I did say at the close of my last post in this chronicle of the career of Christine McVie that the most beloved version of Fleetwood Mac was just about to emerge.
But not quite yet. First there needed to be a tour behind Heroes Are Hard to Find, their best-charting LP thus far in the States yet still a marginal success they view with some disappointment. All four members — Mick, the McVies and Bob Welch — sense an imminent shakeup.
Which begins sometime in autumn ‘74 when Mick meets Lindsey Buckingham while both are hanging out and/or recording at LA’s hallowed Sound City Studios.
Mick, already enticed after hearing the surnamed debut Lindsey put out the previous year with his creative partner and then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks, asks the guitarist to join Fleetwood Mac. He says yes, on the condition Stevie can come too. The stars realign; the course of rock history alters.
Bob Welch is invited to stay on in this expanded lineup but opts out — understandably so, given the burnout of having spearheaded this struggling band through four albums in three years. Makes sense he’d want to unburden himself.
One assumes it was already decided and discussed by the time this no-audience live-in-studio set was recorded at Sausalito’s Record Plant for Westwood One and KSAN in the Bay Area. That adds considerable poignancy to this oft-bootlegged performance, which was finally trimmed of dead air and false starts and officially released in 2020 within the 1973-1974 vinyl box set.
It’s a fascinating glimpse at FM (and FM radio) lore, and ample proof that all players involved were then musically healthy, if not mentally or emotionally. Welch’s underrated fretwork is impressive whether on his own material or Peter Green’s, and though Christine’s huskiness sounds almost morphine-drip despairing on ‘Why,’ she’s terrifically lively on her two other tunes, including a hearty take on ‘Spare Me a Little of Your Love’ that ends in a double-time gospel-rock groove.
Great — and greatly challenging — things await her on a career trajectory that is about to become Mt. Everest steep.
Mr. Welch, meanwhile, merits a coda still to come.