Lindsey Buckingham
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| Lindsey Buckingham | |
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| Born | October 3, 1949 San Francisco, California, USA |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Affiliation(s) | Fleetwood Mac |
| Label(s) | Warner Bros. |
| Notable guitars | Rick Turner Model 1, Chet Atkins CEC, RS6 |
| Years active | 1974-Present |
| Official site | www.lindseybuckingham.com |
Lindsey Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American guitarist and singer for the musical group Fleetwood Mac. During his career he has also done some independent recording since he first became a member of Fleetwood Mac. He is married to photographer Kristen Messner and has three children.
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[edit] Early years
Born in Palo Alto, California, Buckingham was the third and youngest son of Morris and Rutheda Buckingham. Lindsey had two older brothers, Jeff and Greg. Growing up in the Bay Area community of Atherton, California, Lindsey and his brothers were encouraged to swim competitively. Though Lindsey dropped out of athletics to pursue music, his brother Greg Buckingham went on to win a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Lindsey's first forays into guitar playing took place on a toy Mickey Mouse guitar, playing along to his brother Jeff's extensive collection of 45s. Noticing his talent, Lindsey's parents bought their son a $35 Harmony guitar.
Buckingham never took guitar lessons and does not read music. By age 13, he became interested in folk music and, influenced by banjo methods, practiced the fingerpicking (also known as "travis picking") styles of The Kingston Trio. At 15 he joined a small folk group providing vocals and guitar work.
[edit] Fritz
Lindsey met Stevie Nicks while they both attended Menlo Atherton High School, and later formed The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band with her and three other friends. Lindsey's fingerpicking style gave him difficulty playing rock guitar, and he was transferred to bass. After gaining popularity at Menlo-Atherton High School, "Fritz" became a popular local act and even opened for such acts as Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin.
After cutting some demos with Fritz for producer Keith Olsen, Lindsey and Stevie struck out on their own, and Fritz disbanded in 1971. Lindsey and Stevie became an item, dropping out of San José State to pursue a career making music together. In this time Lindsey was stricken with a case of mono. His illness forced Stevie to begin waiting tables and cleaning houses to support the couple, while allowing Lindsey the free time to master his guitar techniques even further.
[edit] Buckingham Nicks
It took a year for Buckingham and Nicks to record seven demos in 1972. After recording the demos on an analog 4-track, the two drove to Los Angeles to get a record deal. In 1973, Polydor records signed the pair. The album, Buckingham Nicks, was released in September of 1973; soon after its release, Polydor Records dropped Nicks and Buckingham due to poor sales. Despite the record company misstep, Buckingham Nicks has been championed by rock critics since its release. It features gorgeous two-part harmonies backed by notable LA session musicians including superstar drummer Jim Keltner. Other session musicians include: Ron Tutt, Drums; Peggy Sandvig, Keyboards; Richard Wachtel, Guitar; Jorge Calderon, Percussion; Jerry Scheff, Bass; Monty Stark, Synthesizer; Gary Hodges, Drums; and Mark Tulin, Bass. (from the album jacket)
Although money was tight, the hardworking duo caught the attention of many budding musicians including Warren Zevon, who is rumored to have been a roommate of Nicks and Buckingham in a Fairfax district apartment.
A short tour of the Buckingham Nicks album commenced shortly after the joining of Buckingham and Nicks with Fleetwood Mac. Bootlegs of two concerts in Mobile and Tuscaloosa exist and are widely distributed on peer-to-peer networks and fansites. The touring band included drummers Bob Aguirre (from Fritz) and Gary Hodges playing simultaneously, bassist Tom Moncrieff (who later is featured on bass on Stevie Nicks' album Belladonna), and of course Buckingham and Nicks.
To help make ends meet, Lindsey toured with Don Everly's back-up band, singing Phil's parts. Lindsey and Stevie were eventually forced to move in with record producer Keith Olsen, who helped the pair work on several demos for the next Buckingham/Nicks album, including "I'm So Afraid", "Monday Morning", and "Rhiannon".
Buckingham Nicks has never been released on CD and has quickly become one of the most sought-after recordings in the history of rock and roll. Both Buckingham and Nicks have hinted at a possible remix and re-release on CD in the near future. Buckingham has also suggested a tour in support of the collection could be something the two may be interested in.
[edit] Joining Fleetwood Mac
While checking out the Sound City recording studio in California, Mick Fleetwood heard the song "Frozen Love" from the Buckingham Nicks album. He asked who the guitarist was, and immediately stated that he wanted him to fill a recent vacancy. Lindsey insisted to Mick Fleetwood that he and Stevie were a package deal. If Fleetwood didn't want Stevie, he wouldn't get Lindsey. The duo was quickly asked to join Fleetwood Mac on New Year's Eve, 1974.
After the resounding commercial success of the group's second album, Rumours (during the making of which Lindsey and Stevie famously split), Lindsey was bent on not falling into the same pattern. The result was Tusk, a two album set that Buckingham primarily directed. It was during this time that Lindsey moved in with record company secretary and aspiring model Carol Ann Harris, with whom he lived until 1984. Though by most standards a hit, Tusk failed to come anywhere close to what Rumours had done, and Buckingham, who also produced the albums, took the brunt of the criticism. Lindsey never fully got over his animosity towards the band for putting a commercial price tag on their art, and it finally came to a head with the release of their 1987 recording, Tango in the Night. Buckingham had already given up much of the material for what would have been his third solo album to the project, including "Big Love," "Tango in the Night," "Family Man," "You and I," and "Caroline." On several of these tracks Buckingham plays every instrument. "Big Love" charted as a single, and many (including talk show host David Letterman) thought the "love grunts" on the track were sung by Stevie Nicks. But the vocals on these tracks were all sung by Buckingham, who used studio technology to alter the pitch of his voice.
