On November 30, 2022, the world of music lost yet another iconic musician, for Christine McVie, keyboardist for Fleetwood Mac, died from a short illness at the age of 79. To say that 2022 was a bastard of a year for music would be an understatement, and given that we recently just lost Jeff Beck, David Crosby and Lisa Marie Presley this year, it wouldn't surprise me if 2023 were to follow suit.
Which brings me onto the reason this blog post is being written up. Christine McVie, then married to bassist John McVie, was present during the recording for Fleetwood Mac's fourth album Kiln House, becoming a full member of the band as their keyboardist by the end of 1970. She'd been present on every album since then except for 2003's Say You Will, having left in 1998 before coming back full-time in 2014, even though she contributed to a couple of tracks ("Steal Your Heart Away" and "Bleed to Love Her"). And this does not include her 2017 album with Lindsey Buckingham, which is practically a Fleetwood Mac album in all but name, most likely due to Stevie Nicks' absence.
Meanwhile, Lindsey Buckingham, who had joined the band in 1975 along with on-off girlfriend Stevie Nicks, left in 1987 due to disagreements with the band, marking the end of an era. He'd since come back to the group for a reunion tour in 1997, only to be kicked out in 2018 again due to personal disagreements.
So what if things had turned out differently for Fleetwood Mac by the end of the 1980s? Instead of Lindsey Buckingham getting pissy with the other members, what if they'd worked things out in the group and came back stronger than ever, remaining a hit-making force well into the 1990s? To answer those questions, we must refer to the sessions that produced the all-time classic Rumours which nearly tore apart the group due to relationship drama. The sudden success of their 1975 album, along with drugs and alcohol, most likely didn't help either. Then, according to Stevie Nicks, there was a seven month tour in which fans weren't receptive to the material off of Rumours.
For this scenario, let's imagine that after the tour, the group decides to take a hiatus to sort out their personal relationships, and instead of getting Tusk in 1979, we get two albums - one by Christine and Stevie under McVie Nicks, and another by Lindsey - and an extended play to signal to the fans that they weren't breaking up, just pursuing solo projects. In turn, this may lead to an album in 1985, and feeling reinvigorated, Lindsey agrees to keep the band going into the new decade.
Side A (24:14)
1. Skies the Limit - 3:45
2. No Questions Asked - 4:40 (Greatest Hits)
3. Turn It On - 3:50 (Out of the Cradle)
4. As Long as You Follow - 4:10 (Greatest Hits)
5. Soul Drifter - 3:27 (Out of the Cradle)
6. Affairs of the Heart - 4:22
Side B (23:49)
7. Street of Dreams - 4:28 (Out of the Cradle)
8. Behind the Mask - 4:18
9. Freedom - 4:12
10. Doing What I Can - 4:05 (Out of the Cradle)
11. Save Me - 4:15
12. The Second Time - 2:31
Behind the Mask is often cited as a low point for Fleetwood Mac; some would argue that Rick Vito and Billy Burnette were the best thing to happen to the band, but they didn't really leave much of an impact. I mean, out of the 1975-onward material that was represented on 25 Years - The Chain in 1992, "In the Back of My Mind" and "Love is Dangerous" feature vocals that weren't by Lindsey, Christine or Stevie, although the latter did sing on "Dangerous". Not only that, "Save Me" is the main representation of Behind the Mask on 50 Years - Don't Stop from 2018, along with "Skies the Limit" and "Love is Dangerous" That's how little impact Vito and Burnette left on the group, and it says a lot that the 1968-1974 material gets more recognition.
For this reconstruction, seven songs, mainly those featuring Vito and Burnette, were sent to the chop - "Love is Dangerous", "In the Back of My Mind", "Do You Know", "When the Sun Goes Down", "Stand on the Rock", "Hard Feelings" and "When It Comes to Love". Already, we've got half an album left over to work with. Fleetwood Mac's 1988 Greatest Hits album contained two new songs recorded without Lindsey - Stevie's "No Questions Asked" and Christine's "As Long as You Follow", the latter of which became a single. "Behind the Mask" was a keeper since Lindsey appears on acoustic guitar.
And now we come to the issue with Lindsey Buckingham's material. He didn't release a solo album until 1992, called Out of the Cradle. However, he did begin recording in 1988, which makes it fair game for inclusion. For additional bonus, some songs were co-written with Richard Dashut, who produced for Fleetwood Mac during 1977-1987, and given that Christine (with then-husband Eddy Quintela) and Stevie (with Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers) were also working with outside writers for their songs, it adds to the authenticity of this reconstruction.
In general, I maintained the order of the track listing, with "Save Me" now being part of Side B, and "Turn It On" being part of Side A, so that each singer/songwriter has two spots per side.
1. Paper Doll - 3:56 (25 Years - The Chain)
2. Don't Look Down - 2:47 (Out of the Cradle)
3. Love Shines - 4:48 (25 Years - The Chain)
4. Destiny - 5:00 (Street Angel)
5. I Do - 4:28 (Time)
6. Countdown - 3:21 (Out of the Cradle)
7. Heart of Stone - 4:39 (25 Years - The Chain)
8. You Do or You Don't - 3:37 (Out of the Cradle)
9. Blue Denim - 4:22 (Street Angel)
10. Sooner or Later - 5:41 (Time)
11. Surrender the Rain - 3:36 (Out of the Cradle)
12. Rose Garden - 4:28 (Street Angel)
13. Nights in Estoril - 4:47 (Time)
14. Make Me a Mask - 4:02 (25 Years - The Chain)
15. These Strange Times - 7:07 (Time)
Total length: 66:39
If Behind the Mask was a disappointment, then Time is one of many definitions of a trainwreckord (apologies to Todd Nathanson; it wouldn't surprise me if he did a video on this album one day). It's such a mess of an album that the only representation it gets on 50 Years - Don't Stop is in the form of its only single "I Do". It doesn't help that Stevie Nicks was on the outs with Fleetwood Mac during that time, mainly due to a dispute with Mick Fleetwood over the inclusion of "Silver Springs" on her 1991 solo album Timespace. That's how bad Time was.
