Tag: Lindsey Buckingham

Fleetwood Mac – Say You Love Me

This song was on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album, the first one with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

I know that Rumours is the big album of Fleetwood Mac but I have a special place for the Buckingham and Nicks debut album with the band. For me, it was up there with Rumours. The songs include Monday Morning, Rhiannon, Landslide, Over My Head, World Turning, and this song. It was the tenth album by the band and was released in 1975. I have to admit that I favor it now over Rumours because of the extensive play of that album.

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After Bob Welch left the band in 1974 the band was talking to producer Keith Olsen and he played Mick Fleetwood the Buckingham and Nicks album. Mick liked the guitar player and wanted to hire him to take Welch’s place. Buckingham would not join unless they took Stevie Nicks…which they did.

This album had 3 top twenty hits (Say That You Love Me, Rhiannon, and Over My Head) and songs like Landslide and Monday Morning that remained favorites by fans. Say That You Love me peaked at #11 on The Billboard 100, #29 in Canada, and #40 in the UK.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #23 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand. Christine McVie wrote this song and personally, besides Buckingham…she is my favorite singer/songwriter in the band.

From Wiki:  Shirley Eikhard covered “Say You Love Me” and released it as single several weeks in advance of Fleetwood Mac in early June 1976. Eikhard’s version became a Canadian top 40, peaking at No. 34; Fleetwood Mac’s version, released only a few weeks later, peaked at No. 29 in September. That version is below.

Say That You Love Me

Have mercy baby,On a poor girl like me,You know I’m falling falling,Falling at your feet.

I’m tingling right,From my head to my toes,So help me help me,Help me make the feeling grow.

‘Cause when the loving starts and the lights go down,And there’s not another living soul around,You woo me until the sun comes up,And you say that you love me.

Pity, baby, just,When I thought it was over,And now you got me runnin’, runnin’,Runnin’ for cover.

I’m begging you for, a bit ofSympathy,If you use me again,It’ll be the end of me.

‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down,And there’s not another living soul around,You woo me until the sun comes up,And you say that you love me.

Baby, baby hope,You’re gonna stay away,‘Cause I’m getting weaker,Weaker every day.

I guess I’m not as strong,As I used to be,If you use me again,It’ll be the end of me.

‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down,And there’s not another living soul around,You woo me until the sun comes up,And you say that you love me.

‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down,And there’s not another living soul around,You woo me until the sun comes up,And you say that you love me.

Say that you love me,Say that you love me,Say that you love me.

Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’.

Warren Zevon – Poor Poor Pitiful Me

I love this song. Not many songs deal with a failed suicide, domestic abuse, and a brush with sadomasochism. I’m a huge Warren Zevon fan. His songs tend to be on the dark side…and anyone who has listened to Excitable Boy will testify to that.

When I heard Zevon’s version of this song for the first time I was sold. I first heard the Linda Ronstadt version and I loved it. I’m a Linda Ronstadt fan but something about Zevon’s version draws me in. It’s raw and crude and I love the way he sings it.

Zevon wrote and recorded the song and it appeared on his self-titled album in 1976. It became a hit when Linda Ronstadt covered it the next year. She cleaned up the song a little. Ronstadt’s cover was a cleaned-up version with the gender reversed. Still, her character fails at suicide, but the S&M (sadomasochism) references are gone.

Like other Zevon songs this is a pretty crude and risqué song. His character is such a disaster that he can’t even kill himself: he puts his head on the railroad tracks, but the train doesn’t run anymore.

I met a girl at the rainbow bar
She asked me if I’d beat her
She took me back to the hired house
I don’t wanna talk about it, hut

It’s thought that the song was a friendly swipe at Jackson Browne, whose songs such as “Here Come Those Tears Again” and “Sleep’s Dark and Silent Gate” from The Pretender could be quite dark. The album was produced by Jackson Browne and had backing vocals by Lindsey Buckingham.

