In 1976 Fleetwood Mac wasn’t a huge band in the US. Emotional turmoil was present. 2 Couples were breaking up or just broke up. Divorce was coming soon for Mick when the recording started. Having 3 song writers led to some interesting collaboration. How did this band stay together and create one of the most iconic albums of all time?
So the backstory for Fleetwood Mac by in 1976 the band was established, but they were not Rockstars. The previous lineup was known in the UK but not much in the US. Mick heard of Lindsey from a session at Sound city when the guitarist left the band he got in touch with Lindsey. Of course, Stevie was part of the deal as well to join the band. They recorded an album self-titled. I think they called it the white album it didn’t make waves on the charts just yet so at the start of recording rumors Fleetwood Mac were not the huge stars of today, but by the end, they would be. What Ken didn’t know about yet was all the turmoil of the personal relationships because they were plenty. Mick was having troubles with his marriage and soon will be getting divorced. John and Christine were recently separated and divorced, and Lindsey and Stevie were going through and on again off again relationship. The studio they recorded at was the record plant in Sausalito CA. API board and 2-inch 24 track tape machines. Interestingly the Eagles were recording at the same time at the record plant in LA for what would be Hotel California.
After five days of trying to get solid drum sounds, they finally started recording. When they started, the song was actually called “Keep me there”. It was brought in by Christine McVie, but all the members received writing credits on it because it turned into “the chain“. They ended up keeping the chorus section and at the end of the song which we had a really cool baseline from John McPhee into the big vamp Out. 10 mics on the drums two on bass, two on organ, three on electric guitar and one for Christine’s vocal. We actually listen to the demo cut of keep me there from the rumors super extended cut and I actually liked how it sounded. It wasn’t resonating with everyone though.
Lindsey had an idea months later to save “keep me there” which was to completely re-cut the verses. Eventually it became called the chain. He came up with the kick drum and the dobro as the verse parts. Stevie actually had lyrics and a melody that fit with the ending, so they rewrote, the verses kept the old chorus, and of course, the big ending with John’s cool baseline break. Interestingly enough that was the first song that they cut, and it was the last song in the recording studio to bring them all back together again.
They continued recording in the same vein one song at a time cutting tracks as they went. The second song was go your own way. This was a Lindsey song. He played it for everyone, and they worked out their parts in the studio. After several hours they recorded nine takes and got the basic track set phone number three they recorded was Gold dust woman. This was a Stevie song they cut about eight takes but then came the booze, the pot and the Coke the English folks love the booze, the Americans of the pot and well Stevie, like both. Mick coined the phrase “transcending” This is a time that came along when everyone in the band hit the right buzz point to play and record just about anything. Mick would want everyone to stay late and record them. John would definitely leave and go home usually the first one, Lindsey rarely stayed late if it was, it was because of cocaine.
Song number four was oh daddy this was a Christine song at this stage. It was apparent that Ken and Richard we’re going to help produce the record as a matter fact Christine just outright told them to take five of oh daddy was the master interestingly enough, they had an uh-oh moment while winding the tape scope fell and hit the power cord unplugging the machine, and ripping the tape luckily only part of the intro was cut off for a while. They called the song, just “Addie” because oh da was cut off.
Later that day, Mick got a call about the white album. It was selling hot. It was released six months prior, but it was finally starting to takeoff. The manager said it was imperative that the album that they’re recording does well and that they’ll be set for life so now the pressure is on and the mood started to change. It was the start of second-guessing song number five was called Strummer, which really was secondhand news. It was a Lindsey song. He left the lyrics out because they obviously would upset Stevie, so they didn’t have a title since this was an acoustic strumming song. They just called it Strummer after two days they got the structure down, but Stevie was catching onto the lyrics. Meanwhile Mick was getting divorced when the lyrics came along the title quickly became secondhand news.
