Fleetwood Mac All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track
 

It looks like this book is set for release in spring 2025. Here's the blurb

Fleetwood Mac All the Songs dives deep into the unique and often fraught recording history of the mega-bestselling and hugely influential rock band. Packed with captivating photographs and fascinating behind-the-scenes details, it’s a must-have for any music history fan.

Fleetwood Mac is the one of the most enduring, endearing, and drama-filled bands in rock history whose triumphs, struggles, and music continue to resonate with generations of listeners. This thorough dissection of every album and every song ever released by the beloved rock group follows the band's many iterations from their self-titled debut in 1968 (when they were known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) to the classic Rumours era featuring the core line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks, all the way up to the passing of Christine McVie in November 2022. The writing and recording process of each and every track is dissected, discussed, and analyzed by authors Olivier Roubin and Romuald Ollivier, through the band's many breakups and shakeups.

Fleetwood Mac All the Songs draws upon years of research to recount the circumstances that led to the composition of every song the band ever wrote, as well as the details behind their in-studio recording process. Also featuring hundreds of photographs, including rare black-and-white publicity stills, images of instruments used by the band, and engaging shots of the musicians in‑studio, this is a must-have book for any true fan of classic rock.


https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fle...=9780762486304

608 pages. It's enough to detail all the songs very well. We already know enough about the main hits, but it would be interesting to know about the not so well known songs. I hope all those have enough information. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth it.

I'm most interested about the songs from the Bob Welch era and even some from Behind the Mask, where there's a general lack of information surrounding those recording sessions. 608 pages should cover a lot of ground though, so I will almost certainly purchase this book once it is released

very cool. I'll buy it just for the stills....i hope there's something new i haven't seen.

--Lis

Yes! I'd like to read details about not some but all the BTM songs.

I hope it also describes the new songs they included in Live and The Dance.

Just who are the authors? The "about" on the B&N link says they are French journalists....so not anyone familiar who knows the band or who even talked to the band....so what they say a song is about is based on.....what, exactly? I'm guessing they combed thru interviews and things from over the years to put content together. Which is fair enough as far as it goes, but given that we have gotten different stories about what some songs were about over the decades from the writers themselves (just for example, we never knew Over my Head was about/inspired by Lindsey until Chris came back to the band and talked about it in an interview, like 40 years after the fact; Stevie has changed her version of the meaning of numerous songs over the years, etc. And Lindsey hasn't dived that deeply at all into many of his songs....) I do not see that this will be some definitive documentation....:eek:

There is no video (short or long) of the Mirage recording at Château d'Hérouville, is there? I mean like those included in the Tusk documentary (while recording Angel for example).

And I agree this won't be a definitive documentation. But if it contains well detailed description of all songs, I think it would be an interesting book. It will be up to us to decide whether all the data is correct or not.

You are going to be in heaven and cutting and pasting for years to come :lol:

I had the same suspicions. I am open to learning more but many songs the hardcore fans speculate over for years. Only the artists know for sure. Unless there is a connection to the band we don't know about, I wonder how accurate this can be. But let's wait and find out.

I just checked the authors wrote a similar book of Elton John songs. Reviews at Amazon are mainly positive, but many of them mention that not all the songs are there, and on some occasions there is incorrect information.

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/product-...ews-filter-bar

Are you sure about that? :lol: Stevie changes her meanings yearly.

Maybe the writers can give us the skinny on who made Christine a woman tonight in Warm Ways. lol

Seriously, any book that breaks down most (if not all) pre-1975 tracks would be welcome.

I’d love to know what the writers think of the left-field songs, like “Coming Home” and “Born Enchanter.”

And they better recognize “Sugar Daddy” for the kick-ass tune it is.

I'll bet this entire thing is just some moron's own interpretation of the catalog.


And Sugar Daddy is as good as it gets.

True
And her best written songs are never about one topic. Edge of 17 is about Jane Petty meeting Tom, John Lennon's death, her grandfather dying in a hospital, a bird in Arizona, and a little dinner menu on a private plane.

