Stranger Than Friction Trivia Quiz

The genesis of Fleetwood Mac can be traced back to John Mayall's legendary group, the Bluesbreakers. John McVie, bassist for the Mac, was one of the founding members of the Bluesbreakers, Peter Green was recruited by the band in 1967 as the replacement for Eric Clapton and, in the same year, Mick Fleetwood was brought in to be the band's drummer. The trio identified the success that Eric Clapton had generated with his band Cream and felt that they could ride a similar train. As Fleetwood Mac, they made their debut at the British Jazz and Blues Festival in August of 1967, however, they did so without McVie, who was still contractually tied to the Bluesbreakers. His spot was filled in by Bob Brunning, and Jeremy Spencer was recruited as a guitarist.

Their eponymous debut album (renamed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac to differentiate it from the 1975 release) came out the following year and it proved to be one of the highlights of the British blues boom of the late 1960s. Peaking at number four on the UK Album charts, the recording bore strong influences of Elmore James, in particular Jeremy Spencer's renditions of "Got to Move" and "Shake Your Moneymaker". Spencer's performances here are a roadshow of thunder and swagger but even he was outshone on the album by the electricity that Peter Green was able to generate. The other notable feature of Green's contribution was his emergence as a budding, if somewhat erratic, songwriter. His highlight here is "If I Loved Another Woman", which enhanced the Latin-blues fusion that he'd started exhibiting with the band's earlier release "Black Magic Woman", a 1968 non-album single.

Despite their British success, this album was, virtually, ignored in the United States.

1968 had spawned a second Fleetwood Mac album, "Mr. Wonderful", and, by the end of the year, the addition of guitarist Danny Kirwan, had made the band a quintet and added more songwriting muscle. They toured the United States and found some recognition, with a number of their gigs being greeted by rousing receptions. This prompted the band to release the album "English Rose" (1969). In effect this was a compilation album with the bulk of the content being tracks from "Mr. Wonderful" supplemented with the additions of three Danny Kirwan instrumentals, the UK Top 40 hit "Albatross" and the previously released single "Black Magic Woman" (all 1968).

Hot on the heels of this release came "Then Play On" (1969), which saw the band begin to move away from its purist blues roots and adopt broader musical landscapes. Green was, possibly, at the peak of his powers at this point, creating the likes of "Man of the World" and "Oh Well", both 1969 releases and both reaching number two on the UK Singles' charts. However, he was also becoming quite agitated and disturbed, which many believe were conditions that were being promoted by his growing dependency on LSD. At the end of the year, without warning, he announced that he'd had enough and walked out on the band and threatened to give all of his earnings away.

Released in 1970, this was the band's first album without their headstone, Peter Green. He was partly replaced by Christine Perfect (who would later marry John McVie), a piano player for the band Chicken Shack. Despite working with the band on this LP, contractual obligations prevented her from formally joining the band until the following year. Even though she is uncredited on this disc, her influence is evident as the band continued its trend to veer away from the blues and adopt a more American style of rock and roll... and this was never more noticeable than on the high-voltage shouter "Hi Ho Silver", a cover of Big Joe Turner's 1953 number "Honey Hush".

The intensity that Peter Green had brought to their prior albums was dissipating as Christine Perfect's harmonies started to add a new dimension to Fleetwood Mac's sound. The closing track, a folk-pop cover of Blossom's 1960 hit "Mission Bell" providing the strongest hint yet of the Mac's future direction.

With Green out of the band's spotlight on this recording, Jeremy Spencer emerged from that shadow to be the dominant force on this album. However, he too had his issues with drugs, and these would come to a head during the band's tour of the United States in 1971. Spencer simply disappeared. It was discovered later that he'd run off to join a religious cult, called the Children of God.

Jeremy Spencer's departure in 1971 threw a spanner in the works for the band. It left them in disarray and Mick Fleetwood pulling his hair out trying to decide what the band's musical identity was and the direction that it should pursue. This was eased to a degree by the influence of Christine (now) McVie and Danny Kirwan, who were starting to move the band toward a more mainstream sound. However, they were not that good at it (yet) and the end result was a rather low-key, if not sleepy, album called "Future Games" (1971).

Apprenticeship served, "Bare Trees", which was launched in 1972 became, arguably, the band's most consistent production to that point. While all of their previous albums had moments of inspired brilliance, they were erratic and were weighed down by a number of songs that could be best described as insipid fillers. "Bare Trees" was a mellow offering that had enough bite to prevent it from drifting toward excessive sentimentality which, with the offerings from bands such as Bread, was the height of song fashion at the time. The writing was spread between three members of the band. Christine McVie produced two songs and evidenced her growing maturity with a real masterpiece "Spare Me a Little of Your Love". Bob Welch, who was hired as Jeremy Spencer's replacement, also provided two songs, including one of pop music's great "lost" songs, "Sentimental Lady". It flopped as a single for Fleetwood Mac, failing to chart anywhere, but Welch had better luck with it when he re-recorded it in 1977 and released it as the first single to promote his solo album "French Kiss". In this author's view that "glossy" single fails to compare with the version on the Mac album, hence the term "lost" song.

