Buckingham Nicks

Before they became universally beloved as members of Fleetwood Mac and solo artists, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks performed together as a duo. Their mix of hooky pop songs, smoothly folky ballads, and winning soft rock made special by Buckingham's guitar wizardry and the blend of their two instantly distinctive vocals was showcased on one album, 1973's Buckingham Nicks. The record went mostly unheard but it gained the pair entry into Fleetwood Mac. Once there, the duo's unique skills combined perfectly with the rest of the group's strengths to form one of the most successful rock bands ever. Buckingham Nicks remained a mystery for decades, as it wasn't officially reissued until Rhino did the honors in 2025.Buckingham and Nicks had met at Menlo Atherton High School in Atherton, California, where Nicks' family had moved after a time living in Los Angeles. Nicks, who had written poetry since childhood, began composing songs at 16, the year she had joined her first band, the Changing Times, whereas Buckingham had been interested in rock & roll -- especially the guitar-based sounds of artists such as Eddie Cochran, the Everly Brothers, and Buddy Holly -- since childhood, and had picked up his first instrument amid his youthful infatuation with the Kingston Trio. Their interest in music and each other pulled them in the same direction, and led Nicks to join Buckingham and some friends in a band called Fritz (originally the Fritz Raybyne Memorial Band, named for a fellow student), where he played guitar and sang and she sang and played a little guitar. The two parted company for a time when her family moved to Chicago, but by the end of the '60s she was back in Northern California studying at San Jose State University and once again singing with Fritz, which was making some headway as an opening act for the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, et al. The group could never quite break through to a recording contract of their own, however, or past opening-act status beyond their local area, and tensions also arose over Nicks becoming the focus of their performances. They lasted long enough to cut some unsuccessful demos for producer Keith Olsen, but broke up in 1971. Buckingham and Nicks stayed together, personally and professionally, however, and cut a group of demo recordings the following year, which they shopped around Los Angeles. Those tracks got them a recording contract with Polydor. Produced by Keith Olsen, the resulting Buckingham Nicks album was a finely polished pop/rock jewel, reflecting all of the influences that had brought Buckingham and Nicks to this point in their lives -- instrumental virtuosity that derived as much from early rock & roll and the folk revival as it did from the subtly smooth California production, and singing that derived as much from the best of the folk-rock boom of the mid-'60s as it did from the AM-radio sensibilities of the era. The album died an absolute death in September of 1973; amid the burgeoning arena rock of the time, and heavy metal, prog rock, and every other sound that was dominating the airwaves, Polygram's promotional staff just didn't know what to do with Buckingham Nicks and its melodic pop/rock sound, rooted in two-part harmony and straightforward, ungimmicky playing and production. The one bright spot was that other musicians who heard it loved it, and the critics who reviewed it felt just about the same way. This wasn't enough to get the record much more than an underground reputation, if that, though the duo did tour briefly to support it. And plans were afoot to make a second album with Olsen, who allowed the couple to move in with him at one point, finances were so desperate. Meanwhile, Buckingham picked up some cash playing in Don Everly's band (the Everly Brothers having finally split up not long before). It looked like the duo would have a long struggle ahead to reach the public, even assuming that they could get the second album -- which was to include songs with the titles "I'm So Afraid," "Monday Morning," and "Rhiannon" -- recorded and promoted properly. That was when fate interceded, from what had to have seemed at the time the most unlikely quarter of the music business, a long established blues-rock band called Fleetwood Mac.As they had been almost perpetually since 1970, when their original three-guitar contingent began splintering, Fleetwood Mac were facing another personnel crisis in the guitar department, and co-founder Mick Fleetwood was in the market for a musician. In that quest, and in preparation for any eventual new recording, he visited Sound City Studios and chanced to hear the song "Frozen Love" from Buckingham Nicks. The guitarist impressed him and he began making inquiries, only to discover that if he wanted Lindsey Buckingham in the band -- and he did -- then he would have to ask Stevie Nicks into the band as well. It took a little discussion and some internal musical calculus to get from one new member to two, but all concerned -- John McVie and Christine McVie, as well as Fleetwood -- felt it was a leap worth taking, based on what they heard and where they thought they could end up. Thus it was that, with an invitation to join extended on New Years Eve of 1974, the best of the planned tracks for a second Buckingham Nicks LP, and Keith Olsen's participation as producer, all got folded into Fleetwood Mac's future along with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The sound and the resulting sales over the next three albums dwarfed the combined previous success of all of the participants -- indeed, dwarfed it all several times over. Throughout the band's tumultuous, decades-long career, the Buckingham Nicks album was never legitimately reissued, though it was bootlegged numerous times. It wasn't until 2025, a point where the two main participants were no longer working together, that the album was reissued and remastered form by Rhino.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo