Lindsey Buckingham

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Say You Will

by

As late-career comebacks go, this one’s respectable without ever being revelatory, and lord knows it isn’t succinct, running a minute longer than ‘Tusk’ when half of that would have sufficed.

After reuniting in ’97 and touring until their Hall of Fame induction in ’98, it was inevitable the most beloved version of Fleetwood Mac would make new music. With both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in the mix for the first time since ‘Tango in the Night’ it also isn’t surprising this behemoth obliterates the stale duds that preceded it.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Greatest Hits’

by

Newbies, start here.
Yes, of course: Every quality collection ought to include Rumours. Bet yours already does. True devotees also would/should want pressings of the self-titled ‘75 LP, probably Tusk, either of the ‘80s titles or both, plus at least a representative platter for both the Bob Welch era (I vote Bare Trees) and the foundational Peter Green years (Then Play On is tops, although there’s a Greatest Hits for that phase as well, from ‘71).

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: The Alternate ‘Tango in the Night’

by

This is far from the final installment in my deep dive into Christine McVie’s discography; there are 15 more posts to write after this one. But it is the last (thus far) of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘alternate’ albums comprising demos and different takes of material both beloved and overlooked.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘The Many Faces Of Fleetwood Mac’

by

This is an absurdly arranged bootleg compilation from 2019 that would require at least two more LPs to do justice to its misleading title. Yet it’s an almost essential addition if someone (like me) is attempting to acquire on vinyl every recording involving Christine McVie.

The problem is that most of the Many Faces presented in the set’s first half are relatively inconsequential when it comes to Fleetwood Mac’s lengthy list of lineups.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Mick Fleetwood’s ‘I’m Not Me’

by

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks weren’t the only ones from Fleetwood Mac to pursue solo ventures after the Tusk tour of ’79-’80 ended acrimoniously (again). The front half of the group’s namesake did likewise, releasing his noble failure The Visitor in June ’81.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Randy Newman’s ‘Trouble in Paradise’

by

This is a very fine Randy Newman record, perhaps not among his all-time greatest (that’s a tall order) yet teeming with cleverly caustic commentaries that rank among his best.

My mom got the cassette soon after it arrived in January ‘83 and it remained a constant for months, until I had every line of it memorized by the time she took me to see Newman live for the first time that April at Universal, when I was 14.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: The Alternate ‘Mirage’

by

Six points about The Alternate Mirage as we continue deep diving into Christine McVie’s recorded past:

1. I know all they did was flip the back cover to the front and vice versa, but I can’t help but smile at the sight of the band’s rhythm section whenever they’re posed with their namesake moniker. It’s why I prefer the ’75 white album display over the iconic shot for the LP that followed it.

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘Mirage’

by

At last: a new Fleetwood Mac album!
New, that is, for this ongoing deep dive into the discography of the late great Christine McVie, following 10 posts dedicated to things she did to keep busy after the Tusk tour of ’79-’80.

That’s when we last found the most famous Mac-ateers all in the same room, sounding like cocaine as much as looking it and rapidly getting on each other’s nerves (again). A healthy break was needed — and maybe should have lasted longer?

Read more

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Lindsey Buckingham’s ‘Law and Order’

by

The keen eyes and ears of @all.the.records summed up this phase of my already-leagues-deep dive into Christine McVie’s discography in a comment on the previous installment in this series: ‘The takeaway I’m getting from these most recent … posts is the members [of Fleetwood Mac] worked on a lot of songs or records during some downtime in FM in the early ‘80s.’

I’d go a step further, actually: non-Mac downtime work became the band’s new standard operating procedure post-Tusk.

Read more