In 1973, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were two young lovers. They were also two extremely talented musicians who couldn’t seem to get any traction with their careers.
Though they had enjoyed some success in the San Francisco Bay area where they were both members of the group, The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band, also known as just Fritz, the group disbanded and they decided to forge their way together as a duo.
Besides their undeniable talent, the other thing Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had going for them was that they both knew they were good, which gave them the confidence to keep writing and recording music. Eventually, they were signed with Polydor records and released their first and only album, Buckingham Nicks. But, in spite of their genius and their confidence, the album, as Stevie Nicks put it, “disappeared.
“It was like it never existed” said Stevie. “…….we had the big sound; we were happening and all of a sudden, we were nobody……”
Across the pond, Fleetwood Mac, a British rock and blues band, was also enjoying moderate success with several few albums under their belt, but hadn’t achieved much more than a cult following in the United States.
Fleetwood Mac – The Golden Years
The years of musical obscurity changed for both bands when Mick Fleetwood happened to hear a guitar solo by Lindsey Buckingham on the song, “Frozen Love”, (Listen Below) a track off their Buckingham Nicks album.
Mick was so impressed with the sound that he asked a mutual friend of theirs, music producer, Keith Olsen, if he thought those “two kids” would like to join his band, which had just lost their lead singer, Bob Welch. Again, according to Stevie …“they wanted Lindsey, but she was invited along…..”
With the marriage of Fleetwood Mac with the Buckingham Nicks, Fleetwood Mac dominated pop and rock music in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, transforming Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham into some of rock music’s most enduring icons.
Though the band put out a total of twelve albums together, stretching well into the 2000’s, it was their first and second albums, Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, released in 1975 and 1977, respectively, that have been their most successful.
To date, Rumours continues to be one of the highest selling rock albums of all time, due entirely, many would say, to the songwriting skills of Stevie Nicks and the artistic and creative genius of Lindsey Buckingham – not to mention his brilliant guitar playing. In fact, one listen to the Buckingham Nicks album and it is very clear who was the driving musical force behind the success of Fleetwood Mac.
“Rhiannon”, a hugely popular and successful song off the first album, had been written by Stevie Nicks when she and Lindsey were still the Buckingham Nicks, in addition to the melodic and melancholy ballad, “Crystal”, among others. In fact, most of the hits generated by the super group were written mainly by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, with a few songs written as a collaboration with the entire band.
When the group broke up – though never officially announced – Stevie Nicks went on to have a multi-platinum solo career. The other members of the band dropped quietly out of sight and Lindsey Buckingham, well, where exactly did Lindsey go?
The Post Fleetwood Mac Years
Like so many rock stars and musicians, Lindsey Buckingham has had his share of problems with drugs and alcohol. Certainly they played a huge factor in the break-up of marriages during the early years of Fleetwood Mac. In fact, the drug and alcohol problems were so severe that Lindsey felt he had to isolate himself and lead a very solitary existence to work out his own demons. A time, he says, which was one of the darkest of his life.
Unfortunately, the years in isolation didn’t do much for Lindsey’s career. With the exception of brief collaborations with members of Fleetwood Mac over the years, Lindsey charted his own creative and artistic path which didn’t exactly appeal to the masses.
Some cuts off of his early solo albums enjoyed some mainstream success, such as “Trouble” from his 1991 album, Law and Order and the title track “Go Insane” from the Go Insane album, which echoed some of the classic Fleetwood Mac sound.
But, in his later work, such as Under the Skin and Gift of Screws, both of which are, without question, some of the more creatively adventurous music done by Lindsey, the mainstream commercial appeal is absent.
But, this doesn’t necessarily intimidate Lindsey Buckingham. His willingness to test the creative waters was certainly manifested in Tusk, the follow-up album to the hugely successful, Rumours, where you may remember, Fleetwood Mac teamed up with the USC Trojans marching band.
It was, as Lindsey said, a way to keep himself, “musically honest… I subverted some of the commercialism, that’s what you have to do, otherwise you paint yourself into a corner.”
In 2009, Lindsey Buckingham toured with Fleetwood Mac again on The World Reunion Tour. Rabid Fleetwood Mac fans lapped it up, while some reviews saw it more as an opportunity for self-indulgent reminiscing.
Today Lindsey Buckingham, still devilishly handsome at 60 years old, is a happily married family man -something he said he never saw himself doing. But, nonetheless, he and his wife, photographer, Kristen Messner, have been married over ten years and have three children together.
Age has mellowed the rock god, as it does for many of us and for now, Lindsey Buckingham seems to be quite content parenting his children, being a husband and enjoying the freedom allowed him by the commercially prosperous years of Fleetwood Mac, to explore his musical creativity.
Given that Lindsey Buckingham has shared his best creative genius with the world and given us a brilliant and enduring musical legacy through Fleetwood Mac, certainly, no one would argue that he has earned the right to keep something for himself.
Listen to the song “Frozen Love” and the guitar solo that changed the course of rock music history forever.
Sources:
FMLegacy.com
BBC.co.uk
Blackbookmag.com
Michelle-Caplan.com
NYTimes.com
Ultimate-guitar.com
Fleetwoodmac.net
Yahoo!video
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