You Make Polling Fun: FLEETWOOD MAC POLL RESULTS, ILM Artist Poll #22

I feel sort of bad for not having voted for "Family Man" or "Caroline"--two "lesser" TITN tracks that I think rule.

In what way was Rumours not a somewhat safe follow-up to the self-titled? I'm not trying to be dense; I've really just always seen those two records as companion pieces.

to my ears there's a sense in which the eponymous debut betrays its origins by sounding like a bunch of pop songs with generic I/you pronouns that coheres thanks to expert playing ("Rhiannon" def not though). I guess "Go Your Own Way" is a more urgent, structurally inventive take on "Blue Letter" and "Songbird" a more despairing "Warm Ways."

what I love most about the eponymous album is how the songs have an audible joy -- a bunch of people realizing that not only do they like each other, but they make SHIT HOT music together. That's how "Monday Morning" sounds; it LEAPS off the turntable.

Yes, exactly! I love the way the s/t feels. It's lesser songs are better than Rumours's lesser songs, I think, and I enjoy listening to it more (and do listen to it more frequently as well).

In any case, Rumours wasn't made with commercial appeal as a primary objective, which makes its massive popularity all the more ironic. Certainly demonstrates that sometimes the best way to sell a gazillion records is to just make music that reflects what you're feeling.

In what way was Rumours not a somewhat safe follow-up to the self-titled? I'm not trying to be dense; I've really just always seen those two records as companion pieces.

I have too, and yet, there's a definite feeling of yin/yang between those two as well. The first one was made when all the band members were getting along and there were two couples amongst them; the second was made by a tense band after everyone had broken up.

I'm trying to avoid biographical criticism though

3rd Place: Fleetwood Mac (1975) - 90 points, 16 votes, 0 number one votes

http://www.fotos.org/galeria/data/897/Fleetwood-Mac-Fleetwood-Mac-Del-1975-Delantera.jpg

I'm too lazy to look at the ballots right this second, but did anyone except for me put the s/t above Rumours? Alfred really nailed it above... Can you imagine being Mick and John, having been through so many lineup changes, bringing in these two young cute kids from California, and then starting to write and play shit like THIS? I can't imagine how exciting and electrifying that must have been...

I love the tiny spaceship on the cover of Tango.

wow zero #1 votes! This was once my favorite.

I knew which two albums would be the top two, but have no clue which will be #1. Most ppl would put Rumours there instinctively, but i know how much ILM loves Tusk

Sorry, that inane comment about the spaceship was me, not Clarke B. Apparently he was logged in on my computer. This sort of thing causes other problems in our lives too, like when my Spotify history says that I was listening to Darkthrone albums at 2 in the morning because he was using my computer to do so.

Clarke B.s...can't live with them, can't live without them.

Remember, they tied in this poll: Fleetwood Mac - best album (a poll)

2nd Place: Rumours (1977) - 154 points, 19 votes, 8 number one votes

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/FMacRumours.PNG

1st Place: Tusk (1979) - 155 points, 19 votes, 10 number one votes

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Fleetwood_Mac_-_Tusk.jpg

ONE POINT SEPARATING THE TWO!

lool

i should have done an albums ballot, rumours would have been #1!

of course

ha. i foresee the upper reaches of the tracks being ridiculously close too.

that old poll has over a hundred votes and only one for the self-titled! poor fleetwood mac, always the bridesmaid.

despite the revisionism Rumours is still the better record

Only half of the submitters of ballots did the optional albums list; I should've made it mandatory!

Tusk showed up on my album ballot, yet I did not include one track from it on my track ballot. The songs are all good, but none of them individually give me chills like many of their others do. I guess it just makes more sense to me as a coherent...well, "coherent" is maybe not the word for this collection of Lindsay's various manias...as a solid listen rather than a source of individual songs.

I put Tusk in as my #5, but could've just as easily chosen 3 or 4 other albums (in fact I should've, because I think we all knew Tusk was either going to be #1 or #2 in these results).

whew, that's a relief. genuinely excited for this roll-out.

Same here! It's hard to wait until tomorrow morning (NYC time)... So, there was no love in the albums voting for Mr. Wonderful, Penguin, or Heroes Are Hard To Find (as far as studio recordings go). Isn't Penguin generally regarded as their worst record (of the '60s/'70s/'80s)? I own it but I honestly don't think I've played it more than twice.

I voted for a track from Penguin, but the album's only just ok.

I thought until the nineties Heroes Are Hard To Find was the worst (I haven't heard it).

I have that too and it's the same story--maybe played it twice... Nothing stuck.

lol I also voted for a track from that one. Opening tracks of each, actually.

