{"id":5074,"date":"2025-09-09T13:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/buckingham-nicks-reviewed-mythologised-1973-folk-rock-debut-finally-gets-reissued-151277\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:18:07","slug":"buckingham-nicks-reviewed-mythologised-1973-folk-rock-debut-finally-gets-reissued-151277","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/buckingham-nicks-reviewed-mythologised-1973-folk-rock-debut-finally-gets-reissued-151277\/","title":{"rendered":"Buckingham Nicks reviewed: mythologised 1973 folk-rock debut finally gets reissued"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Take it with a pinch of salt, but it\u2019s a tough time to be a Fleetwood Mac<\/strong> fan. Lindsey Buckingham<\/strong> and Stevie Nicks<\/strong> are still at loggerheads after the guitarist was turfed out of the band in 2018 \u2013 Nicks declared she was \u201cno longer willing to work with him\u201d; he suffered a heart attack soon after being fired \u2013 and the window has all but shut on what\u2019s left of a Fleetwood Mac classic lineup reunion now that each member is pushing 80 and Christine McVie<\/strong> has gone. Holograms could be the answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Holograms could be the answer\u2026<\/h2>\n

Take it with a pinch of salt, but it\u2019s a tough time to be a Fleetwood Mac<\/strong> fan. Lindsey Buckingham<\/strong> and Stevie Nicks<\/strong> are still at loggerheads after the guitarist was turfed out of the band in 2018 \u2013 Nicks declared she was \u201cno longer willing to work with him\u201d; he suffered a heart attack soon after being fired \u2013 and the window has all but shut on what\u2019s left of a Fleetwood Mac classic lineup reunion now that each member is pushing 80 and Christine McVie<\/strong> has gone. Holograms could be the answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But before the credits roll on this most enduring rock\u2019n\u2019roll saga, a key chapter in the band\u2019s origin story from a more harmonious time 52 years ago is finally being reissued. Buckingham Nicks<\/strong>, the mythologised 1973 folk-rock debut by Buckingham Nicks, as Lindsey and Stevie were introduced to the world back then, has been cleaned up and remastered from the original tapes and is in print for the first time since 1982 and on streaming services and CD for the first time. In some ways, this offers a sense of closure \u2013 let\u2019s put it out properly before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Why such a pivotal record in Fleetwood Mac\u2019s history has been ignored for so long does lead you to question the pair\u2019s affection for the material. Surely any scheduling or legal issues preventing the release could have been resolved at any point over the past 40 years if they\u2019d wanted it out, especially given the band\u2019s multi-generational appeal this century. Indeed, it\u2019s such fandom that has kept Buckingham Nicks<\/strong> alive all this time when it pretty much sank without trace upon release and fared little better when reissued in 1977 and \u201981 in attempts to capitalise on the Mac\u2019s global domination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A nifty collection of floral folk cuts and quicksilver instrumentals<\/h2>\n

The trouble is, once you\u2019ve heard Fleetwood Mac<\/strong> or Rumours<\/strong>, Buckingham Nicks<\/strong> feels a little threadbare, like sketches for the main event \u2013 and that\u2019s fine, because before fate or destiny intervened in the form of Mick Fleetwood<\/strong> in November 1974, this captured the duo at their best. Taken on its own, Buckingham Nicks<\/strong> is a nifty collection of floral folk cuts and quicksilver instrumentals, with one foot in Laurel Canyon, the other in Nashville, that show Buckingham and Nicks\u2019 songwriting promise.<\/p>\n

Aged 25, her all-seeing mysticism is taking shape on \u201cCrystal<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cLong Distance Winner<\/strong>\u201d; her partner, a year younger, volleys between traditional composition (\u201cStephanie<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down Again<\/strong>\u201d), bluesy rockabilly (\u201cWithout A Leg To Stand On<\/strong>\u201d) and finger-picked flamboyance (\u201cFrozen Love<\/strong>\u201d). They\u2019d already written \u201cLandslide<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cMonday Morning<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cRhiannon<\/strong>\u201d before they formally joined Fleetwood Mac in January 1975, and would rework \u201cCrystal<\/strong>\u201d from this album for July\u2019s Fleetwood Mac<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The pair met as high school students in the Bay Area in the late-\u201960s. Buckingham, a guitarist since childhood, played bass in a psychedelic outfit called Fritz<\/strong> and soon enough Nicks became their vocalist. Fritz shared bills with the likes of Janis Joplin<\/strong>, the Steve Miller Band<\/strong> and even a festival show with the Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/strong> and were attracting industry attention. Keith Olsen<\/strong>, who\u2019d recently set up Sound City studios in Los Angeles, saw Fritz in San Francisco and invited them to LA for a showcase. This spelled disaster for Fritz because Olsen saw the potential of Buckingham and Nicks as a duo and proposed they record with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buckingham toked at home and zoned in on the music<\/h2>\n

At the time, the couple had taken over a room in Buckingham\u2019s father\u2019s coffee roasting plant in the Bay Area where they were figuring themselves out musically and romantically. They worked on songs and recorded four-track demos for a year before Nicks suggested they move to LA. There, in 1972, they stayed rent-free at Olsen\u2019s house in Coldwater Canyon; he believed in them to the extent that he effectively supported them for a year, letting them use Sound City where he could produce them and shop them to labels. Still, they needed money, so Nicks worked three jobs \u2013 cleaning Olsen\u2019s house, waitressing and hostessing \u2013 while Buckingham toked at home and zoned in on the music.<\/p>\n

Olsen assembled classy players for the sessions: Waddy Wachtel<\/strong>, later a fixture in Nicks\u2019 band, plays slide guitar on the album\u2019s worst song \u201cLola (My Love)<\/strong>\u201d, a hokey Buckingham stomp, and Elvis\u2019s rhythm section, drummer Ron Tutt<\/strong> and bassist Jerry Scheff<\/strong>, anchor Buckingham\u2019s ecstatic riffing on \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down Again<\/strong>\u201d. Throughout, you hear songs before their Mac upgrades: \u201cStephanie<\/strong>\u201d, Buckingham\u2019s sprightly ballad for Nicks, would muscle up into \u201cNever Going Back Again<\/strong>\u201d; \u201cWithout A Leg To Stand On<\/strong>\u201d is the basis for \u201cWhat Makes You Think You\u2019re The One<\/strong>\u201d. The seven-minute \u201cFrozen Love<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 the album\u2019s sole co-write \u2013 pits duelling vocals and spectral folk against a looser second section and would be revamped as \u201cThe Chain<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Appreciate the wild ride they\u2019ve taken us on<\/h2>\n

Olsen played \u201cFrozen Love<\/strong>\u201d and other Buckingham Nicks<\/strong> songs to Mick Fleetwood when he came by Sound City to suss out studios for the next Mac record, impressing the drummer not just with the room\u2019s audio spec but the track\u2019s spot-on production and freewheeling arrangement. When Bob Welch<\/strong> quit Fleetwood Mac a month later, in December \u201974, Fleetwood needed a new guitarist and recalled Buckingham\u2019s playing on \u201cFrozen Love<\/strong>\u201d. Having been dropped by Polydor after Buckingham Nicks<\/strong>\u2019 poor sales, the guitarist agreed to join Fleetwood Mac on condition that Nicks came with him. Now, at least, we can hear what Fleetwood saw in Buckingham and Nicks all those years ago, and appreciate the wild ride they\u2019ve taken us on.<\/p>\n

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