Music

Ry Cooder – Keeping the Music Alive

Ry Cooder is an unclassifiable musician. He’s explored every genre of North American music there is except for maybe bluegrass and ragtime, and done it with taste and beauty. He started with three albums that seemed intended to capture the sound of old-time recordings consisting of mostly blues and folk music but ranging into a Civil War camp song and the World War II song “Comin in on a Wing and a Prayer.” He’s even delved into Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean forms of music and played with some of the top musicians in those genres. Someone in Rolling Stone in the 70s or 80s called him a “musical archivist”.

Ry Cooder, his self-titled first album, starts off with the catchy “Alimony”, a lament before a judge by a man complaining about what a burden his alimony payments to an ex-wife are on his financial situation, with a loosely-strung guitar and “Gloria Jones & Co” singing backup.

Please, have mercy, judge your honor

I'm as poor as I can be

Ain't had money in my pockets

Since way back in fifty three

Can't you cut down all my payment?

Alimony is killing me

Alimony, alimony, alimony is killing me

Cooder rarely writes songs himself, except for an occasional instrumental, doing mainly covers of others’ songs, many of which are obscure tunes that he turns into gems. He sings Woody Guthrie’s “Do Re Mi” in a droll voice that’s a frequent style for Cooder, sounding very different than Guthrie.

Hey, if you ain't got the Do Re Mi, boy

If you ain't got the Do Re Mi

Well, you better go back to beautiful Texas

Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee

California is the garden of Eden

It's a paradise to live in or see

But believe it or not

You won't find it so hot

If you ain't got the Do Re Mi

“How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” is a gem of a Depression-era song by West Virginian folksinger Blind Alfred Reed, expressing an eloquent lament that must have voiced the feelings of many during that difficult time. They’re eloquent words that touched my heart the first time I heard it, a poignant expression of what it felt like to be poor in the Depression.

Well there once was a time when everything was cheap

Now prices nearly puts a man to sleep

Well, when we get our grocery bill

We just feel like making our will

Tell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live

It’s followed by a superb slide guitar instrumental penned by Cooder called “Available Space”, a Huddie Leadbetter (Lead Belly) tune called “Pigmeat”, and a cover of a blues tune called "Police Dog Blues” by Arthur Blake with great acoustic guitar picking.

His second album, Into the Purple Valley, starts with a Depression-era Okie anthem by Agnes Cunningham, “How Can Tou Keep on Movin (Unless You Migrate Too)”, telling of the double bind migrants from the Dust Bowl found themselves in the 30s when they were told to keep moving but blocked from entering the states they were moving to, usually California. It’s played at a lively pace with Cooder’s deft slide electric guitar work.

How can you keep on moving unless you migrate too

They tell ya to keep on moving but migrate, you must not do

The only reason for moving and the reason why I roam

To move to a new location and find myself a home

I can't go back to the homestead, the shack no longer stands

They said I was unneeded, had no claim to the land

They said, "Come on, get moving, it's the only thing for you"

But how can you keep moving unless you migrate too

Now if you pitch your little tent along the broad highway

The Board of Sanitation says, "Sorry, you can't stay"

Come on, come on, get moving it's their everlasting cry

Can't stay, can't go back, can't migrate, so where the hell am I

“FDR in Trinidad” is a Calypso version of another song from a “forgotten period of American history” (liner notes) that expresses local appreciation for the president visiting Trinidad and “keeping Trinidad in America”, with Cooder playing mandolin. It’s followed by a cover of 1959’s R&B tune “Teardrops Will Fall” with a nice rhythm section along with Cooder’s understated electric guitar.

I read your letter and tears filled my eyes

All of your promises fading, was nothing but lies

So I turned your photograph over, face to the wall

And when I dim the lights in my room tonight

Teardrops will fall

Teardrops will fall tonight

Tears I can't hide

Tears that I tried to keep

Deep down inside

Tears fall, a love that's gone

Beyond recall

And when I dim the lights in my room to night

Teardrops will fall

Lead Belly’s “On a Monday” follows, chronicling one of his many incarcerations. The album ends with a terrific and dark cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Vigilante Man”, with Cooder playing a wonderful low-register slide guitar that along with his vocals create a foreboding, haunted sound. While Guthrie wrote “I been hearin’ his name all over the land”, the line has an ominous tone because no name is given except “vigilante man”, implying that the only name the singer hears him called is “vigilante man”. The song echoes the situation with ICE today, except ICE agents wear masks like bandits, and there’s a horde of them, not just one.

Rainy nights down in the engine house

Sleepin' just as still as a mouse

A man came along and he chased us out in the rain

Was that a vigilante man?

Well, I rambled around from town to town

Now, I rambled around from town to town

And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle

Was that the vigilante man?

Well, why does a vigilante man

Tell me why does a vigilante man

Carry that sawed-off shotgun in his hand?

Would he shoot his brother and sister down?

Have you seen that vigilante man?

I've been hearin' his name all over the land

Boomer’s Story was Cooder’s third album. Like his first two, it’s done in vocals and instrumental accompaniment that sound like old recordings made by John and Alan Lomax to document the old-time American music before it was lost to history, with the exception of occasional electric instruments and better sound reproduction. The title song is a droll expression of a man who tried to settle down but couldn’t stay put, with a great electric slide guitar.

Come and gather all around me

Listen to my tale of woe

Got some good advice to give you

Lots of things you oughta know

Take a tip from one who's travelled

And never stopped a-ramblin' 'round

'Cause once you get the roamin' fever

You never want to settle down, boy

You never want to settle down

I met a little gal in Frisco

I asked her to be my wife

Told her I was tired of roamin'

Gonna settle down for life

Then I heard the whistle blowin'

And I knew it was the Red Ball Train

And I left that gal beside the railroad

And I never saw the gal again, boy

I never saw the gal again

Saw the gal again

I never saw the gal again

Left that gal beside the railroad

And I never saw the gal again

It’s followed by a beautiful instrumental cover of a song by bluesman Skip James titled “Cherry Ball Blues”. He also does a gorgeous and delicate instrumental rendition of what sounds like a Mexican tune called “Maria Elena” by someone named Lorenzo Barcelata, with Randy Newman on piano. “Rally Round the Flag, Boys” is a Civil War camp song sung like a tired soldier sitting around a campfire, ("Yes, we'll rally 'round the flag, boys/We'll rally 'round again/Shouting the battle cry of freedom. . .And although he may be poor/Not a man shall be a slave/Shouting the battle cry of freedom"), and “Comin in on a Wing and a Prayer” sounds like a patriotic WW II song about a bomber coming back from a successful run with only one engine.

