Seeing the White

[michelej1]

[This blog review of the White Album is from January. I thought it had it's amusing moments. Plus, I think "woo me until the sun comes up" is one of my favorite lyrics, so I like him singling it out]

http://flashesofquincy.blogspot.com/...twood-mac.html

Blah, Blah, Blah, Fleetwood Mac

No, we’re not going to talk about Tusk. Yes, it is still more “punk” than The Clash and “artier” than Joy Division (although it is not as punk as Gang of Four or as arty as Public Image Ltd., but better than anything by either).

A couple days ago I re-listened to the 1975 self-titled and it is a lot better than I remember it. It might be even better than Rumours. Sure, it doesn’t have the gristle, but it certainly has more throb, and if anything, everyone sounds younger, more ambitious, less tried, more true. I overlooked Mick Fleetwood when Stylus did its drummers’ poll, and it was a stupid mistake. Intense listening to the Mac reveals that he is one HELL of a drummer, he’s just not flashy. Check his masterful alterations of the hi-hat on “Blue Letter,” his, dare I say, power drumming on “I’m So Afraid,” the surgical control of the 4/4 on “Say You Love Me,” and “Rhiannon,” where Stevie Nicks gets the spotlight even though it should go to the mesmerizing playing of the band, particularly Mick.

Fleetwood Mac has more duds than Rumours, but they’re not as glaring or obtrusive (I would rather hear “Warm Ways” or “Crystal” than the Clinton-ruined “Don’t Stop” any day of the week). The major difference, and what I think is the reason people prefer the latter to the former, is that the missteps are by Lindsey Buckingham and not by Christine McVie. Though she penned “You Make Loving Fun,” she also did the syrupy “Songbird” and the boilerplate filler of “Oh Daddy” (not to mention “Don’t Stop” (seriously, does ANYONE like this song? “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow…” How about try thinking about your coked-up fanny cheating on your husband with the sound guy. I’ve never heard of a band giving more misconstrued advice in my life!)). Not the case on Fleetwood Mac. Her “Warm Ways” is as sultry as “You Make Loving Fun,” her “Over My Head” arguably more playful, and she contributes the standout track of Fleetwood Mac with “Say You Love Me,” a ****ing grenade of a female singer/songwriter anthem.


Some of the most pathetic and despicable behavior I’ve seen is when men act like they’re devoted to a sweet, unwitting girl when the reality is that they’re not. It would be ridiculous for me to deny that I’ve never done this; in my once-relentless desperation to get laid I would often gush to girls and then blankly ignore and deny those liquored sentiments the next day. I’m not sure if I’ve EVER heard a woman describe this behavior quite as adeptly as McVie does in “Say You Love Me,” and I think it’s fair to say that it’s now one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. The chorus:


'Cause when the loving starts, and the lights go down,
And there's not another living soul around,
Then you woo me until the sun comes up,
And you say that you love me.


I used to think it was “you move me until the sun comes up,” but I like “woo” a lot better. That word change gives it a whole other meaning, implying that the act is one of seduction, not sincerity. And then at the end, when they follow it with “Fallin, fallin, fallin”; it provides such a remarkable contrast and summation, embodying the whole song in the chorus and the coda with the flair of a master painter. Plus, the banjo is awesome.

Then there’s “Sugar Daddy.” These verses:


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


And when I get a little hungry
He could give me all I could eat
And if I needed whiskey
He could serve it to me neat


Did you just skip over that? If you did, ****ing read it again, because that **** is the reason McVie is ten times of the songwriter that Stevie Nicks ever was (except for “Dreams”). A girl so worn out on sex that she can only get her kicks through baubles bought by old farts; and then she puts glass in the steak by asking for her whiskey neat. This isn’t just the blues, it’s a total subversion of the blues, not being sad because your baby’s gone but sad because you’ve got no baby in the first place. The only baby you got are material possessions, and the only life you live is one where you’re so blackout drunk that you don’t care to remember the spoils. That is true blue, real ****, all dirt, no soil.

Lindsey Buckingham hadn’t quite come into his own yet; he’s not as cynical nor as observant as he became later on (not to mention as musically adventurous). But he is HUNGRY; the music meaty, the tone cutting and desperate. He’s as dismissive of women as before, but on “Monday Morning,” it’s out of expectation and not contempt. The side one Lindsey is relatively inactive. The most compelling song (“Blue Letter”) is one that he didn’t even write (although it’s perfect for the tone of his songs, and as fervent as the best songs on this album). But the side two Lindsey is absolutely engrossing, with the social spew of the driving “World Turning” and the bleak Skynyrd-isms of “I’m So Afraid,” a song I skipped over FAR too often when I listened to this. A chorus and verse like this, “Days when the rain and the sun are gone/Black as night/Agony's torn at my heart too long/So afraid/Slip and fall and I die,” is one I expect to find in a Black Sabbath song. Buckingham, however, was never one to play into what record companies’ and fans’ expectations (until the ‘80s, that is, and even that’s debatable). And it perfectly plays into the arc of his singer/songwriter tale. As it is well-known, this is the time when Buckingham and Nicks were on the rocks, and it sets up the anger and resentment that defines his work on the next two albums. Every asshole needs a reason for being an asshole, and I would wager it’s a certain gypsy child with a proclivity for infidelity and speed.


Oh, Stevie Nicks, you ask? She’s somewhere around here. Yeah, she’s got prerequisite pap (no Mac album is complete without one). It’s called “Crystal,” and it is AM soft rock that’s more Reno than Vegas, or even AC. She also has two songs, you may have heard of them, they’re called “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” And they’re terrific.

Posted by Tal at Tuesday, January 15, 2008