The Fleetwood Mac album Lindsey Buckingham called “challenging”
It’s no secret that the dysfunctional nature was a pivotal recipe for Fleetwood Mac‘s success. The band were constantly at one another’s throats, creating what can only be perceived with hindsight as helpful inspiration. Despite the best intentions of each member, things never seemed to turn out how they envisaged. While the issues during the recording process of Rumours are highly documented, it wasn’t the only Fleetwood Mac album made amid a wave of chaos.
Lindsey Buckingham once used the Eagles as an example of how a band should operate, stating that Fleetwood Mac worked in an entirely polarising manner. Rather than pulling in the same direction, they were rarely on the same page, but somehow, it worked. Although this absurd level of bedlam would have made most bands split, Fleetwood Mac used it to mine for magic.
Buckingham explained to Rolling Stone in 2012: “It also sort of makes us the anti-Eagles, in terms of never, ever being on the same page. One thing I admire about the Eagles is they always seem to know what they want. They always seem to know why they want it. They always seem to want it at the same time. We’re just the opposite. It’s kind of a political minefield out there. It’s interesting.”
The 1980s were an interesting period, on a personal level, for Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac. Following the release of Tusk, they each went off in their own directions, with the guitarist releasing his debut album, Law and Order, before reuniting with the band to release Mirage. Buckingham then went solo once more for Go Insane ahead of the recording of Tango In The Night.
The latter marked Fleetwood Mac’s first album in five years and was their classic line-up’s final full studio LP. The record took 18 months to complete, and most of Stevie Nicks’ contributions were largely carried out remotely due to her solo tour. Meanwhile, Mick Fleetwood’s cocaine addiction had become uncontrollable, and Buckingham, who wasn’t sober by any stretch of the imagination, was left trying to pick up the pieces.
Speaking to Uproxx, Buckingham explained: “A lot of what I learned making Go Insane crossed over into Tango In The Night. But it was challenging because everyone was starting to hit the wall with their substance and alcohol use. Everyone was pretty dysfunctional, so it was a chaotic environment. The upside to that was I was able to employ a lot of things that were just straight from me — it was recorded completely at my house — that otherwise would have had to be navigated more on a political level.”
He continued: “But everyone was just kind of up for whatever at that point. And that was actually a help, in terms of me connecting the dots between Go Insane and Tango In The Night.”
By the time the album was completed, Buckingham had mentally checked out of the band and, for his own sanity, needed to get away for his own well-being. However, they had a world tour scheduled to take place, but he couldn’t face it and handed in his notice.
Buckingham explained his decision: “I didn’t want to do the tour, because it had been, like I said, very chaotic. It had been a big party for the year or whatever it had taken us to do that album. Mick, for most of the time, was living in a trailer in my front yard. Out of close to the year that it took us to make the album, I think we saw Stevie a handful of weeks. I was afraid to put myself in the middle of that on the road, because the road tends to be 10 times the party that the studio is.”
Looking back at that “challenging” time, Buckingham doesn’t regret anything about the album or his decision to leave. “I was happy that we had triumphed with the album and had seen it through, under what could certainly be called adverse conditions. I just felt it was time to take a little breather for me,” he revealed.
Listen to ‘Little Lies’ from Tango In The Night below.
