The only song played by every Fleetwood Mac lineup
It almost feels like you need a scorecard to go through every single iteration of Fleetwood Mac. Since they have had more members than anyone can keep up, it’s impossible to keep track of what they were going for on every single record, whether that was their days in the British blues scene or their reputation for being rootsy rock hitmakers in the late 1970s. While some of their records don’t even sound like the same band is making them, there was one bluesy tune that stayed with them until the end.
Before they reached the height of their fame with Rumours, all roads led back to the blues. When Mick Fleetwood and John McVie started the group with Peter Green in the late 1960s, half the reason they worked together was to compete with the countless other blues artists on the scene.
Sure, there would be a few more experiments throughout the Green era, like the metallic ‘The Green Manalishi’ or ‘Albatross’, but most of their tunes tended to circle around lyrics about being down on your luck and licks that could have easily come off of a Cream record had Eric Clapton been able to control Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce’s antics for a little while longer.
Even though Green helped sculpt their sound into something new, ‘Oh Well’ still remains one of the greatest licks he ever made. Compared to the usual blues licks that lock in with the drummer, Green almost sounds like he’s playing on top of the music most of the time, usually pulling off the kind of acrobatics that would take some blues musicians years to master. But while ‘Oh Well’ was always Green’s riff, it was too good to leave behind once he left.
By the time Danny Kirwan was brought in and Bob Welch joined the band, they added their own spin. While Kirwan had been in the group with Green and could fill out the section just fine, Welch’s approach was much more interesting, including putting some jazz touches on the tune out of nowhere.
While it would be easy for them to retire the tune once Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the group, it fit in surprisingly well next to the ‘Landslide’s of the world. Compared to the rugged sounds of ‘The Chain’, hearing Buckingham play the riff with his trademark fingerstyle approach helped breathe new life into the tune, almost as if Mark Knopfler decided to sit in with the group for a tune.
Even though Nicks and Buckingham’s songs have far outsold anything that the bluesy incarnation of the band did, ‘Oh Well’ remained a key part of their setlist until their final days. And since Buckingham’s replacement, Mike Campbell, had come off of working with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on their bluesy album, Mojo, he seemed to fit like a glove working off of Fleetwood and McVie.
For a band that’s been around as long as Fleetwood Mac, looking back at songs this old could be like looking at old baby pictures, but ‘Oh Well’ has never worn out its welcome. It’s still a classic blues song at the end of the day, but somewhere in between those years on the road, Green’s riffs went from being a classic rock staple to one of the standards for any budding guitarist.