Cooder sings a blues song by Sleepy John Estes titled “Ax Sweet Mama,” and Estes himself sings “President Kennedy”, a lament about Kennedy’s death. Cooder follows that with “Good Morning, Mr Railroad Man”, a traditional song about a man slyly planning to hop a freight.

Good morning, Mr. Railroad Man

What time do your trains roll by?

At 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes till 5

Well it’s 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes till 5

Thank you, Mr. Railroad Man

I want to watch your trains go by. . .

Standing on a platform, smoking a cheap cigar

And waiting for an old freight train that carries an empty car

Well, I pulled my hat down over my eyes

And I walked across the tracks

I caught me the end of an old freight train

And I never did come back

With Paradise and Lunch Cooder stuck with the blues and folk phrasing and singing style of his first three albums but polished the accompaniment and production to issue a beautiful but still down home album with great song selections. It starts off with one of my favorites on the album, “Tamp Em Up Solid”. I don’t know what that means, though it seems I read somewhere that it had to do with spiking down new railroad track, but in any case the song is paying homage to a good-paying railroad job. It’s accompanied by lovely, restrained acoustic guitar and some soulful background singing, with voices like a distant train whistle at the end. His singing is always in his own voice but, like John Fogerty, sounds like he’s channeled the old-timey blues and folk voices that are his reference points.

Baby, when you marry a railroad man

Every day'll be pay day, dollar bill in your hand

Baby, in your hand, baby, in your hand

Mary and the baby laying in the bed

Thinking about the money that I ain't made

So tamp 'em up solid so they won't come down

Tamp 'em up solid, buddy, so they won't come down

Captain called the water boy and the water boy laughed

Captain kicked the water boy and it’s "Yes, yes, yes"

So tamp 'em up solid, so they won't come down

Tamp 'em up solid, buddy, so they won't come down

And you can do it, and you can do it, and you can do it

So they won't come down

It’s followed by “Tattler”, my favorite Ry Cooder song of all, a song by bluesman Washington Phillips. It’s accompanied by a tasty bass line and perhaps his most beautiful and sensitive electric guitar playing, “like ringing a bell”, culminating in a nice, gentle guitar fadeout.

Whenever you find a man that loves every woman he sees

There's always some kind of woman that's a-puttin' him up a tree

Now that kind of man, he ain't got as much sense as a mule

You know everyone don't love you, they're just a-playin' you for a fool

Mmmm, oh, no

It's not hard for you to understand

True love can be such a sweet harmony

If you do the best that you can

If you marry the wrong kind of woman and you get where you can't agree

Well, you just as well forget your hand and let that woman be

But a man oughta make a good husband and quit tryin' to lead a fast life

Goin' about dressin' up other women, won't put clothes on his own wife

Well, there's lots of good women who wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home

But they're 'fraid they'll might get hold of a rowdy man, can't let other women alone

And there's lots of good men wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home

But every time they turn their back, there's a man there askin', "Darlin', is he gone?"

Mmmm, oh, no

It's not hard for you to understand

True love can be such a sweet harmony

If you do the best that you can

Next comes the jaundiced cynicism of “Married Man’s a Fool” by bluesman Blind Willie McTell warning men to not expect most wives to be any more faithful than men as a gender usually get, or don’t get, credit for. It’s accompanied by a droll slide guitar and male harmony singers on the chorus. The women in his songs come off less favorably than the men.

Had a friend, Louie Brown, he was a deacon

Just as wise as he could be

Now you realize he could read the Good Book

Back from Revelation down to Genessee

You know last Sunday morning we was over to the church

My buddy wants to take him a stand

And he looks out upon that whole congregation

The Good Book in his hand

Now he cast his eye about, and then he looks over inyo Amen Corner

All the sisters commenced to shout (WHAT’D HE SAY?!!)

He said a married man's a fool

to think that his wife love nobody else but him

She stick by you all your life, the chances is mighty slim

Now you read the Good Book, chapter twenty-one

Every married woman got to have a little fun. . .

Now you read on over twenty-fifth page

Married woman's role is hard to engage

Read kinda careful, chapter twenty-six

Back door slamming, you got to run and get it fixed

Read on out, chapter twenty-eight

Who's that back slidin' out through your back gate?

I believe I'll close on chapter twenty-nine

Woman get tired of the same man all the time (sung in a deep, resonant voice by Bobby King)

'Cause a man's a fool to think that his wife love nobody else but him

I mean love nobody else but him

He delves into R&B with the infectious Latin beat of “It’s All Over Now”, then revives an old Burt Bacharach/Bob Hilliard tune, the beautiful, touching “Mexican Divorce”.

Down below El Paso lies Juarez

Mexico is different, like the travel folder says

Cross the Rio Grande and you will find

An old adobe house

Where you leave your past behind

One day married, next day free

Broken hearts for you and me

Takes no time for you to get

A Mexican divorce

I came into this lonely house last night

I looked out all my windows but I couldn't find one light

I found you on that road to Mexico

And now, my love, I beg

Please, oh, please, don't go. . .

Finding love takes so long

Walking out, well must be wrong

It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce

One day married, next day free

Broken hearts for you and me

It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce

It’s a Mexican-flavored song with an up-tempo, almost Calypso rhythm, accompanied by what sounds like vibes or marimba, horns, nice harmony singing and Cooder’s tasty guitar. The album ends with “Ditty Wah Ditty”, a tongue-in-cheek song by Arthur Blake about a thick-headed man trying to find out what “ditty wah ditty means”. Blake is spoofing us, and it’s not clear whether Mr Ditty Wah Ditty is also feigning the puzzlement he voices, since he calls his hat “ditty wah ditty”.

