How Alabama Nearly Killed FM (article/LB interview)

[Livia]

How Alabama nearly killed Fleetwood Mac
Friday, March 09, 2007
As if Alabama's history wasn't checkered enough, here's another dubious highlight you can add to the blotter: The state nearly kept Fleetwood Mac's mid-'70s glory days from happening.

The definitive account comes straight from the mouth of Lindsey Buckingham himself.

This much was never in dispute: Back in September 1973 (according to Buckingham's Web site), the guitarist and partner Stevie Nicks released an album titled "Buckingham Nicks."

It failed to launch them to stardom, but the duo soon went on to vast fame with the Mac, making their mark with the "Fleetwood Mac" album in 1976 and the landmark "Rumours" in 1977.

But the "Buckingham Nicks" platter has never entirely gone away. In the minds of many fans and critics, it's viewed as an overlooked gem -- and not just for its only-in-the-'70s cover, which features the duo in a shirtless pose. To the frustration of many, 24 years after its release, it still has never seen re-release on CD. So if you don't have it on vinyl, odds are you've never heard it.

A more specific urban legend has grown up around it as well: The story that, for reasons unknown, the album was unusually popular in Alabama.

Buckingham's new solo tour, which brings him to the Mobile Saenger Theatre next week, presented a prime opportunity to ask him about Alabama's fondness for "Buckingham Nicks." Surprisingly, the details seemed to come to his mind as easily and clearly as if they'd happened yesterday.

It's no legend at all, he said.

"It was a very strange thing, and we were very aware of it at the time," he said. "It actually was one of the reasons joining Fleetwood Mac was not a clear choice for us at the time."

He and Nicks had proven particularly popular as an opening act in the South, he said. After the album's popularity faded, he said, they were "more or less starving in L.A." But they could go to places like Birmingham, Ala., and headline for crowds of 4,000 or 5,000 people.

"Suddenly we had this groundswell," he said. "We wondered at the time, 'Gee, if we see this through, will it keep going?'"

Lee Stamp can vouch for Mobile's role. Now a Mobile attorney, at the time he was music director and program director at WABB-FM.

"I can tell you exactly why" the album got airplay in Mobile, he said this week.

A Birmingham station, WERC-FM, actually was the first to break the record, Stamp said. Presumably thanks to that station, it was heard by a group of Mobile women who were attending Birmingham-Southern College. When they came home from school, they still wanted to hear the music.

"It became a crusade with them to bug me to play stuff off that album," Stamp said. He'd listened it previously, he said, and it hadn't made that much of an impression -- but putting it on the air made one very important thing happen: "Immediately those girls left me alone," he said.

Stamp said there were limits to what he could be pestered into playing; he drew a hard line on John Travolta singles, for example. But on the other hand, he'd decided his audience generally was "pretty bright" and would tell him where the next hit was coming from.

When he put the Buckingham Nicks material on the air, it got a favorable response, he said. He doesn't remember it as a blockbuster, but as "a good steady record" in terms of popularity.

"I always tried to listen to our audience," Stamp said, "and those little girls were right."

Even so, Buckingham and Nicks eventually opted not to go their own way. Instead they threw their lot in with a group that went on to score millions in album sales and generate numerous classic-rock hits.

To this day, there appear to be no distinct plans to reissue "Buckingham Nicks." The vinyl album has become a collector's item, and has, of course, been copied to CDs for informal trading. Wikipedia, that monument of the digital age -- in which nothing can be forgotten -- says that bootleg recordings of Buckingham-Nicks shows in Mobile and Tuscaloosa can be found online, if you look hard enough.

Buckingham said "the forces that be" have never quite gotten together on a plan to reissue the disc, and that there's "a certain amount of inertia" that would have to be overcome for anything to happen. Translation: Don't hold your breath.

Needless to say, he's more interested in the present work, including his tour in support of the well-received "Under the Skin" solo album.

"For me, this is the best time in my life," he said. In no small part, he said, that's because after deliberately waiting for a certain maturity, he finally has a houseful of young children. "Having had that happen to me has certainly answered a lot of questions," he said.

He also feels his music is well-defined now, that he's better and achieving exactly what he intends to on a recording.

Certainly, "Under the Skin" sounds different from anything else out there. While the tracks consist of little more than guitar and vocals, the arrangements are complex, with layered vocals and processed instrumental tracks.

It should make for an interesting live experience, particularly since he's also working in a fair quantity of Fleetwood Mac material.

"We started with the notion, obviously, that we would have to cover a body of work," he said. The general idea is to emphasize the new solo material, and to rearrange some of the Mac tracks to fit the new sound. (Obviously some rearrangement was a given, since Mac vocalists Nicks and Christine McVie aren't coming along.)

"Basically we put a lot of energy into trying to deconstruct and reconstruct the pieces of the puzzle," he said.

