Make your own path - take two

You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day (Another lonely day)
You can go your own way, go your own way
You can call it another lonely day
- Fleetwood Mac

With a theme of ‘Make your own path’ I cant help but channel a little bit of Fleetwood Mac. After all ‘You can go your own way’ is all about someone who chooses to make their own path in life.

Last December I took Nic to see Fleetwood Mac in concert. I don’t go to a lot of concerts – growing up in a small isolated community a long way from major music centres will do that to a person. And my taste in music is firmly buried in the 70’s & 80’s so I have never had any desire to fork out $150 to see anything with a name like Florence and the Machine etc. But Fleetwood Mac is one of my top favourites.

I knew that Nic was a fan and I knew that we didn’t have decades ahead of us to lazily miss the opportunity to see them so I got us seats in the nosebleed section and off we went. In hindsight, a concert can be an interesting experience to someone whose skull has been cracked open that often because the base would reverberate in her head and she could ‘hear’ the plates vibrating against each other.

It was brilliant though – Stevie tottered onto stage in her 6 inch heels, did a slow, arthritic turn holding out a lacy shawl and the crowd went wild. Nic and I laughed until we cried. The mad bird sitting on the other side of me kept up a running commentary on how much she loves Stevie and Nic and I had decided that the poor thing was going to spontaneously orgasm if she kept it up, and that led to more snorting and inappropriate laughter from our cheap (well not that cheap) seats.

The hit of the night for us was Tusk – Mic Fleetwood is a God of a man. How old is he? 900 or something and he can drum like a 21 year old on speed. At one point the stage was cleared of everyone but him and he had us on the edge of our seat for the whole time. It was the kind of stuff that gives you goosebumps and brings spontaneous tears to the eyes. Although that could have been from our laughing at Stevie who needed to toddle off stage every five minutes for a nice lie down / strong drink or revitalizing substance (you choose what you think was most likely).

Before we went I watched a documentary on MTV about Fleetwood Mac and they are a fascinating story. So many albums, so many people moving in and out of the band – so many scandals. They kind of make Abba look a bit tame and prudish really. But having said that, the complicated sex lives did give us truly amazing music…

‘Now here you go again,
you say you want your freedom,
well who am I to keep you down’
- Dreams, Stevie Nicks

‘And it all comes down to you,
Well, you know that it does
And lightning strikes once, maybe twice
Oh, and it lights up the night
And you see your Gypsy
You see your Gypsy
- Gypsy, Stevie Nicks

And to bring it back to our theme this morning, Fleetwood Mac have always been carving their own path in the music industry – never afraid to try something new; to incorporate influences from other genres and to make their own unique sound. And their music has lasted the test of time – and OK maybe that’s because people like me love it because the music makes them feel 18 again; young and with the whole world ahead of them, but I am not going to apologise for that! Anything that gives you three minutes of bliss and a rounding chorus in the shower is fine by me!

I am glad that I got to share my Fleetwood Mac concert experience with Nic. Regardless of what the future holds for either of us; we had that night together.

Dammit! I read my Now!vember calendar wrong and have doubled up! Tune in later for the post that I SHOULD have done this morning.

Doh!