Thematically, it’s not classic Mac – more hard rock than blues- but it’s worth it for the lengths the group take it to.Ī happier spin on a ‘Rumour’s break-up, vocalist Christine McVie committed to looking forward, rather than backward after eight years of marriage with bass guitarist John McVie. Originally a B-Side to ‘Over My Head’, the track quickly became a live staple, closing nearly every Mac gig, and appearing on each Fleetwood Mac live album (including an almost 10-minute version on 2004’s ‘Live: In Boston’). Fleetwood Mac’s final top ten in the US, 1987’s ‘Little Lies’ has a similar haunting hook to ‘Everywhere’, coupled with the surreptitious guitar lines of ‘Dreams’, making it mathematically at least 10% better than anything else.Ī Fleetwood Mac concert without ‘I’m So Afraid’ would be like a Bruce Springsteen concert without ‘Thunder Road’.
We’re not sure why the video for this track is set on an abandoned farm, but we’ll try and put that in the past.
Opening with a chanted “Why don’t you ask him if he’s going to stay?” before moving into a shriek of “Just tell me that you want me”, it’s paranoid, aggressive, and totally brilliant. The track set the record for the highest number of musicians performing on a single, and considering that it came in the wake of ‘Rumours’, still went to #6 in the UK. That drum tattoo you hear at the start of ‘Tusk’? It’s actually the University of Southern California’s Trojan Marching Band. “I’m not a child any more, I’m tall enough to reach for the stars.” It’s not easy, it’s always complicated, but that’s how life is sometimes, they sing. Melancholic harmonies between Nicks and McVie lament the loss of innocence, but also look forward to change and growth. What brings it all together is an almost mystical chemistry wrought from grueling personal drama and heartbreak that they somehow found a way to turn into some of the most beloved rock & roll of all time.Out of kilter with ‘Tusk’s mainly new-wave vibe, ‘Beautiful Child’ is a sweet respite towards the end of the album. Our list of the band’s 50 Greatest Songs pulls from all these eras. They began as a vehicle for the blues visions of tragic genius Peter Green, continued through fascinating, often overlooked, transitional records during the early Seventies with Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch, and hit an astonishing peak when songbird Christine McVie, mad drummer Mick Fleetwood and ultra-reliable bassman John McVie hooked up with the Southern California songwriting team of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Days and nights would just go on and on.”īut the soul of the Mac’s magic has always been their songs. Huge amounts of illicit materials, yards and yards of this wretched stuff. “Parties going on all over the house,” John McVie told Rolling Stone in 1977, recalling the making of their classic Rumours LP. Through it all, there’s been brutal romantic blowups and historic levels of drug use. Fleetwood Mac have been rock’s greatest soap opera for five decades – from their Sixties origins in the English blues-rock scene to their Seventies reinvention as California rock superstars through their smooth Eighties hits and right up to today.
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