...as picked by lil 'ol Sammy Jo here. It had to happen, I guess...
My Top 10 List of Fleetwood Mac albums.
10 Mr Wonderful (1968)
A live in the studio recording with the Peter Green line-up. There's a wonderful (the standard, in my book) 'Stop Messin' 'Round', 'Rollin' Man', 'Love That Burns' and 'If You Be My Baby' as standouts. 'Mr Wonderful'? Well, a wonderful start to the Top 10.
9 'The Dance' (1997)
Essentially the return of Lindsey and the final album with Christine, it's a live album, semi-unplugged, some new songs but lots of old ones. An incredible solo 'Big Love', 'Temporary On', 'Bleed To Love Her', 'My Little Demon'...'Silver Springs' (that Stevie desperately wanted on the 'Rumours' release but was relegated to a single B Side, here it is a masterpiece..). Great stuff.
8 'Then Play On' (1969)
The final album with Peter Green. It's quite a unique album, with a style and sound that was all their own. Not forgetting that they had Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer also on lead guitars and vocals, there's a lot of variety. 'Coming Your Way', 'Closing My Eyes', 'Fighting For Madge', 'Show-Biz Blues', 'Rattlesnake Shake', 'Without You' amongst others. No certification on the early Mac albums, but by 1970, the Mac had sold over 10 million total sales, becoming the biggest selling band in the UK, overtaking The Beatles.
7 'Say You Will' (2003)
The final Fleetwood Mac album, in name, was essentially, to quote Stevie Nicks '...Buckingham Nicks with a power trio..', as there was no Christine on this, having decided to retire. So, split with Stevie songs and Lindsey songs. Some of their very best - 'What's The World Coming To?' 'Murrow Turning Over In His Grave', 'Illume (9-11)', 'Thrown Down', the title track, 'Come', 'Running Through The Garden'...wonderful stuff. They picked the wrong track to be the lead single - 'Peacekeeper' went nowhere and not the best commercial-style track on this - but it did good. The Mac were back to the tune of shy of a million copies, worldwide, in a changing musical delivery landscape.
6 'Tango In The Night' (1987)
What started as a Lindsey solo album, ended as a Mac album....and his last for a bit with the band. By his own admission he and Christine were the most coherant, with both Mick and Stevie away with their drug-fueled faeries and John McVie's heavy drinking. They did come up with their 2nd biggest album, the 15 million selling 'Tango...'. It's got a plethora of hit singles - 'Big Love', 'Seven Wonders', 'Everywhere', 'Little Lies', 'Isn't It Midnight?' - and great album tracks 'Caroline', 'Mystified' and the title track. Wonderful.
5 'Mirage' (1982)
After Lindsey took the ball and ran to a commercial dead end (if 4 million album sales can be seen as a dead end), the band dragged him back into more commercial waters with this album. It's less polished than 'Rumours', but a bit more than 'Tusk'. I love 'Can't Go Back', 'That's Alright', 'Gypsy', 'Hold Me' and 'Oh Diane'. it has it's own little charm. Sold 3.1 million.
4 'Fleetwood Mac' (1975)
The one with Stevie & Lindsey making their debut with the Mac. It starts with 'Monday Morning', a wonderful up-tempo Lindsey number, has 'Blue Letter', then Stevie's 'Rhiannon', Christine's 'Over My Head', has 'Say You Love Me' and 'Landslide' as well as Lindsey's guitar epic 'I'm So Afraid'. Delish! Sold around 7.5 million copies.
3 'Fleetwood Mac' (1968)
Not to be confused with the Stevie & Lindsey self titled album from 1975, this one is affectionately called 'Dog & Dustbin', due to the cover. This is the original band, complete with Peter Green, as they sounded as a blues band. And, as a blues band they were one of the UK's very best. Peter Green, the only white blues guitarist to make B.B. King's hair rise on his arms. Hell of an accolade. Hell of a player. Hell of a singer and writer too. We have 'Merry Go Round', 'Shake Your Moneymaker', 'Looking For Somebody' and 'I Loved Another Woman' as favourites on this. Sold over 1 million copies in the UK.
2 'Rumours' (1977)
What to say? You should all have heard this by now. Over 40 million album sales. There was a headline in The Guardian Newspaper, last year, that said 'After It's 926 Weeks On The Charts, Who's Still Buying 'Rumours''. I mean, that says it all right? One of the greatest albums ever made.
1 'Tusk' (1979)
This is their 'alternative', for want of a better term, album. Lindsey, enamoured by the energy of the punk and new wave music coming out, wanted to make a more stripped back FM album. The irony of this is not lost on the fact that it cost $1.4 million to make (around $5.6 million in new money). It's a double, it's drummer Mick Fleetwood's favourite, it sold over 4 million copies. It has 'Sara', 'Storms', 'The Ledge', 'Not That Funny', 'Sisters Of The Moon', 'Angel', the title track and many more fantastic songs on it.
...and there you have it. My list. Feel free to pop up your own thoughts and what album's where...and why...
