The story of Buckingham Nicks, the pre-Fleetwood Mac album that became a cult classic

South China Morning Post

4 days ago

They were in love once.
Four years before Fleetwood Mac's Rumours became one of the best break-up records of the 1970s – and, many might say, all time – Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were relative unknowns, a young couple putting out their own album, posing nude on the cover like a Laurel Canyon version of Adam and Eve.
Released as Buckingham Nicks, the 1973 album has for decades maintained somewhat of a holy grail status in the dusty bins of record stores, selling for US$20 to US$90 depending on its condition. Now, in addition to new vinyl, it will be available on streaming and CD for the first time when it is reissued on September 19 on Rhino.
'It's one of those records that everybody has heard of but not that many people have actually heard,' says Brian Mansfield, a music historian, journalist and record collector based in Nashville, in the US state of Tennessee.
'Especially before everything got put onto YouTube, very few people had heard it because it had never been on CD. But it had this iconic cover that everybody recognised.'
Buckingham Nicks featured the duo's iconic harmonies and Buckingham's distinct guitar sound. But the album bombed on release and Polydor dropped them from the label, prompting Nicks' return to waitressing and Buckingham to briefly tour with Don Everly.