This past weekend, I came close to laying down some long green to see Fleetwood Mac trot out modified versions of their hits at the Palace of Auburn Hills. And while I ended up not pulling the trigger, I actively considered it for one reason and one reason only – I have a larger-than-life-sized man-crush on their singer/guitarist/songwriter/arranger/wunderkind Lindsey Buckingham.
This guy (he said emphatically, gesturing to no one in particular) is about as underrated as a multi-platinum-selling musical genius can get. Just on his Fleetwood Mac catalog contributions alone, “genius” is not too outlandish a label; if he wasn’t singing on hits like “Go Your Own Way” and “Big Love,” he was arranging and playing on FM tracks featuring Christine McVie (check out his guitar solo on “Say You Love Me”) and Stevie Nicks (the life he breathed into “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” wouldn’t have existed without him).
Back in the day, even his outside production work was vast and rewarding, as he sprinkled his
songwriting gold on ‘70s hits by Walter Egan (“Magnet And Steel”) and former Kingston Trio member John Stewart (“Gold”). And there’s his sporadic and varied solo career to consider as well, starting with the slightly New Wave ’81 release Law And Order, with its Top Ten hit “Trouble” sounding like a lost FM classic. He produced one of the best songs from the ‘80s for the soundtrack to National Lampoon’s Vacation called “Holiday Road,” which was so successful he was offered to write the title theme for a lil’ film called Ghostbusters. (He passed, obviously, to Ray Parker Jr.’s benefit.) And he even had some MTV success with the title track to Go Insane from '84.
The ‘90s were pretty quiet for Buckingham, although he made the best FM album FM never made in ’93 with Out Of The Cradle, which was horribly promoted by his long-time label Warner Brothers. (Aside from a sweet-ass PBS live show featuring four guitarists – one Lindsey in the studio requires five live, yet another testament to his talent – Cradle was stillborn, a tragic end to a glorious artifact.) And when the Mac reunited a decade later in ’03 with Say You Will, the best songs on that album, far and away, were the contributions of Buckingham. (You want bitter emotions? Try the money shot lyric from “Come” – “Think of me, little darlin’, every time you don’t come” takes “Go Your Own Way” up a few notches of caustic comeuppance.) I can’t even listen to the penultimate track anymore, a dizzyingly arpeggiated masterpiece of resignation and regret called “Say Goodbye,” because it’s waaaay too emotional for me.
While Say You Will didn’t approach the multi-platinum heights of FM’s older work – what record does anymore? – it seemed to light a fire in Buckingham’s solo career. Suddenly, the man was prolific: he released solo album after solo album (the introspective, largely acoustic Under The Skin from ’05; a live career-caper from ’07; the rocking if slightly overcompressed Gift Of Screws and a CMT Crossroads episode with Little Big Town last year alone) that further illustrated his growth as a musician, playing with his vocal delivery and his precision picking guitar techniques. I love him so much that I almost sat through song after song of Stevie Nicks twirling and bleating just to get to one transcendent Buckingham guitar solo, of which there would have been many. But the show has passed, so I’ll just have to content myself with the DVD’s and my memories, and call it another lonely day.
This guy (he said emphatically, gesturing to no one in particular) is about as underrated as a multi-platinum-selling musical genius can get. Just on his Fleetwood Mac catalog contributions alone, “genius” is not too outlandish a label; if he wasn’t singing on hits like “Go Your Own Way” and “Big Love,” he was arranging and playing on FM tracks featuring Christine McVie (check out his guitar solo on “Say You Love Me”) and Stevie Nicks (the life he breathed into “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” wouldn’t have existed without him).
Back in the day, even his outside production work was vast and rewarding, as he sprinkled his
songwriting gold on ‘70s hits by Walter Egan (“Magnet And Steel”) and former Kingston Trio member John Stewart (“Gold”). And there’s his sporadic and varied solo career to consider as well, starting with the slightly New Wave ’81 release Law And Order, with its Top Ten hit “Trouble” sounding like a lost FM classic. He produced one of the best songs from the ‘80s for the soundtrack to National Lampoon’s Vacation called “Holiday Road,” which was so successful he was offered to write the title theme for a lil’ film called Ghostbusters. (He passed, obviously, to Ray Parker Jr.’s benefit.) And he even had some MTV success with the title track to Go Insane from '84.
The ‘90s were pretty quiet for Buckingham, although he made the best FM album FM never made in ’93 with Out Of The Cradle, which was horribly promoted by his long-time label Warner Brothers. (Aside from a sweet-ass PBS live show featuring four guitarists – one Lindsey in the studio requires five live, yet another testament to his talent – Cradle was stillborn, a tragic end to a glorious artifact.) And when the Mac reunited a decade later in ’03 with Say You Will, the best songs on that album, far and away, were the contributions of Buckingham. (You want bitter emotions? Try the money shot lyric from “Come” – “Think of me, little darlin’, every time you don’t come” takes “Go Your Own Way” up a few notches of caustic comeuppance.) I can’t even listen to the penultimate track anymore, a dizzyingly arpeggiated masterpiece of resignation and regret called “Say Goodbye,” because it’s waaaay too emotional for me.While Say You Will didn’t approach the multi-platinum heights of FM’s older work – what record does anymore? – it seemed to light a fire in Buckingham’s solo career. Suddenly, the man was prolific: he released solo album after solo album (the introspective, largely acoustic Under The Skin from ’05; a live career-caper from ’07; the rocking if slightly overcompressed Gift Of Screws and a CMT Crossroads episode with Little Big Town last year alone) that further illustrated his growth as a musician, playing with his vocal delivery and his precision picking guitar techniques. I love him so much that I almost sat through song after song of Stevie Nicks twirling and bleating just to get to one transcendent Buckingham guitar solo, of which there would have been many. But the show has passed, so I’ll just have to content myself with the DVD’s and my memories, and call it another lonely day.
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