Book Review: “Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography” by Mick Fleetwood w/ Anthony Bozza
For pure revelation, the second quarter of Mick Fleetwood’s second autobiography, 2014’s “Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac,” is where the gems are hidden.
By this point, the drummer has told the story of his growing up in England and of his earliest bands around London. Thus, Fleetwood begins delving into the beginnings of the band that guitarist Peter Green named after Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Fleetwood’s theory about why Green - who could have been the name behind the band - chose Fleetwood Mac as its monicker is jarring, and quite likely correct, given Green’s eventual path out of the band and through life.
This portion of the book is where readers learn about the tumultuous beginnings of the band as a British-blues trio and its evolution toward a more pop/rock sound with the addition of Christine Perfect (soon to be McVie) and others. The number of players who passed through the band during this time - Bob Brunning, Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer, Bob Welch, Dave Walker, Bob Weston - is staggering, but somehow, Fleetwood kept it going.
Folks who fancy - Sound Bites has been reading books by British rockers lately - the Lindsey Buckingham-Stevie Nicks version of the band should consider using this new information to seek out albums such as Then Play On, Kiln House, Bare Trees and Mystery to Me, where they’ll find a wealth of amazing Fleetwood Mac music that may be new to them.
The back half of the book focuses on the most famous and successful incarnation of the band, which, Fleetwood writes, was not a result of new people joining the band as had previously been the case. Instead, it was a merger of two groups: Buckingham Nicks, who released one self-titled album that inexplicably has never come out on CD, and Fleetwood Mac.
"They were the little machine that got swallowed by the big machine," he writes, adding that the duo were hired on at a $200 weekly salary. The book, like that last sentence, is not clear as to whether that was for each or for both of them.
These are stories that have mostly been told in other places and Fleetwood wisely doesn’t spend too much time rehashing things students of the band already know. Suffice it to say, the Rumours are true - it was a hell of a journey and it’s amazing they survived.
The most interesting parts of this half of the book are the stories about the lineups that recorded 1990’s Behind the Mask, sans Buckingham, and 1995’s Time, sans Buckingham and Nicks, because these stories aren’t so well-known. The number of players who passed through the band at these times - Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, Bekka Bramlett, Dave Mason - is staggering, but somehow, Fleetwood kept it going.
Fleetwood derisively refers to the Time version of the band as mini-Mac, which seems a bit unfair as he was the motivating force behind putting that group together. There’s also the matter of Welch, who unlike the other key members - the Rumours outfit plus Green, Kirwan and Spencer - was not included when Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Fleetwood fawns over the late Welch in the book and gives him great credit for getting the band through a very rough period. He also says they remained friends after Welch quit, but makes no mention of why the guitarist was denied the honor he clearly earned. He skips the Rock Hall induction entirely - a massive oversight.
Beyond the music and the drugs, Fleetwood’s book spends too much time being an apology to his first - and second - wife, Jenny Boyd, the sister of Pattie, who was married to George Harrison and later, Eric Clapton, who both appear in the book. Fleetwood clearly has much to apologise for; however, Sound Bites suspects most people who buy “Play On” would be happier if the mea culpas were confined to the chapter titled “Jenny.”
"Play On …" by Mick Fleetwood w/ Anthony Bozza - C+
