No one could have foreseen, at that time, that Fleetwood Mac would soon become a record breaking hit making machine, with a stable line-up for the next twelve years.
 |
In late 1974, Mick started checking out potential studios in the L.A. area
for a place to record the next Fleetwood Mac album. He came upon Sound City Studios and owner Keith Olsen. Keith began demonstrating to Mick the quality of recording that his studio could produce. He used the studio recording of a song called "Frozen Love" to make his point of just how good the acoustics were in his studio. Mick then asked Keith who the duo was on that amazing. recording as he was just knocked out by their talent. This duo turned out to be none other than Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie
Nicks.
Mick kept those names in his memory, and when Bob Welch quit, he and John McVie arranged to meet the two young artists. In that moment, Mick and John were only interested in hiring Lindsey Buckingham, because they were really looking for someone to replace Bob Welch. Once they realized that Buckingham/Nicks were a package deal, they hired both of them. |
Only a few weeks after the White Album's release in July 1975, this new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac was already proving to be the most commercially successful lineup yet. The first single taken from the album was Christine's "Over My Head" with Lindsey's "I'm So Afraid" as the b-side. "Over My Head" became a radio staple and was their first top 20 single ever in the States. "The White Album" topped the album charts in September 1976 and incredulously stayed on that chart until 1978.
The band was excited about their newfound success and couldn't wait to take their new show and new, now commercially successful band on the road. The second single taken from the album was Stevie's beautiful "Rhiannon", which proved to be even a bigger hit than "Over My Head" reaching #11 on the charts. Then came the release of "Say You Love Me" which also reached #11.
Christine recalls: "We could tell by the first concert we ever did it was going to be good. That first show went down like a storm. There was something about the combination of people on the stage that was very special."
| Despite some side projects and guest appearances on some other artists albums, the band
spent most of 1976 in the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California recording their follow-up
to the "White Album". A clear theme was beginning to emerge during the recording of the new album, which ultimately would be called "Rumours". And that theme was 'relationships on the rocks'. Yes, this is exactly what was happening. Stevie and Lindsey's relationship seemed to be heading towards a painful end but so was John and Christines. Even Mick and his wife Jenny were splitting up -- their situation not helped by her affair with Bob Weston. The stress of the unraveling relationships of these five people was painfully evident on the songs recorded during at the time.
And to complicate matters further, there were some technical difficulties during the recording process and one the "Rumours" tapes got destroyed. They did re-record the material but it made their experience in Sausalito that much more frustrating. |
|
 |
Eleven songs made the albums final cut but one particular stand-out track was missing. The name of that song was "Silver Springs", a song Stevie wrote and really wanted on the album. Mick told Stevie that the song couldn't be on the album because there simply wasn't enough room. He suggested that she shorten the length of the track. She flatly refused, believing that his explanation sounded like a cop out. (sidenote that "I Don't Wanna Know" ended up replacing "Silver Springs" on the record).
The "Silver Springs" issue would remain a sore spot for Stevie for years to come. In order to appease her, the band agreed to make "Silver Springs" the b-side of the first single, Lindsey's "Go Your Own Way". That Lindsey anthem ironically became a huge hit in the States (#10) and also did very well in the UK (#38). |
'Rumours' was finally released in February 1977 - and by the largest label they had dealt with thus far, Warner Bros. The album shot up to #1 and remained there for an astonishing six months. It shattered all previously held album sales records. And to this day, "Rumours" is still one of the best-selling albums of all time (19 times platinum in the U.S. alone, 30 million albums sold worldwide).Fleetwood Mac won the Rolling Stone award for 'Artist of the Year', 'Best Album', 'Best Single' ("Dreams") and numerous other awards in several countries. "Rumours" also won the Grammy Award in 1977 for 'Album of the Year',
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Stevie Nick's "Dreams" was the second single and proved to be an even bigger hit than "Go Your Own Way". "Dreams", released in June 1977, still stands as the only Fleetwood Mac single that ever topped the Billboard Hot 100. On the b-side was Christine's "Songbird", the only track on "Rumours" that was not recorded in Sausalito. Rather it was recorded in the emptiness of the Zellerback Auditorium. The third single was Christine's buoyant song of hope "Don't Stop" -- with Stevie's "Gold Dust Woman" as the flip side. The fourth, and final single was "You Make Loving Fun" with "Never Going Back Again" as the b-side.
The "Rumours" tour started in February in the States. It took the band, with few interruptions to Europe, Australia and then back to the States where it concluded in August 1978. Although Fleetwood Mac didn't release any new material during this time, most of the band members also had side projects going on as well. After a short period of relative rest, they began to make plans for the follow-up to the musical and cultural phenomenon that was "Rumours".
 |
Although all five Macsters were intent on releasing the follow-up, they didn't spend much time together in the studio. Lindsey chose to record his songs for the new album in his home studio. Christine and Stevie contributed their fair share of material as well. "Tusk", as it would eventually be called, morphed into an artistic mosaic of pop-rock songs by three very different songwriters with distinct creative voices. Lindsey recalled years later "One of the problems with "Tusk" was that it was a lot like a one-man experience. It was just me doing over dubs and stuff . . . It didn't include the band." The "Tusk" double album was released in October 1979 with the title track as the first single. The song, written by Lindsey, came out of a jam the band often played around with at rehearsals. Mick then came with the idea of recording the song with a marching band, the U.S.C. Trojan Marching Band. Indeed, the whole concept for the song was eclectic from the start. |
| However "Tusk", because it was a double album, was considered an expensive purchase for music fans -- at least for those days. It also threw off the bands American fans who were expecting "Rumours Part 2". So the album didn't do as well in the States as the bands two former albums. It did do very well though selling an impressive 4 million copies in the States and reached #4 on the album charts. In the UK, "Tusk" managed to do what "Rumours" couldn't, reach #1.