There's a great big mystery

And it sure is worrying me

It's a ditty wah ditty

Mister ditty wah ditty

I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means. . .

Now, I went to church, put my hat on the seat

A lady sat on it and said, "Daddy you sho' is sweet"

Mister ditty wah ditty

I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means

I said, "Sister, I'll soon be gone

Just give me that thing that you're sitting on"

My ditty wah ditty

Mister ditty wah ditty

I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means

Then I got put outta church

'Cause I talked about ditty wah ditty too much

Mister ditty wah ditty

I wished somebody would tell me what ditty wah ditty means

His acoustic guitar-playing on the song is accompanied wonderfully on piano by famed jazz musician Earl Fatha Hines – according to Ken Burns’ Jazz "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz". It’s a delight to hear them weave around each other and take little solo runs, both with a light-fingered touch. It’s irresistible enjoyment to listen to the song.

Paradise and Lunch was followed by Chicken Skin Music, implying perhaps that it was music to give you what we call goose bumps. It begins with the Lead Belly tune “Bourgeois Blues” with Cooder’s old-timey acoustic “bottleneck” guitar playing, accordion and bajo sexto, a Tex-Mex /Mexican guitar with twelve paired strings.

Me and my wife went all over town

And everywhere we went people turned us down

Lord, in the bourgeois town

It's a bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues

Gonna spread the news all around

Home of the brave, land of the free

I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie

Lord, in a bourgeois town

Uhm, the bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues

Gonna spread the news all around

Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs

When I heard the white man say

"I don't want no niggers up there"

Lord, in a bourgeois town

Uhm, bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues

Gonna spread the news all around. . .

I tell all the colored folks to listen to me

Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC

'Cause it's a bourgeois town

Uhm, the bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues

Gonna spread the news all around

Next comes the comic “I Got Mine”, a traditional song in which the meaning of “I got mine” does an about-face. Cooder’s electric guitar and mandolin are accompanied by experienced session players Jim Keltner on drums and Chris Etheridge on a prominent bass line, plus a horn section that makes the song sound like it’s being played by a Salvation Army band.

Now I went down to the big crap game

Certainly was against my will

I lost every doggone nickel I had

But a greenback dollar bill

Forty dollar bet laid on the floor

My buddy's point was nine

Well, the police they come

And they caught all of 'em

But I got mine

I got mine, let me tell ya

I got mine

I grabbed that money

Out the back door I went flying

Well, ever since the big crap game

I've been livin' on chicken and wine

I'm the leader of society

Since I got mine. . .

I went down to my best girl's house

The hour was just about nine

I wasn't dressed up like Henry Ford

But I was feeling just as fine

I caught her sitting on another man's knee

And I didn't like that sign

Well, I told em what I thought about it, boys

And I got mine

I got mine, I got mine

I grabbed my hat and through the window

I went flying

I ran as fast as I could run

But I didn't get there in time

Because the rascal grabbed a shotgun, Lord

And I got mine. . .

I just didn’t run fast enough. . .

He follows that with a beautiful and tender Hawaiian steel and “slack-key” guitar version of another song by folksinger Blind Alfred Reed, “Always Lift Him Up”, with beautiful harmony vocals by Bobby King, Terry Evans and Herman Johnson. It’s combined with a gorgeous instrumental, “Kanaka Wai Wai” with famed Hawaiian musicians Gabby Pahinui on Hawaiian steel guitar and Atta Isaacs playing something called slack-key guitar. Cooder plays an electric guitar that’s as beautiful as that on “Tattler”. He sometimes plays an electric guitar that rivals a harp in beauty of tone.

When a fellow has the blues and feels discouraged

And there's nothing else but trouble all his life. . .

If he cannot pay his debts and feels disgusted

If he's blue and doesn't have a word to say

Let him know you are his friend who can be trusted

It would cheer this lonely fellow on his way

If he finds it hard for him to keep his family

Let a kind word greet his ear when he's around

Don't say anything at all to make against him

Always lift him up and never knock him down

If he has no friends and everyone's against him

If he's failed at everything that he has tried

Try to lift his load, to help to bear his burden

Let him know that you are walking by his side

And if he feels that all is lost, and he is falling

Try to place that poor man's feet on solid ground

Just remember he's a mother's precious darling

Always lift him up and never knock him down

Perhaps the highlight of the album is Cooder’s cover of the Ben E King/Lieber/Stoller rock and roll hit “Stand By Me”, done with a Mexican flavor with Tex-Mex star Flaco Jimenez on accordion. He’s also accompanied by Jim Keltner, Chris Etheridge of Flying Burrito Brothers fame and Milt Holland on percussion, as he is on many of the songs on the album. It’s a simple song, but sung with great feeling by Cooder.

When the night is come and the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

I won't be afraid, I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand by me

Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Won't you stand by me

Woh oh woh oh, stand by me, stand by me. . .

He then shifts to country and western with a slow Hank Snow ballad, “Yellow Roses” which he also sings with tender emotion.

I just received, sweetheart, your yellow roses

You tell me that they mean we're all through

You tell me that tonight your heart is broken

But you should know I was never untrue

I'll place them near your photograph and as the petals fall

They'll hide from you my lonely tears that shouldn't fall at all

Then they will slowly fade away and die

But I’ll still love you though yellow roses say goodbye

It’s followed by a lovely Gus Kahn Great American Songbook instrumental, “Chloe”. Both of these songs are played Hawaiian style with Gabby Pahinui on steel guitar and Atta Isaacs on slack-key guitar, an old style of guitar playing traditional in Hawaii. The album then ends with Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene”, with lyrics not heard in the cleaned up 50s version by The Weavers. It’s a wonderful version played with Cooder on a different electric guitar than on “Tattler” and “Always Lift Him Up”, and a Tex-Mex band including Flaco Jimenez on accordion that stays with you long after you’ve listened to it.

I asked your mother for you

She told me that you was too young

I wish dear Lord I never have seen your face

And I'm sorry that you ever been born

Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight

Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene

I'll get you in my dreams

Sometimes I lives in the country

And sometimes I lives in town

Sometimes I have a great notion

To jump into the river and drown. . .