Fortunately, it's not all bad news. 25 Years - The Chain included four new songs - Stevie's "Paper Doll", Christine's "Love Shines" and "Heart of Stone", and Lindsey's "Make Me a Mask" - which are all fair game for inclusion. Unfortunately, this means that there are seven tracks written by Christine McVie, so two of them - "Hollywood (Some Other Kind of Town)" and "All Over Again" - had to be cut to make room for more Stevie and Lindsey contributions. As a result, there are only four tracks from Time being featured, one of which, "These Strange Times", is spoken wood by drummer Mick Fleetwood. So if you wanted another song by a member who wasn't Christine, Stevie or Lindsey, there you go.
Because there's enough good material leftover from Out of the Cradle, we can pull four more songs from that album, including the minor hit "Countdown", increasing his prominence on the album.
Which just leaves Stevie Nicks. Her 1994 album, Street Angel, came out during a particularly bad time in her personal life, and there were no major hits off of the album. It didn't help that she was in drug rehab for Klonopin while the album was being mixed, and several tracks had been written years earlier for prior projects - "Rose Garden" even goes back to the early 1970s! As a result, Stevie gets only four tracks compared to Lindsey and Christine having five each. The tracks I picked off of Street Angel have alternate mixes found on Enchanted from 1998, so you can use those if you prefer them instead.
1. Bleed to Love Her - 4:06 (Say You Will)
2. Hollywood (Some Other Kind of Town) - 5:45 (Time)
3. Thrown Down - 4:02 (Say You Will)
4. My Little Demon - 3:33 (The Dance)
5. Temporary One - 4:00 (The Dance)
6. Sweet Girl - 3:19 (The Dance)
7. Come - 5:59 (Say You Will)
8. Smile at You - 4:33 (Say You Will)
9. All Over Again - 3:36 (Time)
10. Say Goodbye - 3:26 (Say You Will)
11. Twisted - 4:13 (Twister: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Total length: 46:32
The last of the three 90s Fleetwood Mac albums; Say You Will, released 2003, actually had origins going back to 1995-1997. Presumably, there was to be a reunion album by the 1975-1987 lineup, but because of Christine McVie's departure in 1998 due to her fear of flying, that never happened, leaving the album unfinished until 2003. While better received than Behind the Mask and Time, Say You Will suffered mostly by Christine's absence despite appearing on two tracks.
Luckily for us, we have a glimpse of that possible late-90s album on The Dance, a live album released by Fleetwood Mac in 1997. Unluckily for us, however, we have no way of knowing what else would have made the album. The Dance contained four new songs - Lindsey's "Bleed to Love Her" and "My Little Demon", Christine's "Temporary One", and Stevie's "Sweet Girl". Out of those songs, only "Bleed to Love Her" ended up on Say You Will six years later, and it even features on Christine on backing vocals. We will use those tracks as our basis for the 1998 reconstruction.
In order to increase Christine's prominence on The Dance, we're bringing back the two tracks from Time that were dropped - "Hollywood (Some Other Kind of Town)" and "All Over Again". That way, it feels more like a Fleetwood Mac album and less like a Buckingham Nicks album.
Speaking of which, what else is there to choose from Say You Will? Stevie's "Smile at You" dates back to the Tusk sessions in 1979, which makes it fair game for inclusion. Besides, it wasn't the first time she'd re-recorded an older song for later projects. And according to Stevie herself in the Destiny Rules documentary, "Thrown Down" was written during Fleetwood Mac's last tour (1997) at the time, which suggests that it dates back to that period. Stevie's final track for the album, "Twisted", was included on the soundtrack to Twister in 1996, and it even features Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and Mick Fleetwood on drums, making it an honorary Fleetwood Mac track.
And that leaves with Lindsey, who so far has only two tracks to his name. In order to pick two more songs by him, I had to guess just by notes. "Come", according to Lindsey, was about his former girlfriend Anne Heche, who would later leave him for Ellen DeGeneres. The two women became partners in 1997, so that led me to believe that it was written around that time. The final song, "Say Goodbye", was written in 1987 after a fight between himself and Stevie that resulted in him leaving Fleetwood Mac. I'm not sure if the song would've existed had the fight not taken place, it's a powerful one regardless.
So, are all of these albums better than what we were actually given? In many ways, I'd say so, given that there's far more involvement from Christine, Lindsey and Stevie. However, I think the bigger question is, do they stack up when compared to the 1975-1987 albums? It's hard to say, given that Rumours is regarded as one of the biggest albums of all time. Inevitably, with the rise of bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam in the early 1990s, Fleetwood Mac would most likely be viewed as "dinosaurs" by this point. They were pretty much losing relevance by then even in OTL, as Behind the Mask barely made the Top 20 in America, with Time further speeding it up. Alas, it's always egos within bands that either cause them to break up or an important member leaves for other pastures.
Speaking of bands with egos, my next post will be dedicated to another artist we lost recently!
