Back in 2006, I surmised that playing the game of Six Degrees of Separation, one could get to any musical act of classic rock n’ roll by way of Fleetwood Mac using a chain of acquaintances of no more than five people. That original 2006 post is here.
Recently, a dear friend showed me the adjacent cartoon and it got me to thinking about revisiting that premise. When I originally wrote the post in 2006, the group Fleetwood Mac consisted of Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Lindsey Buckingham.
In 2018, Buckingham was fired from the group and replaced with Mike Campbell (formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and Neil Finn (Crowded House). With the addition of Mike Campbell, the six degrees of separation for Fleetwood Mac expanded to include both Country Rock and R&B.
For example, Stevie Nicks now leads to Tom Petty who leads to Mike Campbell who played lead guitar on Mary J. Blige’s Share My World album which included George Benson who played guitar and backup vocals on Stevie Wonder’s album Songs in the Key of Life. With the addition of Campbell, you can now get to almost all of the Motown artists from the British group Fleetwood Mac via Stevie Wonder. (And yes, I know I could have started directly with Mike Campbell since he is now a member of the group and could have gotten to the Temptations which lead to older Motown groups and Marvin Gaye’s tree.)
Because Campbell played lead guitar on Roy Orbison’s Mystery Girl album and the Chicks’ (formerly Dixie Chicks) album Taking the Long Way, we now get a connection to Johnny Cash, Bono, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, John Mayer and Bonnie Raitt. George Harrison’s connection beside the obvious Beatles one also includes Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Ginger Baker and Joey Molland (of Badfinger). Molland leads to Tony Kaye of YES and Donnie Dacus of the group Chicago who leads to Daniel de los Reyes of Earth, Wind and Fire.
From Mike Campbell directly, you can get to Neil Diamond, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, Tracy Chapman, Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley (the Eagles), Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys) and Joe Cocker.
The bottom line is, if you’re playing the game of Six Degrees of Separation with Fleetwood Mac, the addition of Mike Campbell to the group is now like having a fifth ace in your deck.
