Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, whose turbulent relationship was both a defining and destructive part of Fleetwood Mac, are in fact going back again, this time to where it all began.
After much speculation — fueled by a cryptic set of coordinated Instagram posts — the musicians announced last week that they will be reissuing Buckingham Nicks, the only studio album they recorded as a duo of the same name.
They recorded it when they were in their mid-20s, exploring a romantic relationship and a folk-rock, Laurel Canyon-esque sound. At the time, they were basically unknown, says rock and roll historian Richie Unterberger.
"So for many Fleetwood Mac fans — and there are millions of them — who are curious about what Buckingham and Nicks did before joining the group and what their roots were, this is the only recorded evidence," he told NPR.
The 10-track album was originally released in 1973, and in a twist of fate, led to Buckingham and Nicks joining Fleetwood Mac the following year — and subsequently helping transform the-then English blues-rock band into a hit machine.
Although Buckingham Nicks helped put the future superstars on the map, it was by no means a commercial success.
"With lukewarm initial reviews and sales, it was dropped from Polydor Records within months of its release and has remained elusive, with out-of-print vinyl copies fetching anywhere from $40 to $150 on the internet," Carrie Courogen wrote for NPR in 2018.
After a tumultuous few years of romance, infidelity, breakups and lawsuits, Fleetwood Mac has been largely inactive for decades, though many of its rotating roster of members have had robust solo careers.
Still, the band's songs have held a firm grasp on the airwaves (remember TikTok's juice-sipping longboarder, who catapulted "Dreams" back on the charts in 2020?). And intrigue around its members continues to swirl, with footage of Nicks holding Buckingham's gaze during a 1997 live performance of her breakup ballad "Silver Springs" routinely going viral.
And the elusive Buckingham Nicks has topped the wishlists of collectors and die-hard fans all the while, Unterberger says.
Copies of the record — either used or new ones that had never been sold — were snapped up once Fleetwood Mac became successful, and haven't been readily available for half a century.
While certain songs from Buckingham Nicks have appeared in bootleg copies, box sets and sparing live performances, the album that started it all has never been reissued. That will change on Sept. 19, when Rhino Records is set to release a remastered version on vinyl, CD and digital platforms.
Why now? Unterberger says there could have been rights issues or contractual obstacles preventing the album from coming out sooner. Buckingham and Nicks' views may also have changed now that they are in their mid-to-late 70s.
"They might, if not look back on it with more pride, think: 'This is really important for our catalog and our legacy. It might not be us at our best. It might not be the greatest music. But it's important that people know where we came from and know as much about our music as possible,'" he says.
A fortuitous accident: Buckingham Nicks to Fleetwood Mac
Buckingham and Nicks met as high school students in California in the 1960s, and started playing music together while at San Jose State University. They started dating around 1972 while working on their eponymous album, in which they posed nude for the black-and-white cover.
Meanwhile, in England, Fleetwood Mac was also finding its voice. The band, which started as a blues-rock group in 1967, continuously changed its lineup and its style. By 1974, it had evolved into a pop and progressive rock band, and only had two of its original members: drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.
Shortly after the band relocated to Los Angeles, guitarist Bob Welch exited unexpectedly, prompting Fleetwood to search for his replacement at the same time he was looking for a new recording studio.
What happened next, Unterberger says, is "one of the more fortuitous accidents … in rock music history."
Fleetwood happened to visit Sound City Studios. There, a producer named Keith Olsen played tape from Buckingham Nicks — not necessarily to showcase the duo, but to show Fleetwood "this is what we can do at the studio," as Unterberger explains. Still, the album itself made an impression on Fleetwood, who soon invited Buckingham — himself a guitarist and singer — to join the band.
"And Buckingham … said, 'I can't go into the band just by myself. You'll also have to take Stevie Nicks,'" Unterberger says. "[The band] met with both of them and they decided, 'Yeah, we'll take both of the members of Buckingham Nicks,' and that was essential to their transition to a top pop rock group."
Musically, Unterberger says the 1973 album bears some of the trademarks of what the duo later brought to Fleetwood Mac, from the vocal harmonies to the characteristic blends of acoustic and electric guitars. But he says the songwriting isn't as memorable — that was enhanced when the two joined forces with Fleetwood Mac's other major singer-songwriter, keyboard player and John McVie's wife, Christine McVie.
"I can hear why this record was not successful and, at the same time, why Fleetwood Mac … heard characteristics that could be real assets to the band," he says.
A reissue doesn't mean a reunion. It's still good news for fans
Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours, widely considered their best work, has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Notably, it was created during a time of intense romantic turmoil and interpersonal drama for the band's members, including the divorces of Christine and John McVie and Mick Fleetwood and his then-wife, as well as the breakup of Buckingham and Nicks.
1973's Buckingham and Nicks harkens back to a simpler time, as both of its members have said over the years.
"Before fame and all the creepiness creeped in, there was a really sweet girl and a really sweet boy that sang together and made beautiful music," Nicks said in 2013.
Buckingham is quoted in Rhino Records' announcement as saying that despite their relative inexperience, the album "stands up in a way you hope it would, by these two kids who were pretty young to be doing that work."
Nicks left and rejoined Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s, and Buckingham was fired in 2018, the same year it held a reunion tour without him. After Christine McVie died in 2022, Nicks quashed the public's hope of any future reunions, saying: "There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn't work."
So when Nicks and Buckingham posted matching song lyrics on Instagram earlier this month, they set off a bit of a frenzy. But Unterberger cautions fans not to read too much into the re-release of their first album. For example, he says, it's not clear whether they communicated directly at all or just through representatives.
"If they needed to approve this release, it seems to be a sign that there might be more civil communications between the pair than there have been at many points … really since the 1980s," he says. "But I wouldn't necessarily assume that."
What is undoubtedly exciting, he says, is that the album will finally be accessible to fans, whether they are longtime die-hards or curious Spotify browsers. And it could inspire other artists to follow suit.
"I think that it's a good sign that something like this finally comes out, because it might encourage other artists and record companies to issue things from their vaults that for some reason they might have been frozen there, or they might think that it reflects badly on them," he adds. "But they're really very useful, not just for professional historians … but also for fans."
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