Christine McVie - "Got a Hold on Me"

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Not to lie. To be honest. That came from my parents. I can’t imagine better advice coming from one’s parents. I try to stick by that rule and to be as good a person as I can.

-- Christine McVie, Rolling Stone interview, June 2022

Stevie Nicks - "Stand Back"

Somehow, I've gone through my whole life never hearing the story of how Prince's "Little Red Corvette" inspired Stevie Nicks' "Stand Back." It's worth reading in full.

"Holiday Road" and Lindsey Buckingham's Elusive Solo Success

You know him from Fleetwood Mac. But for decades, Lindsey Buckingham has also worked on solo material, always knowing it would never garner the same attention as his material with that superstar band. For MEL, I wrote about what might be his most beloved solo venture, his contribution to National Lampoon's Vacation. Here's my ode to "Holiday Road."

Fleetwood Mac - "Second Hand News"

Earlier this year, Rumours came out in a fancy new deluxe edition. This is an album whose backstory looms so large that I wonder if impressionable 11-year-olds just now getting into music are handed a copy of the album with the advisory, "They did a lot of drugs, and everybody was screwing everybody else." Luckily, the music's still so terrific that its making isn't that important to its enjoyment. My favorite detail in the opening track: those "shh" background vocals.