Watch Fleetwood Mac cover Bob Dylan song ‘Love Minus Zero’
The golden age of Fleetwood Mac always came back to folk tradition. Although they had cut their teeth playing the blues circuit in England, the band shifted towards something else once Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the fold, bringing with them a more organic approach to pop music. Like every other great rock and roll story, each member of Mac had the utmost respect for Bob Dylan.
On the group’s final album, Say You Will, Buckingham offered his take on the Dylan classic ‘Love Minus Zero’. The original from Dylan’s electric-tinged Bringing It All Back Home was a bit of a shock to his fans then. Being the first time Dylan went electric for his fans, this was him branching out into a new audience that didn’t necessarily click with the pure folk tunes he was making, like ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’.
Compared to Dylan’s original, Buckingham brings an entire ‘Wall of Sound’ like structure to the tune, keeping Dylan’s words while sculpting a captivating melody over top of everything else. Although he was indebted to acts like Dylan in the past, Buckingham’s background was more in the bluegrass world, which was why he refused to play with a pick throughout most of Fleetwood Mac’s run.
Buckingham understands what Dylan is trying to get at in this song, but the production is far more modern than what someone like Mr Zimmerman had in mind back in 1965. From the start of recording Rumours, he had constantly mentioned using The Beach Boys as a reference to making his mini symphonies, and this feels like the culmination of that mindset.
As much as the song might be straightforward in the original, Buckingham’s added guitar flourishes and the occasional backup vocal by Christine McVie or Stevie Nicks makes the song sound heavenly. This more-recent album by Fleetwood Mac also features some of their best deep cuts on a record since the 1970s, including unearthing the song ‘Bleed to Love Her’, which debuted on their live album The Dance.
Despite the chemistry gelling at the time, this would be the final album released by the classic lineup. While the group had enough material left over for another EP’s worth of material, the main focus was going out on tour to play to their fans. After touring incessantly throughout the 2000s, Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac again in 2018 after some disagreements regarding the nature of their upcoming tour.
While they soldiered on with replacements Neil Finn and Mike Campbell taking over for Buckingham, any chance of a classic lineup ended when Christine McVie passed away in 2022. Since then, Mick Fleetwood has said that touring without McVie would be unthinkable and that the band’s golden era will never happen again.
Throughout their tenure, every member of Fleetwood Mac had an intimate relationship with their music, and to think of them continuing without one of their own isn’t even a question to them. Even if Say You Will will be their unofficial swan song, ‘Love Minus Zero’ proves they never forgot their roots by the end.
