Last night, I ventured to the Cabot Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts where my friend Breanna Edwards and I saw Tusk, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, perform.
Tusk is well-suited to their task. Lead singer Kathy Phillips embodies Stevie Nicks while guitarist Scott McDonald and keyboard player Kim Williams sound like Lindsey Buckingham and the late Christine McVie, respectively.
As one might expect Tusk exclusively covers Fleetwood Mac’s peak years of commercial success. More than half the songs they played were off Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977), respectively. Additional material came from Tusk (1979), Mirage (1982) and Tango in the Night (1987) as well as Nicks’ 1981 solo album Bella Donna.
There is no question that songs like “The Chain”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, “Rhiannon”, “Say You Love Me” and “Go Your Own Way” are part of the 1970s rock lexicon, Fleetwood Mac had a significant catalogue before Buckingham and Nicks joined the group in 1974.
Fleetwood Mac was founded in 1967 by Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Bob Brunning, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. They would soon be joined by the likes of Christine Perfect (the future Christine McVie), Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch. They began as a blues outfit who gradually evolved to melodic folk-rock with the departures of Green and Spencer.
Instead of playing “Rapper’s Delight” why not spotlight Green’s instrumental “Albatross”? Or rather than go on a prolonged drum solo why couldn’t we have been treated to an early Christine McVie tune like “Show Me a Smile” from their 1971 album Future Games?
I don’t want to come off like I’m knocking Tusk because they are great interpreters of Fleetwood Mac’s best known music. Perhaps what is needed is a Fleetwood Mac tribute group devoted to its early years between 1967 and 1974. Such a group could be called “Albatross: The Early Years of Fleetwood Mac”. I think there is a lot of fertile ground to cover.
Following the show, I played Breanna several early Fleetwood Mac songs - the aforementioned “Albatross” and “Show Me a Smile” as well as their 1969 single “Man of the World” penned by Green and my favorite Fleetwood Mac song of all “Woman of 1000 Years” written by Danny Kirwan. Breanna was taken with the melodic mellow tone of these songs. I am grateful that Breanna asked me to join her not only to spend some time together but to show her there’s more to Fleetwood Mac than “Rumours”.
No comments:
Post a Comment