Mark Blake’s punchy new book, Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac, begins with a “cast of characters,” as if it was a drama.
It was.
Emotional anguish, sexual tension and rock ‘n’ roll excess are all part of the glorious history laid out by the British author. Short chapters are divided into seven stages of the band’s career, which began in 1967, with provocative section titles such as “I socked him on the jaw as hard as I could” and “I knew I was going to die and I didn’t want to die.”
Contributing to the band’s volatility were office romances, including the fractious but artistically fruitful relationship between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The blockbuster Rumours album was recorded in 1977 under typically tempestuous circumstances – two couples within the band went splitsville.
As of now, the Mac appears to be finished. Nicks, who performed on Saturday Night Live earlier this month, recently told Mojo magazine that after the death of singer-songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie in 2022, “there’s no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.”
The music lives on, though, still beloved by older fans and newly embraced by young people who appreciate adult lyrics and situations that contrast to the typical juvenile content of today’s pop stars. Here are the signposts of the latest Fleetwood Mac revival.
The tour (2018-19): After firing Buckingham, band members Mick Fleetwood, Nicks, McVie and her ex-husband John McVie recruited two guitarists (Mike Campbell and Neil Finn) for a greatest-hits tour that grossed US$153-million on 1,120,911 tickets sold.
The viral video (2020): The hit music clip of the pandemic lockdown was of dude casually drinking an Ocean Spray product while skateboarding and vibing to the band’s Dreams (with an opening line about wanting freedom). Sales and streaming increased after the TikTok video went viral, pushing the 1977 album Rumours back into the Billboard 200 top 10 for the first time in 42 years.
Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & the Six.Lacey Terrell/Amazon Prime Video
The TV series (2023): Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & the Six, a rock ‘n’ roll drama starring Riley Keough, is believed to have been partly inspired by the life and times of Fleetwood Mac.
The live albums (2023-24): Last year’s Rumours Live was recorded in 1977 by the classic line-up in the Forum, in Inglewood, Calif., at the height of the band’s powers. Recorded at the same venue with the same musicians five years later, Mirage Tour ‘82 was released last month. Among the 22 tracks, six are previously unreleased.
The cross-generational collaborations: Exiled from the moribund band, the 75-year-old Buckingham keeps young by working with contemporary hit-makers the Killers, Brandy Clark and Halsey. At BST Hyde Park in London this summer, 76-year-old Nicks invited Fleetwood Mac fan Harry Styles on stage for a performance of Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, originally recorded with Tom Petty.