Penguin did not buy my Sugar Daddy theory. I speculated it could be about John but the word Sugar Daddy is used more as a metaphor. She's content with everything with John but gets love from Martin. John had the ultimate big classic car collection. So the line about picking her up in a big fancy car fits. John liked his whiskey so serving it to her neat would not be a problem :)
Although Chris stated it was not about anyone and a fantasy song.
But do you believe her? I seriously don't think she was really talking about needing or wanting a sugar daddy. I dont think she was that kind of woman. I think the song portrayed their relationship in every regard except in the romance area. Like many of Chris's songs there is a second meaning or a direction in another realm. If it was a pure fantasy song, IMHO she would just sing about wanting a sugar daddy. But she ties it to love and something another man is giving her that a sugar daddy never could. Its the perfect set up and explains her relationship with John and both of them having affairs.

But when it comes to love
He'd better leave me alone
'Cause I've got you, baby
And you give me all the love I need

I also dont buy her Oh Daddy revealtion that it was about Mick. Its a very co-dependent kind of song. But lets be real. It would be very painful to tell people the meaning of these songs. If she came out and said, Sugar Daddy and Oh Daddy were all about John would really hurt him and embarrass him. But we may never know the truth. The songs about Dennis are much easier to figure out especially Think About Me. "I dont hold you down and maybe that's why you are around" pretty much sums up their relationship. And sadly she is just asking him to think about her.

I don't believe it either, at least at the time she wrote it. Maybe in later years she thought Oh, this could be about Mick. And she started to say so.

On another note, I never believed her "it all right to be standing in a line" explanation in Stand Back. She claimed it was like a "welfare line." That makes no sense.
Am I the only one that sees Stand Back as an extremely arrogant song? She was on top of the world. #1 solo album. #1 Mac album. In the mix of recording her second solo album and got married. She was a coke head and was beautiful. I see the "its ok to be standing in a line" comment as men literally waiting in line to get with her. She was now married but about to run on a tour with the "love of her life." If Anyone Falls has similar meaning and context about "another voice comes through the door" She's in love with a man but there is another man and yet another man next door. Cocaine makes you feel like a #1 rock star. I cant imagine being a #1 rock star and then also doing cocaine. I think her extreme arrogance of her looks, career, and lure led to these songs at the point in her career. Her story of first hearing Little Red Corvette on her wedding day is false. She was backstage with Prince when the Mirage tour and Prince's 1982 tour both were in Texas at the same time. She heard that song in concert that night. Her excitement on her wedding day is hearing it again and lusting for Prince. BTW, if you go to youtube and play Stand Back from Prince's 1982 tour, it sounds so much like Stand Back. This was the night when Prince told his assistant to keep her away from him. Little Red Corvette is also an extremely arrogant sexual innuendo song. Stand Back is lyrically the response from the Little Red Corvette (woman). We know it was a music rip off but I see another connection.

Little Red Corvette You are way too fast

Stand Back Stand Back, its ok to be standing in a line

This is a good analysis, thank you. I had considered that about Stand Back before, but the meaning of those lines in IAF completely escaped me. TY. Do you happen to have a source on that backstage meeting with Prince in '82?

Thank you. Yes, that I had seen before. I guess I am wondering what the source is on her having heard Little Red Corvette prior to her wedding. The Prince shows in Texas were in December 1982, but Little Red Corvette didn't come out until February 1983. It seems likely enough that he might have played an early version of it at the afterparty this lady talks about, but she doesn't specifically say that.

