Fleetwood Mac in 1975 (Los Angeles Times)
 

Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1975

At Santa Monica Civic, by Richard Cromelin

Fleetwood Mac's Elusive Identity

The venerable Fleetwood Mac has undergone fewer personnel changes than several other groups, but each one has signaled a vast upheaval in musical direction. The latest lineup, apparently the most commercially successful. Thursday night headlined a Santa Monica Civic concert, in which discrepant musical tendencies refused to meld into a solid identity.

The influence of American guitarist and vocalist Steve Nicks on the British outfit seems to be the crux of the matter. How else does one explain this formerly R & B/hard-rock outfit suddenly sounding like Ronstadt jamming with the Eagles.

The songs in that mold (which earned the most vigorous audience response) are a nice cross between country rock ambience and hard pop sensibility, but they suffer from a blandness only slightly relieved by surface catchiness. Nicks' lead guitar is competent but unremarkable and is accompanied by incongruously showy moves, a combination whose effect is blustery rather than powerful.

It's fortunate, then, that Christine McVie is on hand to lend dignity and musical dimension to the proceedings. Her rich keyboard work and superb singing imbue all the band's music with a sense of quality which is its real saving grace. On the slightly accelerated ballads that are her forte, the music attains a grace and character which further highlight the mainstream of the Mac's other side.

Also exciting is the contagious energy of drummer Mick Fleetwood, but these considerable assets are not dominant enough to fully unite the plethora of loose threads.

It's so funny to me that Lindsey's (aka Steve's) showy moves don't make up for his unremarkable guitar playing.

And what about the gal? Lindsay? Did she do anything noteworthy at all.

Michele

At Universal Amphitheater, by Richard Cromelin, August 30, 1976

Fleetwood Mac: View at the Top

The Fleetwood Mac success story is another case of a band going from undeserved obscurity to a level of acclaim that is equally disproportionate to what the group actually offers. Fleetwood Mac's basic talents and exemplary perseverance, if nothing else, should entitle the veteran outfit to a share of the cake, and when its disparate musical elements coalesce, it furnishes a highly attractive musical sound. Opening a four-day, sold-out engagement at the Universal Amphitheater, though, Fleetwood Mac exhibited too many shortcomings to be counted as an essential, compelling musical force.

Friday's show as immediately afflicted by a poor sound balance that hit directly at the core of the music's appeal - that smooth, easygoing, but urgent rhythmic groove enfolding the voices of Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks (at times, the former's indispensable keyboards were completely absent).

Fleetwood Mac's music is predominantly sedate (when not bland) rather than explosive, but the inclusion of some earlier, blues-based material, while adding a bit of fire, spotlights the band's two unreconcilable sides: the stately, purposeful qualities of McVie on one side and, on the other, the rougher, rather ordinary guitar and vocal work of Lindsey Buckingham, whose long turn in the macho rock-star role tends to eclipse his cohorts' more noteworthy elements. The two strains comprise an uneasy mix, and while the discrepant styles might serve to keep an album nicely varied, they preclude the unity necessary for a strong stage presentation.

The audience received Fleetwood Mac's music with wholehearted enthusiasm after unkindly dismissing opener Peter Ivers. Ivers is an interesting eccentric (her performed in a diaper a couple of years ago at the Hollywood Trash Dance), but needs a more developed and assertive musical framework for his offbeat compositions.

Is it just me, or has the consistency of thorough research dramatically increased in the last few decades? Would current major publications mistake names as easily as the writer did in this article?

I can't believe the audience weren't more welcoming to a man in a diaper :distress: As Lindsey would say, what's the world coming to indeed.

That first one reads as though it was written by someone who didn't bother to attend a single FM concert but still thought they could BS a story about them. I just can't see how anyone who had the slightest bit of FM knowledge could write that. It just isn't possible.

Its just you.

Errors- for reasons ranging from lack of proper research to just plain sloppy editing- happen all the time, even in high profile periodicals. Not even the most basic/prominent people/events of our lifetimes are immune. Example- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/opinion/02pubed.html

Well, at that point there wasn't that much knowledge about that particular incarnation of Fleetwood Mac to be had! It was a new band. But that's no excuse for calling the guitarist Steve Nicks. As a reporter, if you don't want to do research, just read the doggone liner notes from their first album, for heaven's sake.

