#25 -- Fleetwood Mac

Co-ed's Real Deal

You sometimes hear it said that this or that TV show helped to make Americans comfortable with a focus on women, blacks, gays.  And the same could be said of sports.  But what about music?

Up until the '60s, women were back-up singers, were occasionally sidemen, sang others' songs, or had solo careers, but until Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks came along, there were very few acts that counted more than one woman as key members (the Mamas and the Papas, and Sly and the Family Stone are perhaps the most notable).

And to underline the revolutionary nature of a band with roughly equal input from both sexes, there seems to have been a slight shuffling of the deck as regards relationships--or at least that's the impression I had at the time.

I'd say that the most common music heard during my college days were the songs from Rumors and the eponymous Fleetwood Mac albums.  And for the most part, the students who played those records were women.  Imagine hearing "You Make Loving Fun" when returning from a chat with a certain someone.

My own sense is that a popular song will especially ring true when its time is ripe.  During a decade when the women's movement was gathering steam and a place was being made for female leadership, Fleetwood Mac felt its moment approach...and delivered.

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

6/10/7/8 = 31 out of a perfect 40

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Beatles connection:  Mick Fleetwood and George Harrison were brothers-in-law.