Battle of the Bands, 1970s: The Eagles vs. Fleetwood Mac

They say that the music you listen to in your high school years will stick with you for the rest of your life.  I guess that’s true—but in a bad way.  For me, high school intersected with the artistic dead-zone of the early 1980s, with Ronald Reagan in the white house and Billy Squire on the radio.  I’m not sure which was worse.  To this day, I still get a little nauseous whenever I hear Stroke Me on the oldies station.

If I had gone to high school either a little earlier or a little later, I would have been fine.  As it was, I caught the years that were sandwiched between two great musical eras: the classic American rock period of the 1970s and the Prog-Rock Renaissance of the late 80s.  I loved both periods, especially the 70s (pre-disco).

To me, the two greatest bands of the period were both American:  The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.  The Eagles were the most popular band, overall, but Fleetwood Mac had the mega-hit of the decade, Rumours, which is still the third-highest selling record of all time.  Looking back, it seems ironic both of these two quintessential rock bands had a secret heart.  The Eagles, deep down, was a mid-western country band, and Fleetwood Mac, deep down, was an English blues band.  At some point, each was plucked up by God and dropped into the Satanic maw of California.  A few years later, they came out transformed into great rock bands, even as the members themselves were transformed from innocent kids into coke-snorting, groupie-shagging, hotel-room-trashing rock stars.

If I had to say which band maintains the highest coolness factor—at least in the mainstream culture—I would have to say The Eagles.  Their songs are in heavier rotation on classic rock stations, and in some ways they seem to encapsulate everything about America in the 70s: sweeping vistas and unfathomable yearning.

And evil.  Lots of it.   Everybody knows about the band’s great fall from the rapturous heights of Take It To The Limit to the infernal nightmare of Hotel California.  The band’s later—and greater—classic, Life In the Fast Lane, only reiterates this theme of dissipation (if not damnation).

Yet despite all the great success that The Eagles had in giving voice to the death of the American counter-culture, I find myself drawn more to Fleetwood Mac these days.  Like The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac made its own hellish descent into coke-induced madness, and they even documented it on their masterpiece Rumours.  If The Eagles’s Hotel California is the greatest paean to lost dreams ever written, then Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way is the greatest about getting over it.  And while Lindsey Buckingham’s lyrics to  Second Hand News read like a lament to lost love, the song itself is a rollicking cry of healing exultation.  I tell you, it’s way better than Prozac.

One thing that strikes me about both bands is how much variety they both had in their musical textures.  The Eagles was blessed with two great frontmen, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, each of whom brought his own unique vocal talents and spiritual obsessions to play.  As for Fleetwood Mac, the hybridization of an English R&B group (Mick Fleetwood and the McVies) with a southern California rock duo (Buckingham and Nicks) never should have worked, but it did.  And brilliantly.  The result was a band with three superlative vocalists and an endless tapestry of musical wonders.

It was Stevie Nicks who clocked up the bands biggest hits with Rhiannon and Gypsy, but I love Christine McVie’s stuff even more.  You Make Loving Fun is the best love song ever recorded, as far as I’m concerned.  Of course, Rumours was largely the creation of one band member, Lindsey Buckingham, whose genius illuminated a new musical direction for the band and then took it to its greatest heights.

I have a pet theory that Fleetwood Mac’s longevity, relative to the Eagles, is largely a result of the individual members’ success at overcoming their own various addictions and self-destructive tendencies.  While the brooding rivalry between Henley and Frey at first propelled The Eagles as a creative force, the dynamic shifted at some point and finally tore the band apart.  Fleetwood Mac, on the other hand, survived their own imploding relationships and were a better band for it.

There’s a lesson here for all of us old fogies, I think.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dial-up One of These Nights on iTunes.

Author’s Note: Bakhtin’s Cigarettes has moved!!! That is, I’ve relocated to my new blog/website, ashcliftonwriter.com. Same witty, intelligent, and humble content; different url.