From that interview you have to connect the dots. She says there was an after party at one of Prince's Texas shows where Stevie was dancing. If she was at the after party, most likely she was backstage all night. Little Red Corvette was performed on Prince's tour months before it was released as a single.
The Mirage tour ended in Texas in October, 1982 and she started recording The Wild Heart at Goodnight Dallas and the Record Plant in LA. If she was at Prince's after party and concert she had to have heard the song. I suspect this is what led to her excitement hearing it on the radio when she got married. The live versions of Little Red Corvette have a much more Stand Back sound than the recording.
This is speculation if this woman's recollection is correct and she was at the concert as well as the after party. Little Red Corvette was released the first week in February and Stevie got married January 28, 1983. So Stevie's timing with that is accurate.
Stevie called Prince in LA to come to the Record Plant to hear Stand Back. They would meet again later that year in the infamous Wild Heart Tour stop in Minneapolis on July 15 or 16 when Stevie passed out on his kitchen floor.
Maybe she was talking about an after party for something else? Supposedly Prince got mad at Stevie for leaving the theater for Purple Rain early. I am taking her memory and words literally.

This is for all the fast girls in the house November 1982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrGbBuM4RgU

One thing they teach you in grad school in the lit department is never to trust what the author says about a poem afterward. It may be true . . . or not. It may be partially true. It may be deliberately misleading. May be the result of a faulty memory. May be just a public troll or a droll sense of humor at work.

Saying that a song is “about” Mick or John or someone else pigeonholes it artificially. There are some songs that I think are truly about one person and one emotion — “Go Your Own Way” is an example. But “Oh Daddy” and Mick? Come on, read the words again.

Why would Chris tell Mick that she’s been a fool? Or that his smile soothes her? Why would Mick make Chris cry? Why is Mick always right whereas Chris is always wrong?

The idea that it’s Chris talking to Mick is ludicrous. Chris only said it’s about Mick — she never said that it’s Chris and Mick. If it’s directed at Mick, then it’s someone else doing the talking, maybe Jenny. Maybe Mick’s sister. I think it’s a saga of the breakup of Mick and Jenny. Chris is merely stepping into another’s shoes to create a romantic story with a sad ending.

As for “Sugar Daddy,” what makes anyone think it’s strictly autobiographical, too? “Sugar daddy” means an old man with money who showers his “sugar baby” with furs and jewelry. If Chris is doing the talking, she’s just saying that she’s a practical woman but also a woman who’s still in love with her hubby. “I want an old geezer on the side to wrap me in luxury, but I don’t need the old fart to be anything else but a gift card because you’re all the love I need.”

It’s really a cute way of saying “I love you.” It’s very Chris, almost like a traditional blues lyric, sensual, very British, too.

But if she’s not doing the talking, then she’s painting a nonautobiographical picture — maybe other people she knew or heard about.

I always took Sugar Daddy to be Chris saying she'd love to have a man who would treat her well (for a change....:eek:). She loves whom she loves (and we know she tended to love the bad boys, or the guys who DIDN'T treat her so well) and in her imagination she's thinking how nice it would be to love the bad boy whom she loves, but find another man who would give her all the respect and good treatment she isn't getting....

But you're right, we'll never really know. And frankly, the writers often don't really know either. Words just come to you and you write them down. It's all from the subconscious anyway.

You know, it could just be something she said one day, being lazy or something.

"I could sure use a sugar daddy....Hey, now there's a song idea!"

I think people read too much into things, searching for Madge.

Chris said she stepped into jenny's shoes in Oh Daddy, it was about mick and jenny's relationship. and i think she has said Sugar Daddy wasn't about anyone? I don't think every song has to "be about" someone. it could just be a feeling that she made into a song, like she says she did w Over My Head and LB. and maybe meanings change over time for writers..?

--Lis

I agree. One thing I learned in grad school: writers lie—intentionally or subconsciously. I once read two Faulkner interviews in a single collection of criticism on Faulkner. The questions in both were similar; the responses in each contradicted the other. And sometimes writers are the last to know.

How many times has Stevie alluded to the “story” behind “Sara,” each time with a vastly different point of origin and reference? In 1977, “Gold Dust” was about jealous women groupies who flirted with the boys while shooting eye daggers at Stevie and Christine; in 1987, it was about cocaine. “Landslide” was about Hurricane Katrina 25 years after it was composed! And on and on.

Chris has usually been pretty straightforward about her songs: they aren’t always autobiographical. They might be hypothetical or about someone she knows. Never bought that “Over My Head” was written about Lindsey, especially since most accounts for years stressed that her white album songs were written prior to the arrival of Stevie and Lindsey. Only “World Turning” was freshly composed from the sessions. I believe that.

“Sugar Daddy”: it’s such a fun lyric! And it doesn’t pretend to deep or personal. Just a clever, ironic way of saying “you’re the tops—even if I had someone to buy me great things.” Do people debate whether Paul and John’s “Drive My Car” is autobiographical? They might, but I never thought of it as such.

I don't remember the exact words (at the Classic Albums:Rumours video) but I understood that was just what Christine explained how she writes songs, and the difference with Stevie's inspirations.

Het Verhaal van de 320 Songs
 

I won a 'like & win' contest on Facebook by a Dutch music store from Amsterdam, and now am the proud owner of the Dutch version of this book: 'Fleetwood Mac Compleet - Het Verhaal van de 320 Songs'.
I've been a fan of the band since 1977, and the book is very interesting!

How detailed is the Bob Welch era? I would assume that the tracks Rumours have a decent amount of information, but I'm curious if this is applied to other songs in the band's discography. Also, does the book actually cover every song the band has recorded?

I only received my copy this week; 608 pages are a lot to go through. Not EVERY song is covered though; they've pretty much skipped over the Blues Jam at Chess sessions (about five songs are discussed) and the Boston Tea Party recordings (all 34 of them) are mentioned but not discussed.

As far as I know now, all (official) studio recordings have got their little story; first about the origin, and then about the production.

The authors tried to follow the order of songs in the way they were released; 'I believe my time ain't long' (page 26) is the first to be discussed thoroughly.

On page 585 (Dutch version), 'Miss Fantasy' is the last song with a story.

GJK

B/n
 

The Buckingham/Nicks period starts on page 310. Sounds fair enough...

I have always wanted to know more details about the Mask and Time recording sessions. They are not my favorite albums at all, but we have read and seen a lot about the Rumours lineup albums, specially the 70s'. Even about the new songs on the 1992 boxset, it would be interesting.

My book just arrived and I'm very mixed on it. At over 600 pages, the book gives every song multiple paragraphs, with further attention given to a general history of the making of each album. This book was presumably a massive undertaking to parse through hundreds of sources to ensure that each song is properly accounted for. As to be expected, there were certain things that slipped through the cracks.

First of all, the personnel sections are unreliable and outright inaccurate in some cases. Jeremy Spencer is credited with piano on "Coming Your Way" even though Christine McVie said in a Melody Maker interview that she was responsible for the part. Danny Kirwan is credited as the vocalist for "Show-Biz Blues", which is one of the more egregious errors in the book. They also failed to identify Mick Fleetwood as the individual who played tambourine on the track. On some of the new compositions from The Dance, Lenny Castro is only credited with tambourine even though he clearly played other percussion instruments on those tracks. I could keep going, but you can probably infer that there are multiple inconsistencies and inaccuracies here.

Over 100 sources are listed in the Bibliography, which include books, magazine articles, interviews, and some Q&As conducted with the Penguin. The latter source was used extensively for the Mystery to Me section of the book, which actually provides a relatively decent overview of several lesser-known tracks. Given that Fleetwood Mac is an incredibly highly-reported on band, I'm disappointed that they did not use even more sources. Even Wikipedia article for Fleetwood Mac has more sources than this book, albeit of varying degreed of quality. The songs for the Tusk album don't even make use of Caillat's Get Tusked book, which is a massive oversight.

The book also contains some unsourced lyrical speculation, including on the song "Red Rover". One sentence reads "However, another theory is circulating among fans: It is actually about Christine McVie and the multiple attempts of the musicians to bring her back into the fold of the group." Including this unsourced information is unprofessional and irresponsible, only serving as useless padding.

