3 Things We Learned From Fleetwood Mac; Lesson #3

Lesson #3. Don't Scare Children...

All of us At Born2Win ride motorcycles. I Have a giant green one. It’s a 1000cc (very fast) sports bike. I call it Big Green. (Not sure why…) It’s loud, obnoxious and aggressive. The thing won’t be tamed, it just won’t.

A sniff of damp; rear wheel starts to spin, crack open the throttle any faster than a tickle?; Rear starts to spin and it automatically chases and over-takes any vehicle with a Porsche badge whether or not I want it too… then; the rear wheel starts to spin… Why am I telling you this? Because band members are just like ‘Big Green’. Take lead guitarists for example. The lead vox only has to forget the lyrics for a single bar and ‘Jonnie Solo’, turns his amp to number 12 and all hell breaks loose. ‘Lets see how fast I can play every note on my guitar twice!’ -really? And drummers? You guys can stop laughing, you’re probably worse. There is no better excuse in the world than ‘sorry guys I don’t have a volume knob…’ I know, I started out as a drummer. Drummers treat the end of every verse as a drum battle with ‘Animal’ and because they are drummers and have to sit at the back, they don’t even have to watch the audience’s leaving… Once again, thank you Fleetwood Mac. You are ‘Big Green’. Each and every member is highly capable. Take Lindsey Buckingham for example, what kind of sadist do you have to be to take guitar playing, which is hard enough on its own, then throw your pick into the audience and just play with your little pinkie’s instead.. come on man, their steel strings…! And yet, when it’s solo time, he expresses taste and restraint and plays just enough to serve the song. See; 'Go Your Own Way'. And the man himself, Mick? For a whole minute on the beginning of the live version of The Chain, he just plays 4 on the floor, the world’s most easy drum pattern, (even our drummer can do it) just to serve the song, no more no less, just the right thing, in the right place. The result is a sound that compliments each instrument and each song. Less is indeed more. So what does that teach us? Use the power appropriately; hoon about on country roads, But we really have to stop wheeling past schools…

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3 Things We Learned From Fleetwood Mac; Lesson #2

Lesson #2. Write Songs About Rude Things...

I was brought up a Christian. This means I spent many years thinking I was better than everyone else (until life taught me a swift lesson or two). I am Glad to say I am now human again. But being brought up as a Christian also made me love rock music and made me a better Rockstar. Allow me to explain…

Of course, as a Christian, part of my job would be to pitch up to the local congregation in my Sunday best ready to listen to the Sunday sermon. Here, I would try to look as interested as I could while my body, limb by limb would fall asleep and go limp and my brain kept singing gentle lullabies to my eyelids…. It wasn’t a problem however, my dad always helped out by giving me a swift clip whenever the sleep took hold.... This is where ‘The Right Honorable Reverend Boring’ could have taken a few tips from our fave rock band. What the 'Mac' had right was point number 2; Story telling. You see we all love a great story. Scary ones, funny ones, stories of triumph and stories of tragedy, all are great. And a great song my friends, is nothing more than a great story. Ask any writer and they will tell you that a great story is all about great characters. This is what makes great bands; great characters. Get it right and these characters interact to tell their own unique story. IE; Fleetwood Mac. The best bands in the world follow Fleetwood Mac’s example and allow their own personal stories to permeate through their music. (Ever wondered when band artists go solo, their music, well changes…?) What Fleetwood Mac Taught us is to allow our relationships to permeate through each and every song we write and perform and actually become the story. Listen to the story telling influence in this song, it’s a great example of how a song, when performed in a band, tells a deeper story than just the lyrics and chord changes alone. Enjoy. Lesson No. 2; Storytelling Listen Here...

Lesson #3 Coming Soon...

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3 Things We Learned From Fleetwood Mac; Lesson #1

Lesson #1; Your In-Laws Suck...

I reach the door of No.4 station terrace, breathing hard. It had been a three and a half mile run on a bitter winter’s night. I was soaked through with the heavy freezing rain that had fallen for what seemed like weeks, but that night I hardly felt it at all. In fact, I felt nothing but anger and heartbreak...

I run straight past the living room where my parents were watching the evening news and on into my bedroom, I slammed the door, threw myself prostrate on the bed and sobbed into my pillow till I could cry no more tears and my head burst with the effort of containing my emotions.

Hours Later, with my face still buried in my pillow, I felt across to the bedside table, fumbled with the ON switch of my record player and turned up the volume.

Stevie Nicks. Dreams. I was 14, I hadn’t heard the song before, it wasn’t my record, or record player. I was staying in my brothers room, he had moved out a few months earlier but had left everything in situ, but in that moment, that didn’t matter, nothing mattered but the raw honesty and emotion in Stevie’s impassioned vocal. I was mesmerized, transfixed and didn’t know why. I didn’t know what she was singing about, but I honestly believed it. In that moment where my heart had been broken by the parents of my first and only love, Ava, I found solace in the honesty of Stevie’s voice. I felt understood, It felt like home.

Whatever colour, race, political or religious persuasion, whether girl boy young or old, we all have one thing in common; At one time or another we have all been spoken to by some music at some time. That night and many since, music has saved my life.

Many years later, when I picked up a guitar and started to write songs of my own, I often think back to that night. Fleetwood Mac wrote the Rumors album with absolute and brutal honesty and it shows. I know, I felt it. When I write a song now, it must pass the ‘Stevie test’ Do I actually feel this way? Is this authentic to me? Do I get goosebumps? Do I get choked up singing it?

The song below was written when Ava, my first love (and the girl from the story above) and I, hit 25 years of marriage. It was written with my whole heart, my whole soul and life-force because I hope that one day, a song that I write will help someone somewhere feel understood and that is the greatest gift you can give to the world.

Take a listen here...

Fleetwood Mac Lesson #1 : BE HONEST

Lesson #2 Coming Soon...

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