The 1975 song that defines Fleetwood Mac, according to Lindsey Buckingham
Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 gets unfairly overlooked in their legacy discourse, brutally overshadowed by its older sibling Rumours, which for decades has garnered all of the headlines and attention.
But in the spirit of putting my neck on the line, I will repeat what I have said before and boldly claim the ‘75 effort, internally dubbed as Fleetwood Mac’s White Album, as a better record than its successor. Sure, Rumours has the band’s drama centralised on one record with a handful of iconic songs that epitomise the relationships, but so does the ‘75 record, with what I would argue is a stronger backing group of filler tracks.
‘Landslide’ might just be Stevie Nicks’ greatest Fleetwood Mac song, followed closely by ‘Rhiannon’, while ‘World Turning’ serves as the more muted version of ‘The Chain’ but with better harmonies and melody. Ultimately, for a brief moment, it was the sound of the band operating on an even and optimistic playing field, where collaboration came before conflict.
But the signs were certainly there on the White Album. The primary storyline of Rumours, the breakdown of Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship, opened its dialogue on ‘Monday Morning’, a track that sees Buckingham grappling with emotional whiplash, caused by the ever-changing dramatic state of his relationship with Nicks.
Buckingham explained, “Stevie and I, through our struggles with Buckingham Nicks, had had personal problems and had broken up and gotten back together and she was being a bit fickle about things. And the song really was just addressing the fact that maybe on Monday everything was great, but by Friday things weren’t so great. As can be the case with relationships in general”.
The juxtaposition of the sentiment was portrayed through the paradox of the song, the somewhat lush and harmonic soundscape providing a backdrop for Buckingham’s pointed lyrics. Ultimately, that would become a feature on Rumours and a general paradox that would epitomise the band moving forward. But really, Buckingham insisted that the splinter in the relationship was lodged long before the pair joined the band.
“All of the material that ended up on [our first album with Fleetwood Mac] had been demo’ed before meeting with Fleetwood,” he said. “Before that fortuitous occasion, when I ran into him at Sound City. ‘Monday Morning’ was very reflective of the early dynamic that was later to become a hallmark of Fleetwood Mac, which was couples breaking up, the angst of having to push forward.”
It was a model that worked, for the wider success of the band and the enjoyment of the fans. But for the members themselves, the music rarely served as a sort of artistic therapy and instead acted as the former. With each break-up track growing more successful than the last, the responsibility for each member to stay in the band grew stronger and subsequently prolonged their torture.
But on their ‘75 album, that wasn’t the primary focus in the same way it was on Rumours. Aside from ‘Monday Morning’, the record showcased a catalogue of tracks that proved Fleetwood Mac were, of course, iconic, even without the drama.
