In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: Bob Welch

  • Fleetwood Mac- White Album 50th- Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood

    Fleetwood Mac- White Album 50th- Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood

    After Bob Welch left Fleetwood Mac, his first solo album in the Fall 1975 came and went in about 15 minutes, not unlike the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album, which was the sole recorded output of Welch’s replacements, singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer/songwriter Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks. So on balance I didn’t see how this major change could do anything except diminish Fleetwood Mac.
    Boy, was I wrong! That 1975 Fleetwood Mac album sold over twenty times as many copies as any previous Fleetwood Mac album. But the unsung hero is actually producer/recording engineer Keith Olsen, who had produced and recorded the Buckingham Nicks album, imparting a fat, warm, upfront sound to their music. It was in that context that bandleader Mick Fleetwood first noticed Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar playing and singing abilities, but at the time it was Keith Olsen’s studio and recording techniques that Mick was auditioning, not the musicians. When Fleetwood fell in love with the sound that he heard, he wisely decided to embrace all of it – the musicians Buckingham and Nicks, the producer Keith Olsen, the Sound City studio – and incorporate it all into the next Fleetwood Mac album, which featured “Monday Morning”,”Over My Head”,”Say You Love Me”,”Rhiannon”,”Crystal”, and “Landslide”. Not only did that decision change the fortunes of all involved, it would also change the sound of contemporary music for years to follow. Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, and former member Lindsey Buckingham all share their recollections with me in great detail in this classic rock interview In the Studio on the golden anniversary of Fleetwood Mac’s “White Album”. –Redbeard

  • Fleetwood Mac- Hypnotized- Sausalito 12-15-74

    Fleetwood Mac- Hypnotized- Sausalito 12-15-74

    (Talk about “lean years”: from left, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Bob Welch, Christine McVie )

    After the London-based blues band Fleetwood Mac emigrated to California, they added singer/songwriter /guitarist Bob Welch. Drummer Mick Fleetwood, bass guitarist John McVie , and Mac’s singing/ songwriting/ keyboard playing wife Christine not only had their  passports stamped, Welch provided a highly significant bridge melodically and stylistically between Fleetwood Mac’s uncompromising blues repertoire of original guitarist Peter Green and the next era a year later, when two unknown Californians would replace Welch with phenomenal results. But legendary progressive rock station KSAN-FM in San Francisco and format godfather Tom Donahue set up a live-in-the-studio broadcast from Bay Area studio The Record Plant in Sausalito fifty years ago, with the late Bob Welch singing the sublime “Hypnotized”originally on the Fleetwood Mac studio album A Mystery to Me. –Redbeard

     

  • Fleetwood Mac- Spare Me a Little- Record Plant Sausalito 12-74

    Fleetwood Mac- Spare Me a Little- Record Plant Sausalito 12-74

    I can admit now that, not until she was officially credited on Future Games and Bare Trees, were we sure that the singer of “Spare Me a Little” was female! Simply astounding that the late Christine (Perfect) McVie was lending her songwriting, distinctive voice, organ, and piano sound to Fleetwood Mac here, and continued over almost forty of the next fifty years. Christine died in late November at age 79. –Redbeard

    Above L-R  John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, the late Bob Welch & Christine McVie.

  • Fleetwood Mac- Rumours- Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham

    Fleetwood Mac- Rumours- Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham

    When assembling your album shortlist for that Seventies time capsule, better reserve space for the February 1977 release Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. And you can measure its merit any way you choose: quality of songs; sheer number of quality songs; stellar sound production,; musicianship; awards, sales. Holy cow, the worldwide sales are estimated now at 45,000,000 copies!!! Rumours was like a Fleetwood Mac greatest hits album unto itself, with “Second Hand News”,”Dreams”,”Never Going Back Again”,”Don’t Stop”,”Go Your Own Way”…and that’s just side one. Band co-founder Mick Fleetwood, chanteuse Stevie Nicks, and prodigal picker Lindsey Buckingham all join me here In the Studio  for  Fleetwood Mac Rumours.

    When California musical duo (and lovers) Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks  joined British blues-rock veteran band Fleetwood Mac, their first collaboration in 1975 (their “white album” ) sold more copies than any previous album in the long history of their label. No one was in any way prepared for this new line-up’s stunning initial success, so you can imagine the in-house anticipation for Fleetwood Mac’s next effort.
    They had to wait a full year for it, however, as four of the five members were breaking up literally in the studio while Rumours   was being recorded. Fleetwood Mac co-founder drummer Mick Fleetwood joins Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks with me In The Studio for one of history’s most popular albums ever at an estimated forty million sold worldwide, an album that Rolling Stone magazine ranks at #25 on their Top 500 All Time list. Thanks to band co-founder Mick Fleetwood himself for providing some musical mirth to perilous times here with how rock’n’roll can adjust to social distancing. “I’d rather be six feet apart than six feet under.” –Redbeard