TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. In the early 1970s, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were struggling musicians. In '73, they released their first album called "Buckingham Nicks." It was a commercial flop, but it was heard by Mick Fleetwood, who was so impressed he offered the duo membership in Fleetwood Mac. The result turned that band into one of the best-selling acts of all time. For the first time, the long out of print "Buckingham Nicks" has been digitally remastered and re-released. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review of this legendary 52-year-old album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRYING IN THE NIGHT")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) She was that kind of lady. Times were hard, woah. She'd come curling 'round you like fingers. But she'll leave you crying in the night. She will leave you crying in the night.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: The only album Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham ever made as a duo, "Buckingham Nicks" is a remarkably fully-formed preview of the sound that turned Fleetwood Mac into a superstar act in the late '70s and forever after. Credit Lindsey Buckingham in 1973 for playing guitar with a unique combination of intricacy and force, and credit Stevie Nicks for vocally going her own way way before there was a hit called "Go Your Own Way."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LONG DISTANCE WINNER")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) Sunflowers and your face fascinate me. You love only the tallest trees. I come running down the hill. You're fast. You're the winner. Long distance winner. Not unlike the blue...
TUCKER: In 1973, if you listened to that song "Long Distance Winner" - it would probably be the first time you'd ever heard Stevie Nicks - you'd think, who's that? How does a voice with such a delicate tremble also manage to be so strong? Working in Los Angeles with producer Keith Olsen, Buckingham and Nicks were making music that fit the time and place they were living in. You can hear it in the context of LA music in the manner of The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Jackson Browne. But their sound also stood apart as something at once more dreamy and more intense. From the start, there was a romantic and artistic tension between Buckingham and Nicks that gave the pretty melodies an undercurrent of unhappiness.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RACES ARE RUN")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) If we could start again, well who knows, have we really changed? Some say we have, reflecting our past. Who can say? Who can say? Races are run. Some people win. Some people always have to lose. Ooh, yeah, yeah.
TUCKER: You can understand Lindsey and Stevie's dismay when "Buckingham Nicks" was a commercial failure. How could a song such as "Don't Let Me Down Again," which sounds in retrospect like prime Fleetwood Mac, how could this not have been a hit?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T LET ME DOWN AGAIN")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) Baby, baby, don't treat me so bad. I'm the best boy you've ever had. You want to leave now and find a new start? It's going to kill me if you break my heart. Oh, once you let me down again, yeah, oh, you're just bound to see the end.
TUCKER: "Buckingham Nicks" was a 1973 release that bombed in the year defined by Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon." In 1974, Nicks began waitressing at a Beverly Hills restaurant when she and Buckingham got a call from Mick Fleetwood. Keith Olsen had played the album for him, and he loved it, especially the seven-minutes-plus mini symphony that closes the album called "Frozen Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FROZEN LOVE")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) You may not be as strong as me, and I may not care to teach you.
TUCKER: Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, and along with the staggeringly beautiful voice and songwriting of Christine McVie, turned a shaggy British folk blues band into a pop music melodrama about love and betrayal. And this album can now be heard as Stevie and Lindsey's calling card, as accomplished, anguished and ambitious an audition as anyone has made.
MOSLEY: Ken Tucker reviewed the rerelease of the album "Buckingham Nicks."
Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, escaping poverty then going back home. Journalist Beth Macy went back to the Ohio factory town where she grew up to find that jobs have left, families are struggling and old friends now embrace conspiracy theories. Macy's new book is "Paper Girl: A Memoir Of Home And Family In A Fractured America." I hope you can join us.
To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WITHOUT A LEG TO STAND ON")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) I got nothing but time, no time for living. I've been everywhere. It's all the same. I just need somebody that I can lean on. Nobody wants to keep you when you're in love with the game. But you know that I can't let go. And there ain't nothing left to show. Got the feeling I can't say no without a leg to stand on. There's so many fine people...
MOSLEY: Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Therese Madden directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WITHOUT A LEG TO STAND ON")
BUCKINGHAM NICKS: (Singing) Look around, but you won't see me, just a picture of what I used to be. There ain't nothing to set me free without a leg to stand on. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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