# The Strange Magic of: Fleetwood Mac



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I am long enough in the tooth to recall the original "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac", at one point blessed with three lead guitarists: Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, and Jeremy Spencer, in addition to the extraordinarily durable duo of Fleetwood and Mac. Songs to remember, like "The Green Manalishi, with the Two Prong Crown". Then came the transformation into the Buckingham-Nicks FM, and an ocean of great pop, one marvelous song after another, and the endless saga of who was in or out, in so many ways, with whom. The group then slowly disintegrated like wet tissue paper. And then, years later, a miracle! The glory was restored and the group reformed to produce a wondrous live album, The Dance, revisiting the old greats and revealing some new material, some of which appeared later also in the fine Say You Will album. But here, from The Dance, is a definitive live version of _Go Your Own Way_, one of my very, very favorite songs.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I prefer the original, especially songs like Oh well, Need your love so bad, and Albatross.

That said, the later line-up also had great songs like Rhiannon and Sara.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I like the 1970 album, Then Play On. I don't listen to the Bob Welch era Mac, or the Stevie Nicks stuff. But I do have a lot of respect for Lindsey Buckingham. He is a master pop musician. Great singer/guitarist/songwriter. And I like Christine McVee too. She goes way back to the blues years with the band Chicken Shack.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Christine McVie, who was born and still remains "Perfect" in my view, was such an essential part of the FM Golden Era, with her smokey voice and excellent songs. I too lost interest entirely during the Welch interlude. In certain aspects, Fleetwood Mac's long and convoluted history mirrors that of the Jefferson Airplane/Starship ever-changing ensemble. In observing Lindsey Buckingham's guitar technique, I note its similarity to that of Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, though I am no student of the instrument.


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## Guest (Aug 18, 2016)

I've heard the later incarnations a lot (not through choice!) but it isn't my cup of Earl Grey.

But in Peter Green... penned one of the saddest personal songs ever in Man of the World. 
(I think it's analogous to Syd and Floyd: the original creative force wasn't able to stay the course...)


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here's one version of The Green Manalishi. My favorite is on an old cassette of a live performance as I recall in Boston. The guitar in that was enough to give you a severe case of the chills.....


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)




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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> Christine McVie, who was born and still remains "Perfect" in my view, was such an essential part of the FM Golden Era, with her smokey voice and excellent songs.


I do like her foggy vocals. Sounds good coming from a woman. Always liked her song, You Make Lovin' Fun.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

I have a copy of the Green Manalishi by Arthur Brown. have to say I prefer it

On another note,
I grew up with Fleetwood Mac
One of the albums we used to play, when me & Mrs cwarchc weren't married
Played it at her parents for months:lol:


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## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> I am long enough in the tooth to recall the original "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac", at one point blessed with three lead guitarists: Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, and Jeremy Spencer, in addition to the extraordinarily durable duo of Fleetwood and Mac. Songs to remember, like "The Green Manalishi, with the Two Prong Crown". Then came the transformation into the Buckingham-Nicks FM, and an ocean of great pop, one marvelous song after another, and the endless saga of who was in or out, in so many ways, with whom. The group then slowly disintegrated like wet tissue paper. And then, years later, a miracle! The glory was restored and the group reformed to produce a wondrous live album, The Dance, revisiting the old greats and revealing some new material, some of which appeared later also in the fine Say You Will album. But here, from The Dance, is a definitive live version of _Go Your Own Way_, one of my very, very favorite songs.


I am also a fan of Fleetwood from Peter Green all the way up to the present. I always liked the blues guitar of Peter Green, especially on the Fleetwood Mac in Chicago 1969 Live CD. He had some great blues people playing along with the band.

Otis Spann, Shakey Horton, Buddy Guy. And the most under-rated person in music, Willie Dixon. I believe that Willie Dixon did more for blues than anyone else. He produced, wrote and played with the greatest bluesmen of his era. And, by allowing all of his contemporaries, people like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and many more, to succeed, he shot the blues into another gear. And this blues music was the seed for rock music. He truly was a master that was great for his time and someone way ahead of his time.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

starthrower said:


> I don't listen to the Bob Welch era Mac.


Yep. I wasn't paying much attention to the group back in the day, but I saw them on TV doing the Bermuda Triangle (the below-referenced clip), and it turned me off, and I went back to listening to real jazz. But this thread is interesting, because this year, I have actually made attempts to get back into them.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Rach Man said:


> And the most under-rated person in music, Willie Dixon. I believe that Willie Dixon did more for blues than anyone else. He produced, wrote and played with the greatest bluesmen of his era. And, by allowing all of his contemporaries, people like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and many more, to succeed, he shot the blues into another gear. And this blues music was the seed for rock music. He truly was a master that was great for his time and someone way ahead of his time.


