Friday Night Videos - Bad Trip Edition

Groovy Times

Fleetwood Mac. Pink Floyd. Two rock groups known for creating some of the defining commercial and artistic moments in the 70's. These bands were so successful in that era that they overshadowed anything they accomplished beforehand. Fleetwood Mackers will recall for most people blonde girls in shawls spinning in capes and harmony vocals to a steady backbeat. Pink Floyd...fans will remember either the dark, swirling atmospherics and cynical lyrics or what drugs they took to make them not remember.

Which leads to where tonight's Friday Night Videos is going, two bands with bright starts seemingly done in by Bad Acid Trips only to rise up with different band members and an entirely different sound. First up, the Mac.

After Rumours (1977), Fleetwood Mac was for all intents and purposes that lineup of people led by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. The fact that the band had struggled with different members for about seven years was erased. Also erased was their 60's period with original guitarist and founding member Peter Green. Green had gotten his break following Eric Clapton into the lead guitar spot in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He was nicknamed the "Green God" but was a little publicity shy so when he struck out on his own, he formed a band named after the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John McVie (bass) - Fleetwood Mac. The Mac became renowned for Green's playing, at turns both bluesy and lyrical with animal power and tasteful precision. After building up their name with hits like "Albatross", "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Man Of The World", Green dropped some LSD (I don't do drugs, so I think you drop it-could be wrong there) and lost his mind. He lost it and didn't find it for about 30 years, at one point famously drawing a gun on his manager to allegedly prevent the manager from sending Green royalty checks. Pictures of the man from that time is of "the lights are on but no one's home" variety. Sadly, to compound his problems Green was diagnosed with mental illness. But in the mid 90's, Green did forge a come back and even recorded music for a while.

To me the song that best displays the classic Green era is "Oh Well", which ironically I first heard thru Lindsey Buckingham's performance on Fleetwood Mac Live (1980), a song that has both some humor and great guitar (2nd guitarist Danny Kirwan helps out as well). While Fleetwood Mac is the Buckingham/Nicks era to me, I do have an appreciation of the Green era as well after hearing it on The Chain box set.

Meanwhile, Pink Floyd was rising with the 60's psychedlic crowd led by the artsy Syd Barrett. The Barrett led Floyd was famous for their stageshow of playing movies of amoebas and Barrett's fanciful songs. He was psychedlic rock's dandy for a little while but again LSD rose it's mind expanding head and soon Barrett was impossible for the rest of the band to deal with. Barrett was replaced by David Gilmour who along with a rising Roger Waters would take the group into a less fancy but artistically groundbreaking direction. Later, Barrett would also be rumored to have mental problems too. In a way Barrett would continue to inspire Floyd as his plight became the basis for the songs "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here". Pink Floyd would become the band that all pot smokers that weren't Dead Heads would swear by with enough musicality and intellectual morass to grab Prog fans as well.

When I went to a Pink Floyd concert in 1994, I really didn't know much about them beyond The Wall (1979) and their then current CD The Divison Bell. While walking in, the band was playing "Astronomy Domine" which quickly became one of my favorite Pink Floyd cuts. I later found out this was a Syd Barrett song, so that's what I'm putting up here.

After the tripped out mind expanding 60's ended, LSD came to stand for Lead Singer Disease following Eddie Van Halen's comments about the fired/quit Sammy Hagar in the mid-90's. But before then LSD meant a drug that spelled temporary doom for two bands that really needed Cocaine to succeed.

Who will win between the Green God and the Piper at the Gates of Dawn? Who knew this post would be such a downer when it started? And why didn't I post about something upbeat like Tina Turner or The Rolling Stones? These questions, and more, will be forgotten by tomorrow but not before a little music. Play me out Johnny!

Fleetwood Mac "Oh Well"

Pink Floyd "Astronomy Domine"