Another hit cover version of the song was recorded by Canadian country singer Terri Clark in 1996. It peaked at #1 in the Canadian Country Charts and #5 in the Billboard Country Charts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TbfQPRgcS8

Poor Poor Pitiful Me

I lay my head on the railroad tracks
I’m waiting on the double E
The railroad don’t run no more
Poor poor pitiful me

Poor poor pitiful me and poor poor pitiful me
These young girls won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me, woe is me

Well I met a girl in West Hollywood
Well I ain’t naming names
But she really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James

She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender
She put me through some changes Lord
Sort of like a waring blender

Poor poor pitiful me, poor poor pitiful me
These young girls won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me, woe is me

Poor poor pitiful me and poor poor pitiful me
Oh these girls won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me, woe is me

I met a girl at the rainbow bar
She asked me if I’d beat her
She took me back to the hired house
I don’t wanna talk about it, hut

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Hut, never mind
Poor poor pitiful me
Yeah poor poor pitiful me

Lindsey Buckingham – Holiday Road

I found out long ago
It’s a long way down the holiday road

This song is super likable…when I hear it..it makes me want to see Vacation…again. It’s hard to believe this wasn’t a larger hit.

This is a great road song, Lindsey Buckingham wrote “Holiday Road” for the 1983 Chevy Chase movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, where it plays over the opening credits.

This song was used in all of the Vacation sequels… National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), Vegas Vacation (1997) and Vacation (2015). In 2015 movie, three different versions are used: the original, and a cover by Matt Pond, and a version by The Zac Brown Band.

The song peaked at #82 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.

Lindsey Buckingham: Obviously, I knew it had to be somewhat uplifting and a little bit funny, which it is, but somehow we nailed it beyond his expectations certainly. He was like, “Holy crap.” A lot of that was just luck. Then when I got asked to do the title song for Ghostbusters, I said, “Nah, you know, I did this really well once. It’s not something I want to get into as a repetitive part of my identity.” 

From Songfacts

National Lampoon’s Vacation follows the misadventures of the Griswold family as they set out from Illinois to California in the trusty station wagon en route to Wally World. The film did very well, helping to popularize this song.

In his work with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist, Buckingham wrote songs of depth and meaning. “Holiday Road” allowed him to step outside of these constraints to compose a simple, jaunty song with no relation to his other work. He kept it simple; the chorus is simply the words “holiday road” repeated four times, and the verses are very basic:

I found out long ago
It’s a long way down the holiday road

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Take a ride on the West Coast kick


I found out long ago
It’s a long way down the holiday road

Buckingham could come off as serene (as he was portrayed on Saturday Night Live), but this song showed he had a healthy sense of humor.

Fleetwood Mac was on hiatus when Buckingham released this song. He had already released one solo album, Law and Order (1981), which contains the #9 hit “Trouble.” His next album, Go Insane, was released in 1984 with a title track that reached #23. But ask just about anyone to name one of his solo songs, and they will likely recall “Holiday Road,” which thanks to the Vacation movies became his most popular song.

In 2015, this was used in a commercial for the Infinity QX60 that spoofs a scene where Chevy Chase ogles Christie Brinkley who drives past him in a convertible. In the spot, Brinkley is a passenger in the family car, and she chastises her husband for checking out a girl who drives past him. “Honey, a blonde in a convertible, seriously?,” she says.

Holiday Road

I found out long ago
It’s a long way down the holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Take a ride on the West Coast kick
Holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road

I found out long ago
It’s a long way down the holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road

Fleetwood Mac – Second Hand News

One of my favorites off of the band’s most successful album Rumors.

Second Hand News” was written by Fleetwood Mac frontman Lindsey Buckingham. The turmoil making this album would have made a thrilling TV movie or soap opera…take your pick.

This song was originally an acoustic demo titled “Strummer.” But when Buckingham heard the Bee Gees’ “Jive Talkin’,” he rearranged it with more audio tracks and the rhythmic effect from “playing” the faux-leather seat of a studio chair to make it evoke a slightly Celtic feel.

On recording Rumors…Stevie Nicks: “It lasted thirteen months and it took every bit of inner strength we had. It was very hard on us, like being a hostage in Iran, and to an extent, Lindsay was the Ayatollah.”

It was not released as a single but could have been…the album peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1977.

From Songfacts

 It is the first track on the Rumours album – the most successful album of Fleetwood Mac’s career with sales of over 40 million worldwide, going 19x platinum in the US and 10x platinum in the UK. The band’s original drummer Mick Fleetwood calls it the most important album they ever made.

