"Oh Well" Fleetwood Mac (revised FP5)

The year is 2007, and as you walk down the street, you catch a glimpse of a tacky tabloid shoved on every single rack of newspapers and magazines available. Britney Spears is at it again, and her downward spiral that has been reported upon every step of the way has officially hit rock bottom. By publicly shaving her head and checking into her first rehabilitation center, the star has reached icon status. Images of Spears going nuts fill every front cover and screen available, as she is pictured running around smashing reporters' cameras, and ultimately shooting her celebrity status into stardom. But, becoming the 2000's Queen of all things pop and bat-shit-crazy wasn't all the way blamed on her genetic variation. While taking away from this and looking into researching some background as to what ingredients caused this crisis; I found this article from the Velvet Light Trap, a critical journal of film and television, that talks about the narrative that Spears evokes upon. In such a public expose of her inner mind, it all comes down to the famous reveal of her mental illness and how it effected her irrational actions. Ironically, she was rebelling against standardization and consumerism and everything that's causing her to go insane, while still unintentionally having it be used it as a medium to publicize her issues. A lot of times, stars do go crazy because of the pressure that they're under, and they crack. Whether they had prior issues to becoming famous, or the fame invoked the issues themselves, Spears isn't the only one that's gone a little "coo coo". Some turn to drugs, and some turn to shady hair salons, but we all have our vices. This week I'm going to talk about the founder of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green. The original guitarist that ignited an undying flame of success initially chose music as his vice for all things seeming spiral in his world. However, as the band became progressively popular and the checks started coming, the only thing that seemed to be negatively impacting him was the fame itself. Turns out, over fifty years ago, Green had the original "Britney" breakdown moment himself.

Good ol' 1969, the pinnacle of cheap sex and even cheaper drugs. Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” is the topic of discussion, and it was pretty early era-esque of the band, being released over 6 years before iconic Stevie Nicks came close to the picture. The group was yet to have skyrocketed but were at the brink of stardom, known all over the country for being rocky and bluesy and completely different than the norm. Peter Green was the current guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, and was known everywhere as being one of the greatest guitarists of his time. Green was not that big into drugs before the band, and he was not the type to crack under stress. As America grew to love the band, Green began to shut down. Having to please crowds constantly from inducing creativity is insanely difficult, something that most celebrities struggle with. Throughout this struggle, he found a substance that would help cope with the lack of creative juices flowing, LSD. In the 60's, the use of LSD and similarly acid was popular enough to not be completely sketchy. A lot of artists reported using it recreationally as either a coping mechanism or an idea machine for new work. Green reported using it as both, as he needed the getaway and the thought invoking trip to further his career. However, as his career kept getting higher up on the ranks, so did he. He became addicted to the drug, and dangerously if I must say. Although it aided in songwriting, it took away the man inside that he really was. He wrote the song "Oh Well" all on his own, and beautifully if I must say, but his heavy usage within the acid and LSD realm tripped him way deep into a fame-induced mental illness. Suffering a breakdown, leaving the band, and running around screaming that money is evil, “Oh Well” has lyrics that explicitly reveal the true shape Green was in all along.

The overarching theme in the original reflects equally in the cover I chose, provided by Led Zeppelin’s legendary Jimmy Page. Although Page has also had a relationship with heavy recreational drug use, he chose heroin instead. Throughout his career he was a frequent user to get inspiration from his highs, but as Zeppelin became more successful he began to lean on the drug more than ever. Correlating exactly to the situation that Green was in while at the pinnacle of success, this is the reason why I chose this cover. The two artists' paths take quite swiftly different turns however. Page's addiction began to hamper his guitar performance and he lost an insane amount of weight in a short enough amount of time to get everyone around concerned. Luckily, Page was able to escape the addiction early enough that it didn’t take his brain, career, or luscious hair with him.

