“A bluesy Beatles”: Christine McVie on the magic of Fleetwood Mac
People forget that Fleetwood Mac lived an entire life before Stevie Nicks or Lindsey Buckingham and the best-known lineup came into play. Before they became the leaders of the classic rock world in the 1970s, they dominated the blue scene of the 1960s, as Christine McVie described their earlier form as “a bluesy Beatles”.
Despite being most typically associated with California, the band began in 1967 in London. They were formed by Peter Green, one of the most formidable yet underrated names in the blues world. Green was so talented that he once replaced Eric Clapton, being subbed into John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers as a guitarist who could not only rival but exceed Clapton’s skill. After meeting Mick Fleetwood, the two began gathering an all-star team of musicians just like them, the kind that served as the underappreciated backbone in the bands of legends. Together, they formed Fleetwood Mac.
In that early form, the band was made up of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and then John McVie and Mick Fleetwood as two of the band’s enduring members throughout it’s many phases and forms. Right as things began to shift when Green was struggling to handle his career with his worsening spiral into LSD and drug addiction, Christine McVie came onto the scene.
Even though McVie was right there when Fleetwood Mac later took their most commercially successful form, giving the bands anthems like ‘Songbird’ and ‘You Make Loving Fun’, her insight into this earlier sound remained deeply inspiring. In fact, she’d argue that the band’s original sound was one of the most influential moments in British music history, likening them to the Fab Four in terms of their impact.
“For a man who was only really performing for a total of maybe four years – and you’re talking 50 years ago now – every guitar player I talk to adores him and how he developed his magic,” McVie said of Peter Green’s playing. When a night in his honour was organised to celebrate Green’s music, an all-star cast stepped up to the plate, keen to pay homage to the player that has inspired them with David Gilmour, John Mayall, Steven Tyler, Bill Wyman and more joining the bill.
But it’s hard to get a look under the shadow of the success Fleetwood Mac’s later form would reach. So many people think the band began with Buckingham and Nicks and forget the essential history of Green’s impact and their origins as a blues band.
Yet for Christine McVie, who was there, it was an important and awe-inspiring moment in their history. “Fleetwood Mac were like a bluesy Beatles,” she said. “Each of them carried an amazing charisma, yet Peter stood out. You could tell that Peter had a talent way beyond most other people. He was the one who created the genius behind it all. I thought he was just unbelievable.”
