Well, the soloing on e.g. "Love That Burns" is uncommonly piercingly lyrical, but there's an awful lot of twelve-bar trudge.
Overall, it's not my bag, unlike the later Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac which is supremely my bag and has been since nearly forever (which reminded me: I'm shocked, shocked, by the non-appearance of "Beautiful Child" in this list).
Overall, it's not my bag, unlike the later Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac which is supremely my bag and has been since nearly forever (which reminded me: I'm shocked, shocked, by the non-appearance of "Beautiful Child" in this list).
However the Green-FMac relistening ritual reminded me of something that I always forget, which is that the band were vastly more successful as a singles act in 1969 than they were circa Rumours.
Vastly more so in the UK, I suppose I should add. But even in the USA, as Rumours was selling multi-plat, and the songs were on the radio constantly, only "Dreams" got to the top of the charts and "Don't Stop' got to #3. There's nothing like the 1, 2, 2, 10 sequence Green's Mac scored in the UK (and "Albatross", rereleased in 1973, got to UK #2 for a second time).
check it out
(first vertical row of chart placings is UK, second is US)
| "Albatross"[b]/"Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" | 1 | — | 12 | 45 | 19 | 5 | 1 |
| |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Man of the World"/"Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite" | 1969 | 2 | — | — | — | 100 | — | 23 | 5 | 13 | — | non-album singles | |
| "Oh Well (Parts 1 and 2)" | 2 | 55 | — | 19 | 54 | 5 | 5 | 1 | — | ||||
| "Rattlesnake Shake" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Then Play On | |||||
| "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" | 1970 | 10 | — | — | — | — | 16 | 14 | 6 | — | non-album singles |
versus
| Over My Head" | 20 | 32 | 9 | — | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Rhiannon"[e] | 1976 | 46 | 11 | 33 | 13 | 4 | 16 |
| |||||
| "Say You Love Me" | 40 | 11 | 12 | 38 | 29 | ||||||||
| "Go Your Own Way"[f] | 38 | 10 | 45 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 95 | 1 | 23 |
| Rumours | ||
| "Dreams"[g] | 1977 | 24 | 1 | 11 | 19 | 1 | 33 | 88 | 8 | 16 | |||
| "Don't Stop" | 32 | 3 | 22 | 30 | 1 | 41 | 4 |
| |||||
| "You Make Loving Fun" | 45 | 9 | 28 | 65 | 7 | — | 22 | 26 |
| ||||
| "Tusk" | 1979 | 6 | 8 | — | 3 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 10 | 4 |
| Tusk | |
| "Sara" | 37 | 7 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 44 | 14 | 12 |
I guess rock values and "heavy" were so in the ascendant in 1969-70 that "Oh Well" and "Man of the World" and "Green Manalishi" were hit material, unlikely as that might seem to contemporary ears
shows how "pop" as a notion is very context-determined and historically fluctuates
but then again, Iron Maiden would have to be deemed one of Britain's most successful pop groups, if you go by the chart placings of singles
talking about heavy-as-pop, this is pretty undeniable
but generally I like the pretty slow stuff with the Green Mac
talking about heavy-as-pop, this is pretty undeniable
but generally I like the pretty slow stuff with the Green Mac
5 comments:
Also Iron Maiden has the world record for tickets sold worldwide (So I heard)
then of course ¿what other kind of world record could there be if not for something world-wide? Duh...
Phil Knight sez:
A few years ago I remember there was a radio programme (can't remember which station) which played the entire Top 40 from a week in 1971, and it was ALL guitar based rock and boogie. Stuff like Medicine Head.
It was quite clear that the variety was constrained mostly by technological considerations - that very very electrical electric guitars were the most modern sound that was possible, even if the underlying musical structures were quite old.
I think this is an underrated aspect of what makes music popular - its newness. So although Green-era Mac sounds very trad now ("classic" being another word for trad) it may have sounded newer in its day than the Nicks-era material did a few years later.
I've often thought this about hip-hop, that people didn't/don't buy it for the braggadacio, but for the ultra-new soundscape. I mean, you could rap in front of a brass band if you wanted to.
Of course, it's an interesting question where this yearning for the fresh and new comes from. This pining for cultural lifeblood...
Yes, Man of the World and Beautiful Child are very haunting songs. The pitchfork article was nice but also forgot or ignored some good Stevie songs from Say You Will. Buckingham was always her best producer, subtle and inventive. Although, without his presence, Bella Donna and The Wild Heart are still highly pleasurable albums.
the Stevie solo single i wish had been produced by Lindsey Buckingham is "Nightbird" - it's this-reality iteration is rather thin sounding with some cheap sour-tinged keyboards and perfunctory drums, you can imagine a succulent counterfactual rendition with Mick-and-John providing support and Buckingham on the mix. A case of great song / vocal, suboptimal record.
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