Richie Unterberger - Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Illustrated History

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F ew bands have sold as many records as Fleetwood Mac. Yet few bands have suffered such internal turmoil. And no superstar rock act changed so much, in style and actual personnel, from the time they formed to the point at which they finally achieved superstardom a good decade later.

When that goal was reached with the mega-selling 1977 album Rumours, it was something of a miracle Fleetwood Mac hadnt broken upnot just once, but several times. Their founder, and original lead guitarist and principal singer-songwriter, had unexpectedly (and, to many observers, inexplicably) left the group fewer than three years after its birth. The other guitarist and frontman on their first several albums would jump ship a year later in even odder, more unsettling circumstances.

Two other guitarists and singer-songwriters would leave Fleetwood Mac in the next few years. By the end of 1974, they were down to a trio with just one singer-songwriter, who herself hadnt joined the band until the early 1970s. They were living and working in a different country than their native England; had yet to score a big hit in their adopted homeland, the United States; and had nearly lost the rights to even work under the name Fleetwood Mac. Their sudden enlistment of two Californian singer-songwriters they didnt even know seemed not so much a calculated risk as a desperate push for survival.

Fleetwood Mac not only survived, but thrived. The new quintettheir tenth lineup in less than ten yearswould become one of the biggest bands in the world. The first album they did together topped the US charts. The second, Rumours, would not only repeat the feat, but sell tens of millions of copies.

This is the version of Fleetwood Macwith keyboardist-singer Christine McVie, guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, bassist John McVie, and drummer/leader Mick Fleetwoodthat is by far the most familiar to audiences throughout the world. The pop-rock that was their forte had been recorded thousands of miles from the London studios in which their first albums had been cut. To many ears, it seemed millions of miles away from the pure blues with which theyd first made their name back in the late 1960s.

Yet for all the transformations Fleetwood Mac has undergone, some factors have remained constant throughout their nearly fifty-year career. One is their drummer, Mick Fleetwood, whos been there from the start. Another is their bassist, John McVie, whos been there virtually from the start. An equally vital thread running through their stormy path is a willingness to persevere through adversity that would have stopped almost every other band time after time. Never was the adversity worse, in fact, than when they were recording Rumours, during which the band nearly split upand the two romantic couples within the band did split up.

They stayed together at that crucial juncture, of course, and by the late 1970s were selling more records and filling up more stadiums than almost anyone in history. Fleetwood Macs story began, however, not in the huge arenas and luxury touring accommodations to which theyd become accustomed. Instead, their sound was forged in the small, cramped clubs of London, as musicians in one of the many bands struggling for a foothold in Britains exploding mid-1960s blues scene.

I t might seem odd that the musician regarded as the leader of Fleetwood Mac has written and sung little of their material. Nonetheless, its a title that drummer Mick Fleetwood has earned, and not only because hes the only member whos been in the band every step of the way. More than anyone else, hes been the force responsible for keeping them going in the face of what must have seemed insurmountable obstacles. Hes also often taken a great deal of responsibility for the bands management, artistic direction, and business affairs, which in time would be as much of a tangle as their romantic ones.