I loves Irene, God knows I do

Loves her till the sea runs dry

If Irene turns her back on me

I'm gonna take morphine and die

Stop ramblin' and stop gamblin'

Quit staying out late at night

Come home to your wife and your family

Sit down by the fireside bright

Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight

Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene

I'll get you in my dreams

Cooder runs the gamut of 20th century American music – the blues of Lead Belly, Blind Willie McTell and Sleepy John Estes; folk songs of Woody Guthrie, Agnes Cunningham and Blind Alfred Reed; calypso; Hawaiian slack-key and steel guitar music; Tex-Mex (Norteno) music; rhythm and blues; rock and roll; Great American Songbook tunes; country and western; jazz with Earl Fatha Hines and an album titled Jazz with Bix Beiderbecke tunes; plus a couple soldier tunes from the Civil War and WW II. He’s played with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt from India and other World Music musicians from Africa and the Middle East, Gordon Lightfoot, Taj Mahlal, Linda Ronstadt, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and John Lee Hooker. He also made a CD and a euphoric worldwide hit movie, titled Buena Vista Social Club, with Cuban musicians in Cuba ending up at Carnegie Hall, directed by Wim Wenders and available on DVD. Rolling Stone rated him 8th on their 2003 list of greatest guitarists of all time.

What he does, like John Fogerty with the blues and country and western, is recreate these various genres with what sounds like the vocal styles and speech inflections of the originals, with fantastic guitar work and other instrumental accompaniment enhanced by other superb musicians, while still retaining his own voice. He doesn’t just do that in a technical sense but with a love for the music and an ability to bring out the emotional quality of the songs. Because of that he’s a musician and singer I never get tired of hearing.

Brett Nelson

The Pendulum Swing in the Stages of Life

In the 80s my brother recommended to me an excellent book by psychologist Daniel Levinson titled The Seasons of a Man’s Life. A second book titled The Seasons of a Woman’s Life was completed by his wife Judy Levinson after his death in 1994. Later I read journalist Gail Sheehy’s 1976 bestseller titled Passages, chosen by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most influential books of our time, which drew from Levinson’s research. Both books took Erik Eriksson’s theory of the developmental stages of life as a starting point, which probably had more widespread popularity than any psychological theory I can think of. Every psychology student who takes a course in personality theory studies it, and introductory psychology courses usually touch on it.

Much of the attention for these books was focused on what’s popularly referred to as the “midlife crisis,” which is actually a natural transition from middle adulthood to mature adulthood that can be disorienting or at least unsettling but I think generally becomes a “crisis” only for those who react out of a disproportionate and irrational fear about growing older and their mortality. It’s usually thought of as coming in your 40s, but often happens in one’s 50s or even 30s, as in my case when I hit a dead end with a job I thought was turning into a rewarding career. Surprisingly, those who fear the approach of death find that it usually disappears after a few years instead of continuing to get worse as they get older as you might expect. But the books cover the entire adult life cycle from the “terrible twos” to retirement and are absorbing and enlightening to read.

Understanding Eriksson’s life stages was always helpful for clients, but about halfway through my thirty-one years as a counselor and psychotherapist I began to see an additional pattern that helped me and my clients understand their experience with life stages more fully in themselves and in their children. The idea that life has a series of stages with different tasks to be faced and resolved seemed very clear and useful in understanding what life requires of us at different points in our journey through it. But I also saw a yin/yang alternation that swings back and forth like a pendulum throughout the life cycle. Understanding that swing of the pendulum helped clients understand their adult experience and helped parents understand their kids’ behaviors and how to deal with them as well. It helped parents see the changes as having a purpose and ease their frustrations and anxieties about them, while still setting limits where necessary for their children’s well-being.

Erikson’s theory initially focused largely on early child development. Between the ages of one-and-a-half and three years old, a child begins to be able to do things by themselves and begins to assert their will as they explore the world around them. They learn the word “no” and as most parents know they can be very insistent about what they do and don’t want to do. Parents sometimes refer to this age as the “terrible twos,” but it’s a time when kids are beginning to flex their independence muscles. It’s like there’s a built-in psychological clock in our neurological networks that sets this off.

Then when a child reaches the age of five or six they start school in kindergarten or elementary school, which requires following the rules, obeying the teacher, sitting quietly in their place at times and cooperating with other kids. It’s a big adjustment for kids used to playing all day. It’s also a lesson that obedience is important in a larger world than the family. This is a swing of the pendulum away from independence toward socialization that involves a suppression of ego and individuality in favor of cooperation and consideration of others. That process continues until about twelve or thirteen years old.

Then the bombshell of puberty hits, with surging hormones and interest in the opposite sex escalating. The acceptance of peers often becomes more important than the approval of parents, which leads to all kinds of behaviors that flirt with the edges of parental acceptability or push past those limits. It’s a movement back in the direction of independence. Kids want to wear different kinds of clothes than their parents have dressed them in, listen to music their parents may think is awful and even develop their own language in slang expressions that can be a code parents don’t understand. They’re independent to a degree, but they tend to group themselves in cliques within which there is usually a high degree of conformity, as in having to have the same kinds of clothes that other kids in the group are wearing, especially wanting the “new new thing” like the latest cell phone. It’s a guarded move toward individuality and independence while still being dependent and conforming within the security of the peer group.

Adolescence also can be a sort of prep school for adulthood. As adults we have to obey the laws – the “social contract”, as we learn in our early school years, but we will also likely need to be able to say no to some authority figures or powerful personalities in our lives. That may be leaving an unacceptable work situation, saying no to a boss literally, or to dominating people or to abusive behavior from someone. So adolescent limit-testing is an unconscious development of skills that they will need as adults, both in asserting themselves and in assessing limits – how far is far enough and how much is too far. Minority teenagers have to learn a delicate dance of what they can resist safely with police and what they can’t. Resisting authority for them is a skill that can carry serious consequences, as we see often on the nightly news. And career civil servants in Washington now are having to make decisions about what they can resist in ways they’ve never had to before.

