Fleetwood maccing

I don’t think I’ve ever expressed my profound love for the pop-rock band, Fleetwood Mac, to anyone except for my family, so I’ll talk about it now! To be clear, I’m not the kind of fan that knows everything about the band- I couldn’t even tell you all of the members’ names 🙁 But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m quite in love with their songs. Listening to them makes me feel like I’m an effortlessly pretty blonde Californian sweetheart in ’75. This makes me realize the incredible job they’ve done of associating themselves with an aesthetic. Simply say the name Stevie Nicks and her iconic bohemian, warm-toned look comes to mind! Think fringes, layers, beads, and of course, bell bottoms. She is part of the reason why I think that Fleetwood Mac’s style is kind of irreplaceable. But their style wasn’t always original- which I’ll get into later. Anyway, the actual sound that they are known for has this original mystical, dreamy essence. Stevie’s raspy voice just fits the style perfectly and adds to that aura. Ok now I will just talk about them for a bit.

Thing

I find it silly that the band started off as British and became American. Along with that transition, their style also evolved from blues-rock to pop-rock, which turned out to be really good for their popularity. I guess drugs are also to credit for that. Their older sound is much different than what you hear in their popular songs, like in the albums Roumers or Fleetwood Mac. I was reading an article about the band and noticed a line that called their early songs “a sort of cut-rate Cream”- which is one of my favorite blues-rock bands. I guess it makes sense that I enjoy Fleetwood’s old songs too. However, I don’t think they strayed completely from their blues roots, even after Stevie Nicks joined the band. For example, in “You Make Lovin Fun”, one of the best songs on Roumers in my opinion, the vocals make the song slightly bluesy, even if it is in the popular music genre. So blues are part of the reason why I love them so much!

THE album

Speaking of Roumers, it was the first LP I bought (for $5 at a garage sale!) and I often have it playing in the background of my room. Most of the songs are pretty upbeat but gentle at the same time. They’re perfect for playing in the background or for turning up the volume and singing to. Everyone loves to talk about The Chain and Songbird, and of course, Dreams. But I think that Gold Dust Woman deserves the same love!! It’s very ethereal and kind of gives me spiritual vibes. Turns out, gold dust is a metaphor for cocaine, which goes back to my point of drugs playing a huge role in their music 🙁 But yeah, the lyricism is great (nice job for singing about drugs instead of doing them, Stevie!!), but I actually love it for the mystical, liquid gold-like instrumentals. I would tell you where the inspiration for that came from, but I have no idea.

Demos!

Why do Fleetwood Mac have so many recorded demos on spotify?? I have no idea but probably because they’re good! The demos are usually much rawer than the actual songs. They have fewer/different effects, especially on vocals, but that can be a good thing. Sometimes you just want to listen to something that’s just less edited and effect-y. Or, you want to hear another version of your favorite song. Sometimes, the songs are unrecognizable. In the Demo version of The Chain, an extremely recognizable song sounds extremely different from the actual version. I think it’s pretty cool because it’s basically a “sketch” that the band made before coming out with the version meant for general public release. Seeing where the song originated from and how they changed it is really interesting to me. My current favorite Demo is Tango in the Night. Listening to it is like looking out the window on a long car ride on the east coast. Not the midwest, obviously, because that would be an insult.

The End

Fleetwood Mac is pretty great and I hope that I never get sick of them because I listened to them too much (happens way too often, people should really talk about this more). Thank you for reading & don’t do drugs!!