Friday, June 27, 2014
I am not sure why, but for the past few months I have been surveying Fleetwood Mac. I've been paying particular attention to Then Play On, which deserves, I think, a better sobriquet than "Brit Blues"-- Peter Green got it in a way that John Mayall wished he could have. Middle period Mac-- Danny Kirwan/Bob Welch Mac, I suppose, was what I liked back when I was an undergrad. Of course, they broke through with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, along with Christine (Perfect) McVie as principle songwriters, and at this late date I guess I have to concede that Nicks, as loopy as she has always seemed to me, is the real deal as a rock singer/writer. McVie's work pretty obviously required context that she couldn't produce outside of a band setting-- I bought a copy of her solo album (called "The Legendary Christine Perfect Album"in the US) and immediately realized that I'd been had. Buckingham's solo stuff cracks me up, and I am glad I own some of it, but again, what is clearly going on there is that he's a flake who does his best work when someone calls him on his flakiness. Nicks understood it all. I never need to hear "Leather and Lace" again, but I respect it. Nicks wrote a hit single, and good for her. She has written, actually, a ton of them, and just because I don't like them doesn't mean that they aren't exactly what they are supposed to be. So, yeah. Great rhythm section that kept lucking onto great writers. Is there anyone else quite like that? spending some time with
// posted by Bill @ 3:51 PM 
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