Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar: the vital component of Fleetwood Mac’s success
The story of Fleetwood Mac is vast, encompassing a wide range of characters, from the band’s founding frontman Peter Green to Bob Welch. While the Anglo-American band has been through a significant odyssey, with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie serving as the constants throughout, the most influential chapter began with the release of Fleetwood Mac in 1975. A great deal of the band’s success during this period can be attributed to the immense talent of Lindsey Buckingham.
Before making the record, the band were at an impasse unlike any they had experienced before. It’s quite remarkable given the decline of Green, guitarist Jeremy Spencer taking off to join a cult, and the other acrimonious fallouts that had occurred, but this threatened to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
In 1974, the band’s former manager, Clifford Davis, formed ‘The New Fleetwood Mac’ without any actual group members or their permission, using a new lineup. Fleetwood and McVie, who were already struggling with a band that had ground to a halt following the disappointment of Heroes Are Hard to Find, sued Davis, who countersued, leaving all of their royalties from Warner Brothers in an escrow account.
Things looked bleak for the group, who needed to make up for lost money with gigs and tried to push forward with a handful of guitarists who didn’t work out. However, in the autumn of 1974, when Fleetwood was leaving Sound City Studios, the engineer Keith Olsen played him the song ‘Frozen Love’ from the previous year’s Buckingham Nicks. Fleetwood loved it and wanted his new guitarist to be Buckingham. When the invitation was sent, the curly-haired guitarist accepted, but on the proviso that his girlfriend and musical partner Stevie Nicks also join the fold.
It proved to be a masterstroke, and the duo refreshed Fleetwood Mac, who had a new-look lineup with keyboardist Bob Welch also leaving for pastures new. Their grasp of songwriting, vocal melodies, and Buckingham’s ability to rip on the electric, as well as produce undeniable beauty with his unique fingerstyle on the acoustic, revitalised the band with cuts such as the atmospheric ‘Rhiannon’ and the stripped-back ballad ‘Landslide’ confirming this. It might have taken over a year to resonate, but the album eventually went to number one and saved the quintet. Now self-managed, they pushed into their most successful period.
While the vocals are undoubtedly potent, Buckingham does not get the plaudits he deserves for his significance to the most crucial chapter of Fleetwood Mac. Without his bewitching tunings, big riffs, and, on the other side of the coin, astute melodic ability, there is simply no way they would have tapped into the collective consciousness on their following album Rumours, their best-selling to date. Fleetwood was right in hiring him; this stylistic depth and technical dynamism allowed the band to explore both sides they were adept at – rock and folk – and refine their approach to a historic level.
It doesn’t take much to confirm how pivotal Buckingham’s playing was to Fleetwood Mac’s resurgence and success. The energetic opener of Rumours, ‘Second Hand News’, is a tour de force in his upbeat Americana, complete with his choppy rhythm, chiming acoustic and textural electric guitar. Then, one of their greatest tracks in ‘Dreams’ features his emotive slides that perfectly mirror the heartbroken laments of his ex-partner Nicks, with some simple but exquisite picking and strum patterns bolstering the sentiment as it unfolds.
Elsewhere, in Christine McVie’s piano and vocal-led ballad ‘Songbird’, Buckingham delivers the sparse acoustic that heightens the pure melancholy she constructed. Following this, later in the album, the guitarist provides the ultimate tour de force of his playing by opening ‘The Chain’ with his swaggering, plucked country pattern. It continues building and then gives way to his most searing moment, the ripping electric solo that cuts through the mix after that bassline. Not many guitar heroes can operate in both sonic environments with such an effect.
Playing more extensively across Rumours than any of his bandmates, Buckingham’s guitar served as the lynchpin of the album, elevating Fleetwood Mac to new heights. Without him, the record would have lost much of its passion and strength. Following the success of that classic album, Buckingham’s style evolved, becoming more refined and cerebral on Tusk. His contributions later helped shape the band’s shimmering, heady sound, which fueled their worldwide success throughout the 1980s.
