In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: “White Album”

  • 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

  • Beatles- White Album pt1- Paul McCartney, the late George Harrison

    Beatles- White Album pt1- Paul McCartney, the late George Harrison

    How can the 1968 album The Beatles accomplish so much by embedding itself  indelibly in popular culture, continuing to influence generations more than a half century after release, while on the surface revealing so little about its contents and its creators?

    At the time of its November 22, 1968 release officially named simply The Beatles,   it was their first double album and the first following the sudden death of their manager since the lowly Liverpool days, Brian Epstein. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had served notice to the world a year earlier of The Beatles’ pre-eminence with the ground-breaking Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , but where that effort had presentd a unified creative panorama of the Beatles’ seemingly unlimited musical scope, the “White Album” barely fifteen months later would find the musical boundaries of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  obliterated, with the three songwriters Lennon, McCartney, and an increasingly emerging Harrison peeling off in opposite directions. ( George Harrison (l) with Paul McCartney (r) at Abbey Road studios 1968 )

    We had no way of knowing that the unparalleled intensity of world-wide fame, the sudden death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and the complexities of adult romantic relationships  had all conspired to fracture the internal unity of the band so that their only double album was, in effect, the first Beatles solo albums. In part one, Paul McCartney gives a frank glimpse into what quickly became known as “The White Album” with details on John Lennon’s “Dear Prudence”,”Happiness is a Warm Gun”,”Julia”, and “Glass Onion” plus Paul’s “Ob La Di”,”Martha My Dear”,”Rocky Raccoon”, “Blackbird”,”Back in the USSR”, and comments on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and the unreleased acoustic demo of it with the extra verse from the late George Harrison. – Redbeard

    BEATLES-white-album-recording-session-385x260

    (From far left: producer George Martin, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon at Abbey Road Studio #2 Summer 1968)

  • Paul McCartney- Blackbird January 1991

    Paul McCartney- Blackbird January 1991

    This may have been one of the MTV Unplugged  series highlights, a live loose acoustic performance by the former Beatle and Wings leader in early 1991 with a crack band of veterans, including Robbie McIntosh on lead guitar (ex-Pretenders) and Hamish Stewart (together with McIntosh they led the Average White Band to the top of the charts in the mid-’70s ); Paul Wickens on various instruments; the late Linda McCartney on keyboards; and from Memphis, another ex-Pretender Blair Cunningham on percussion.

    The original performance was mastered anemically and wasn’t among the four live reissues  recently either, so I remastered this charming performance of “Blackbird” which Paul originally put on the Beatles White Album .- Redbeard

  • 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