Like with Pink Floyd, there are two very different Flettwood Mac's.

There is the bluesy Peter Green incarnation and then there is the American gay-rock band that came later 

moy wrote on Oct 7^th, 2008 at 1:18pm:


As in the Fred Flinstone lyric  "we'll have a gay old time.....WILMA!!!" ?

Oh Well...

Honky Tonk Man wrote on Oct 7^th, 2008 at 12:59pm:



Saw them in 2003. I can only wish Ronnie & Keith's guitar playing was anywhere near as faggoty-brilliant as Buckingham's was that night. I was amazed by how good they were.

You could also justifiably argue that there are two incarnations of the Stones. The one who were the living embodiment of a real, creative rock n roll band up to 1998 or so, and the Cohl corporate pawns theyve turned into ever since where art has taken a distant backseat to nostalgia and the pursuit of cash at all costs.

Amazingly, unlike Floyd or Fleetwood Mac, they dont even have the excuse of a change in personnel to explain the transformation.

I love Christine McVie {Christine Perfect.  } I can't imagine that later incarnation of the band without her.

Yeah, but then there IS the Peter Green blusey Mac....


And I think there must have been THREE incarnations of the Stones...if you include the Brian Jones era. Before the huge world tours and "Greatest R&R Band In The World" version. Maybe four, if you want to count the Mick Taylor years as a separate entity.

Stevie Nicks was the girl EVERYONE wanted to be ~ all the girls in my school wished they were her, she was the role model we tried to copy~ her style, poise, understated sexiness, her clothes, her voice, the songs, she was one cool chick! All the girls copied her. And we bought all the records, went to the concerts, played the albums, it was fun. FM is a fun band, we liked Christine McVie too but not as much as Stevie. I think they were great!

Bitch wrote on Oct 7^th, 2008 at 6:42pm:



Did the girls at school also yearn to have a lackey whose job was to crouch underneath them and blow coke up their bum through a straw? 

Allegedly.

Peter Green's fuckin' brilliant, but don't forget that Danny Kirwin and Jeremy Spencer were pretty damn good as well.....

that John Mayall had a friggin' guitar FACTORY there for a while!!

In their big time record sales era, their albums were sometimes good, sometimes not. They've had a million lineups, with only Mick Fleetwood in there the whole time since 1967 (John McVie joined a few months later). They were a good blues-rock band, but not elite like Cream or the Stones. I actually liked them better between 1970-74 than 1967-70. Bare Trees is a solid rock-pop album that is as good, if not more unpolished, than Fleetwood Mac (1975) or Rumours. They had some bad luck there, with Peter Green being a schizo that bailed his own band in 1970, then Jeremy Spencer bolting to join the fucked-up cult Children of God and Danny Kirwan quitting from his own shaky nerves and alcoholism.

Bob Welch replaced Spencer and kind of had this weird adult contemporary, slick top 40 touch to his songs (best of which being "Future Games," "Hypnotized" and "The Ghost"). Christine McVie wrote great even before Buckingham Nicks arrived. Kiln House and Bare Trees were their best in the pre-Buckingham/Nicks days and get unjustly overlooked right to today. That being said, Buckingham was the best writer the band ever had (followed by McVie, Nicks and Kirwan) and the most complete guitarist (could ply blues, rock but also had incredible depth of skill in folk with his fingerpicking brilliance).

Peter Green could really play but only "Albatross" stands as a masterpiece he penned and it's instrumental. Spencer was a better songwriter, but Danny Kirwan was not only a great guitarist, but a talented songwriter so it's too bad. Also a good singer. Check out "Jewel Eyed Judy," "Station Man," "Dragonfly," "Sands of Time," "Woman of 1000 Years," "Bare Trees," "Child of Mine," "Dust" and the great instrumentals "Earl Gray" and "Sunny Side of Heaven"- all are great tunes). I don't think Penguin or Heroes Are Hard to Find are very good, although Mystery to Me was alright. The first of the three Peter Green LPs was the best of the lot. But Bare Trees and Kiln House kick ass. In their big arena days, lots of great songs although some of their 80s stuff is horribly overproduced, especially on Tango in the Night. But "Big Love," "Hold Me," "Gyspy," "Sara," "Tusk" and made their 1979-87 period decent. Afterward, I haven't paid attention to anything non-Buckingham related. Ok, my favourite albums:

1. Rumours: A
2. Bare Trees: A-
3. Kiln House: A-
4. Fleetwood Mac: B+
5. Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac: B+

Hey now

Gazza wrote on Oct 7^th, 2008 at 5:53pm:


Come on Gazza! There's a lot of examples... Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera are a good example.