Dreams

September 9, 2024
Music journalist Blake (Bring It On Home) stitches together a kaleidoscopic chronicle of one of rock’s most fabled groups. In its earliest days, Fleetwood Mac was a blues band helmed by cofounders Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green, who composed such hit singles as “Albatross” and “Mr. Wonderful.” A “folky, progressive” sound came to the fore in the 1970s with Then Play On, Green’s last album with the band. In 1975, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, then a folk-rock duo, joined the group and ushered in a pop-rock style and a period of intense interpersonal drama. The pair, who were dating, broke up in 1976, as did married band members Christine and John McVie; Nicks later began an affair with Fleetwood. In loose, episodic sections drawing on interviews with bandmembers, Blake analyzes the makings of their famous (“Dreams,” “The Chain”) and lesser-known (“Tell Me All the Things You Do”) songs; dissects their romantic rivalries; and traces the destructive effects of the rock and roll lifestyle (Peter Green, who departed in 1970 because of his eroding mental health, was being treated for schizophrenia by the time his former band found superstardom with 1977’s Rumours). It’s a colorful account of a fascinating chapter in rock history.

September 15, 2024
Fleetwood Mac's songs are about many things, but inner turmoil and broken relationships top the list as, through ups and downs, the band members turned their tumultuous personal lives into hit record after hit record. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie gave the band its mellifluous name, then when two female lead singers, the smoky-voiced Christine McVie and the mystical Stevie Nicks, and virtuoso guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, it became magical gold. Blake notes that over the years there have been "at least" four iterations of Fleetwood Mac--the original blues band (with Peter Green); the folksy progressive band in the early 1970s; the megaselling band; and "fluid" incarnations with ever-changing lineups. Based on original interviews and eyewitness accounts, Blake's chronicle charts the band's journeys from London to California, from British blues to West Coast rock while also discussing individual albums and songs. In this fun and eccentric account of an eccentric rock band, Blake helps readers understand how a clash of egos and cultures generated music that survived all the drama and continues to find new fans today.

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September 20, 2024

Fleetwood Mac's history is long and complicated. Over nearly six decades, they endured multiple lineup changes, stylistic left turns, copious consumption of various substances, and romantic entanglements that rival a season of Bridgerton. The songs, however, transcend all of that. Their breezy, blues-based pop and rock band was wildly successful commercially and artistically and still attracts new fans. Blake (Magnifico! The A to Z of Queen) skillfully brings this enormous story together and levels some of the band's worst moments by breaking the story into short, quick-to-read chapters that, in sum, are more like vignettes of the life of the band. The book is a mosaic of band member stories, observations from those who worked with the band, and the debunking of legendary road tales. Blake draws on his own exclusive interviews with Fleetwood Mac band members Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and the late Christine McVie and Peter Green, conducted between 1997 and 2020. Blake adds a human feel overall to these larger-than-life rockers whose deeply personal experiences resulted in some of the biggest hits of the rock era. VERDICT Music lovers and fans of the band will enjoy Blake's fast-paced but comprehensive mosaic biography.--Brett Rohlwing

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