"Tusk" was, and still is to this day, considered to be somewhat of an experimental album -- Lindsey's personal Fleetwood Mac masterpiece if you will. The second single taken from 'Tusk' was the magnificent Stevie song "Sara". The song had been edited down from it's original version which had clocked in at 6 min 26 seconds. The edited version is the one we all heard on the radio, so much so that it rocketed up to #7 on the U.S. charts. The 3rd and 4th singles, Christine's "Think About Me" (#20) and Stevie's "Sisters of The Moon" (#86), didn't fare as well. To this day, however, the latter track is considered by many to be the 'holy grail' of Stevie live performances. She often rocked out and spoke in tongues while performing the song. |
 |
 |
The band once again hit the road -- this time for the longest tour ever. For nearly eleven months the band ran themselves ragged around the world, playing for hundreds of thousands of fans. According to the liner notes of their subsequent "Live" album, Fleetwood Mac played for 1,276,000 people during that tour. They literally went everywhere -- Japan, Australia, New Zealand, back to the States and Canada, then over to Europe and then ended the tour in the States in LA on September 1st, 1980. |
|
After the band had finished their "Tusk" tour, they obviously needed a break. They used this down-time to put together their first official "Live" album. The live tracks that ended up on this second consecutive double LP came out of three tours: "White Album", "Rumours", and "Tusk". One of the standout tracks on the album was Lindsey playing lead on the old Peter Green track "Oh Well". And then there was "Don't Let Me Down Again" a song originally recorded by Stevie and Lindsey on their Buckingham Nicks album.
The album also included three previously unreleased tracks that the band had recorded in front of some friends and their road crew at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. One of these songs was "Fireflies", a Stevie song, which was also the first single to be released from the album. The second single was the Brian Wilson-penned Beach Boys cover "The Farmer's Daughter". Neither of these singles became a bona fide hit and "The Farmer's Daughter" failed to chart at all. The other new song, Christine's "One More Night", was never released as a single. The album itself placed fairly well on the charts, reaching #14 in the U.S. and #31 in the UK. |
 |
 |
With the live album en route to record stores, Mick, Lindsey, John,
Stevie and Christine took off in separate directions. "We needed the
breathing space," says Mick, "and I think we all deserved at least a
six-month vacation." Stevie agrees: "Fleetwood Mac is like a marriage of
five people and sometimes you've just got to have some room."
During that period away from Fleetwood Mac, most of the members pursued solo projects. Stevie released her first and very successful solo album, "Bella Donna." (4x platinum) Lindsey made his first solo statement with "Law and Order" and Mick traveled to Ghana to record his first solo effort, "The Visitor" (which featured a guest appearance by. Peter Green). John went sailing with his boat to Tahiti. Christine joined her boyfriend, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson on the road for a few weeks, writing songs and enjoying a well-deserved vacation. But even with Fleetwood Mac on hiatus, we were still able to enjoy a release from them. In 1981, the "Fleetwood Mac Documentary and Live Concert" was released. The video was shot during the "Tusk" tour and is a fan favorite to this day. It contains some live video clips along with some interviews with the band. Several music pundits, fans and maybe even a few of the band members themselves thought that these solo projects might spell the end of Fleetwood Mac. Wrong. On the contrary, the fact they were all able to have a solo outlet seemed to feed their desire to work together again soon -- in an even more collaborative way. |
Recording sessions began in April of 1981 when the band traveled to France to cut basic tracks in an intentionally isolated environment. Subsequent recording, mixing, and mastering dates in Los Angeles delayed completion of the new album until June 1982. The album was called "Mirage" and it was like nothing Fleetwood Mac had ever done before
Maybe it wasn't as brilliant as "Rumours" or as adventurous as "Tusk," but "Mirage" turned out to be a wonderful album nonetheless. In the States the new album shot almost immediately to #1. And they were pleasantly surprised to find the LP selling impressively in the UK as well, peaking at #5. In the ensuing months four singles would be released from the album. First there was Christine's "Hold Me" which reached #4 in the U.S. Next came Stevie's classic, "Gypsy" (#12) which interestingly enough didn't place as high on the charts as "Hold Me". Most fans who love "Gypsy" will probably tell you that it was that memorable video clip for "Gypsy" that made them Stevie fans. The third single "Love In Store" was a moderate success in the States reaching #22. The final release off of "Mirage", Lindsey's "Oh Diane" really made its mark in the UK reaching #9. The song never charted Stateside.
A short tour to support "Mirage" followed however this time they only toured the States. They started off in Atlanta in early September and finished at the end of October in Austin, Texas. One of the best things that came out of this short U.S. tour is a recording that was made during their LA Forum concerts on October 21st and 22nd. This video, called "Fleetwood Mac in Concert Mirage Tour" was released in 1983 and to this day is a popular fan collectors item
As fate would have it, Fleetwood Mac wouldn't reconvene as a band again until 1987, where we pick up The Fleetwood Mac Story....
Research by: Dirk Faes, John Fitzgerald, & Jan Freedland
Written by Jan Freedland & John Fitzgerald
If you have any interesting facts or insights that you'd like to add to Part Two of The Mac Story, please drop us a line.