"We're talking about a very intimate approach," he said. "I'm doing quite a few songs by myself."

On other songs he's backed by a supporting trio, consisting of a second guitarist, a third guitarist who doubles on keyboards, and a percussionist.

He's opening, he said with a new song titled "Not Too Late" and closing with another one titled "Shut Us Down."

"Oh you and I we sure can dream," he sings on the latter. "Of conversations that might have been..."

"People seem to relate to the simplicity of that," he said.

"It's really a quintessential show, in my mind," he said. "It's just a great thing to be putting out there."

Lawrence F. Specker is the Press-Register's entertainment reporter. He can be reached by phone at (251) 219-5606; by e-mail as [email protected]; by fax at (251) 219-5799. Mail notices of upcoming events to him at the Press-Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile, AL 36652.
http://www.al.com/printer/printer.ss...l=3&thispage=3

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by Livia

Buckingham said "the forces that be" have never quite gotten together on a plan to reissue the disc, and that there's "a certain amount of inertia" that would have to be overcome for anything to happen. Translation: Don't hold your breath.

That really irks me to hear that. What's wrong with them? Why the inertia? Are the band members / managers so brain dead not to realize the possibilites of releasing Buckingham Nicks?? At this point, it has the best probability (of anything they release now) of being a big hit on the charts!

I can't believe they are totally ignorant to the cult status the album holds, and fans' desires to have it released on CD. Economically it won't cost as much to prep as it would to record a new album, nor would it be as much effort, and yet it stands to be a big seller, especially if they took time to add bonus tracks and promote it properly...and tour!! How nice that would that be if, at this late stage in the game, they came full circle and finally acknowleged their beginnings.

To me their whole mindset about releasing the album reeks of laziness, arrogance, and it's a complete snub to their fan base.

[Livia]

Could also be a brilliantly calculated career/marketing move on their part - their ace in the hole.

And what a fitting "cycle" that would be. If BN was re-released in 5.1 audio surround sound - and ended up being the last release from both LB and SN. Like when they're both 90.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by Livia

Could also be a brilliantly calculated career/marketing move on their part - their ace in the hole.

And what a fitting "cycle" that would be. If BN was re-released in 5.1 audio surround sound - and ended up being the last release from both LB and SN. Like when they're both 90.

LOL...I think you very well may have predicted their last album -- their first!

[shackin'up]

I couldn't care less. That album is great on vinyl and I like it as a collecters' item. What other macrelated releases are collecters' items? I think it is OK this way. New music please! Re-isues and remasters are ok, but I hope they just concentrate on new music and live performances as long as they are physically and mentally able . After their careers they can go ahead with all those re-releases.

[BTFLCHLD]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

I think it is OK this way.

we agree

[danax6]

I thought I was going to read a story about how they got attacked and taken hostage by a bunch of rednecks during a gig in Alabama.

[estranged4life]

I sometimes wonder if the hold-up on the BN album could involve the rights of the record producer and/or the rights of the label involved.

Oh well, I still have the best sonically produced CDR version - so I will live that copy until if/when an official release is produced for mass consumption.

[Livia]

^^^ Stevie mentioned in an interview that she and LB own it - and that they can pretty much release it whenever they want - but that LB would probably want to tweak it first.

[mondaymornin1]

Originally Posted by Livia

How Alabama nearly killed Fleetwood Mac
Friday, March 09, 2007
As if Alabama's history wasn't checkered enough, .....

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Sorry, I'm feeling particularly snarky this evening. Believe it or not, we're not all rednecks raising racist kids. Well, at least my friends and family aren't. There's hope, really there is....

And I really wish Liddy would do a show in B'ham instead of Montgomery. It would be a little more convenient for me.

My daughter's guitar instructor tells me every week that he saw BN 4 times here in the early seventies, lol! Yep, he's an ol' hippy who couldn't believe it when my daughter asked him to teach her to play Try For the Sun (that'll have to be one of those long-shot goals, huh? She's a beginner).

Economically it won't cost as much to prep as it would to record a new album, nor would it be as much effort, and yet it stands to be a big seller, especially if they took time to add bonus tracks and promote it properly...and tour!! How nice that would that be if, at this late stage in the game, they came full circle and finally acknowleged their beginnings.

To me their whole mindset about releasing the album reeks of laziness, arrogance, and it's a complete snub to their fan base.

WOW - you REALLY want that album out, huh? I just can't imagine that these artists, especially LB who is at a peak of his personal satisfaction of his career, would want to take time out to revisit something he did 34 years ago.

I don't think it's anything PERSONAL against the fans, they just want to keep moving forward. Plus, I don't personally believe that they would get any "hits" off the reissue. I'd love it, but would be surprised. I guess I just think you might be holding out for the impossible there, Penguin!