Original subtitles

I listen to Fleetwood Mac every day

because artists like that unlock the doors of perception.

They connect you to a creative soul.

In terms of being able to do music across a multiplicity of genres,

they're kind of incomparable.

For me, it's the marriage of those tones,

both of the voices but of the instruments.

And what I love about Fleetwood Mac is that no song

is really a show-off song for anyone.

Everyone kind of gets their moment.

They're the perfect example of letting go

and just, just letting your thing flow.

Where it leads, if you let it flow,

is these songs that came out of these different marriages.

Well, Fleetwood Mac were invented by Peter Green,

who was a blues guitarist

and part of the British blues guitar explosion of the time.

A kind of Clapton-y, Yardbirds thing was going on around there,

and he started Fleetwood Mac and it's very much his baby.

Peter Green recruited Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass,

and they were the name - Fleetwood Mac.

They were huge.

At one point they were selling more than the Beatles

and the Rolling Stones combined,

and had a really big hard-core blues following.

Albatross changed that slightly

in that they became slightly more mainstream.

But in doing that, it lost them a lot of those hard-core blues fans,

but it gained them a lot of new fans.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: Albatross

It sounds incredible, even all these years later.

It's just got that classic Americana...

..kind of dream pop, dream-like vibe.

But it also wouldn't feel out of place on kind of...

almost like a '90s chill-out album as well.

To have established a blues fan base

and to then present them with this,

I can't imagine it was well-received by all of their fans.

It certainly would confound expectations.

Certainly, I think, a lot of people would be surprised

if they heard the entire back catalogue.

I used to listen to a lot of kind of rock and roll and punk music,

and there's a Fleetwood Mac song,

I think it's called Somebody's Going to Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight.

That's certainly the kind of, the chorus of the main line.

# Somebody's going to get their head kicked in tonight. #

And I just...

I don't think when I first heard that song

I realised it was Fleetwood Mac that sang it.

Then when I realised it was and it was the same people

that sing, like, Everywhere, I was just like,

"What? That doesn't make sense."

So, yeah, there's lots of surprising gems

in the Fleetwood Mac back catalogue.

We're now going to do our latest single, called Oh Well.

# I can't help about the shape I'm in

# I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin

# But don't ask me what I think of you

# I might not give the answer that you want me to... #

Guitars are the coolest...instrument.

Look at those guys!

Look at them, they're having fun.

They don't care that you're there.

The way he's playing, the way his fingers are, and they look so cool.

# Now, when I talked to God I knew he'd understand

# He said, stick by me and I'll be your guiding hand

# But don't ask me what I think of you

# I might not give the answer that you want me to. #

It was very, erm, intense kind of 12-bar, it has to be 12-bar.

The anorak crowd, the sort of hard-core blues guys were like,

"Oh, you're a sell-out."

And with "Oh Well" as well, they're already losing fans,

haemorrhaging hard-core blues fans.

They lost almost all of their fan base in the UK

and then they lose their main songwriter.

So they don't just lose their crowd, they lose their main guy.

Apparently, two band members, Peter Green being one of them,

had a bad acid trip in Germany, this is the folklore of it.

And after that, Peter Green did not feel right.

So at this point, obviously, Peter Green just needs a really good rest.

So Peter leaves and you still have Mick and John,

Fleetwood and Mac,

who obviously want to continue as a band.

And so you have this kind of almost barren period

where they're not making music, they're constantly searching

and trying out new members.

Then in comes Christine, John's wife,

who comes in on merit

because she's an incredibly accomplished songwriter,

great keyboard player.

Which led to this craziest luck ever with Mick Fleetwood going

into a studio in Los Angeles to check out the studio,

and the producer, like, puts on a reel to show him what he can do,

"This is what I last... This is my latest thing."

Apparently, Mick Fleetwood heard a record by a duo called

Buckingham Nicks, so he asked them out for dinner.

He invited Lindsey Buckingham, the guitarist,

to join Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham said,

"Well, actually, I'm going out with Stevie Nicks,"

who is the other partner in the duo, "We come as a package.

"We don't go anywhere without each other."

So, unbeknownst to Mick Fleetwood,

suddenly he's got Stevie Nicks in the band.

And probably this was a sort of,

"Is she going to work? Is this going to work? What are we going to do?"

But actually, suddenly, the magic happens.

# Have mercy, baby on a poor girl like me

# You know, I'm falling, falling Falling at your feet

# I'm tingling right through my head to my toes

# So help me, help me, help me make the feeling go

# Cos when the loving starts and the lights go down

# And there's not another living soul around

# You woo me until the sun comes up

# And you say that you love me

# Have pity, baby

# Just when I thought it was over

# You got me running, running, running for cover

# I'm begging you for a little sympathy

# And if you use me again it'll be the end of me

# Cos when the loving starts and the lights go down

# There's not another little... # Oh, look at that!

# You woo me until the sun comes up... #

And they're so different voices, as well.