Michele

hahaha...even reading liner notes must have been a bit labor intensive for the person who wrote that :laugh:

I understand what you mean about them being a new band...by knowledge I meant the kind you would have after attending a concert...I should have made that more clear :)

Amazon Editorial Review of Fleetwood Mac (1975 Album), Enhanced Edition

http://www.epreferential.com/fleetwo...00009rajh.html

Given their monumental legacy, it’s hard to imagine that the so-called “classic edition” of Fleetwood Mac essentially came together casually over chips and margaritas at an L.A. eatery; the then-obscure duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (whose own mid-’70s debut album had initially gone almost straight to the cut-out bins) became the crucial axis of the legendary band without so much as a formal audition. As the eponymous title suggests, the 1975 Mac realignment seems like a fresh start, though tracks like Christine McVie’s smooth-jazz inflected “Warm Ways” hearken back to the Bob Welch/Bare Trees/Heroes Are Hard to Find era. But it’s Buckingham’s compelling, updated take on ’60s California folk-pop, informed by the mystique of Nicks’s proto-New Age song-sorceress presumptions, that breathed new life into the veteran, chameleonic band on now-familiar songs like “Monday Morning” and “Rhiannon.” His chemistry with McVie is no less powerful, yielding such Mac staples as their collaboration “World Turning” and suffusing her “Over My Head” with nervous, insistent guitar rhythms. This deluxe, remastered edition features the significantly different single mixes of “Say You Love Me,” “Rhiannon,” “Over My Head,” and “Blue Letter” (the latter previously unissued), as well as the moody, also unreleased studio workout “Jam #2.” Parke Puterbaugh’s newly penned liner notes offer concise, thoughtful insights into the genesis of one of rock’s greatest, if most unlikely, rebirths. –Jerry McCulley

Considering that even Billboard magazine in their ad announcing the release of the '75 self-titled album had Lindsey & Stevie's names labeled incorrectly on the photograph (the same photo that was on the back of the album cover), it seems that the mistaken identities was a pretty common occurrance throughout that first tour they did with Fleetwood Mac. (I believe Mick even mentions it in his book) If a writer used the venerable Billboard AS their "research device", then of course, they'd be wrong.

But the reviewer function in a metro daily (like the L.A. Times, where I guess Cromelin was working at the time) is a lot different from the reporter function with regard to research. The pop music reviewer goes to the concert, gets back to the newsroom, & writes a (in this case brief) review. He ain't sitting there bothering to pull out liner notes & what-have-you all for the sake of what he & his paper consider a little filler concert review. I was friends with several music reviewers at the paper I worked at, & for concerts that weren't all that noteworthy or interesting to them or the readers, they just wrote a quick jobber.

Still, I guess not knowing that Lindsey was the guy & Stevie the girl means that, even as late as the end of November 1975, the first single from the album wasn't yet quite household. Obviously, the band wasn't on the tip of everyone's tongue until the following year. The album wasn't a Top 10 album until well into the following year, right?

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/a...etwoodmac2.jpg

My, Stevie is looking decidedly masculine. And Lindsey has a couple of new companions.

Even after Rumours hit it big, I bet a lot of people (reviewers included) didn't know whether "Stevie" was the guy or the girl. Often you hear or read the names, but you don't match them to the faces.

As far as them not reading liner notes to write a review, since they usually get promotional copies of the record beforehand you'd think they might, especially if someone spent 2 hours going to the concert.

Michele

Interesting that "Crystal" was advertised as a featured song when "Rhiannon" was not. I knew the band were shocked by the success of "Over My Head," but I always thought they realized "Rhiannon" was a potential winner. Huh. I was wrong--again.

Since John liked it from BN, they might have presented Crystal to the record company as a song that already had wings and was more tested than the new offerings.

Michele

[Bowling Reviewed all of the Pre-Rumours albums and now he is starting on offerings from the Rumours era line up]

Saturday, November 6, 2010, by David Bowling for Blogcritics.org

http://www.seattlepi.com/pop/429694_...itics.org.html

Music Review: Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

Bob Welch had left Fleetwood Mac and the group was in disarray. Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie decided to replace him with the obscure duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who had issued one commercially unsuccessful album. The Buckingham/Nicks addition would turn out to be brilliant and, when combined with the remaining three members, would create music history.


