Chasing the long tail of new media
Album: Mirage
Year: 1982
Coming on the heels of Stevie Nicks burgeoning solo career, the tepid Mirage was the album where the magic ran out.
After three albums where they sloughed off charges of being a soft-rock band with tough guitar and weird experiments, Mirage was something no Fleetwood Mac album of that era had ever been before: boring. That said, they did get one last great single out of it, the etherial “Hold Me.”
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #454: Fleetwood Mac – “Hold Me”
Album: Tusk
1979
It goes directly to the massive commercial power of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1970s that this weird, experimental song crashed the top ten, and even more impressive that they could have made the more conventional “Sara” or “Think About Me” the all-important lead single from the follow-up to Rumours.
But no, they went with fucking “Tusk,” which not only didn’t sound like previous Fleetwood Mac songs, it didn’t really sound like anything else, period.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #453: Fleetwood Mac – “Tusk”
Album: Tusk
Year: 1979
While it took me a couple of years to buy Tusk — I didn’t get it until late 1981 — it was also the first Fleetwood Mac album I actually purchased, as there was literally no reason even then to purchase its hugely popular predecessor.
But Tusk was different. Tusk had the reputation of being a commercial failure — despite going double platinum — for the most honorable reason: experimental weirdness.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #452: Fleetwood Mac – “That’s All For Everyone”
Album: Rumours
Year: 1977
The last of the monumental singles from Rumours that utterly dominated radio in 1977, “You Make Loving Fun” is probably the most unconventional of them all.
It’s also the song that perfectly tracks how I went from viewing Rumours as a major annoyance (outside of “Go Your Own Way”) to viewing it as a major classic. Well, this and “Dreams,” which finally wore me down when Whiskeytown covered it.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #451: Fleetwood Mac – “You Make Loving Fun”
Album: Rumours
Year: 1977
Oh man, I love this song. I’ve always loved this song. And I will always love this song.
There is literally nothing else on the planet like “Go Your Own Way,” and no matter how many times I’ve heard it — and, seriously, folks, it’s one of the songs I’ve listened to the most in my life, voluntarily and otherwise — I’ve never even remotely gotten sick of it.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #450: Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
This month, in honor of St. Hallmark’s Valentine’s day, it’s a special theme version of Musical Moments To Die For.
Love songs! Nothing but love songs!
Well, that’s not exactly right: not so much love songs, but songs about love, which is a totally different head. Totally.
However, just because I’ve applied a theme to this month’s post, it isn’t meant to be a definitive list of greatest songs about love or anything like that. It just happens that all of the songs this month are about it, that’s all. Which means, not uncoincidentally, a lot of these songs were huge hit singles or are incredibly familiar or obvious. Which, of course, doesn’t make them any less to die for.
This is the seventh in a series: The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22, the fifth one had 21, and the sixth had 20.