Kav Temperley’s Top Five Fleetwood Mac Songs

This Friday (September 22), Eskimo Joe’s Kav Temperley will be joined by Lisa Mitchell, Charlie Collins and Karen Lee Andrews for the first show of Yesterday’s Gone – a spellbinding tribute to the undeniably iconic Fleetwood Mac. Ahead of the gig (going down in Eora/Manly as part of this year’s Night At The Barracks program – read more about it here), Temperley sat down to write the following article for us!

In the realm of music, Fleetwood Mac initially evaded my attention during my teenage years. Their absence of big distorted guitars and rage against the machine style rap elements made me overlook them. However, as my musical tastes expanded beyond familiar favorites like Nirvana, The Beatles, and the Beastie Boys, I couldn't help but recognize Fleetwood Mac's brilliance.

My epiphany came when I tuned into the Classic Album series spotlighting Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. The quality of songwriting amazed me, and the band's “shacking up and packing up” antics drew me in. With the arrival of a record player, given to me as a birthday gift, Rumours became one of my first vinyl purchases. Its distinct drum sounds, intriguingly, shared a recording studio, Sound City, with Nirvana's Nevermind.

As the needle met vinyl, I fell in love with the dry ’70s drum sounds, the walls of harmonies, the sleazy grooves and truly beautiful songwriting. my earlier biases had now disappeared in a haze of adult contemporary mid paced rock ’n’ roll. Join me as I delve into some of my favourite Fleetwood tunes.

The Chain

This is probably one of my favourite Fleetwood songs of all time. They are all credited as writers and rightly so. The song really feels like a sum of its parts. I love the harmonies and the question and answer vocals in the chorus, but the breakdown and mini bass solo is what gives this song a much darker feel than the rest of the record.

Dreams

The bass and drum groove in this song despite being super simple deserves a lot of credit, but the song itself is of course a Stevie Nicks composition and proves why vocally and as a writer she went on to have the most successful post-Fleetwood career.

Go Your Own Way

This is definitely Lindsey Buckingham's finest moment – with this song, he was guaranteed car commercials for the rest of his life. If you're a fan of the Song Exploder podcast then I highly recommend going and having a listen to the episode that explores this song. It's really great.

Albatross

This is a pre-Stevie-and-Lindsey-joining-the-band tune, but it’s a really beautiful song and recording by Peter Green.

Rhiannon

This song is another great example of Stevie Nicks’ effortless style of songwriting, it just takes you on its journey until you’re singing along and trying to find that harmony in the chorus.

Head here to read more about Yesterday’s Gone: The Fleetwood Mac Legacy.