The band's self-titled album was released July 11, 1975. It was a release that gathered commercial speed as the months passed. It took 53 weeks to reach the number one position on The United States charts, which was a record at the time. It would eventually sell five million copies in The USA alone. It would not be as initially successful in Great Britain as the new Fleetwood Mac would not be embraced until the release of Rumours, which would allow this album to reach number 23. Rolling Stone magazine would honor it as one of The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.


Lindsey Buckingham’s “Monday Morning” is the first track and quickly established the fact that this was indeed a new Fleetwood Mac. Their blues foundation had been left behind and been replaced by a pop/rock masterpiece. It is an infectious, up-tempo classic that featured the beginnings of the legendary McVie, Buckingham, and Nicks harmonies. His other solo composition, “I’m So Afraid,” closed the album on a haunting note.


Christine McVie wrote four tracks and co-wrote a fifth. “Say You Love Me,” with its sensual vocal, and the emotional “Over My Head,” would both become successful singles and be identified with the Fleetwood Mac sound for decades. Her lesser known “Warm Ways” is smooth and romantic. “Sugar Daddy” may not measure up to the first three but is a solid creation in its own right. She wrote “World Turning” with Buckingham which is slow, smoldering, and a little funky in places.


Not to be outdone Stevie Nicks contributed three songs. The hit single “Rhiannon” established her persona as the Welch witch and quickly became one of her signature performances. “Crystal” was originally released on her duet album with Buckingham. The lyrics provide an impact and the music is airy in a typical Stevie Nicks way. Her “Landslide” has an innate beauty that leaves you wanting more.


Mick Fleetwood and John McVie must have thought they had died and gone to heaven. The group that bore their names was now on top of the music world in The United States. They could not have imagined at the time that this brilliant album was only a warm-up for what was to come in the very near future.

Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)
Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, September 1975

If you’re one of those people like me who lost track of Fleetwood Mac in the post-Peter Green haze of erratic albums and perpetual personnel changes, brace yourself for the nicest musical surprise 1975 has sprung on us: Fleetwood Mac (the band) has produced Fleetwood Mac (the album), a record strong enough to demand immediate inclusion in any consideration of the year’s best.

Just prior to the recording of this new album, the band replaced the departing Bob Welch with two new members, vocalist Stephanie Nicks and guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham. As Buckingham Nicks they released one mildly promising album on a Polydor subsidiary in 1973, which sounds absolutely premature by comparison with their initial accomplishments as a part of Fleetwood Mac. They’re both talented writers and singers, but their decisive contribution to the band is more in the realm of attitude; there’s an aggressive energy at work here that even the original Fleetwood Mac might not’ve been able to match.

Stephanie’s songs are indicative of the diversity this new band is capable of. She can go soft and acoustic on ‘Landslide’ and be equally effective at handling the electricity of ‘Rhiannon’ (possibly the most powerful song in their live set). And have them both rank among the album’s highlights. Lindsey Buckingham is a solid guitarist, and his intelligent ideas about guitar-tracking play a substantial part in the success of this album. It’s not the blinding guitar virtuosity of previous Macs, but playing with taste and an almost impeccable sense of what each song requires of his instrument. ‘Monday Morning’ (featuring great Buddy Holly drumming from Mick Fleetwood) and ‘Blue Letter’ are performances Nils Lofgren and The Eagles (respectively) would be proud to claim as their own, and Buckingham’s musical personality would seem to be emerging in an attractive niche somewhere between the two. But where taste and restraint can occasionally border on strangulation, his big and brutal playing on ‘I’m So Afraid’ suggests an explosive quality that this band has only begun to explore.

A lot of the old Fleetwood Mac was merely convenient conventional frames on which great and near-great guitarists could hang their most impressive licks. This album, however, crystallizes Fleetwood Mac as a song band, something they’ve been threatening for the last four years. The crucial element in the taking of this direction has been Christine McVie, who had the same blues roots everybody else did but countered with a pop sensibility that, until now, none of the band’s guitarists truly shared. Her pop inclinations blossomed with the last album’s ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’, which may’ve been the undiscovered pop gem of 1974 and remains eminently ripe for a smash coverjob.

