Songs I Love, Part XII: “Hypnotized” Fleetwood Mac

Posted: September 23rd, 2009 | Filed under: Music | 1 Comment »

The existential query is this: How many times in life is a column by Camille Paglia going to remind you of a song you want to hear at all, let alone immediately?

Well, kids, you’re looking at it right now. Correct answer: Once . . . at the very most.

She mentioned “Hypnotized,” the Bob Welch penned and sung tune from Fleetwood Mac’s ’73 album Mystery To Me in a recent column. Frankly I don’t remember her point. I seem to recall how some of the lyrics refer to Carlos Castaneda.

For those too young to know, he was one of the inescapable gurus of the drug infused 70s. You’d be at a pal’s pad, smoking some weed, and they’d be talking effusively about finding your place in the circle and what it meant and how spiritual it was (Castaneda stuff), and you’d just want them to roll another joint, put Janis on the stereo and shut up.

Actually, as soon as I read Paglia’s reference I stopped reading the column — which I obviously never got back to — and went to the stereo where I cranked up the ol’ turntable and put the album on.

I smiled, realizing again after all these years what a sublime, beguiling song this is.

Of course, there are way too many folks — many of whom should actually know better — who think Fleetwood Mac began (and maybe ended) with the Lindsay Buckingham/ Stevie Nicks lineup. Which of course is not only poppycock, but foolish, given that Mick Fleetwood and John McVie have hooked up with more musicians for a longer period of time than anybody in rock.

(It is at this point when I must mention, as any rock raconteur with the slightest bit of inner Lester Bangs would, that the original lineup included one fabled guitar player named Peter Green. Who, besides being well schooled in the blues as all alumni of the John Mayall school were, wrote “Black Magic Woman.” Yes, that song, the one stolen forever and always by the Santana Band.)

But more on all this in a second. You want to hear the song don’t you?

As I was saying, there have been many, many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac. One history of rock diagrams out 11 different lineups. And that’s only through . . . 1987.

The rhythm section duo played together before Fleetwood Mac, but hooked up in this band in the fall of ’67. Which, for those keeping score at home, was Fleetwood Mac, Version 2. Bob Welch got involved with the group in the spring of ’71. (FM, Version 6.)

I’d have made this an Album I Love. Except that, upon the recent listen, I realized there’s “Hypnotized,” there’s “Emerald Eyes,” there’s “The City”  . . . and not much else. But three good songs ain’t bad.

Here’s an example of the turmoil the band was experiencing at the time. The liner notes include the lyrics to a song that’s not on the album, and a version of The Yardbirds’ “For Your Love,” which is on the album isn’t mentioned. Though it did make it onto song list on the cover.

Which album cover, by the by, is very 70s, certainly memorable and regrettably awful. It’s there in the video, that creature eating something creamy on a beach.

Ah, but Bob Welch was a talent. And “Hypnotized” is very relaxing, easy on the ears and laden with images enticing enough to make it into a Camille Paglia column.

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