Leader and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood is one of the few music artists who kept his band together for more than five decades. And throughout the decades, fans have always argued about which Fleetwood Mac song is the best or most popular. Furthermore, every fan has their own personal choice of Fleetwood Mac’s song that they love.
However, does the founder of the band Mick Fleetwood have any favorite songs from his band? this is one of the most asked questions by his fans and in this piece, we will discuss what Mick said when he was asked what his favorite Fleetwood Mac songs are.
Fleetwood Mac songs Mick Fleetwood loves
Although songs like Albatross, The Green Manalishi, and Oh Well are some of their most popular and fan-favorite songs, Mick seems to love their song “Love That Burns” more than any other even though it is not the most famous song of the band. This track is from their 1968 released album Mr. Wonderful.
We now know his favorite song from the band but why does he love this song? he says that this was a song that let him express himself thoroughly when he was a young guy. Furthermore, he also said that he thinks of Peter Green every time this song plays.
He said in an interview, “This is the essence of what I was able to get out of playing a form of music that allowed me, as a young chap, to express myself so thoroughly, not only vicariously through Peter – because I loved his playing so much – but when I was privileged to be playing behind somebody so talented. When I hear this, it’s all about a young chap, me, knowing why Peter was so overjoyed to be playing the music that he loved so much.”
Moreover, Peter Green was not just a bandmate to Mick but he was his really close friend and inspiration. And since Peter was the one who wrote his favorite song, Mick said that “Peter kills me.” With Mick’s this statement we can all do one thing and that is agreeing Mick loves Love That Burns and it is his number one favorite song from the band.
Sadly Peter was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the mid-1970s. And according to Mick Fleet, Peter’s mental illness started because of taking drugs. According to Clifford Davis [Peter’s former manager], Green went to a party in Munich where he took LSD and it changed him completely.
After Peter died several huge music artists paid tribute to him including David Gilmour. And obviously Mick was sad about his dear friend’s passing. He also remembered his pal and said that he was his dearest friend. Not only did he mention Green as his dearest friend but he also said for him and Fleetwood Mac Peter was monumental. Later, he also thanked Green for asking him to be his drummer.
Furthermore, talking about Mick’s favorite songs, there are several other songs he mentioned he loves and they are Dreams, Rattlesnake Shake, Go Your Own Way, and more. He has spoken about each of these songs and we will talk about them in another article however, as mentioned Love That Burns is his number-one favorite song.
Mick Fleetwood’s 8 favorite Fleetwood Mac songs:
‘Love That Burns’ (1968)
The first song that came into my mind of Fleetwood was from the Peter Green era, where the track was taken from the sophomore effort, Mr. Wonderful, and was released in 1968. Let’s take a look at what Mich Fleetwood has to say on this!
“Peter Green. Fleetwood Mac. This is probably, almost, my favorite song. It kills me. Peter kills me. He was my friend, remains a friend, and he started Fleetwood Mac with me in 1967,” he said of the song. Not necessarily the biggest hit of the band’s career, the selection is born from Fleetwood’s own connection to the song.
“This is me in my full-on training ground,” he continued. “This is the essence of playing Oh Daddy, the essence of what I was able to get out of playing a form of music that allowed me, as a young chap, to express myself so thoroughly, not only vicariously through Peter – because I loved his playing so much – but when I was privileged to be playing behind somebody so talented. When I hear this, it’s all about a young chap, me, knowing why Peter was so overjoyed to be playing the music that he loved so much.”
‘Go Your Own Way’ (1977)
His second pick was also a song that was from the Rumours era of the band, almost a decade later. This was the time when Peter Green’s departure and the beginning of global dominance. The second pick, ‘Go Your Own Way’ was one of the most renowned songs of the band that he couldn’t slide it off.
“Lindsey walked in with a demo, in his wonderfully ordered fashion from the days when he’d just joined Fleetwood Mac until he realized that John and I played in a certain way,” he adds, “Which was compliant to the structures and aspirations of a songwriter”.
“I love playing this song. It’s one of my favourites because I get to kick the hell out of my drums, and it’s got that wonderfully primal part. It’s a great ‘let loose’ stage song, in which I can revert to my old animal ways and not be quite so polite. Lindsey is a full-on rock ‘n’ roller on this song, and that I love.”
Walk a Thin Line
Another favorite song of Fleetwood was one of the Buckingham results and the song that shows the effort he made at Tusk back in 1979. Let’s take a look at what the legendary drummer has to say about his favorite song.
“This is a Lindsey Buckingham album, written for the Tusk album,” recalled Mick Fleetwood in his insightful conversation. “I redid it this for The Visitor, the album I recorded in Africa, and the reason I did so was because I really loved the song and wished that I’d written it. I approached it with a whole ensemble of African musicians, so as a percussion player, during these recordings, I was, as we say in England, ‘like a pig in shit.’ I had the greatest time playing with these musicians on this rendition of this particular song.”
He added: “George Harrison was my ex-brother-in-law, so when I came back to England, he put some beautiful slide guitar on the track for me. I adore him and his music, and he is sorely missed.”
Dreams
How can this list be complete without the iconic song that hit the Billboard charts in the States? ‘Dreams’ was one of its most successful songs and the only song of Fleetwood to top the Billboard chart. This was one of the songs that played a vital role in the band for their success. Let’s take a look at his thoughts of Fleetwood on his favorite song.
“I think it’s the most famous song that Stevie ever wrote. The intro, I think is one of those stupidly simple things that came from the drummer who played with Al Green and The Staple Singers, so it’s from my love of what I call ‘greasy music.’ It has a real feel, and it’s lazy, behind the beat – stupidly simple but well-thought-out.
“The tempo of the song, I’ve been finding out, is something that really appeals to drummers, so I take that as a compliment. It’s something I took from great players who I love so much: Keep it greasy and stay in the slot. Gotta be in the slot!”
Tusk
Another song that Fleetwood to his favorite list is Tusk, it makes sense on why he would choose this song as one of his favorites because it has the feeling of chaos and it is the exact opposite of Rumours, it has imperfections which make it perfect!
“This is Mick Fleetwood gone AWOL. I really enjoyed working with Lindsey, who put the structure down. The song had basically been discarded during the Tusk sessions, and no one knew what to do with it. We’d made this jam song. The crazy jungle beat is very much a Mick staple diet.
“The song came back to life, on the face of it, from an asinine idea I got when I was on holiday in France. There was a brass band walking around the village, and I came back and said, ‘We need to put the USC Marching Band on this,’ and everybody thought I was crazy. Of course, we did it, and it’s become one of the classic Fleetwood Mac songs in concert.”
Oh Well
The legendary drummer adds his other favorite song from the Peter Green era, this era was the time when the path of the band was straightforward and they didn’t have to go through any kind of challenges despite being one of the biggest bands in the world. Let’s say what the legendary drummer has to say on this.
“It’s two minutes of madness that I love. It’s a stop-and-start song, and to this day I get the heebie-jeebies thinking that I’m going to mess it up – which is good because that’s the child in me.”
He added more; “The structures that I was able to put together make it something that is very unique. It’s become a real staple of the diet, way more so than I ever realized with our contemporaries and the best of the best – they’re absolutely fascinated with this song.”
Rattlesnake Shake
‘Rattlesnake Shake’, another favorite song of Fleetwood also comes from the Peter Green period. This was one of the greatest song of 1969.
“On this song, you hear structure, yes, but you also hear me being incredibly free to break into the shuffle at the end, which was not supposed to happen, but it did and we went, ‘Oh my God, we really like that.’ I really loved that because it was my way of participating in creating the character of the song,”
He added: “It incorporated the freedom to go off on a tangent, to jam – the classic ‘Do you jam, dude?’ We learned that as players. You hear that alive and well in the double-time structure that I put in at the end, which on stage could last half an hour. It was our way of being in The Grateful Dead.”
Oh Daddy
The last song that we have on the list was written by Christine McVie wrote for the legendary drummer. When the song was released, Fleetwpd was the father of two daughters. The track Rumours holds a precious place in his heart.
I’m a sucker for this one because it really is a structured song, which is so appealing to me as a player,” Fleetwood added: “Basically, it’s me playing a slow blues with Christine.”
“Sentimentally I say this because I didn’t know it at the time, but I found out not too long afterwards, that the song was actually written about me. At that point, I was the only daddy in the ranks of Fleetwood Mac. Christine is a sister of mine and truly a great musician – and a blues player.”