Like many of the songs on the Rumours album, this one shows a darker side in the lyrics. It’s asking you to move on, leave the singer alone. Fleetwood Mac was experiencing the shatter of all of their emotional ties with not one, not two, but three break-ups! That was the divorce of the McVies, Buckingham and Stevie Nicks breaking up, and Fleetwood going through a divorce from his wife.

In Frank Moriarty’s book Seventies Rock: The Decade of Creative Chaos, Stevie Nicks is quoted from a Creem interview in July 1977, explaining the acrid lyrics: “We were all trying to break up and when you break up with someone you don’t want to see him. You especially don’t want to eat breakfast with him the next morning, see him all day and all night, and all day the day after…”

In Bill Martin’s Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork, while meditating on the dichotomy between Yuppies and Yippies of the ’60s/’70s, the author states: “If I had to pick the ultimate musical document of AOR [Adult-Oriented Rock]/Yuppie rock, it would probably be the 1977 album by Fleetwood Mac, Rumours.” Well, take that!

Second Hand News

I know there’s nothing to say
Someone has taken my place
When times go bad
When times go rough
Won’t you lay me down in tall grass
And let me do my stuff

I know I got nothin’ on you
I know there’s nothing to do
When times go bad
And you can’t get enough
Won’t you lay me down in the tall grass
And let me do my stuff

One thing I think you should know
I ain’t gonna miss you when you go
Been down so long
I’ve been tossed around enough
Awh couldn’t you just
Let me go down and do my stuff

I know you’re hopin’ to find
Someone who’s gonna give you piece of mind
When times go bad
When times go rough
Won’t you lay me down in tall grass
And let me do my stuff

I’m just second hand news
I’m just second hand news yeah
I’m just second hand news
I’m just second hand news yeah
I’m just second hand news
I’m just second hand news yeah
I’m just second hand news
I’m just second hand news yeah, yeah
Yeah

Fleetwood Mac – Never Going Back Again

This song was a B side of “Don’t Stop” with both songs coming on the great album Rumors. This is a nice short acoustic Lindsey Buckingham written song. It’s a very understated but powerful song compared with the other ones on the album and one of my favorites.

Lindsey is a great guitar player. He is not flashy but he plays just what is needed like the sustained solo in “Go Your Own Way.” This song is what made me start listening to his playing.

from Rolling Stone Magazine: In the studio, co-producer Ken Caillat asked Buckingham to restring his guitar every 20 minutes. “I wanted to get the best sound on every one of his picking parts,” Caillat said. “I’m sure the roadies wanted to kill me. Restringing the guitar three times every hour was a bitch. But Lindsey had lots of parts on the song, and each one sounded magnificent.”

From Songfacts

According to Q magazine, June 2009 the inspiration for this Lindsey Buckingham penned song was a brief relationship with a woman whom he’d met on the road. Buckingham had only recently broken up with his Fleetwood Mac co-singer Stevie Nicks.

Most of the Rumours album was recorded at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, but this song was recorded at Studio City Sound Recording Studios in Los Angeles. According to recording assistant Cris Morris, this song took a while to record. Said Morris: “It was Lindsey’s pet project, just two guitar tracks but he did it over and over again. In the end his vocal didn’t quite match the guitar tracks so we had to slow them down a little.”

Never Going Back Again

She broke down and let me in
Made me see where I’ve been

Been down one time
Been down two times
I’m never going back again

You don’t know what it means to win
Come down and see me again

Been down one time
Been down two times
I’m never going back again

Lindsey Buckingham – Trouble

This song was released in 1981 and I bought the single. It peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #31 in the UK, #7 in Canada. The song was off of Lindsey’s debut album “Law and Order.

The song is in the movie  Just One of the Guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO1sQPs3U8k&ab_channel=AORHeaven2

Trouble

Two, ah-three, ah-four!
Two, ah-three, ah-four!
Two, ah-three, ah-four!
I really should be saying goodnight.
I really shouldn’t stay anymore.
It’s been so long since I held ya.
I’ve forgotten what love is for.
I should run on the double 
I think I’m in trouble,
I think I’m in trouble.
So come to me darlin’ and hold me
Let your honey keep you warm
Been so long since I held ya
I’ve forgotten what love is for.
I should run on the double
I think I’m in trouble.