Music

Rumors

Fleetwood Mac, poster children for 70s excess, tour greatest hits

by Laura Scott   |   Feb 25, 2009

Rumors

Fleetwood Mac

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Fleetwood Mac’s infamy came from their pop success in the late seventies and early eighties. Yet their first album, 1968’s Fleetwood Mac, contained the song “Black Magic Woman,” which later became a blockbuster hit for Santana. Then an all-British blues band, Fleetwood Mac recorded songs at Chess Records with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy. Apple Records nearly signed the band (George Harrison and Mick Fleetwood were brothers-in-law).

But even early on, Fleetwood Mac’s members tended toward the darker side, and the band fell prey to the aftermath of the sixties. Lead songwriter Peter Green descended into an LSD-induced madness. Shortly after Christine McVie joined up, longtime member Jeremy Spencer disappeared into the religious cult Children of God. Guitarist Bob Weston had an affair with Mick Fleetwood’s wife Jenny Boyd Fleetwood (sister of Patty Boyd, whose cheating on George Harrison with Eric Clapton was the impetus for the song “Layla”).

Then, as members struggled with relationship and alcohol troubles, the band’s manager Clifford Davis stole the band’s name. Davis unsuccessfully tried touring entirely different musicians under the famous moniker. Needless to say, a lawsuit ensued. The band moved to Los Angeles, and there they invited a young couple to join, Lindsay Buckingham and Stephanie (Stevie) Nicks.

In 1975, this best-known line-up put out another self-titled album, and Fleetwood Mac started off a successful second decade. But, once again, true to the times, separation and divorce plagued every member. John and Christine McVie’s marriage was ending. Buckingham and Nicks were splitting. And Fleetwood was in divorce proceedings with his Boyd sister. In this very seventies atmosphere, the band created Rumours, one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Fleetwood Mac’s third decade was fueled by heartbreak, newfound wealth and cocaine. The band was the epitome of eighties indulgence, soaring and crashing. Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy, Nicks went to Betty Ford, and John McVie suffered a seizure in relation to drinking. They recorded only a handful of good work.

Only after reconciliations, rehabs, and a little prodding from Bill Clinton, the band’s fourth decade was one of its most commercially successful. They reunited with 1997’s live album The Dance. But, in 1998, Christine McVie left. The following record, Say You Will, was a lackluster attempt.

In 2007, Stevie Nicks said of Fleetwood Mac, “I don’t like it as the boys’ club. We could make millions and millions of dollars touring again. But I just don’t know if I want to go again without Chris.” About a year after her statement, a 2009 tour was in the works.

In explanation, Buckingham told Billboard, “…(Stevie) came to a point of clarity where she realized the most appropriate thing we could do as a band was to create what needs to be created in the context of the four of us. That’s been a real positive, and it’s been a real rallying point for all of us, too.” Lately, most of the band’s public statements sound like the product of intensive therapy. Fleetwood Mac, a band now over forty years old, has seen enough turmoil to warrant an army of psychologists.

The remaining four superstars start a greatest hits tour this March. If they have some of the charm and charisma they held together for The Dance, even without McVie, this could be a lovely spectacle. For a band to have survived the worst of four decades, the remaining members deserve the chance at a little fun in their fifth.