Danny Kirwan was the third writer on this LP and proved himself the most powerful of the group by contributing five strong numbers, including the track that serves as the highlight of his career, "Dust".

The gap between 1972's "Bare Trees" LP and the band's launch of their self-titled album (nicknamed "The White Album" to distinguish it from their 1968 self-titled disc) was both precipitous and significant for the band.

Danny Kirwan had, for a number of years, been fighting his own demon which, in his case, was alcohol. Tensions between he and the other members of the band came to a head in August of 1972, erupting in a massive fight backstage. Kirwan was promptly sacked. His replacements were Bob Weston and Dave Walker, neither of whom lasted long. Walker departed after the band's next album, the up-tempo "Penguin" (1973) and Weston lasted till the next LP, the ruminative "Mystery to Me" (1973). This was followed by the minor gem "Heroes are Hard to Find" in 1974.

The headaches did not stop there for the band with their manager, Clifford Davis, stirring the pot by creating and touring with a bogus Fleetwood Mac. Whilst Mick Fleetwood would win the court case that followed, the saga tied the band up for a lengthy period of time, preventing them from touring and yet another album, the aforementioned "Heroes... ", failed to reach its full potential. This was too much for Bob Welch and he walked out on the band. A big decision followed... the band decided to relocate to California, in the hope that a change in location would also bring about a change in fortune.

Shortly after the move, Fleetwood and John McVie were at Sound City Studios auditioning engineers for their next album. One of those auditioning, Keith Olsen, played them the song "Frozen Love" from an album that he'd produced for a local duo called Buckingham Nicks. The pair (Fleetwood and McVie) were captivated by the sound and, immediately, sought out the duo to join the band. As soon as Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, they began to dominate the band's sound, turning them into, virtually, a West Coast rock band.

There was a gypsy quality about Nicks which, when coupled with her husky voice and sexual aura, provided the band with a charismatic front-woman... who could also write songs. Buckingham, for his lot, was a craftsman with a pop ear and an innate ability to create commercial songs that did not lose their sense of adventure. Whilst he provides lead vocals on four tracks it is the women that get the opportunity to belt out the blockbuster singles on this album - "Rhianon", "Say You Love Me" and "Over My Head" - that would propel the band toward stardom.

Stardom, however, did not rest well on the shoulders of the band members and friction followed in its wake. The marriage between John and Christine McVie folded. The air between the pair was so toxic that they refused to talk to each other during the making of the album, unless it was related to the music. The Buckingham Nicks partnership also crumbled and Mick Fleetwood was struggling with his own drug addiction.

Yet, the band's professionalism stood firm while putting the LP together. Additionally, the turmoil of the members provided the strongest fuel for the fire within the album. Stevie Nicks allows us an insight into her grief, using the haunting "Dreams" to, lyrically, slap Lindsay Buckingham in the face. Buckingham would then retort, dispelling his own personal torture with "Go Your Own Way". Christine McVie rebounds from her broken marriage by dating the band's lighting designer and penning the joyous "You Make Loving Fun".

The music, however, is exceptional and it is this that makes "Rumours" such an enduring piece of work. Buckingham places his personal issues aside to put together an extraordinary piece of production. Aside from the adventurous turns that he manages to install into the album he, somehow, manages to make Christine McVie sound tougher and installs a softer quality in Stevie Nicks' sound. Listening to "Rumours" and the pain borne by the lyrics has a tendency to make one feel a little voyeuristic but there is no doubt that these segments of words and music touched the nerve of a generation and this album is destined to be one of the most compelling works of our time.

"Tusk" is a piece of pop-art.

"Tusk" is also the album that Fleetwood Mac released in the wake of the starship that was "Rumours" (1977).

However, by 1979 the band was broken. It was a shell of itself. They had followed up the "Rumours" LP with an enormous set of tour dates that were as lucrative as they were exhausting. The band members also knew that no matter how good their next project was, there was little chance that it could replicate its predecessor.

"Tusk" eventuated into a twenty-track double album. It is sprawling in its scope, wildly experimental in its nature, it is, at times, incoherent and, yet... it is utterly brilliant. Lindsay Buckingham may have been a guiding hand on the previous two albums but, here, he is the strong arm of creativity. More than half the songs flowed from his pen. The success of "Rumours" virtually gave him a blank cheque with the follow-up, and Buckingham indulged... creating a marching band theme with the title track, the stampede that is "That's Enough for Me" and the frantic tension that builds slowly behind "The Ledge". In his own creations he produces madness, obsessiveness and he bleeds streams of nervous energy but, in between, he nurtures the songs of Nicks and McVie and infuses them with a dream-like elegance.

