal about Stevie's absence from the studio during the recording process. In fact, other than saying that he was glad Mirage wasn't their swan song and he was prouder of Tango, I think he made it clear he wanted to leave. He wasn't really doing a sunshine and roses thing for that. Actually, I believe that the band got upset because he was talking about his unhappiness through the press, sending them a message that way.

They praised The Dance, but all of them, Chris, Lindsey and Stevie still say that was a good, cordial time, even in retrospect.

They said they were getting along during SYW, but Lindsey still says he had a great time during SYW. Just that Stevie left unhappy. In fact, I think during the first part of the tour (when most of the interviews took place), maybe they were having a better time than they did at the end. I don't think it was all good or all bad for the whole 18 months.

Michele

Oh sh**, MY math is the bad. That was 10 years ago. :angel:

I agree. That point is beautiful. I think that's the spectacle we all hope to see when go to the Unleashed tour. And it is one of the better articles.

I like this:

I mean. I think it's wacky to say the song is a "premonition of our world in chaos" but it's Stevie's way of saying a few accurate things: 1. After 9/11, everything did take a new meaning, 2. particularly for her... I think SYW is one of the great post-9/11 works of art, and 3. It shows that she understands the spiritual needs of the audience in a post-9/11 world. I love her.