Lindsey Buckingham's new album, "Under the Skin," is a distillation of all his previous efforts, both with Fleetwod Mac and as a solo artist. Recognized as the musical visionary behind one of the biggest-selling groups of all time, Buckingham approaches his art as a balancing act between the considerations of a mainstream group and the more esoteric approaches to solo work.
"Hopefully at the end of the day," says Buckingham, "the equation makes sense, and I think it has. We've been touring in support of the album (which will continue on and off through the summer), and I sense that the understanding and appreciation of my choices has hit a kind of critical mass."
"Under the Skin" is Buckingham's first solo project in nearly 14 years. "A lot has happened, a lot of questions have been answered," he says. "I've been waiting all my life for this time."
Here are a few songs Buckingham feels helped define and chart the evolution of rock and roll. (Find more artists' picks on our main Music You Should Hear page, http://www.amazon.com/mysh)
Lindsey's List
1. Of all the artists who pioneered styles that would be built on by others, Chuck Berry is probably the most essential. His country/rhythm and blues hybrid was copied by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and countless others. Even punk could be said to be a restatement of Chuck Berry. One song that deviated from his usual tone and drew from the New Orleans sound was "You Never Can Tell" (from the album The Definitive Collection), a marvel of light touch and Creole atmosphere down to the use of French in describing the marriage of a teenage Cajun couple.
2. Johnny Cash always cut across style lines. He was just Johnny Cash. Many of his greatest achievements were on Sun Records at the beginning--glorious conceptions of minimalism and slap echo performed with his band, the Tennessee Two. Yet it's a later song, after he signed with Columbia, that I always come back to. "Ring of Fire" (written by his wife June Carter, from the album The Legend of Johnny Cash), with its staggered time signatures and completely committed use of mariachi-style brass, could have been overly camp, but Cash's dominating authenticity and Carter's background vocals propel "Ring of Fire" to a magical place that, again, transcends categorization.
3. A great sense of possibility was ignited by rock and roll's impact on a mainstream audience. While pioneers such as Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis and their labels took a song-for-song approach based on the idiosyncrasies of their artists, some to follow would reverse that role, in an approach that was philosophically closer to Tin Pan Alley or the movie studios of decades earlier. Lieber and Stoller were a writing and production team known for sophisticated "adult" production, unsurpassed string and vocal arrangements, and sonic quality that was ten years ahead of its time. "Save the Last Dance for Me," by the Drifters (from the album The Very Best of the Drifters), is one of these quintessential efforts. It's also a song in which the meaning is greatly deepened by the knowledge that its writer, Doc Pomus, was in a wheelchair.
4. Another figure whose vision mattered more than the artists he produced was the great Phil Spector. His legendary "Wall of Sound," created by using multiples of instruments, was a blurring of the edges, a surreal soundscape that was still youthful, "teenage," like a symphonic garage band. One song I really love is "Walking in the Rain" by the Ronettes (from the album The Best of the Ronettes). It's an unearthly ballad of great emotional and sonic range, and one that demonstrates the strange quality in much of Spector's work: the tension between heaviness and innocence.
5. I first became aware of Burt Bacharach as the writer of a song performed by Marty Robbins, a fairly straight ahead country shuffle. Within a few years, Bacharach had found his definitive style, using angular, surprising combinations of time signatures, chord shifts, and melodic range, all somehow still true to the sensibilities of rock. Burt Bacharach and Hal David are one of the greatest writing teams in popular music. Many of their best recordings were performed by Dionne Warwick, whose emotive, soulful vocal style was the perfect vehicle for their material. Particularly fine is "Anyone Who Had a Heart" (from the album The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits).
6. Jumping to the other extreme, one of the important subgenres in rock history is one that could be labeled "Dumb." From the beginning, an aspect of rock and roll's validity, its power to liberate, its point of departure, was the fact that it was heard differently, responded to differently, judged differently. It was about feel, not skill. Artists such as the Rolling Stones or Neil Young would have been much less without elements of "Dumb," but there were many other "garage" type bands who took this concept to its ultimate conclusion, certainly not as an intellectual choice. My favorite is the rock classic "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen (from the album Louie Louie: The Very Best of The Kingsmen), with its unintelligible vocal and one of the great raw drum tracks in rock.
7. "I Want You," by Bob Dylan (from the album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits), never fails to bring tears to my eyes. It seems to me to be a complete emotional picture of a young man, alienated and in need, cruel and tender, in the center of a world of pretense and hypocrisy--a world he'd wished for and helped create, but could not anticipate.
8. John Lennon's first solo album, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," is one of the great albums of rock. In a masterstroke of raw minimalism, producer Phil Spector broke all his own rules to help Lennon define this psychologically charged work, which looks at the dynamics of family and how those dynamics are impacted by society. Though the album is generally up-tempo, reflecting his recent experiences with primal scream therapy, there are ballads as well. "Working Class Hero" is a powerful, haunting song that laments the cookie-cutter society imposed on us from a young age--a society that rock and roll has thumbed its nose at and offered escape from. Yet Lennon observes that even those escaping may yet find the same kind of tyranny in another form.
9. In the wake of Brian Wilson's failure to get his band to rally around "SMiLE," the Beach Boys were fragmented, losing momentum. The album "Surf's Up" (released on CD as Sunflower/Surf's Up) was inconsistent, and it felt as if Brian were on the verge of withdrawing and the others taking over. And yet, the title track, "Surf's Up," is a masterpiece, among a handful of Wilson's greatest efforts.
10. Joni Mitchell's genius was never more clear to me than on the album "Blue." She had left behind too optimistic a landscape for one a bit more ambivalent, but was still working with instrumental simplicity. The oneness, the personage that comes through on "A Case of You," for example, is stunning and completely moving.
11. The Clash was one of the greatest bands to come out of the new wave/punk scene. For me, at a time when the success of Fleetwood Mac had become at odds with taking creative risks, they were one of the groups that meant a great deal to me. "Train in Vain" (from the album London Calling) is a wonderful example of their simplicity and buoyancy.
12. Bruce Springsteen built an image on a kind of East Coast gypsy bravado, and much of the music, especially given the nature of his band, reflected that. Yet after a short marriage that quickly became a crisis of trust and identity, he pulled himself in, recorded an album virtually alone, and released "Tunnel of Love." The whole back half of "Tunnel of Love" [it was called Side Two when it was released] is a quiet, transcendent reflection. "Brilliant Disguise" is the defining song, and also the pivot with which Springsteen turns the mirror on himself.
13. Given its limited melodic and rhythmic range, rap has had an extraordinary run. Two things I can think of that have contributed to this are that it has trained people to pay more attention to the constructions of the tracks, where most of the melodic content is (creating a kind of inverted listening experience), and that it tends to be more connected to authenticity in a world increasingly resembling a house of mirrors. Eminem is an artist I like. His nasal, adolescent voice has an undertone of sweetness that deepens the feeling of his lyrics and is very musical with the tracks. "I Just Don't Give a F*ck" (from the album The Slim Shady LP) is a great example of his extreme musicality, to the point where it begins to transcend the genre.
See all 95 customer reviews...