I agree completely. I was just beginning to listen to "race music" on radio station WNJR broadcasting out of Newark NJ in the early and mid-1950s, pre-Elvis, when Willie Dixon, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, etc., were all in their early glory years. Willie Dixon's song _My Babe_, sung by Little Walter, was just such a gem: "My babe, she don't stand no foolin'; once she's hot there ain't no coolin' her!" Straight from gospel to Rock and Roll.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

I still cannot believe that TUSK flopped in the charts - it is a MASTERPIECE! Even if I was not yet born during its release, I fell in love with this amazing album the first time I listened to my CD copy - so much creativity in all the 20 songs! I even purchased the 2015 release with 5 CDs - the 5.1 mix of the album made it more amazing.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I'm a Mac tragic, particularly anything Peter Green- My favorite guitarist of all time ( apart from Zappa) I too prefer the original FM and have all the early LP's and many Peter Green one and compilations . My favorite Peter Green tribute album being Rattlesnake Guitar, which covers/ tributes all the classic FM peter green tracks best being Snowy White doing Looking for Somebody (an old Fleetwood Mac Peter Green song). Gary Moore also did Blues for Greeny


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I'm a Mac tragic, particularly anything Peter Green- My favorite guitarist of all time ( apart from Zappa) I too prefer the original FM and have all the early LP's and many Peter Green one and compilations . My favorite Peter Green tribute album being Rattlesnake Guitar, which covers/ tributes all the classic FM peter green tracks best being Snowy White doing Looking for Somebody (an old Fleetwood Mac Peter Green song). Gary Moore also did Blues for Greeny.


Very tasty. I also especially like the Snowy White/Looking for Somebody. Snowy White did nice work also on the Roger Waters _The Wall_ double CD.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

We're actually talking about three bands here who shared a wondrous rhythm section. Peter Green was that odd animal of the British, white, middle-class Jewish boy who could out-blues most of the Americans (how they hated that!). There are some truly CLASSIC tracks from those halcyon days. Later, in 1975, Mick Fleetwood recruited a talented unknown American West Coast guitarist called Lyndsay Buckingham, who insisted his equally unknown singer-songwriter girlfriend Stevie Nicks joined the band too (or he wouldn't join). And so one of the golden ages of high-quality AOR rock was born. Buckingham is one of the most underrated guitarists of all time and many people still don't realise just how good he is.

In between those two incarnations was a brief period (1971-74) that stylistically formed a bridge between the two seemingly irreconcilable Fleetwood Macs - the Bob Welch era. Many people don't know anything about this version of Fleetwood Mac, or simply choose to ignore it. Those who *do* ignore it are missing a treat. Not only does it encompass the period when Christine McVie was honing her superb songwriting skills, but it includes some fine songs by Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch. This period spawned no fewer than five albums: _Future Games_ (1971), _Bare Trees_ (1972), _Penguin_ and _Mystery to Me_ (both 1973) and _Heroes Are Hard To Find_ (1974).
_Future Games_ included Christine McVie's first compositions for Fleetwood mac, including the lovely _Show Me a Smile_, which closes the album.





The album's title track (by newcomer Bob Welch) showed the new direction the band would take post-Peter Green:





_Bare Trees_ includes one of McVie's best songs which, if having appeared on a later Buckingham-Nicks-era album, would surely have been a hit.





The second of the 1973 albums, _Mystery to Me_, produced the Bob Welch classic _Hypnotized_





and another might-have-been-a-hit Christine McVie song. _Believe Me_





The last Welch-era album _Heroes Are Hard To Find_ is actually one of Fleetwood Mac's most consistent efforts prior to _Rumours_ and includes yet another wonderful McVie song in the title track (see next posting).


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Christine McVie's title track to the 1974 Fleetwood Mac album _Heroes Are Hard To Find_.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Delicious Manager, many thanks for the Bob Welch/Christine McVie selections--new to me. Several show McVie's songwriting skills, as you point out, prefiguring her later success with the Buckingham/Nicks FM. Others remind me of the later Jefferson Starship phase of the equally long and complex Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship conglomeration, with a touch of the Grateful Dead here and there. Somebody could write an interesting book on the quasi-parallelism of the histories of FM and the Jefferson incarnations.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

More classic older FM. This is a single, a good one from Danny that didn't chart..............


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Now the B side from the single


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Returning to the Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac, here is my very favorite _Rhiannon_, very much live, with additional lyrics that I can't find written down on the Internet ("never in a million years", etc.). If anyone can provide these lyrics, I would appreciate it.....


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I appreciate the musicianship and song-writing abilities of the Nicks-Buckingham line-up but, apart from some of the _Tusk_ album, it leaves me cold. I can't comment on the Bob Welch era as I haven't knowingly heard anything. Fleetwood Mac for me was, is and always will be the band that Peter Green was in.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

And now Neil Finn and Mike Campbell have replaced Lindsay. How many guitarists does that make now, surely a record number. Remember Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, Bob Weston and Dave Mason have all been previous guitarists too, I count 13. 

http://variety.com/2018/music/news/...-lindsey-buckinghams-replacements-1202748185/


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## laurie (Jan 12, 2017)

Strange Magic said:


> Returning to the Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac, here is my very favorite _Rhiannon_, very much live, with additional lyrics that I can't find written down on the Internet ("never in a million years", etc.). If anyone can provide these lyrics, I would appreciate it.....


Wow, this is amazing! And I'd never heard those lyrics before either ~
https://genius.com/Fleetwood-mac-rhiannon-lyrics

When looking for these lyrics I ran across this from Mick Fleetwood, talking about the "theatrical intensity" of their live performances in the late Seventies ~ "... her Rhiannon in those days was like an exorcism." I'll say!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

^^^^laurie, thank you so much for digging up the elusive lyrics! And Mick Fleetwood's description of that amazing Rhiannon as an exorcism is very apt indeed--I was astonished when I first saw the video (and still am).


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Have you ever heard the original version of Rhiannon, as recorded by Nicks/Buckingham pre FM?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

^^^^Eddie, musico-archaeological treasure indeed!


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