Song number six was “You make loving fun”. This was a Christine song. They actually started it when Lindsey wasn’t even at the studio yet, but they worked it out on the fender roads and a Clavinet with Mick actually on the Wawa pedal. Eventually, everyone was at the studio, and they cut the track the next day. They did overdubs vocals and background vocals. Stevie and Lindsey were arguing and yelling at each other while they were doing their parts and then when they would roll tape, they would nail their harmonies. At the end of the session, Ken heard Christine on the piano. He quickly captured the song on two track. This was Songbird.
The seventh song that they recorded was called Silver Springs. This was a Stevie song. She wrote this on the drive through Maryland. They worked out the basic tracks and arrangements and recorded 19 takes. None were quite right though so they came back in the next day with a whole different feel piano guitar through to a Leslie. It was actually Valentine’s Day when they captured a good version of the song.
Song number eight was called dreams this was a Stevie song. She wrote this one in the studio. mainly she was bored while everyone else was working on technical aspects of songs. It was similar to gold dust woman with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, organ, scratch vocals. They recorded 10 takes.
For the 9th song, Ken had the idea to record Songbird live at a theater and he wanted to do it at Berkeley Theatre, but it was all booked up. They ended up using Zellerbach Hall on March 3, 1976. They brought in the live truck and they started at 9 AM. They actually left at sunup the next day. They established the piano on the stage actually had to mic it up to run it through the PA system and Ken brought in a lot of expensive tube mics to mic up the hall. Christine was having problems following the click track so they actually fed the click track to Lindsey Buckingham behind the stage and he played acoustic guitar. They took the acoustic guitar and fed that to Christine’s headphones. After they got the piano track down, they set up vocal mic and Christine recorded the vocals in the theater.
Over the next two weeks though they went back in studio and re cut several songs. So, after six weeks, there were still trying to get solid versions. This is basically the effect of the process of writing in the studio and second-guessing everything and their personalities and relationships coming apart.
Song number 10 was “Don’t stop”. This was also a Christine song with a basic setup with drums, bass, guitar, and piano. It was about the breakup with John after it started to improve. They recorded 25 takes and take 25 became the master.
Song number 11 was “never going back again. “ This was a Lindsey song and a very elaborate guitar song. A funny story about this song was the click track was bleeding through the microphones, so they put a wool hat on over the headphones and duct taped the headphones to Lindsey‘s head.
Silver Springs was a great song, but it was too long as at this point, they were trying to figure out how they were going to fit it on the album even after trimming it down to about 4 1/2 minutes. It still was too long to fit on the record, so they had to go in and replace it with another Stevie song. Lindsey came up with the idea to do “I don’t want to know” which was a song that they recorded in Buckingham Nicks.
Success with settling in and relationships were settling down. Stevie was living in collaborating with another guy Tom Christine bought a house in LA and was living with Kerri. Lindsey was living with Richard. Ken quit haters and was now an independent engineer working for Fleetwood Mac overdubs were going really well. Everyone went on vacation while Lindsey worked on all the tracks. They really trusted his abilities to create the best sounds over multiple weeks and multiple recording studios the songs were becoming polished and finished. The band was even going back on the road when the album came out there were four top 10 singles and every song had radio play. Silver Springs became the B side to the first single which was Go your own way. In 1977 the album won Grammy for album of the year which went to the producers Richard and Ken. Ken even stated in an interview that he was making $10,000 a day in royalties after the album came out.
The first day they walked into the studio in Sausalito California was January 28, 1976. The album was released on February 4, 1977. Rumors sold 40 million copies worldwide and it went 21 times platinum so all that work and second-guessing re-recording and finishing and mixing really paid off.
On June 13th we met up at Firedog Studios. (my place) Most people could not make it but James and Dave showed up and I had a BBQ. James brought dessert and Dave brought a selection of beers. We enjoyed the evening eating, drinking, and talking about “Mac”. We also listened to the early versions of all the songs which was available in the extended album with original recordings, remastered tracks, and live versions. The live versions from 1977 sounded great.