Adolescence ends when we enter the workplace, where we have to make ourselves acceptable to employers to get hired and follow directions from superiors to stay hired. We need to perform well enough to keep a job. It’s no longer a matter of getting good grades to please parents or be proud of ourselves – we have to make a living. This is a swing of the pendulum back toward socialization, even if we’re now living independently on our own. Although it’s getting harder and harder for young people entering the workforce, we want to make enough money to own a serviceable vehicle to get us to work, rent an apartment and buy groceries, clothes and household supplies. Eventually most of us want to own a home if we can.

The task in early adulthood for men and for most women, at least temporarily, is to make a place for themselves in the occupational world as an independent adult instead of a dependent child. For most people, it’s also marrying and sooner or later starting a family. Some women leave the workplace to focus on raising children, although many stay in the work world and play a double role, usually sharing family responsibilities with their husbands or partners. Both employment and developing a relationship with a spouse or partner as well as raising children require a suppression of ego, individuality and independence to balance with the needs of others – another period of socialization. So we put certain parts of ourselves on the shelf that don’t facilitate those things.

Early adulthood is a prolonged stage, but somewhere in our 40s or sometimes 50s most of us reach a degree of security where we’ve established our place in the world. Most of us know how to do what we’re doing in a job or career and are not on the steep learning curve we were on when we entered the work world. Our children have moved into adulthood or are about to. Like riding a bike, we don’t have to put as much energy into doing what we’ve learned to do to get us where we are. Also, as children leave home their absence often leaves a void when so much of life has revolved around parenting, especially for women who have not had a career.

This is when many people start to wonder “Is this all there is to life?” We often start to feel like something’s missing, frequently related to parts of ourselves that we put on the back burner in early adulthood that make their voices known. People start to sense that half their life is over, and there’s only so much time left to do things they’ve contemplated doing but never found the time or taken the chance. These can involve a second career option, creative pursuits, learning to play a musical instrument, starting a business or world travel. Whatever it is, there’s a sense of time running out and diminishing opportunity to follow paths we’ve told ourselves we wanted to do someday.

Carl Jung referred to it as the second half of life. It’s a transition from one life stage to another – early adulthood to middle or mature adulthood. He called the process individuation and saw it as moving toward a rounding out or broadening of one’s self to become more whole and balanced, more fully what we are in potential. It’s another swing of the pendulum back toward independence and individuality. Not everyone experiences a transition like this. Some people are happy with a life that embodies all that they are. For someone who has no unmet desires or dreams mature adulthood may be mostly a continuation and enrichment of early adulthood.

Retirement, however, constitutes its own life stage and precipitates its own life stage transition. For those working full-time, it creates an eight-hour void of time that has to be filled. For those who know exactly how they want to fill that time, the transition may be smooth. Even then there can be a sense of loss of identity, especially if the person has much of his or her identity and sense of worth wrapped up in the role of their job or profession. But for those who are unclear about how they want to or can fill those hours, it can create a feeling of being lost – What do I do now? Sitting around watching TV and playing computer games may be a way to pass the time to some degree, but those things are not going to provide the sense of a new identity with purpose, meaning and satisfaction.

Some people fill their new lives with creative activities they’ve always wanted to pursue like making furniture, painting, photography or quilting, perhaps even selling their creations to supplement their income. Others may find they have a passion for some kind of volunteer work. Another person may want to start their own business. I know a couple who traded their house for a large motor home and had a great time traveling all over the country visiting friends and family for years. Whatever it is, it has to provide a sense of purpose and give meaning to their lives if it’s going to fill the void from the loss of what one has been doing for eight hours a day for many years, no matter how badly one wants to quit that job.

Retirement doesn’t necessarily continue the pattern of the pendulum swing from socialization to independence and back again, unless a person devotes themselves to volunteer work in a nonprofit agency serving lots of people. Some may also become more social with activities in senior centers which at their best can provide a community that offers social activities, exercise and recreational activities and educational offerings. But for many it can be more of an extension of independence into a new arena with different activities. For some it may be like their midlife transition if it’s the first time they have pursued parts of themselves they put in the closet when they entered the workplace in their twenties, especially if they are able to retire at a young age. Jung believed that we become more “whole” in mature adulthood, and I think that leaves us more options.

Then there are those who never retire because they’re already doing what they want to do for the rest of their lives and they’re able to continue doing it until the day they die. This is true for many artists and other creative people who’ve been pursuing their passions their whole adult lives. Tony Bennett, Helen Mirren, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are prime examples of that. Richard Attenborough, Mother Theresa and Albert Schweitzer are other examples. Even some politicians who are largely motivated by public service goals fit this category, like Bernie Sanders.

Transitions between life stages are always unsettling, often disorienting and can at times produce a psychological crisis. Moving from one stage of life to another involves activities and behaviors a person hasn’t done before or hasn’t done very much. I’ve already detailed the new behaviors children have to adjust to when they start school. The adjustment to puberty and changing relationship to the opposite sex, with the anxieties, excitements and heartbreaks that go with that have been written about extensively. The conflicts with parents and testing of limits are also well-documented. Challenging authority is something that’s uncommon in children before adolescence. But it’s common with teenagers and not without some anxiety. Entering the workforce involves major adjustments from adolescent challenges to authority and limit-testing to bowing to authority and to making oneself a desirable job candidate and following the boss’s direction to keep the job. Challenging authority and testing limits in the work world can be done to some extent but usually in very limited ways if you want to stay employed, unless you’re in a union. Making any major change in a person’s worklife or in a marriage at midlife involves new behaviors or activities and risks that can be anxiety-provoking. And I’ve just described the difficulties and disturbances that can accompany retirement.

But the challenge of such changes also forces us to learn and grow and develop new parts of ourselves that can be rewarding and exhilarating, broadening and deepening the person we are. Life stage transitions can be some of the most rewarding and exciting times of our lives rather than crises, even when they come with uncertainty and anxiety.

Brett Nelson

Some Guidelines for Midlife and Other Life Stage Transitions

View the “crisis” as an opportunity and a message from your psyche that it’s out of harmony.

Don’t judge or reject your feelings or ideas outright as “crazy” or “stupid”.

Live with your fantasies for a while, sort out what’s meaningful and what isn’t before acting on them.

Don’t make a major decision until you know what your feelings are about.

Talk it over with others who have been through it, or with a counselor.

