The song Mick Fleetwood called the “ugly duckling” of Fleetwood Mac: “No real chorus”
Fleetwood Mac are one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The band boast over 120 million record sales worldwide. Everybody knows something of the lore behind Rumours. Hits like ‘Dreams’ and ‘The Chain’ are covered time and time again by artists from all genres, cementing their lasting legacy.
But even the greats can have off days. Bad art must exist: if it didn’t, how would we be able to classify the good? If we hadn’t seen Claude Monet’s poor paintings after he suffered from age-related cataracts, how would we know to appreciate the beauty of his ‘Water Lilies’? Easels aside, Mick Fleetwood, drummer and co-founder of the generational rock band, believes that there is one form that lends itself most easily to the mediocre.
Album closers are a tricky beast to tame. You might have a terrific project ready to go, but if the final impression is a dud, you might as well have shot yourself in both feet. If the lasting impression is lacklustre, lazy listening habits mean that, by extension, so too is the album it sees out. No matter if you’ve just created an entire new genre, or written lyrics so spectacular they put a name to a feeling you’ve spent your whole life describing.
Some got it right. Among the best are Bob Dylan, who let the classic, meandering epic ‘Desolation Row’ close out Highway 61 Revisited, or the Mancunian legends Oasis, who cleared the decks with ‘Champagne Supernova’ on the already formidable (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. A personal favourite is the Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)’, which charges forward with surely one of the most sensational melody lines in the history of music.
The Fleetwood Mac song Mick Fleetwood deemed the “ugly duckling” is, indeed, an album closer. One of the supergroup’s weirdest, by far. Rumours did a pretty decent job with ‘Gold Dust Woman’, where Stevie Nicks sings aptly, “Do you know how to pick up the pieces / and go home?” But Rumours isn’t the crime scene in question.
“I had to persuade the rest of the band to even let ‘These Strange Times’ on the album,” Fleetwood recalled in 2020. “It was an odd, ugly duckling track — spoken word, no real chorus. But now? It finally feels relevant.”
‘These Strange Times’ closed out the album Time, released in 1995, without Nicks, without Lindsey Buckingham. Rarely is it ever acknowledged in the realm of fan-favourites. “It was probably not even heard by anybody.” Fleetwood admitted of the haunting closer, ‘These Strange Times’. If it were, interested ears would find Fleetwood ranting about God over a new age drone track that stretches to over seven minutes.
“God is nowhere” turns to “God is now here,” turns to “I do wish I was in love” when a groovy beat kicks in, finally elevating the all-atmosphere track to something pleasantly listenable, if not slightly kitsch, or off-puttingly futuristic. It marks the only track where Mick is the lead vocalist: unfortunately, it proves the rareness of this occurrence was a blessing in disguise.