The authors sprinkled in their own assessments throughout the book. On the section dedicated toward "Family Man", they wrote "The castanets off little added value, other than another cliché" about Spanish music." I'm not entirely sure why this was necessary to include. Write-ups for lesser-known songs generally rely on descriptions of the recording rather than anything about the the recording process. Here's a partial segment on the section for "Earl Gray", which is given a full page: "The guitar is a the heart of this soothing instrumental track. Its repetitive motif progresses throughout the four-minute track, while the arrangement gradually fleshes out. John McVie's bass is perfectly minimalist, merely supporting the fundamentals of the chord changes..." Serviceable, but not groundbreaking commentary.

Among the good things about the book, the authors dedicate some time toward the numerous outtakes recorded by the band, including eight from the Behind the Mask album. Of those, "Lizard People" receives the most attention. This is applied to some other albums in the band's discography, which is a welcome addition. The Tango in the Night album also gets a couple pages dedicated toward the demos and outtakes. There are also different sections dedicated toward live albums, lineup changes, and other key figures in Fleetwood Mac history such as Richard Dashut and Judy Wong.

For most of the songs documented in this book, the authors generally provide lyrical and instrumental analysis to the song, which is occasionally augmented with quotes from certain members, images, and commentary. Given that certain Fleetwood Mac members, particularly Kirwan, seldom discussed their own material, this was probably the only way to the authors could muster anything up for this book. Barring some of the examples I provided above, the majority of the book gives a relatively accurate account of the band. Seeing that virtually every known song that the band recorded is included here, some shortcuts were taken. No interviews were conducted with any members of the band to fill in the gaps, which I think is a big missed opportunity. For those looking for a documentation of Fleetwood Mac's discography, this book likely won't provide too much new insights for massive Fleetwood Mac fans. The general public will likely learn at least something about reading this book, even though there are some inaccuracies included throughout.

Although we have already mentioned that given the limited success (critical and commercial) of this album, releasing an expanded edition would be ruled out, I see that there would be enough material for this one.

Publisher
 

Too bad this wasn’t published by Penguin.

Mine arrived today and I have to say, it is a beautiful book. I was so excited taking it out of the box lol. It's also fantastic to see how many of our q&a's were used, and it was nice to be credited. Other authors who will remain nameless have stolen stuff and not credited us which irritates me. Anyway I'm hoping for maybe a couple pictures I haven't seen? I'm not expecting it to be completely accurate but it's nice that someone made the effort. i think the writers at times have changed their stories about certain songs, so it's hard to really nail a song down and say, 'It's about *this* person.'

i'm still getting through the mark blake book... i don't have a whole lot of time for reading these days but maybe i'll get to this new one by the summer haha

--Lis

The Mark Blake book is a fun read. There are numerous Fleetwood Mac biographies that already exist, and Blake takes a different approach by creating one-two page chapters on various aspects of Fleetwood Mac's history such as the band's rivalry with the Eagles, Ken's dog Scooter, and The Harmonica Killer video.

As for Fleetwood Mac: All the Songs, I'm disappointed that the authors phoned it in for certain song entries. One such example is "Honey Hi", which completely bypasses anything discussed in Caillat's Get Tusked book in favor of sentences like "The musician's moving interpretation literally brings to life the lyrics, with which everyone can identify". That sentence reads like something generated by AI. The personnel sections for some of these songs are also incorrect.

It's conceivable that every song won't have a massive write-up, but the Tusk album is very well-documented, so this should not have been an issue. There are also some instances where entires lack a single reference even if a quote is included. Some entires like "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" were admittedly well written, and the authors mentioned in a People interview that they went great lengths to get their hands on every source they could find. The book would benefit from a second edition to fill in a few gaps. Some entires might need an entire re-write, but several key components are already present. I commend the authors for dedicating over 600 pages toward the band, but I suppose that Fleetwood Mac fans (myself included) can be difficult to please.