Product Description

When Fleetwood Mac were recording and then touring with their classic Rumours - at the time the fastest-selling album in history - they were one of the biggest music acts in the world. But behind the facade of their tuneful, breezy, memorable pop songs was a world of internal animosity and strife, drug use, incestuous sexual shenanigans and wild partying which, as the band took a new direction with the follow-up album Tusk, inexorably spiralled into darkness and chaos. One might expect such excess from Aerosmith - but...Fleetwood Mac? Carol Ann Harris was the girlfriend of Fleetwood Mac's singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, and therefore right at the centre of events during this luridly eventful period. Now she has written a no-holds-barred memoir of her time with Lindsey and the band. It's a story that brings in stars like Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and the doomed Denis Wilson of the Beach Boys, and that rivals Pamela de Barres' book I'm with the Band or Stephen Davis's classic Led Zeppelin book Hammer of the Gods for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll excess. The book includes many photographs never seen before. Carol Ann Harris is now a costume designer for music videos, films and commercials, who lives in Los Angeles. Apart from one brief interview she has never spoken before about her time with Fleetwood Mac.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17055 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
`A no-holds barred memoir of the sex, drugs and rock `n' roll excess of Fleetwood Mac at the height of their fame'
--Publishing News, June, 2008

About the Author
Carol Ann Harris is now a costume designer for music videos, films and commercials, who lives in Los Angeles. Apart from one brief interview she has never spoken before about her time with Fleetwood Mac.

Customer Reviews

A Must read
With so many books out there on Fleetwood Mac it's nice to finally have one written by someone in the midst of the whole drama.
Carol Ann Harris was the longterm girlfriend of Lindsey Buckingham and was with the band through their turmoil and success of their peak period 1976-1984, starting out on the latter stages of the making of "Rumours".
The one thing to note here is that she was not just another groupie; she was her own woman with her own career. A respected music engineer, model and later a costume designer for films. While at times she does seem to make herself sound more important to the band that she probably actually was, she no less became a memeber of the elite Fleetwood Mac family.
At the beginning of the book there is a passage that states "some conversations are re-created from memory", so at times her account can seem over the top and over emotional, but that was Fleetwood Mac. She also sometimes goes into extreme detail over one occurance that can take several pages to conclude.
What we have here is a extremely interesting account into one of the most interesting stories of all time and one of the most under-rated guitarists and producers: Lindsey Buckingham.
Revealing with honesty and truth the unhappiness,the bitterness,the anger,the turmoil and the sorrow as each member battles their demons for the sake of the band.
She not only writes about the in band fighting and affairs aswell as the violent dark side of Buckingham, but she also delves into the happier times and at some points some extremely funny stories, notably one about Stevie Nicks' poodle and cocaine. We also get to read a great story of how everyone put their differences asside for one night at Eric Claptons manison in England on their european tour in the midst of a huge snow storm at his sprawling mansion.
She has written a book containing facts and stories she's held onto for 25 years and finally we the fans get to delve alot deeper than ever before.
Taken from personal tapes and diaries, this is a definitive book on the debouchery,drugs and the dark side of "having it all". You actually feel the darkness of the late '70s take hold as the cocaine becomes more evident in their lives.

This is the best book out there on one of the best bands.

Romantic memoirs
This book is very readable. It doesn't show Lindsey Buckingham in a very good light and has put me off him as I have no respect for women beaters.
How Carol Ann actually recalls any of her time with The Mac is amazing considering the amount of drugs that they all took according to her.
Carol Ann has portrayed herself as the Good Fairy, Lindsey's touchstone and the one who kept the peace and did everything for everyone around her.
Basically it's a good read for any Mac fan but a very misty eyed account.

Riveting, Fun Biog of the Mac
If you can get past the teen-angst "OMG I LOVE LINDSEY OMG OMG LINDSEY OMG MY LINDSEY!" fawning that permeates the first few chapters, this is a great insight into a band whose story puts today's crotch-showing, publicity-whore "musicians" to shame. The talent, crazy amounts of drug abuse and some absolutely shocking behaviour. . .it's all here!

Even if only 50% of what's in this book is true, it's still an epic tale. Lindsey Buckingham, one of the world's finest rock guitarists, is portrayed as an unrepentant addict, genius and all-around jealous, self-serving, abusive nutjob.

However, it's obvious that Harris is only giving her side of the story, and to her credit she doesn't misrepresent that one iota. The first few chapters are difficult to get into as previously mentioned, but once you hit the story of the tour kick-off, the rock-and-roll hijinks start and don't stop for a few hundred pages. As a diarist, Harris gives the story a raw immediacy that's both obnoxious and strangely appropriate for such a (mostly) hearts-on-their-sleeves band like Fleetwood Mac.

Some of the best stories concern the family of people that surrounds FM at this time. Roadies, tour managers, drug dealers, studio folks, hangers-on, they're all described pretty well and flesh out the story.

The portrayal of Stevie Nicks is actually fair and believable, given Harris' status as "Lindsey's new girl" and the tumult that was happening around the time that Harris joined the Mac machine. The McVies are the least well-described, but I believe that since Buckingham, Nicks and Fleetwood are such larger-than-life characters, that's inevitable. Christine's got some fantastic episodes in the book, though; her tremendous dedication to FM at that time is obvious even second-hand. Mick Fleetwood is, as in all the interviews and books I've read, the crazy, kind guy who keeps the beat (most of the time). John is pretty much just snorting cocaine, drinking too much and wishing he was on his boat instead of starring in a soap opera.

If you are an FM fan, or if you, like me, just enjoy really gossipy, in-depth biographies, this one's for you. It's a blast to read (again, after the first few chapters) and makes you wonder how much worse the Rolling Stones and The Who could possibly have been. . .