Her songs on this album, most notably ‘Forever’ and ‘Say You Love Me’, strike the most operative balance of her influences yet. The former is a smooth love ballad that Dennis Wilson could almost’ve written, while the latter shows off her developing mastery of a distinctively bouncy strain of good-time rock. And her keyboards mesh with Buckingham’s guitar to give the overall sound more punch, bringing a band that has always been the sum of readily identifiable parts into a more unified perspective. The one song co-authored by McVie and Buckingham, a rave-up called ‘World Turning’, is not among the better tracks (being to my taste one of those live killers that never really translates to record), but the amount of radio exposure it’s already gotten reflects an effectiveness at providing their audience with a relatable point of transition between old and new Fleetwood Macs.

Keith Olsen’s main contribution as engineer and co-producer is that you can finally begin to get on record a consistent picture of how good a drummer Mick Fleetwood is, something you’ve always had to see the band live to fully appreciate. On the band’s past studio efforts, it didn’t necessarily matter what he was playing because too often it sounded like he was beating on a piece of fruit with a mallet. This time around you really begin to feel the presence of his drums and, more importantly, what they mean to the construction of Fleetwood Mac’s music. Though I feel a bit foolish waking up to the fact seven years on, the partnership of bassist John McVie and Mick Fleetwood is the best rhythm section in rock & roll.

While this is one of the album’s greatest assets, it simultaneously creates the album’s only real problem. It almost seems as if Olsen achieved his drum presence not by making them bigger, but by making everything surrounding the drums smaller. What this album lacks, which you notice when you see the group live, is power, and it’s down to the way the band was recorded. You’re always aware that they’re making the right instrumental moves, but the point is never driven home with the authority it should be. The greatness of the music is all here, but its real muscle is not always represented.

Such ultimately petty gripes aside, this album scores heavily for what it delivers but also for what it promises. Its three hit-single possibilities (‘Blue Letter’, ‘Monday Morning’ and ‘Say You Love Me’) could very easily explode the dimensions of an already-substantial following, yet it’s still just a beginning. The album was recorded before the band had ever played together live, which makes for a potential here that’s nothing short of frightening. Far from being merely a good band with a distinguished past, Fleetwood Mac is a band with a future.

If this writer only knew at the time that Christine would end up dating Dennis I bet he wouldn't believe it and would be astounded to know there is no song on this album titled Forever.

And Christine looks shorter than Miss Lindsey Buckingham.:)

- Jake

A miniscule glitch in a review that otherwise fully proves that Ben Edmonds was the most astute commentator on Fleetwood Mac at that time. Edmonds makes points that took other members of the press years to figure out:

• that the band was now a "song" band, which was going to be one of its most lasting strengths;
• that Lindsey was not only a "solid" guitarist but a guy with sophisticated ideas about how to layer the guitar parts in the mix so as not to stand out as virtuoso lines but to create a unified track;
• that Christine's "pop sensibility" wasn't shared by Mac guitarists before Buckingham;
• & the absolutely visionary labeling of Fleetwood & McVie as the best, tightest rhythm section in rock.

Edmonds kicked ASS in this review. He TOTALLY got it ... & this was in September 1975.

I guess he meant Warm Ways. He must've been thinking of the Dennis Wilson-penned song Forever on the Beach Boys' Sunflower album when he made that mistake.

Interesting comparison, and really makes me wish her and Dennis had actually collaborated on some things. (Unless they did and I'm just not aware of it?)

That was so true back in the day Michele. By Tusk everyone had it figured out by then! :lol:

[from Herald Review article of favorite albums]

TIM CAIN - H&R Entertainment Editor, September 2, 2015

http://herald-review.com/blogs/tim_c...8020e6a34.html

This year's 365 project is listing my favorite albums, in reverse order. Here are the August entries. If you want to follow it daily, check out Facebook or Twitter.

Here are the top 20 albums on The Big List:



Day 231, No. 135. "Fleetwood Mac," Fleetwood Mac (1975) - Their warmest album. I'm not sure they were ever this happy and optimistic again. So, of course, the music got better. And the world realized Lindsey Buckingham was a genius. As his eccentricities grew, so did my appreciation.


Favorite songs: "Monday Morning," "Blue Letter," "Over My Head"