It Was 40 Years Ago Today...

Bdp,

I'm basically a cult band guy, too. Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, Feelies, Bongos, Matthew Sweet, Kid Creole, Rebirth Brass Band, James Booker, Don Dixon/Marti Jones, etc, etc. Some have had their brief moments on the charts, but as a whole, this isn't a big-time record selling crowd.

However, Todd Rundgren has sold a ton of record and he's an A-list guy for me. My absolute favorite band is Fleetwood Mac and they have sold a billion records. So, I'm familiar with the conundrum you mention.

In my book, ABBA is great fun. I just took my wife and 10 year old daughter to see Mama Mia and we all loved the music. These songs may not break a lot of new ground, but they are absolute brain worms. I'd call it pop music within a rock n roll rhythmic scheme rather than straight-up rock n roll, but I'd say the same thing about The Beatles' music.

BTW, that's not some kind of veiled criticism of The Beatles (whom I regard as pop masters of the highest order). It's more a function of how I have heard the art form evolve over time vs how others have heard it's evolution. In a sense, anyone who is inclined to make sub-genre distinctions within the broader range of pop (or rock or country or funk, etc) music of the last 50ish years, does so by listening in inverse chronological order and seeing patterns. However, the significance of those patterns will differ to each of us.

You mentioned your narrow definition of "pure" rock n roll in an earlier post and I have mine, too. It's a bit different than yours, but - in the end - neither matters too much. Pop music genres cross-breed with each other. The results can be parsed in a bunch of different (but still valid) ways. I have a particular love for my brand of "pure" rock n roll (the songs of Chuck Berry would be a good short-hand definition), but I'll consume pretty much any music that works on its own terms.

I continue to enjoy your posts and the interesting take on this subject.

Marty

Note Bene: Have you ever heard the ABBA live album? It's a two record set that includes a rocked-up version of "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" that's a must hear for rocking' ABBA fans.

Fleetwood Mac was interesting until the bubblegum team of buckingham/nicks era.

They were more than interesting--they were an amazing blues-infused rock band. You can still hear echoes of them today in certain tunes by Los Lobos and ZZ Top.

Agreed.
I used "interesting" in comparison to the current iteration which is basically a top 40 band. FM, in all make ups, was fabulous prior to buckingham/nicks.
Thanks

In my book, Fleetwood Mac has produced some great music in every configuration. The purest straight-up pop (or bubblegum, if you prefer) tends to come from Christine MacVie, rather than Buckingham or Nicks and was present in the band's catalog prior to Buckingham or Nicks joining on. Check out the track "Homeward Bound " on Bare Trees for one good example.

For me, the most aggressive hard rock to come out of the Mac is 100% Buckingham. From the album Tusk, which included several Buckingham tracks that are essentially punk to their latest studio release, "Say You Will" which features the screaming electric guitar workout "Come", Buckingham rocks more ferociously than Peter Green or Danny Kirwan ever did. Even hit songs like "The Chain" and "Go Your Own Way" feature extended rock n roll passages.

I'm a huge Peter Green fan and believe that Danny Kirwan is a criminally underrated guitarist and songwriter. Later Fleetwood Mac guitarists like Bob Welch, Dave Mason, and Rick Vito add up to an over time guitar line-up that I prefer to all others, all due respect to The Allmans, Mothers, etc. Among that lot, Buckingham's my choice, but that's obviously a matter of personal taste.

Catchy pop songs are a big part of the overall Fleetwood Mac experience, but so are the blues rock of Green and Kirwan, the guitar driven pop of Bob Welch, the spacey mid tempo pop and intensely personal singer-songwriter material from Stevie Nicks, and the everything including the kitchen sink from Buckingham.

The notion that Buckingham and Nicks transformed Fleetwood Mac from a blues rock band into a pop band ignores an extended period in between the departure of Green and the arrival of Buckingham and Nicks. It also ignores a ton of great material they've done thereafter. Obviously everyone's entitled to an opinion, but characterizing Buckingham Nicks period Fleetwoood Mac as "bubblegum" says more about the individual doing the characterizing than it does about the music.