Re-evaluate your values, goals, purpose and direction in life.

“Don’t throw the baby out . . .” – decide what’s worth saving from your current way of life.

Learn to dialogue with your intuitive inner voice.

Fleetwood Mac – Dancing the Dance

Sometime in 1975, a song exploded on the radio that was seductive and irresistible, by a group I hadn’t heard of called Fleetwood Mac. There had been a popular British blues band by that name for eight years that went through repeated changes in personnel and never caught on in America. Formed originally by drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, they had shifted to a rock format with the addition of Christine McVie (Christine Perfect until she married McVie) on keyboards, and then guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who said he would not join the band without girlfriend Stevie Nicks. They issued an album titled simply Fleetwood Mac that had a big hit with “Rhiannon”. As Nicks tells the audience in a live performance of “Rhiannon” a few years later, “This is a song - about a witch,” but she doesn’t mean a witch in the Macbeth or Wizard of Oz evil witch sense. Britain and much of Europe had a powerful religion before Christianity called Druidism. She’s apparently envisioning a Druid priestess.

Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night

And wouldn't you love to love her?

Takes to the sky like a bird in flight

And who will be her lover?

All your life you've never seen a woman taken by the wind

Would you stay if she promised you heaven?

Will you ever win?

She rings like a bell through the night

And wouldn't you love to love her?

She rules her life like a bird in flight

And who will be her lover?

All your life you've never seen a woman taken by the wind

Would you stay if she promised you heaven?

Will you ever win?

Rhiannon

You can ignore the mystical lyrics and just love the music. It’s a high-energy mystical rocker with a great melody that builds in intensity until it fades out with

Taken by

Taken by the sky

Taken by

Taken by the sky

Taken by

Taken by the sky

Dreams unwind

Love's a state of mind

Dreams unwind

Love's a state of mind

But the album is full of other great songs, especially by Christine McVie, like the mellow and lovely “Warm Ways”, accompanied by a restrained electric guitar by Lindsey Buckingham and a gentle drumbeat by Fleetwood. For all his virtuoso guitar pyrotechnics, throughout the three albums I’m covering Buckingham’s more often restrained and in the background, providing tasty accompaniment that enhances the song without taking center stage. His simple guitar here has a wonderfully sweet tone.

Sleep easy by my side

Into gentle slumber you can hide

I, I’m waiting for the sun to come up

I can’t sleep with your warm ways

“Over My Head” was a hit, one of McVie’s helplessly-in-love/don’t-hurt-me songs, with an uptempo rolling drumbeat and strong bass making a great rhythm underpinning.

You can take me to paradise

And then again you can be cold as ice

I'm over my head (over my head)

Oh, but it sure feels nice

You can take me anytime you like

I'll be around if you think you might

Love me baby (over my head)

And hold me tight

Your mood is like a circus wheel

You're changing all the time

Sometimes I can't help but feel

That I'm wasting all of my time

Buckingham plays amazing guitar but isn’t my favorite singer/songwriter. So many of his songs have a choppy rhythm. But “Crystal” on this album is excellent, a slow ballad with a yearning vocal and an acoustic guitar, plus a gorgeous high-pitched organ.

Do you always trust your first initial feeling

Special knowledge, holds true bears believing

I turned around and the water was closing all around

Like a glove, like the love that had finally, finally found me

Then I knew in the crystalline knowledge of you

Drove me through the mountains

Through the crystal like a clear water fountain

Drove me like a magnet, to the sea, to the sea

To the sea, yeah

How the faces of love change, turning the pages

And I have changed, oh but you, you remain ageless

I turned around and the water was closing all around

Like a glove, like the love that had finally, finally found me

McVie's “Say You Love Me” was a big hit, a rocker with a fast tempo piano and a foot-tapping drumbeat and bass. Buckingham plays a ringing, mellow-toned high guitar that sounds like Roger McGuin’s Rickenbacker on an early Byrds song.

Have mercy, baby on a poor girl like me

You know I'm falling, falling, falling at your feet

I'm tingling right from my head to my toes

So help me, help me, help me make the feeling go

'Cause when the loving starts, and the lights go down

And there's not another living soul around

You woo me until the sun comes up

And you say that you love me

Have pity baby

Just when I thought it was over

Now you got me running, running, running for cover

I'm begging you for a little sympathy

'Cause if you use me again it'll be the end of me

Nicks follows with one of her best songs, “Landslide”, an apparent warning not to put her on a pedestal, with a beautiful alto vocal and simple acoustic guitar accompaniment, plus a soft electric guitar on the last verse. Not issued as a single, it got a lot of airplay as an album track.

I took my love, I took it down

I climbed a mountain and I turned around

And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills

'Till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changing

'Cause I've built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I'm getting older too. . .

Oh, take my love, take it down

Oh, climb a mountain and turn around

And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills

Well the landslide will bring it down

And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills

Well the landslide will bring it down, oh oh

The landslide will bring it down

“World Turning” is perhaps a shout back to FM’s blues roots, with McVie singing an anguished vocal with a fast-paced guitar and thudding drums, finishing with some sort of hand drums.

Everybody's trying to say I'm wrong

I just wanna be back where I belong

World turning

I gotta get my feet back on the ground

World turning

Everybody's got me down

Maybe I'm wrong but who's to say what's right

I need somebody to help me through the night

Rumours was one of the most successful albums of all time, although I don’t know that it’s better than Fleetwood Mac. “Dreams” was a hit, a song by Nicks that she sings with her seductive alto, painting a worldly-wise picture of a relationship disintegrating.

Now here you go again

You say you want your freedom

Well, who am I to keep you down?

It's only right that you should

Play the way you feel it

But listen carefully to the sound

Of your loneliness

Like a heartbeat... drives you mad

In the stillness of remembering what you had

And what you lost...

And what you had...

And what you lost

Oh thunder only happens when it's raining

Players only love you when they're playing

Say... Women... they will come and they will go

When the rain washes you clean... you'll know, you'll know

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions

I keep my visions to myself

It's only me

Who wants to wrap around your dreams and...

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Dreams of loneliness...

