From Publishers Weekly
This is a fascinating if overlong look at the megasuccess of Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1970s, after the former British blues band recorded the laid-back rock songs of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks that made the album
Rumours one of the most popular of its era. While working at the band's recording studio, Harris, currently a music business costume designer, became Buckingham's girlfriend and constant companion from 1976 through 1984, and she gives a detailed look—more so than drummer and original member Mick Fleetwood's biography—at this already well-chronicled story of how the success of
Rumours provided the income for extravagant cocaine-fueled excesses before, during and after performances. Harris too often uses clichés, such as her view of the band's beautiful insanity. But she does candidly recount Buckingham's rage and his repeated physical assaults on her. Along the way, she offers great descriptions of the band's recording sessions, especially her account of Buckingham's desire to create something new, something completely different for
Tusk, the more experimental (and less profitable) follow-up to
Rumours.
(July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Fleetwood Mac abandoned its blues roots to pursue mainstream commercial success even before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined it in 1975. Harris, then Buckingham's girlfriend, chronicles the behind-the-scenes drugs-and-sex-and-rock-and-roll aspects of the band's late-1970s climb to mega mainstream success with the albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and the relatively underperforming Tusk. During this time, group bassist John McVie and his wife, Christine, the band's most successful songwriter, divorced; Buckingham and Nicks ended their romantic relationship; and internal love affairs and myriad rumors threatened band cohesiveness. Enter Harris, who proved more a symptom than a cause of the turmoil. Using extremely rich material for a rock tell-all, she now offers the sort of in-depth reportage that, though engrossing, does rather strain credulity concerning the accuracy of all its quoted dialogue; but then, such is expected of and usual in such books. Serious music fans may be disappointed, but seekers of celebrity dirt will revel in this work. Prospective readers will know in which camp they fall, so advise appropriately. Tribby, Mike
