Before my slow-drip deep-dive into the career of the late Christine McVie sinks into her most famous and overly analyzed phase, starting with Fleetwood Mac’s transformative breakthrough of ‘75, I think it’s worth taking a two-years-prior detour into this barely buried treasure. Frankly, Buckingham Nicks, a highly accomplished debut that bafflingly bombed and got the duo booted from Polydor, looms almost as large in the Mac legacy as touchstones that came before or after it.
The male half of the then romantically involved couple always humblebragged that these titanic talents were bound to make it big one way or another, and this is the proof: 10 sharply contoured should-be classics, only one of which falls flat (skip ‘Lola’). The bulk, however, capably holds its own against anything from either legend’s future heyday.
I’m certain that were I at a classic-rock bar spinning an all-FM set and friskily opted to drop Lindsey’s ‘Don’t Let Me Down Again’ or ‘Without a Leg to Stand On’ or Stevie’s ‘Crying in the Night’ or ‘Long Distance Winner’ into the mix, half the room would assume they were Tusk tracks they’d somehow overlooked, while more knowledgeable types would rush my booth wondering where I scored such cool Rumours outtakes.
All the traits millions worldwide would soon crave — Stevie’s beguiling vocals, their fiery harmonies, how the polished beauty of their recordings still crackle with urgency and world-weary desperation, and I don’t even have space to rave about Lindsey’s soaring and bluesy yet verging-on-classical fretwork, or his already-evident production mastery — seriously, it’s all here. It’s as much a Rosetta Stone for them as Then Play On.
No wonder Mick Fleetwood took one listen (along with demos of new stuff in ‘74) and instantly knew he’d found the final pieces of his band’s puzzle. These days it begs to be heard in proper context. In so doing, it’s easy to hear how Christine could have made virtually all of it even better.
They must’ve realized that too — why else redo ‘Crystal’ for the next Fleetwood Mac LP?