I saw them twice with Peter Green, once in 1969 with Jethro Tull and Joe Cocker at the Music Hall, and again at the Music Hall in '71. The first time I got to see Christine play with them was when they opened for Jefferson Starship at Hofheinz Pavilion in '74, with Bob Welch playing guitar. She made a real difference. They weren't quite the blues band that they were earlier, but were really good, nevertheless. The next time was in 1975 in the Music Hall and they were headlining, having added Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who fit really well with Christine and the rest of them, obviously. They played Houston a lot. It's hard to believe that she was 79. Never had children. How time flies.
That’s the best FM song with Christine Perfect (that was her last name before McVie) on vocals. I agree - her passing sucks.
Fleetwood Mac is one of those artists that made an interesting and incredible change from what they started out as to what they ended up as - Tom Waits and Talk Talk are about the only other artists that I can think of that had as interesting of a career trajectory. As others have mentioned, the original Fleetwood Mac was led by the great Peter Green but he went off on the deep end and they also lost 2 other great guitarists in Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan to mental issues. There was even a brief time where there was a fake Fleetwood Mac band performing! When they brought in Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, they were no longer a blues rock band but more of a folk rock, soft rock group. Buckingham and Nicks didn’t join until they had already released nine studio albums! Think about that for a moment- there are some groups that never stay around long enough to do nine albums - they might be lucky to do five or even six. But FM showed that starting with their 10th album, they were ready to show the world their next phase and really take off which is what happened. Very interesting band history here - did you know that Neil Finn (former Split Enz and Crowded House singer) is in the group now along with a former member of Tom Petty’s band? They are both replacing Lindsey Buckingham.
Doobie Brothers are another good example, with the change from Tom Johnston (who is now back with the group) to Michael McDonald, who can't really sing.
I have always really liked their songs but it took me looking at behind the music to realize how great they actually were. Lindsey Buckingham was a real *******, but that assholery created a lot of great songs.
I caught that version on tour recently. That Tom Petty member was Mike Campbell—the lead guitarist and co-writer of some big TP hits. Pretty big hired guns, but as much of a jerk as Lindsay Buckingham may have been, Mike and Neil together couldn’t quite replace him. It was cool to see Fleetwood Mac and Mike and Neil perform the crowded house song Don’t Dream it’s Over though.
There were really 3 iterations of the band, in my opinion, and I liked all 3. Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, a real blues band started by guitarist Green and fellow alumni of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Mick Fleetwood. After Green suddenly left, there were about 4 years of Fleetwood Mac with Mick, John and Christine McVie, and assorted personnel ending with Bob Welch on guitar and vocals. They put out some really good music and were excellent live. Then we finally got Buckingham and Nicks and the Fleetwood Mac that became a popular sensation and multimillion album selling band in 1975, coming out with Fleetwood Mac and a creative sound that led to Rumors. While I lean towards Peter Green and the blues, just being a real fan of the blues, I really enjoy listening to the "middle version" and to most of the Nicks/Buckingham influenced music. Don't care for Tusk at all, though. They went off the deep end with that LP!
