Did you know The Beatles once attempted to emulate Fleetwood Mac in 1968? Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Danny Kirwan, and John McVie had just put out The Pious Bird of Good Omen (AKA English Rose). The song “Albatross” caught The Beatles’ attention while making Abbey Road, as George Harrison once explained.
“At the time, ‘Albatross’ [by Fleetwood Mac] was out, with all the reverb on guitar,” Harrison said in a 1987 interview. “So we said, ‘Let’s be Fleetwood Mac doing ‘Albatross,’ just to get going.’ It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin.”
That jam session while attempting to sound like Fleetwood Mac eventually became the track “Sun King” on Abbey Road. There are definitely similarities between the two, and it’s clear what The Beatles were up to for anyone familiar with “Albatross.” However, there are stark differences also—”Sun King” includes lyrics, however nonsensical they may be.
The Beatles may have failed to sound anything like Fleetwood Mac, but that’s the beauty of the two groups. They were so wonderfully different at the same time that they could overlap each other. Inspiration can come from anywhere, after all, and early Fleetwood Mac did some inspiring in their day.
Fleetwood Mac Also Inspired Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead
There’s an interesting pipeline from Fleetwood Mac to The Beatles, to Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead. The two-part Fleetwood Mac song “Oh Well” directly led to the composition of Led Zeppelin’s 1971 track “Black Dog.”
There’s a call-and-response element to “Oh Well,” where the song stops in its tracks before picking up again. Listening closely to “Black Dog,” it does the same thing, initiating a call-and-response between its parts. Jimmy Page cited this element in the book Led Zeppelin, All the Songs.
Additionally, the Grateful Dead were taken with Fleetwood Mac as well. Their song “Passenger” was directly modeled after the 1970 Fleetwood Mac song “Station Man” from Kiln House. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh once shared the inspiration for the Terrapin Station track.
“What’s weird about [‘Passenger’] is I sort of did it as a joke. It’s a take on a Fleetwood Mac tune called ‘Station Man.’ I just sort of sped it up and put some different chord changes in there…” said Lesh.
