Lindsey Buckingham sifts through the dust

[MacMan]

Nothing new...

Lindsey Buckingham sifts through the dust
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...703290328/1004

By Brent Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer

March 29, 2007
It's been 30 years since Fleetwood Mac had astounding success with the album "Rumours." Lindsey Buckingham, the creative force behind much of that record, is only just now starting to process the after-effects of being in the biggest band in the world as his own world was falling apart.

"There was a long period of time in the post-Fleetwood Mac environment where I wasn't sure what that all meant, why we went through that exercise," Buckingham said by phone last week. He plays Sunday at the Flynn Center.

Sure, the band members made lots of money, but they paid a price. "Everyone was damaged," Buckingham said. "Emotionally speaking I was completely remote. There was this sense of alienation that existed. Your comfort area was your work."

The story behind the making of "Rumours," which sold an amazing 16 million copies and spawned hits such as "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop," is a famous one. Mick Fleetwood was in the midst of a divorce, as were John and Christine McVie. The romantic relationship between Buckingham and Stevie Nicks was in its death throes.

"It's a complex thing. I don't think anyone would tell you it was a big party," Buckingham said. He was seeing Nicks every day, writing hits that helped the vocalist raise her star profile, yet was finding no time for closure for their relationship. Meanwhile, the opportunities her increasing popularity gave her created a different dynamic for Nicks as her relationship with Buckingham crashed. "That's just another form of a drug that probably allowed her situation in the short term to be easier to get through," he said.

Buckingham wasn't revisiting this well-trod-upon territory for the sake of nostalgia; Fleetwood Mac's dissolution colors his new album, "Under the Skin." It's the first solo effort since 1992 for the mysterious musician who jokingly called himself "the Terrence Malick of rock" in reference to the privacy-hungry film director who vanishes for long stretches between projects.

"Under the Skin" is a pared-down, stunningly honest sonic scrapbook that looks through the eyes of Buckingham's now-happy life back to a time of extreme highs and lows. The disc starts with some of the most personally frank words ever to open an album, set to Buckingham's spare but fluid guitar notes: "Reading the paper saw a review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew/Now that's been a problem/Feeling unseen/Just like I'm living somebody's dream."

That's a feeling that grew for Buckingham with the record the band made after "Rumours," 1979's "Tusk." His work on the double album was lauded as ambitious and inventive; the funky, dark title track, recorded with the University of Southern California marching band, represented a huge departure from anything Fleetwood Mac had done before. Still, "Tusk" was seen as a failure because it sold only a couple million copies, far fewer than "Rumours."

"Not Too Late" addresses that. "That has as much to do with the juggling act I've had to deal with in terms of finding my nurturing from the left side of the palette, outside the box, the whole works, yet having the people in the support system of Fleetwood Mac not wanting me to be anything but what's inside the box," Buckingham said.

"I'm regrouping my focus on what I am," he said. "There's a set of labels that go along with that, and a set of limitations, too. It's just a point in time for me where I can really redefine."

"Down On Rodeo" is another track on "Under the Skin" that reflects Fleetwood Mac's heady days, with lyrics such as "After the music ended there was/Nowhere to go but down" and "We never took quite enough chances we/Never had quite enough time."

"It's sort of looking at relationships that go by the wayside," both romantic and musical relationships, Buckingham said. A band can be successful commercially and critically, but he said "it doesn't mean you're having internal success."

Buckingham, 57, still plays with Fleetwood Mac in its on-again, off-again incarnations. He said he gained the clarity to put his early days with the band in perspective in the past decade, since marrying and having three children.

"That's been a gift, which I was fairly sure was not going to happen," he said. His new life changed his priorities and put him in an emotional place to answer old questions. He found new warmth and intimacy. Several songs on the new album, including "Flying Down Juniper" and "It Was You," reflect Buckingham's newfound status as a family man.

He said he and his wife, Kristen, both came to their relationship with walls built up to hide old wounds. They were able to tear each other's walls down and see clearly.

"As the light comes through," he said, "the world starts to look different in its entirety."

[sasja]

Originally Posted by MacMan

He said he and his wife, Kristen, both came to their relationship with walls built up to hide old wounds. They were able to tear each other's walls down and see clearly.

Love reading that. So happy he's found that kind of relationship finally.

[Kelly]

Originally Posted by sasja

Love reading that. So happy he's found that kind of relationship finally.

How old was Kristen when he met her? Wasn't she in her early 20's?
It is very nice to read that the walls finally came down.

[#1LiddyBuckFan]

I think she's around 37, so I guess they would have met in her mid-20s???