On the Turntable: “Buckingham Nicks” by Buckingham Nicks (1973)

On the Turntable: “Buckingham Nicks” by Buckingham Nicks, Polydor Records, 1973. Rating 8/10.

Long the stuff of myth and legend, this album appeared and disappeared in 1973 before anyone knew or cared about who Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were. With little promotion, it went out of print and stayed that way for more than 50 years, during which time, of course, Buckingham and Nicks became the Lindsay and Stevie we all know today. The record was finally reissued last month. Hey, it’s really good. 

Lindsay’s distinctive guitar style already sounds fully formed - it’s front and center all over this record, particularly on a pair of solo instrumentals, a cover of John Lewis’s “Django” and a Buckingham original called “Stephanie”, which is gorgeous, but also feels like more of a demonstration exercise - “look what I can do!” - than an actual song. That said, there’s no shortage of actual songs. 

Stevie comes out swinging on the fiery opener “Crying in the Night” and Lindsay swings back at the start of Side 2 with “Don’t Let Me Down Again”, the latter sounding like a prequel to his Fleetwood Mac song “Second Hand News”. There are a lot of moments here that sound familiar in retrospect, as if bits of these songs were recovered and rebuilt around later on to become songs that everyone knows. 

But, in this little prehistory, there are still some songs that would be great even if this were the first and last we ever heard of these two: “Without a Leg to Stand On”, “Long Distance Winner”, the lightly proggy closing epic “Frozen Love” (the song that caught Mick Fleetwood’s ear). My favorite is “Races Are Run”, a lengthening exhale of post breakup grief. “Some people win. Some people always have to lose.” 

Also, the record just sounds really good, produced by Keith Olsen with Richard Dashut engineering (they’d go on to help craft the sound of “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours”) and strong but sparing support from studio aces like bassist Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner on drums, and Waddy Wachtel on guitar. The sound is crisp and dynamic and specific throughout. The album can’t possibly live up to its legend, but it’s more than an artifact.