When the rain washes you clean

You’ll know…you will know

Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” is one of the best pieces of rock and roll I’ve ever heard, along with Dylan and The Band’s live 1974 version of “Like a Rolling Stone”, Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome”, and Johnny Rivers’ take on Muddy Waters’ “Got My Mojo Workin” among a few others. It’s one of the most exciting songs to listen to on record. It’s led and dominated by Mick Fleetwood’s sophisticated, pounding drumming that builds to a crescendo. I’ve never been someone who listened much to the drums in music, but it’s the drumming here that my ears follow – they’re what gets under my skin and carries me away. It’s the only song I know of where the drums are the lead instrument rather than guitar, sax, piano or organ. It even puts an excellent electric guitar solo by Buckingham in the background. Fleetwood varies the rhythm repeatedly in complex ways but never loses the beat

Fleetwood Mac did a reunion concert in Los Angeles in 1997, from which came the CD and DVD The Dance, in which Fleetwood outdoes himself on “Go Your Own Way” in a fluid and free but controlled ecstasy that’s absolutely exhilarating. He looks like he’s having the time of his life. It’s very different than the typical drum solo where drummers are showing off all their moves, because he stays totally within the structure of the song rather than have the song suspended for a drum solo.

Loving you

Is it the right thing to do?

How can I ever change

Things that I feel?

If I could

Maybe I’d give you my world

Open up

Everything’s waiting for you

You can go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

“Go Your Own Way” was a big hit, and Christine McVie’s “Songbird” was another one. Her bell-like singing on it is gorgeous, accompanied only by her strong and gentle piano. It’s a very simple and gentle but memorable song.

For you, there'll be no more crying

For you, the sun will be shining

And I feel that when I'm with you

It's alright, I know it's right

To you, I'll give the world

To you, I'll never be cold

'Cause I feel that when I'm with you

It's alright, I know it's right

And the songbirds are singing

Like they know the score

And I love you, I love you, I love you

Like never before

And I wish you all the love in the world

But most of all, I wish it from myself

It’s followed by one of Fleetwood Mac’s most powerful songs, “The Chain”, with songwriter credit to all five band members. It’s a moody song about broken promises with powerful vocals by Nicks and Buckingham, acoustic guitar plus a great electric guitar break by Buckingham and a memorable bass line that stands out and gets under your skin.

Listen to the wind blow

Watch the sun rise

Run in the shadows

Damn your love

Damn your lies

And if you don't love me now

You will never love me again

I can still hear you saying

You would never break the chain

McVie’s “You Make Loving Fun” is an upbeat and fast rocker with a strong drumbeat and bass plus the usual excellent guitar by Buckingham. McVie’s singing is strong and resonant.

Sweet wonderful you,

You make me happy with the things you do.

Oh, can it be so?

This feeling follows me wherever I go.

I never did believe in miracles,

But I've a feeling it's time to try.

I never did believe in the ways of magic,

But I'm beginning to wonder why.

Don't, don't break the spell.

It would be different, and you know it will.

You, you make loving fun,

And I don't have to tell you, but you're the only one.

The album ends with Nicks’ “Gold Dust Woman”, a screed against predatory women and one of her best songs. It has an ominous feel all the way through, but not threatening. It builds to a climax at the end as drumbeat, bass and guitar get louder and Nicks’ singing becomes a wail.

Rock on, gold dust woman

Take your silver spoon and dig your grave

Heartless challenge

Pick your path and I'll pray

Wake up in the morning

See your sunrise – loves – to go down

Lousy lovers pick their prey

But they never cry out loud, cry out

Well, did she make you cry

Make you break down

Shatter your illusions of love?

And is it over now?

Do you know how to

Pick up the pieces and go home

Rock on, ancient queen

Follow those who pale in your shadow

Rulers make bad lovers

You better put your kingdom up for sale, up for sale . . .

Ooh, pale shadow of a woman

Black widow

Ooh, pale shadow, she's a dragon

Gold dust woman

1979’s Tusk was a double CD album of 20 songs that followed 1977’s Rumours, testifying to a flowering of creativity perhaps stimulated by Rumours’ success. It starts off with McVie’s “Over and Over”, a beautiful slow ballad in the vein of the characteristic do-you/could-you-really-love-me” theme that runs through many of her songs. It’s accompanied by restrained and gentle guitar and piano, with a heavy slow and simple drumbeat that anchors the song.

Could you ever need me

And would you know how, yeah

Don't waste our time

Tell me now

All you have to do

Is speak out my name, yeah

And I would come running

Anyway

And I said

Could it be me?

Could it really, really be?

Over and over

Could it really, really be?

Over and over . . .

Don't turn me away

And don't let me down

What can I do

To keep you around

Nicks’ “Sara” is for me the standout song on the album. It starts with McVie’s piano teasing the listener with repetitive notes that rise in pitch and build anticipation, seeming to hint at what’s to come. Then drums kick in with a seductive rhythm and McVie’s piano changes to follow the rhythm with a simple and repetitive pattern. John McVie’s bass keeps a nice steady and infectious rhythm along with the drums and piano.

Wait a minute, baby.

Stay with me awhile

Said you'd give me light

But you never told me about the fire

Drowning in the sea of love

Where everyone would love to drown

But now it's gone

It doesn't matter what for

When you build your house

Then call me home

And he was just like a great dark wing

Within the wings of a storm

I think I had met my match

He was singing

And undoing

And undoing the laces

Undoing the laces . . .

Said, Sara

You're the poet in my heart

Never change

Never stop

But now it's gone

It doesn't matter what for

But when you build your house

Then call me, call me

The lyrics always seemed mysterious to me. She seems to be talking about a relationship with a man, after her breakup with Mick Fleetwood, but she’s said it was partly about best friend Sara Recor, who Fleetwood had an affair with while in a non-exclusive relationship with Nicks. FM’s lyrics are famously described as being frankly about relationships and conflicts between members of the band without seeming self-absorbed. I’ve wondered if it wasn’t also partly about Nicks’ muse. In any case it’s a gorgeous song. “Storms” is another beautiful song by Nicks, an honest confession of mistakes in a relationship as well as a lament for its loss, and ownership of her stormy nature. Buckingham plays a nice, restrained acoustic accompaniment.

