Fleetwood Mac All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track

[Villavic]

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.

[WalkAThinLine.]

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.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

the numerous outtakes recorded by the band, including eight from the Behind the Mask album.

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.

[lbfan]

Too bad this wasn’t published by Penguin.

[Penguin Emeritus]

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

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus

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.