Kiln House wuz robbed! I should've voted gosh darnit

Heroes > Penguin. Although I don't care much for the latter, I do kinda like "The Derelict" which is a real oddball of the Mac catalog, a rare Dave Walker song with a strong countrified flavor that sounds like nothing else they ever recorded.

gageking67 14 days ago

Dave Walker should have stuck around. Penguin was the best album the Mac ever put out...

Good morning! (Or afternoon... Or, if you're in Australia--God knows.) Last night was the second night out of the past three nights I've had a Fleetwood Mac-related dream. The top 60 rollout will begin in about half an hour or so...

You're not going to tell us what it was?

Ha, well, it was fairly pedestrian... I was holding down a job in a fast-food restaurant that was inexplicably linked to a record store by way of a short hallway. For some reason, I was sitting down at a desk while assembling sandwiches, but because I was a beginner I wasn't working very quickly and I was feeling frustrated. Boredom overcame me and I ducked over to the record store. I remember seeing Point of Entry by Judas Priest, and several Smashing Pumpkins records that don't actually exist (I wish I remembered the titles). But there was also a treasure trove of old Fleetwood Mac 45s in a section called "ROCKPILE"... Before I could browse heavily or buy anything, though, I felt a nagging sense of duty and slinked back to my desk to make sandwiches.

hahaha what a great dream

I was hoping it involved being chased by that penguin...

Ha, there's always tonight! Well, let's go ahead and start things off:

#60: "Sands of Time" (Danny Kirwan, 1971)

http://static-l3.blogcritics.org/11/01/18/151809/Kirwan-1.jpg

Track link: http://youtu.be/gByiKYa72HU

Tell me that spidery intro isn't a happier, more well adjusted cousin of the main riff in "Poptones" by Public Image Ltd...

Ah, and this time with the vital stats:

#60: "Sands of Time" (Danny Kirwan, 1971) - 57 points, 3 votes

Good start!

wow unexpected Future Games tracks right off the bat!

#59: "Dragonfly" (Danny Kirwan, 1971) - 62 points, 3 votes

http://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/FleetwoodMac/SdragonflyDU.jpg

Track link: http://youtu.be/gS8haFRboRY

The guitar work in this song is indescribable...

My last move on my tracks ballot was to cut a song (Nicks iirc) and re-add "Sands of Time."

From Wikipedia:

"Kirwan's former bandmate Peter Green said of "Dragonfly": 'The best thing he ever wrote... that should have been a hit.'"

You can definitely hear foreshadowing of "the Rumours sound" at 1:37 in "Sands of Time"...

I didnt vote for it but now I'm kind of hoping "Dust" makes it

I had it at #2, and thought for a long time about making it #1 (dust).

#58: "Blue Letter" (Richard & Michael Curtis, 1975) - 63 points, 4 votes

http://portland-news-daily.com/wp-content/plugins/RSSPoster_PRO/cache/72238_120621033237-rumours4-horizontal-gallery.jpg

Track link: http://youtu.be/H72BY1k9W_g

The story here goes that during the recording of the 1975 s/t, Fleetwood Mac were right next to Richard & Michael Curtis in the recording studio (Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, CA). They got to be friendly with each other and familiar with each other's material, and Lindsey took to this song in a big way.

Actually “Did You Ever Love Me” too. I guess I just like Christine’s stuff.

I swear Penguin was listed as a new release on the Cherry Red website a few weeks ago, but it's nowhere to be seen now.

It's not that bad considering the state they were in at the time, pretty impressive turnaround though I'm sure it was stressful

and yeah it totally gave Christine a chance to stretch out a little more which totally saved the band several times, Christine McMVP

also Penguin is a really good album cover, maybe the best Fleetwood Mac album cover

i recently discovered Mystery to Me - was amazed. what a beautiful start to finish conceit.

yeah what a rebound, fire the singer, keep the guitar player and move the entire band into an old farmhouse in the english countryside, because of course

guitar player and drummer's wife hit it off, drummer is not happy, bass player and keys player are on the rocks, bob welch is over it and eyeing a solo career, make a record you have ~4 weeks

cannot imagine a world where this ragtag crew is subsidized by the upper crust to make Mystery to Me but they sure did

bass player and keys player are on the rocks

...and she is supposedly "hitting it off" with the engineer.

also Penguin is a really good album cover, maybe the best Fleetwood Mac album cover

This is Bare Trees or Mystery to Me depending on whether I'm up or down, I've actually displayed the latter around the house.

Controversial opinion: Christine's songs on Heroes are Hard to Find are better than what she came up with on the '75 album.