You know, Christine and Stevie's voices are worlds apart.

But together...

..it's so special.

So much of the success of the songwriting has come from

Stevie and Christine. Their talent as performers and musicians,

you know, no arguments there.

But in terms of what went on, in terms of the songwriting,

I don't think they get the credit that they're due for how much

of the success of Fleetwood Mac is due to them.

# Baby, baby, hope you're gonna stay away

# Cos I'm getting weaker, weaker, weaker every day

# I guess I'm not as strong as I used to be

# And if you use me again it'll be the end of me

# Cos when the loving starts and the lights go down

# And there's not another living soul around

# You woo me until the sun comes up

# And you say that you love me

# Yes, when the loving starts and the lights go down

# There's not another living soul around

# You woo me until the sun comes up

# And you say that you love me

# Say that you love me

# Say that you love me. #

Rhiannon is written by Stevie Nicks,

and I really think it's a phenomenal song.

It only reached 46 in the UK charts, I believe,

which is a shockingly low chart position.

In the Rolling Stone magazine vote of the 500 top songs,

it comes in at 488, which I think is a very respectful place

when you think of how many songs there are in the world.

But what I like about this song, Stevie Nicks always introduces it

as being about a Welsh witch.

This is a song about a Welsh witch.

# Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night

# And wouldn't you love to love her?

# She rules her life like a bird in flight

# And who will be her lover?

# All your life you've never seen a woman

# Taken by the wind

# Would you stay if she promised you heaven?

# Will you ever win?

# She is like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness

# She rules her life like a fine skylark

# And when the sky is starless

# Once in a million years a lady like her rises

# Rhiannon... #

At the time, she was very much into Welsh mythology

and was starting to learn about the goddess of horses,

which is very prominent in Welsh folklore.

But it's the way she's written it.

She writes in a stream of consciousness,

which really only Stevie Nicks could do.

She doesn't finish her phrases, so she writes words that fit

the musical phrase more than they fit the sense,

but it works because that's how she writes.

It's ingrained, it's part of her DNA,

she's not faking it.

She's discovered what works for her voice.

# She rings like a bell through the night

# And wouldn't you love to love her?

# She rules her life like a bird in flight

# And who will be her lover?

# Once in a million years a lady like her rises

# Rhiannon, you cry when she's gone and your life knows no answer

# And your life knows no answer. #

Stevie Nicks was the only member of the band

who didn't play an instrument,

so she wrote in a different way to everybody else.

But she has this stage presence.

She's 5'1" and she has that thing of suddenly she's the focal point.

I don't think they predicted the success she would have,

just as being an icon, just as being herself.

Yes, you can't mistake her for anybody else.

# Taken by, taken by the sky

# Taken by, taken by the sky

# Taken by, taken by the sky

# No, ohh. #

Lindsey Buckingham's guitar-playing is so extraordinary,

so ahead of its time.

Creating those sounds without a pick - he was a finger player -

but also strums.

It's just mind-blowing.

John's like, you know, he just stands in the background there

and does his thing brilliantly and is so intrinsically important

to the sound of that band.

John and Mick, you know, those two are the... They're the roots

of Fleetwood Mac, they're the foundations, really,

and the quiet foundations.

Just get on with what they're doing.

The notion of something beautiful

coming out of something so horrendous is Rumours.

This was a band who, the success of the Mac was growing,

they were a hugely popular band.

But as they were becoming more and more successful,

the band were imploding, really.

You know, relationships were breaking down.

Rumours is really a break-up album between Buckingham and Nicks

and also John and Christine,

and Mick Fleetwood was breaking up with his wife in England.

Almost every song is about someone in the band.

And they are playing on, and singing on, songs about each other,

bringing lyrics in at the last minute because they know

the person in the room will know it's about them,

and obviously it's complete chaos

and yet those tensions are the things that make it.

And some of those songs are quite mellifluous

and they're quite soothing and then you realise what they're about -

they're about a band hating each other.

And then to just air that about each other, it's...

It's a lot of tolerance on each side to allow it, you know,

and not throw around tools and just walk out.

# Loving you isn't the right thing to do

# How can I ever change things that I feel?

# If I could, baby I'd give you my world

# How can I when you won't take it from me?

# You can go your own way

# Go your own way

# You can call it another lonely day. #

Stevie Nicks is looking daggers at Lindsey Buckingham because

she wanted a line removed - "packing up, shacking up" -

which is Lindsey Buckingham responding to the shock

of Stevie Nicks leaving him.

