Fleetwood Mac is back in fashion. The flame was rekindled starting in 2023, thanks to the television miniseries “Daisy Jones & The Six”, loosely inspired by the history of the famous American group. “Rumours”, their most popular album, continues to remain in the sales charts around the world. This week it is at number 20 (!) in the United States (with 654 weeks of stay in the Billboard Top 200), in England it is even higher, at number 18 (1,119 weeks of stay in the Top 100), with the simultaneous presence at number 7 of the anthology “50 Years – Don't Stop” and even three tracks in the singles chart: “Dreams” at number 49, “The Chain” at number 68 and “Everywhere” at 83. Truly a miracle of longevity.
Last week I happened to listen to them for a long time while I dedicated myself to writing the longform for “The Life Of A Showgirl” and I noted Taylor Swift's unequivocal homages to Fleetwood Mac, for example in the roll that opens the single “The Fate Of Ophelia” (almost identical to that of “Dreams”) and the dedication with which she follows the style of Stevie Nicks in the setting of the sung parts. But this year there are many internationally renowned artists who have included warm sounds seventies Very Fleetwood Mac oriented in one's own bouquet stylistic, just listen carefully to the recent works by Wolf Alice and Last Dinner Party.
There couldn't therefore have been a better time to release the long-awaited reissue of the album that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks recorded just before being recruited by Mick Fleetwood to join the band on a permanent basis, contributing significantly to its subsequent fortunes. The two ex-hippies were a couple in life too, she worked as a waitress to make ends meet, he stayed indoors smoking hashish while he developed ideas and honed his guitar technique, hoping to be able to live there, sooner or later. They had already been playing together in the Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band since 1968 (two anthologies of songs from the time were released in 2021 and 2023), until producer Keith Olsen convinced them to record a demo without the rest of the group. Olsen had been right: the potential was in the talented couple, and those demo assembled on a farm they became the first step towards a real solo album.
Solo so to speak, given that in the session of registration there was a nice display of forces, including sessionmen of the first order, including the guitarist Waddy Wachtel, the bassists Jerry Scheff (already alongside Elvis Presley and in “LA Woman” by the Doors) and Mark Tulin (Electric Prunes), the drummers Jim Keltner and Ron Tutt, the percussionist Jorge Caldòn, to which must be added the string arrangements curated by Richard Halligan by Blood, Sweat And Tears. The graphic aspects were outlined by Wachtel's brother, Jimmy, a famous photographer and art director; as production assistant a very young Richard Dashut, who in the following years would put his signature on all of Fleetwood Mac's most important works.
To have something similar available parterre of collaborators, it is probable that in the environment Lindsey and Stevie were already considered two talents with very high potential. Despite this, and despite the sparkling beauty of those delightful songs with a folk-rock structure, the album, published in September 1973 by Polydor and titled with the surnames of the two protagonists, did not achieve any success, soon ending up out of print and never reissued again. There was talk of it on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary, when there were even rumors of a tour in support, but for years the only way to listen to it was to search for it in low quality on YouTube. After 52 years it is finally possible to have a remastered version available, without the addition of anything bonusesjust those historic 36 minutes.
Listening to these songs in hindsight, it is striking to note how much Fleetwood Mac's future style will be imbued with songwriting of the two young artists. “Long Distance Winner” and “Crying In The Night” already have all the trappings of the great classics played in the future by Stevie, the instrumentals “Stephanie” (Nicks' real first name) and the short “Django” (a reinterpretation of a classic by jazz pianist John Lewis) showcase Buckingham's unmistakable guitar expertise, which over time will become a distinctive brand. Just as both the forays into electrified country in “Don't Let Me Down Agan” (not surprisingly often performed live by the band, a version can be found in the expanded edition of “Fleetwood Mac”) and the sweetness expressed by the duet “Races Are Run” are already 100% Fleetwood. The only difference is that in “Buckingham Nicks” love reigns supreme, also well conveyed by the cover image: the two are in love, they are one, distant from the poisonous verses that for years will be shouted in each other's faces on stages all over the world.
Being the new Fleetwood Mac before the new Fleetwood Mac, a destiny that would have made them rich, famous and desired in the space of a few months: listen to “Without A Leg To Stand On” and “Lola (My Love)” and you will find an already mature Lindsay, concentrate on “Crystal”, and yes, it's her, it will end up, in a new guise, in the official Fleetwood Mac catalog a few months later. And the sumptuous “Frozen Love”, the most classic of the pieces classic rock: Lindsey's verse, chorus, hint of a solo, Stevie's verse, chorus, acoustic arpeggio that pushes the boundaries of prog, majestic two-minute solo, strings, paired verse, chorus. Success – we were saying – did not arrive, but the two did not lose heart and immediately began writing the songs that were to populate the next work.
They could not yet know that those songs would have an unexpected fate, under a different company name, because in the meantime Keith Olsen brought together Mick Fleetwood (looking for new life for his band, in trouble after the abandonment of Peter Green and was struck in particular by the performance of “Frozen Love”) and Lindsey Buckingham, who proved to be perfect both for the quality of writing, and for the ability to interpret the group's great classics. Lindsey placed only one constraint: that Stevie could follow him in the new adventure. Mick accepted, despite having in lineup already another female presence, Christine McVie. It was one of the smartest moves in the history of rock music. “Fleetwood Mac” published in July 1975 and produced by Keith Olsen, will sell over nine million copies in the United States alone, a record with a title that was intended to underline the intention of a new start, from which one of the most beautiful musical fairy tales of the seventies began.
25/10/2025
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