What "Tusk" is, is bracing. What it isn't, is "Rumours", which is why it bombed when it was first released - but time has been kind to it, giving it a sense of... inimitability.

"Tusk" is a piece of pop-art.

There is a long gap between "Tusk" (1979) and "Tango in the Night" (1987), but that didn't stop the friction within the band. The relationship between Nicks and Buckingham continued to deteriorate to the point that they came to blows backstage at a concert in New Zealand and needed to be separated by bouncers. As if to showcase their unease with each other members went "their own way" and began working on solo projects. In 1981, Nicks launched the album "Bella Donna", Buckingham released his "Law and Order" LP and Mick Fleetwood recorded "The Visitor".

Despite the heavy atmosphere amongst them, they still managed to reconvene in 1982 to record the album "Mirage", which featured the singles "Hold Me" and "Gypsy". However, no sooner was it committed to vinyl, the members parted ways again to continue with their solo projects. It didn't take long for rumours to surface that the band was dead. Fuel was added to this fire when Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy in 1984 and Stevie Nicks entered rehab in 1986 to treat her cocaine addiction.

"Tango in the Night" however, is a masterpiece and a testament to the skills of the band. Buckingham prunes back on the production and allows the music to breathe. He introduces synthesizes to the mix, manages to add an edgy quality to Christine McVie's "Everywhere" and the confectionery that is "Isn't it Midnight", as well as a little muscle to Stevie Nicks' creation "Seven Wonders". Of his own tracks on the album, "Caroline" and "Family Man" rank among the best that he's written.

The album produced a string of hit singles and proved to be the band's best selling since "Rumours" (1977), however, it also proved to be the last studio album Lindsay Buckingham would record with the band... at least until 2003. After a contentious meeting at the home of Christine McVie, Buckingham quit the band, citing tensions within the band and a total lack of desire to tour.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2018 Christine McVie was posed the question as to whom would be the first she'd select for a Fleetwood Mac reunion. She didn't hesitate to say "Lindsay Buckingham... in spite of his faults, it would always be Lindsay".

Despite the cumulative talents of the band, the most creative force within their collective was Buckingham. When he walked out on the band he'd left a large hole. He was replaced by two guitarists in Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. Though they did contribute to the band's next album, "Behind the Mask" (1990), they were never going to fill that void. It was up to Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie to step up artistically... they couldn't.

Nicks contributed four numbers to the LP but three of those were co-written and none were up to her usual standard. McVie also managed four numbers and managed to salvage some credibility by producing the Top Forty hit "Save Me". Consequently, the album proved to be mediocre, failing both artistically and commercially. This prompted talk to, once again, surface about the future of Fleetwood Mac.

In 1994 Stevie Nicks left the band. Three years prior she'd approached Mick Fleetwood for permission to use a song she'd written for the band for the "Rumours" (1977) album, called "Silver Springs". It didn't make the cut and had not been used subsequently. Nicks had planned to make it the single that would promote her (solo) "Best of" compilation called "Timepieces" (1991). Fleetwood refused and then used the song as part of the band's box-set "25 Years - The Chain" which was released in 1992. Consequently, Nicks did the professional thing and toured with the group to promote the set, but walked out as soon as it was over.

The classic Mac line-up of Fleetwood, the two McVies, Buckingham and Nicks reunited to play at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993 and the whispers were out that perhaps there would be a reunion. This was bolstered by the fact that their solo careers were on the downslope; however, Nicks departure (see above) in 1994, followed by Christine McVie's, who'd cited a lack of desire to tour, soon after, put paid to those rumours.

The whispers began to gather again in 1997 and, suddenly, there was some substance to them. The band reformed to record a live performance which became the recording release "The Dance". Backed by a re-release of the band's 1975 song "Landslide", the album performed extremely well, achieving platinum level sales in the UK, Australia and Canada and it went five times platinum in the United States. Despite this success, the fallout was never far behind and, after a massive argument about the touring schedule, Lindsay Buckingham didn't leave the band, he was fired.

The band would release two further studio albums; "Time" in 1995, with Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason replacing Stevie Nicks, and "Say You Will" (2003) which almost featured the classic line-up. A repentant Buckingham was back in the fold for this disc and, with Christine McVie absent, Sheryl Crow helped out on keyboards and vocals. Since then, the band continued to tour spasmodically, and their membership continued to be a revolving door. In an interview with Rolling Stone Christine McVie indicated that the band "had kinda unofficially broken up" after their 2018/19 world tour.

Christine McVie would pass away in November of 2022, at which time Mick Fleetwood stated that any future talk of the band's reunion would be "unthinkable".