# Packing up, shacking up is all you wanna do

# If I could, baby I'd give you my world

# Open up Everything's waiting for you

# You can go your own way

# Go your own way

# You can call it another lonely day

# You can go your own way

# Go your own way

# You can go your own way

# Go your own way

# You can call it another lonely day

# Another lonely day

# You can go your own way

# Go your own way

# You can call it another... #

It's a really brilliantly arranged song.

Backing vocals, for me, are one of the most magical parts

of making a record and Fleetwood Mac are an absolute flag in the sand

for how to do backing vocals and how to sing together as a group.

And the song's got such a beautiful example of those.

# You can call it another lonely day

# Oh, yeah, oh, yeah

# You can call it another lonely day. #

Fleetwood Mac have found their way into my songs.

There's one particular song, Dreams, which was...

A friend of mine had put on a mix tape and the tape got stuck

in the tape player in my first car.

It was the first song on the first side,

so when it went round, when it clicked both sides,

it came back to that again.

And I must have heard that song hundreds and hundreds of times.

I went from loving this song to absolutely hating it,

like really getting on my nerves, to loving it again.

That's never happened before.

It's always - you love it, then you hate it,

then it's, "I'm never going to hear that again."

"Thunder only happens when it's raining,

"raining, raining, raining," and it's probably somehow eked out

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Maybe. Who knows?!

# Now there you go again, you say

# You want your freedom

# Well, who am I to keep you down?

# It's only right that you should play the way you feel it

# But listen carefully to the sound

# Of your loneliness

# Like a heartbeat drives you mad

# In the stillness of remembering what you had

# And what you lost

# And what you had

# Ooh, what you lost

# Thunder only happens when it's raining

# Players only love you when they're playing

# Say women they will come and they go

# When the rain washes you clean you'll know. #

Dreams is a really fascinating song to me because I don't

really understand why I love it so much.

Because it's a groove.

It really comes down to the testament of Stevie Nicks' voice.

And someone else doing it, it could've been really dull.

# Well, here I go again

# I see crystal visions

# I keep my visions to myself

# It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and

# Have you any dreams you'd like to sell? #

Great songs come from below the neck, they come from your gut,

where all these memories and emotional memories are trapped,

and this is where your emotional life is.

It's not up here, it's down here.

And if you're going through really harsh emotional stuff,

it's very easy to go down.

Them going through these crazy relationships

in the making of that record is exactly what makes that record.

# Thunder only happens when it's raining

# Players only love you when they're playing

# Say women they will come and they will go, oh, oh

# When the rain washes you clean you'll know

# Ohh

# Thunder only happens when it's raining

# Players only love you when they're playing

# Well

# Women they will come and they will go

# When the rain washes you clean you'll know. #

So you've got these kind of call and response songs going on

between Stevie and Lindsey, and then on the other side

with John and Christine, Christine's off doing her, you know,

I guess therapy of getting it all out through song.

And she comes back with this brilliantly, kind of bouncy,

breezy song about, you know, tomorrow's just another day.

It's amazing to think that these songs came out of that.

The thing for me is like, is she saying it to herself

or is she saying it to John?

You know, "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow,"

to herself or to John?

Or to the entire band? Let's be fair!

# If you wake up and don't want to smile

# If it takes just a little while

# Open your eyes and look at the day

# You'll see things in a different way

# Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

# Don't stop, it'll soon be here

# It'll be better than before

# Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

# Why not think about the times to come?

# And not about the things that you've done

# If your life was bad to you

# Just think what tomorrow will do

# Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

# Don't stop, it'll soon be here

# It'll be better than before

# Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone. #

Lyrically, it's just a masterclass in really saying

exactly what you're talking about, you're not being that veiled.

But you're saying sometimes quite cliched things

in a way that speaks of something new, that speaks of

something rawer than just a regular cliche.

# All I want is to see you smile

# If it takes just a little while

# I know you don't believe that it's true

# I never meant any harm to you

# Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

# Don't stop

# It'll soon be here

# It'll be better than before

# Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

# Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

# Don't stop, it'll soon be here

# It'll be better than before

# Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

# Ooh

# Don't you look back. #

Before I knew what The Chain was as a song, that bass riff I knew

from watching Formula 1, or my dad watching Formula 1.

And then it was only years later discovering that it was part of

this epic kind of almost opera, from Rumours, The Chain.

It's my favourite Fleetwood Mac song because it's so...

When you hear it for the first time,

it takes you here, there and everywhere,

it's so unexpected as to where it goes.

For me, I think it's one of the best songs ever made.

# Listen to the wind blow

# Watch the sun rise

# Running in the shadows

# Damn your love, damn your lies

# And if you don't love me now

# You will never love me again

# I can still hear you saying

# You would never break the chain

# Never break the chain

# And if you don't love me now

# If you don't love me now

# You will never love me again

# I can still hear you saying

# You would never break the chain