Although starting with that background was something I do not do quite often, it was so vital to the understanding of both songs and how they feed off one another. I also do not include the lyrics of songs often either, as you'll soon see below. I also put in bold and underlined the more personal, and important, lyrics of the song to give more emphasis on how I interpreted the music. I know I'm breaking one-hundred rules, but trust me, you'll be thanking me later. Now let’s get to the music:

“I can't help about the shape I'm in


I can't sing I ain't pretty and my legs are thin


But don't ask me what I think of you


I might not give the answer that you want me to



Now when I talk to God you know he understands


He said stick by me and I'll be your guidin' hand

But don't ask me what I think of you


I might not give the answer that you want me to”

Lyrically and pretty explicitly, Green writes his heart out into this less-than simplistic ballad. While on the outside it may seem short and sweet, his inner battle is being exploited impressively well. He’s cutting his wrist and letting it bleed out into this song, as bare and raw and emotional it may be. Similarly to Britney (but obviously metaphorically), he's shaving his beautiful head of hair in front of the entire audience and letting his bald crown shine. He's exposing himself to the world, and is breaking down how he feels with words, rather than hair clippers. Short spoken but effective, the entire encompassing theme of Green’s slow-motion train wreck of emotion overwhelms “Oh Well”. The effects of being in poor shape mentally and physically, losing his physique to the drainage of drugs and relying heavily on a power that’s above him, is extremely telling on what state of mind he is in. Being one of the last songs that Green dropped before he dropped from the world of fame, I believe it was a beautiful finale to a really downright sad story.

Setting a precedent for Fleetwood Mac while challenging Green's own demons, the song embodies a funeral of its own. I can see the procession of Green's metaphorical casket as the hymnal lyrics walk us down the aisle, holding the cold body. Taken by fame and the detrimental effects that money and the risky behavior that the success-sphere entails, Green's talents were robbed and he was stripped of his own life. The electric guitar carries us all back to a heavenly state of mind where we came from. The references to God contribute to the mental image I got from the song, literally bringing both Green and the listeners to a higher state of mind. This higher state is the same condition that Green stayed in as he needed an escape from reality. To bring this understanding to the audience is both intelligent and cunning and I applaud him as being the song-writer, singer, and front man who did not quite pull through. He did not actually die, just to clarify, but the death of his career is a prominent overtone in this song. "Oh Well" is a mixture of rock and roll and poetry. 

Thirty years after the original release but seven years before Spears’ meltdown, Page dropped his version of “Oh Well”. Live and raw, with minimal room for error, the cover went seamlessly and shocked the entire crowd as well. Featuring the Black Crowes, the cover brings the rock and roll aspect of the song to life, and brings it up to Page’s era. A lot heavier and harder, this cover transforms the old somber ballad into something more heroin. I literally feel like I’m in that scene of Forest Gump where Lieutenant Dan loses his mind and hires hookers and shoots up heroin. Which in fact, is exactly what Page did all the time. The layering of electric guitar and the banging of the drums is a bit overkill though, and it may be Page's style, but it's not quite necessary. The original relies heavily on the guitar as well, but there is a bluesy aspect of the original that gets lost in transcendence. I feel like something is missing, no matter ho much harder Page tries to cover it up with his fast-paced tempo and brash vocals. There’s less of a personal connection here than the original, which sucks because I am such a huge Jimmy Page fan and I thought he could pull it out. At the end of the day, the cover is great. It's mention-worthy and a head banger, but I have to give Green the win for this one. 

Mental illness was parasitic and succulent upon the ever so talented Green, and you can feel his emaciated being literally withering away behind our fingertips. Vice-versa, with Spears you can visually see the public breakdown as she hit paparazzi cars with golf clubs and shaved off her head of hair at some mall's Great Clips. We all have our demons, we all face our battles, and for these two celebrities, fame is what did them in. The fame and the money and the all sorts of hells that accompany the two is what drew out such horrific effects on the mind, and we come to only having their work to show. The heavily shown effects of negativity in the world of fame and fortune may outweigh the positive aspects, which seem to simply be the great music that comes forth from mental deterioration. Is this cost, the toll of brilliant minds, worth the audience enjoying themselves for roughly four minutes, before switching to the next song? How do we end this hamster-wheel of a cycle, where money keeps flowing in and causing more damage, as the minds of musical innovators endlessly deplete? As we take away from this thought, recognize the cost of great music with meaning. It's not just the monetary $1.99 we maybe spend buying the track off iTunes, and c'mon, we don't even spend that much because we ALL illegally download. Rather, we are talking about the cost of the lives of musical geniuses whose sanity is converted into cash. At the end of the day, all we can do as listeners is our part by appreciating their work as artists regardless, because no matter what, Britney Spear's "Toxic" and Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" will always be on my play list of jams.