Fleetwood Mac is a storied band. Their 1977 album “Rumours” is in the top ten best-selling rock albums in history, with over 30 million copies sold. That album had some great songs, like “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way,” the haunting and beautiful “Songbird,” and the song that became, more or less, Stevie Nicks’ anthem, “Gold Dust Woman.”
The band went through several iterations, but the “Rumours” lineup is the one everyone remembers best: Mick Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks, although the band was originally put together in 1967 by guitarist Peter Green, with Buckingham and Nicks joining in 1974.
For this installment, let’s look at six great Fleetwood Mac songs from the ‘70s. I’ll cover their later work in another installment.
Songbird (1977): With Christine McVie’s lovely vocals leading this haunting tune, it’s one of the very best from a great album, the aforementioned “Rumours.” She wrote the song in less than 30 minutes, and her ex-husband, John McVie, later remarked that “When Christine played ‘Songbird,’ grown men would weep. I did every night.”
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Tusk (1979): This is a strange one for the usually mellow Fleetwood Mac. Backed up by the USC Marching Band, “Tusk” had a primal rhythm and almost jarring beat backed up by droning vocals. Going down this path after the enormous success of “Rumours” was a risk – but it was a risk that worked, as “Tusk” peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top 100. The video also has the bonus of a young Stevie Nicks showing off her baton-twirling skills.
Go Your Own Way (1977): Another great song from “Rumours,” this one was brighter and more cheerful than most. It’s a good enough song that we can forgive its use in Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, as we can forgive the band for playing at Clinton’s inaugural; if I only listened to music acts whose politics I agreed with, I’d be limited to Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood, so…Rhiannon (1975): As was always introduced by writer/vocalist Stevie Nicks in concert, “This is a song about an old Welsh witch.” Rhiannon was indeed a major figure in Welsh mythology, described in the First Branch and the Third Branch of the Mabinogi, some of the earliest legends of Britain – although Stevie drew her inspiration from a contemporary book, “Triad,” by American author Mary Bartlet Leader, which featured a derived character based on the Welsh myth.See Also: Start Your Weekend Right With Five Great Fun Rock Tunes From the Early Seventies
Dreams (1977): Another song written and sung by Stevie Nicks, “Dreams” sold over a million copies as a single and was Fleetwood Mac’s only song to hit #1 on the Billboard Top 100, as well as hitting #1 on Canada’s RPM Top 100 Singles chart. The song was written and recorded as John and Christine McVie were separating, Mick Fleetwood was in the middle of a divorce, and long-term lovers Nicks and Buckingham were breaking up. It’s an emotional tune, and its status on the charts probably says something about the times.
Landslide (1975): One of the most beautiful songs from a band that did a lot of beautiful songs, this version is from a live performance at Warner Brothers Studios in 1997, but the original was on the 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac.” Stevie Nicks once noted that when her father, also a musician, first heard it, he assumed that it was meant for him. It wasn’t, but every time they performed the song after that, Stevie always said, “This one’s for you, Daddy.”
All of us who were kids in the ‘70s remember this classic lineup, and they did many, many songs and sold many, many albums – and you can’t really argue with success. So, have you any Fleetwood Mac favorites of your own from the ‘70s? As always, the comments are all yours.