Every night that goes between

I feel a little less

As you slowly go away from me

This is only another test

Every night you do not come

Your softness fades away

Did I ever really care that much?

Is there anything left to say?

Every hour of fear I spend

My body tries to cry

Living through each empty night

A deadly calm inside

I haven't felt this way I feel

Since many a years ago

But in those years and the lifetime's past

I did not deal with the road

And I did not deal with you, I know

Though the love has always been

So I search to find an answer there

So I can truly win

Every hour of fear I spend

My body tries to cry

Living through each empty night

A deadly calm inside

So I try to say goodbye, my friend

I'd like to leave you with something warm

But never ever been a blue calm sea

I have always been a storm, always been a storm

She sings the song with acceptance of her stormy nature but her voice is full of sadness at the recognition. Nicks was selected as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2020) and one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time (2021) by Rolling Stone magazine. Her songs have the most emotional and intellectual depth of Fleetwood Mac songs. Their first two albums with this lineup her lyrics are mostly pretty straightforward, but on Tusk they turn more impressionistic. I have to guess more often what she’s talking about, and your guess may be as good as mine. It’s not my favorite kind of poetry, but with the emotional expressiveness of song, it results in some of my favorite lyrics.

“Angel” is a song that seems to be about a younger part of herself. It’s a medium-paced rocker with a screaming guitar, piano and a driving drumbeat.

Sometimes the most beautiful things

The most innocent things

And many of those dreams

Pass us by, keep passing me by

You feel good

I said, "It's funny that you understood.

I knew you would.

When you were good,

You were very, very good". . .

I still look up

When you walk in the room

I’ve the same wide eyes

They tell the story

Try not to reach out

When you turn around

And say hello

And we both pretend

There was an end

But there was no ending

So I close my eyes softly

'Til I become that part of the wind

That we all long for sometime

And to those that I love

Like a ghost through a fog

Like a charmed hour

And a haunted song

And the angel of my dreams

I still look up

I try hard not to look up

That girl was me

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Track a ghost through the fog

A charmed hour – a haunted song

Track a ghost through the fog, baby

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

You track a ghost through the fog, baby

Ooh, you try hard

But you'll never catch me – yeah

But that girl was free

“Brown Eyes” is a nice, dreamy Christine McVie song about a mesmerizing sexual attraction for someone, with an organ accompaniment plus a solid bass line and percussion and a lot of Sha-la-la-Sha-la-las.

You look at me with those brown eyes

What do you want to do?

Do you have to have me

The way that I want you, I want you?

Sha-la-la, Sha-la-la, la-la-ooh

When you look at me with those brown eyes

What do you want to say?

And are you just another liar?

Will you take me all the way, all the way?

“Honey Hi” is a light and simple McVie love song with a seductive and irresistible medium-paced rhythm. “Never Make Me Cry” is a McVie song beautifully sung in a voice clear and resonant as a bell. A gentle piano and guitar and simple bass smoothe out this slow ballad.

You know that I’ll wait

As long as it takes

So go and do what you want

You'll never make me

You'll never make me cry

I may not mean everything

But I'm happy to have your love

So don't worry baby, I'll be alright

And I'll never make you

I'll never make you

I'll never make you cry.

“Beautiful Child” is a gorgeous, slow Nicks ballad with what sounds like a simple electric piano accompaniment. It sounds like she’s talking to someone older who fell in love with her when she was a child, but she’s the more mature person now and he’s more the child. Still, she’s the one who’s in love and can’t let go.

Beautiful child

You are beautiful, child

And I am a fool once more

You fell in love when I was only ten

The years disappeared

Much has gone by since then

I bite my lip, can you send me away

You touch

I have no choice

I have to stay

Oooh, I had to stay, oooh I had to stay

Sleepless child

There is so little time

Your eyes say yes

But you don't say yes

I wish that you were mine

You say it will be harder in the morning

I wait for you to say, Just go

Your hands held mine so few hours

But I'm not a child anymore

I'm not a child anymore

I'm tall enough

To reach for the stars

I'm old enough

To love you from afar

Too trusting, yes

But then women usually are

I'm not a child anymore

No, I'm not a child, oh no

Tall enough to reach for the stars

I will do

As I'm told

Even if I never hold you again

I never hold you again

The title song, “Tusk” starts with some muted crowd noise, apparently from a USC football game, and a pounding drumbeat that kicks in before a spooky vocal starts in almost a whisper.

Why don't you ask him if he's going to stay?

Why don't you ask him if he's going away?

Why don't you tell me what's going on?

Why don't you tell me who's on the phone?

Why don't you tell me what's going on?

Don't say that you love me!

Just tell me that you want me!

Just say that you want me!

Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk!

Tusk!

With “Don’t say that you love me!” a marching band kicks in with the crowd noise getting louder. It turns out they recorded the song in Dodger Stadium with the USC Trojan Marching Band. It’s powerful rock and roll with rhythmic drumming and strong bass, with thin lyrics, but it’s seductive. In their reunion concert for The Dance video and CD the USC Marching Band files onto the stage in full dress behind the band and in front of the stage, playing their accompaniment and filling the Warner Brothers auditorium with the overwhelming noise to cheers from the audience.

The album ends with Christine McVie singing the upbeat “Never Forget”, with a sweet melody.

Come on baby, could you ever be

Just a little close to me

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

Could we ever forget tonight?

Come on, baby, let’s take a stroll

You’re feelin warm so don’t cold

Ooh, ooh, ooh

We’ll never forget tonight

It’ll be allright

What a wonderful night to be

The stars must be my friends

To shine for me . . .

We will never forget tonight

Fleetwood Mac went on to make many more albums before disbanding for solo albums after The Dance. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with early band members as well as the Rumours lineup. Early guitarist Peter Green played his song “Black Magic Woman” with Santana, who were inducted on the same night. I only had one earlier Fleetwood Mac album, titled Mystery to Me, which had only one song that I really liked. So I’m not familiar with their earlier music that went through a lot of personnel changes outside of Fleetwood and John McVie. But it’s these three Rumours lineup albums that have stayed with me. They’ve stood the test of time, and I still love the songs.

Brett Nelson