F is for Fleetwood Mac

Piggybacking off of yesterday and my entry on the Eagles, here’s one of their contemporaries that everyone knows and, well, should love. I mean, who hates Fleetwood Mac? Much in the same way as the Eagles, this band is highly approachable. My parents played the Rumours record for me in the 80s and I was instantly smitten. There’s a depth to their music, lyrically and aurally. I wish I – even as an English major and self-proclaimed writer – had the words to describe how their music makes me feel. Perhaps it could be better analyzed if taken song by song but I haven’t the time for that because their songbook is extensive.

I was most familiar with Rumours and Tusk when I was young, blasting songs like The Chain, Don’t Stop, and even Sara in my car when I was in high school. Most bands whose vinyl I listened to via my parents, I purchased either a cassette tape or a CD version of on my own. Of course now, everything is digital but I felt like OWNING those amazing albums meant so much to me.

Later on, I’d get more into Tango in the Night and Time. This is a band who reinvented themselves with every new album and despite their interpersonal problems, they still produced quality material. Or maybe because of it; LOL!

Though these two things – dress and musical tastes – don’t always coincide, I always enjoyed being the person whose outward appearance indicated that I was into the dark and macabre, the gritty and maybe less sophisticated things in life. At least in college. You see, in high school, I got in with a couple people who were pretty dang pretentious. We enjoyed “films” and art museums, and considered our musical tastes sophisticated. I will probably reference my main high school friend – we’ll call him K- when we get to letter H but he definitely was into Fleetwood Mac too and we’d sit around listening to them on record all the time. It became part of the soundtrack to my high school years. But again, once I got to college, I was away from those friends, forging my own path and when I got more into darker metal bands and then wrestling, my dress would indicate as such. So it is then interesting to even myself that most people would not assume that I like these slower more folksy bands.

In February of 2019, I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see this band in Tampa and I went with my mom and my sister. I had gone to a couple concerts with my sister before – Cher and Cyndi Lauper and then to Nsync – but not with my mom. (Although later on that year, we’d go to ZZ Top). We had an excellent time! Drove down and checked into our hotel – funny enough, the same hotel Ash and I stayed in when we saw Iron Maiden (it is close and budget; you don’t need much if you’re just gonna crash for one nigh after a show.) We Ubered to the venue and sought out food, but all the nice places around there were packed so we ended up at this outdoor place designed to feed concer-goers. It wasn’t fancy but it was a tasty burger and beer prices were reasonable! The band sounded great, for the most part. Some of Christine’s songs, she was spot on and others, her older voice shone through. Same for Stevie. I was saddened when, before this show, I heard that Lindsey wouldn’t be joining them on the tour. He was always an asshole but I like him and wanted the sanctity of the full group. But so it goes.

Fleetwood Mac is timeless and universal and I am glad to have been able to cross them off my concert list.

Here’s a couple more unknown songs from them that I love: