Fleetwood Mac was a group of vegetables with an eight -year -old story when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined them at the end of 1974. The group was founded by guitarist Peter Green, bass guitarist John Mcvie and drummer Mick Mick Fleetwood after the start of John Mayall’s trio in 1967. 1970.
But apart from a few singles from the Green era – including “Albatross”, “Oh Bien” and “The Green Manisteri (with the two -part crown”) – and “hypnotized” from 1973, cut by the group with the guitarist / singer Bob Welch, they never had the general public.
All this changed once Buckingham and Nicks joined. The first album of this programming, 1975 Fleetwood Mac – Now celebrating its 50th anniversary – would make them one of the most famous successful groups of the 1970s and will open the way to its follow -up of Smash, 1977 Rumors.
It was shortly before Rumors‘Free what Buckingham sat with Guitarist In what would be an increasingly rare press opportunity with the guitarist. His conversation with Dan Forte was among the first to detail not only how he and Nicks came to join the group, but also his equipment in his first years with the Mac.
The story behind the most successful programming of Fleetwood Mac is legendary. After playing with their group Fritz for years, Buckingham and Nicks tried to try it for themselves. In 1973, they recorded their only album, Buckingham NicksUsing a range of studio musicians who included guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who would continue to be the main man of Nicks in his extremely successful solo career.
The album was followed by engineer Keith Olsen at Sound City Studio, in the San Fernando valley. All the people involved liked what they had created, but the album – which is planned for a luxury reissue of Rhino this fall – failed to make a breach when it was released in September 1973.
About a year later, Mick Fleetwood was looking for a studio in which to record the follow -up of Fleetwood Mac at Heroes are difficult to find. He visited Sound City, where he obtained his first listening to Buckingham and Nicks.
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“About two months before ending up cutting Fleetwood Mac [in January/February 1975]Mick was looking for a studio to use, “said Buckingham.” Someone turned it randomly in this place in the San Fernando valley called Sound City. So he spoke to Keith Olsen there, and Keith put ‘Frozen Love’ Buckingham Nicks Album to show him what the studio looked like and what his work looked like. “”
Fleetwood loved what he heard in the music and performance of the duo, although as Buckingham explained to GPThe drummer did not buy new musicians. Fleetwood Mac was intact at that time with guitarist and leader Welch. “”[Olsen] Did not try to introduce us, “said Buckingham,” because Bob Welch was already in the group at the time. “”
It changed in a few days.
“A week later, Welch decided to leave the group, and Mick simply acted intuitively and called Keith to contact us,” said Buckinham.
Buckingham and Nicks dinner with Fleetwood and the Mcvies, and at the end of the evening were invited to join the group and start to record a tight schedule.
“We repeated for about two weeks, then we just cut the LP,” said Buckingham.
The guitarist certainly knew the music of Fleetwood Mac. “Peter Green, curiously, had a little influence on me,” he says. “I really liked his style of play where a few notes mean a lot – even a note.”
This style would characterize the minimum approach of Buckingham to perform solos and fillings. At the same time, he said he felt no pressure to live up to a period in the history of Fleetwood Mac.
“There has never been a conscious effort to try to integrate into their styles other than, say, by doing their [old] Songs on stage, “he said.” But even, I did not listen to these records and I try to copy what was there. We just started playing, and that’s what came out.
“I never felt any need to try to integrate myself into someone else’s shoes. I just do what I do, whatever. Perhaps one of the reasons why Fleetwood Mac has been able to survive for so long, is that they have been able to change. ”
On the recording of Fleetwood MacBuckingham used a Fender Stratocaster for his electric work. “Before joining the group, I played a stratocaster, which I really like, but for any reason, that did not seem full enough live,” he said.
On stage, Buckingham favored the white model of the 20th anniversary Gibson Les Paul Custom with which he was frequently photographed at the time. The strat would be reserved and used only for the Fleetwood Mac Hit “Over My Head”. “I keep him listening to open on stage to” Over My Head “, said Buckingham.
Sometimes after recording Fleetwood MacBuckinham had Rick Turner installed by Alembic his preamp booster on a stratotoblast in the guitar. Its strat modified by Turner, with the gain of stratoblaster as much as possible and played via Hiwatt Custom 100 Ampères, would become the famous guitar sound on Rumors.
“I always use a more stratocaster in the studio than the Gibson,” Buckingham told GP“But Paul seems to be a very good basic and solid stage guitar with a lot of production and fullness. I am really satisfied with that.”
He also needed an acoustic guitar for live performances from the “Landslide”, the composition of Stevie Nicks which became both a success and a piece of signature for her in the group.
“For ‘Landslide’, my acoustics are an ovation on stage, although I used a Martin D-18 on recording,” said Buckinham. “Ovation has an integrated pick-up; it’s great. It doesn’t really look like an acoustic guitar, but it works so much better live than micro a real acoustics.”
At the time of this interview and following the recording of RumorsBuckingham went from Hiwatts to the Marshall plexi 1959SLP heads.
“I was using hiwatts, but they suddenly have become a real dirty sounds,” he said. “So I got Marshall 100 Watts, and they seem to have a lot of bite. I use these Triplets with tape strips for Fuzz. ”
An important part of its sound at the time then results from the preamp of a Sony tape recorder with two tracks which he used in front of his amplifier.
“When I got out of Fritz and started leading lead, I bought a bridge from the Sony 630 band recorder for demonstration bands,” he said. “Then, I obtained an AMPEG with four tracks and I started using the Sony with two tracks for the Slap echo and effects like this with the output of the game preamp in an amplifier. It’s just an incredible fuzz device.
“Since then, I have removed the preamp’s guts and put them in a small box, and that’s what I use both on stage and in the studio. I also use a Roland Space echo and a baby Cry Baby Wah.”
But the equipment did not mean anything without the Buckingham technique and the bottom, which was itself unusual for a guitarist in the 1970s rock. He grew up in the early 1960s during the folk boom.
“I listened to things like the Kingston Trio and Ian and Sylvia, which did not highlight a really hot guitar,” he said. “I listened to Chet Atkins a little. The Travis model, with three fingers, brought me into what I do now. ”
Buckingham referred to its skilful use of fingers selection, which continued through his career in rock and has become a characteristic of his style of play.
“It’s the funny thing-I still don’t use a boost,” he said. “I always use my fingers on stage; In a way, I put my head with my nails. I don’t use any choice at all, just naked meat. My nails sometimes take a look, but it’s just something you got used to – I have a lot of calluses at the end of my fingers. But I never used for Blue Picks.
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