Dez's Top 30 Guitarists: #4

#4. Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac, solo): The Eccentric Craftsman

Fleetwood Mac has been blessed throughout its long and varied history to have several absolutely brilliant guitarists. The first was, of course, Peter Green. Green is still revered as being the equal of Clapton, Beck and Page in the 1960's Guitar God Sweepstakes (hard to argue against Green if you listen to the blistering "Oh Well" from his time period). After Green went nuts and dropped out of the music biz, fine players like Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwin, Bob Welch and Bob Weston came and went through the Mac ranks. Casual fans don't realize that the classic Fleetwood Mac line-up of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham didn't exist until their 10th studio record and 8th year as a band.

At any rate, Lindsey Buckingham transformed The Mac into a 70's and 80's pop juggernaut. Buckingham played guitar, arranged and produced all of their biggest hits. He was the one primarily responsible for their sound in their 70's and 80's heyday. If you listen closely to the guitar work on Buckingham-era Mac, it is always tasteful, creative, serves the songs perfectly and has complexity. His solos aren't usually in your face. In fact, his best guitar playing is usually done when he is not soloing, but laying back and creating guitar textures for the songs. During those two decades, Fleetwood Mac had three very different songwriters (Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie), and to Buckingham's enormous credit, he was able to tailor his guitar lines to serve Stevie's often mystical, dreamy tunes, Christine's pop confections, or his own quirky, off-kilter compositions. It is telling that during the brief period in the early 1990's when he left the band, they had to get two guitar players to recreate Buckingham's playing on the road.

Known as a studio wizard/tinkerer to the extreme, he sort of went off the deep end in the 80's and 90's, both on his strange but interesting solo records and the 80's Mac albums. But the playing was always superb.

Buckingham is a killer electric player, but he truly shines on the acoustic. Funny enough, it wasn't until the 1990's and on that he decided to really show his stuff in obvious ways. I think his solo acoustic bombshell of a performance of Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love" on their live reunion album The Dance was a revelation to many. I know it was for me. Since then, both on his solo records and subsequent Mac records, he has really put his dizzying acoustic fingerpicking playing to the forefront. I would also recommend Live at the Bass Performance Hall (a solo record) as well as a showcase for Lindsey's formidable chops.


ABOVE: Lindsey's jawdropping solo acoustic version of Fleetwood Mac's 80's hit, "Big Love"