Fleetwood Mac, a British-American rock band, is known worldwide for its unique sound and famed hits as well as their complicated group dynamic and scandal.
For as long as I can remember, my father has been a huge influence on my taste in music, and I have long surprised the adults in my life with the songs and artists I am familiar with because of long drives and Sunday-jam-outs with my dad.
When I was 16, I bought my first beater, a 2002 Audi A6, and my dad and I fixed it up together.
In the glove box, I found three albums: two by Nirvana and my personal treasure: “The Dance,” by Fleetwood Mac.
This is a live album that celebrated its 23rd anniversary last month. It was also the last album featuring the band’s most adored lineup: Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, and my idol, Stevie Nicks.
The live album is composed of all of the band’s greatest hits, ranging from topics of love, heartbreak, inner demons, fear, drama and hope.
Having an older car, I had to use a cassette to aux converter to listen to music from my phone.
Old school, I know.
And amongst the many challenges I faced with my beloved “Suzie,” keeping the cassette working was by far the most frustrating for me as a music lover.
Everytime I would hit a bump in the road, the music streaming from my phone would stop. It was in one of those frequented moments that I remembered the album from my glove box that my dad had played in the background of our mechanical endeavor with the A6. I pressed play, and my eyes, ears, heart and soul were opened up to a world of music and artistry that just cannot be replicated in the modern day.
The album begins with some of their more upbeat classics to set the tone for their live show. By track four, however, the tempo slows down with my personal favorite, “Rhiannon,” to allude to the more serious musical conversations to come.
What makes this album especially special to me lies in the dialogue between the band members.
Together, the team has endured so much, including scandals and rumors amongst themselves, which inspired their most famous album of all time, “Rumours.”
Despite all of this, they joined together for their 1997 tour and created this beautiful reunion for themselves, their music and their fans.
In the middle of the album, I found the song that I want to dance to my father with on my wedding day: “Landslide.”
Nicks also wrote and performed this song as a tribute to her father, and the metaphors and concepts it presents are sure to touch something deep within me every time.
The album comes to a close with some more hopeful hits, such as “Go Your Own Way” and “Don’t Stop,” which symbolically and literally bring the show to a close.
After many long road trips accompanied by only this album and the beater moving me to my destination, I learned a lot about myself, love, pain and the world around me. My musical tastes are forever impacted by the story this album tells, and I find it hard to believe that any album will ever be able to top “The Dance,” which sits at No. 1 on my list.