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Fleetwood Mac · S3 E2
A Package Deal
Mick wants Lindsey. Lindsey says Stevie comes too or neither of them does. The band agrees
January 1975, a rehearsal space in Los Angeles. Lindsey Buckingham counts off the first song, Christine McVie hits a piano chord, and within four bars Mick Fleetwood is grinning behind his drum kit.
Fleetwood Mac, "World Turning" (1975). A raw, driving jam co-written by Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham that captures the energy of five people discovering what they sound like together.
The Condition
Mick Fleetwood agrees to the package deal without hesitating. He has never heard Stevie Nicks sing, has no idea what she looks like, and does not care. He needs a guitarist, and if the guitarist says the girl comes too, the girl comes too.
“I knew I was the extra. Nobody called me and said, "We want you in the band." They wanted Lindsey, and Lindsey wanted me. There's a big difference.”
— Stevie Nicks, interview with Rolling Stone, 1981
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Christine McVie react to having another woman join the band?
World Turning
McVie and Buckingham wrote this together, which tells you everything about how quickly the chemistry took hold. The track is built on a churning, repetitive riff that lets Fleetwood's drums and John McVie's bass lock into a groove while Buckingham's guitar slashes across the top. Nicks and Christine trade vocals, weaving in and out of each other like they have been doing it for years. In the live version, Mick Fleetwood turns the middle section into a ten-minute drum solo. It is the loosest, most spontaneous thing on the album, and it sounds like five people who cannot believe their luck.
Bonus Listening
"Warm Ways", a Christine McVie ballad from the self-titled album so intimate it sounds like a private conversation. While the world was discovering Stevie Nicks, Christine was quietly writing the most tender song on the record. It never became a single, never got radio play, and remains one of the best-kept secrets in the Fleetwood Mac catalog.
Warm Ways, Fleetwood Mac (1975)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Christine at her most intimate, writing words so private they sound like they were never meant to be heard by anyone else.
Why did Mick Fleetwood agree to include Stevie Nicks in the band?
The lineup is set, the chemistry is undeniable, and the studio is booked. Next: five strangers learning to be a band, and the first recordings that prove Mick Fleetwood's gamble was the best decision he ever made.
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