Just prior to touring for the release of the album, and citing an aversion to live performance, Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac. He was replaced by guitarists Rick Vito and Billy Burnette.
[edit] Side projects
During the time he worked on Tusk, Lindsey also produced albums for Walter Egan and John Stewart in the late 1970s.
In 1981, Lindsey released his first solo album Law and Order, playing nearly every instrument and featuring guest appearances by bandmates Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. The album pursued the quirky, eclectic, often lo-fi and new-wave-influences of Tusk, and spawned the hit single "Trouble," a slice of Southern California Beach Boys-inspired pop which reached #9 on the US Charts. Two years later he wrote and performed the songs "Holiday Road" and "Dancin' Across the U.S.A." for the film National Lampoon's Vacation. "Holiday Road" was released, but reached only #82 on the Billboard's Hot 100. He did other sound track work, including the song "Time Bomb Town" from Back to the Future.
In 1984, after ending his 7-year relationship with Carol Ann Harris, he released his second solo album, Go Insane. The title track was a modest hit, reaching #23 on the Hot 100. The next year, he performed on USA for Africa's fundraising single, We Are the World.
Following his split with Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey spent much of the next four years in the studio, working on his third solo album, Out of the Cradle which was released in 1992. Many of the songs seem to deal with the death of his father, and the sudden death of his brother Greg in 1990. "Wrong" was a gentle rebuke of former bandmate Mick Fleetwood's tell-all biography. Out of the Cradle was not successful commercially, but received some favorable reviews[citation needed]. However, Buckingham toured throughout 1992-1993 for the first time as a solo artist, his band included an army of seven other guitarists(Buckingham himself calls them "the crazy band" on his Soundstage DVD), each of whom he individually taught the entire two-and-a-half hours of music from the concert (Lindsey Buckingham: Behind the Music documentary for VH-1, 2001).
A subsequent solo album, entitled Gift of Screws, was recorded between 1995-2001 and presented to Warner Bros./Reprise for release. Executives at the label managed to persuade Buckingham to hold the CD back and instead take several tracks from Gift of Screws and re-record them with Fleetwood Mac. Thus seven songs from Gift of Screws (Murrow Turning Over In His Grave, Miranda, Red Rover, Come, Steal Your Heart Away, Bleed to Love Her, Say Goodbye) appear on the Fleetwood Mac album Say You Will, and in substantially the same form as Buckingham had recorded them for his solo release. Excellent bootleg copies of Gift of Screws - taken from an original CD-R presented to Warner Bros/Reprise - are known to exist and have been widely distributed among fans through the use of torrent sites and other peer to peer networks. Other songs from Gift of Screws appear on Buckingham's 2005 Soundstage DVD, and on his latest solo album, "Under The Skin".
Lindsey recently contributed the song "Shut Us Down" (co-written with Cory Sipper) to the soundtrack of the Cameron Crowe movie, Elizabethtown. In November of 2005, he released his Soundstage performance (taped in 2003) on DVD, and on his 57th birthday, October 3, 2006 an acoustic album entitled Under the Skin was released. The album will be accompanied by a 22-city tour of North America, starting in Atlanta, Georgia three days after the album's release, and finishing in mid-November. [1]
Under the Skin will be followed in 2007 by an album which will focus more on "electric guitar-driven rock". [2] Under The Skin features Buckingham on almost all instruments, with the exception of two tracks which feature Fleetwood Mac rhythm section John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. The album includes a cover of The Rolling Stones classic "I Am Waiting."
[edit] Rejoining Fleetwood Mac
In 1992, newly elected president Bill Clinton asked Fleetwood Mac to come together to perform the song he had chosen for his campaign, "Don't Stop", at his inaugural ceremony. Lindsey agreed to be part of the performance, but the experience was something of a one-off for the band, who were still very much at odds with one another and had no plans to reunite officially.
While assembling material for a yet to be released fourth solo album in the late '90s, Buckingham contacted Mick Fleetwood for assistance on a song. Their collaboration lasted much longer than anticipated, and the two eventually decided to call upon John and Christine McVie. The band's old chemistry was clearly still there, and plans for a reunion tour were soon in the works. In 1997, Lindsey and all four of his bandmates from the original Rumours line-up of Fleetwood Mac went on the road for the first time together since 1982 in a reunion tour titled The Dance. The tour was hugely successful and did much to heal the damage that had been done between Lindsey and his bandmates. In 2003, the reformed band released the first studio album involving Buckingham and Nicks in 15 years, Say You Will; sadly, Christine McVie opted out of the project, and the band carried on as a foursome. Buckingham's song "Peacekeeper" was the first single off of the album. This album was followed by a world tour that would last almost a year and a half.
[edit] Family
On July 8, 1998, Lindsey and girlfriend Kristen Messner welcomed a son, William Gregory Buckingham. Lindsey and Kristen married in 2000, and Kristen gave birth to a daughter, Leelee, the same year. Their third child, Stella, was born on April 20, 2004.
[edit] Discography
With Fleetwood Mac:
Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
Tusk
Live
Mirage
Tango in the Night
25 Years: The Chain
The Dance
Say You Will
Live in Boston
Solo albums:
Law and Order
Go Insane
Out of the Cradle
Under the Skin
2007: TBA
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Madness Fades "In His Words" - Fan site with detailed interviews, lyrics and videos
- Still Going Insane - A Lindsey Buckingham Resource" - Unofficial web resource for everything Lindsey Buckingham
