Almost no one heard Buckingham Nicks, the debut LP by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, when it first appeared in 1973. One person who did pay attention to it, however, was Mick Fleetwood, who liked the record enough to arrange a meeting with Buckingham, which led to the duo joining Fleetwood Mac at the end of 1974.
Listening now to the album, which was reissued on Sept. 19, 2025, is a bit like hearing the Beatles’ 1962 audition tape for Decca, which failed to win them a record contract. You look to see whether this music embraces hints of greatness that almost everyone missed. The hints are there, though it took a union with Fleetwood, Christine McVie and John McVie to fully showcase the duo’s strengths.
Buckingham and Nicks’ album isn’t as polished or powerful as subsequent Fleetwood Mac LPs, but it suggests that both of them were talented singers and songwriters, and it even includes two numbers that became part of their future band’s story: Buckingham’s “Don’t Let Me Down Again,” which Fleetwood Mac frequently performed in concert, and Nicks’ “Crystal,” which in a rerecorded version became a highlight of the group’s massively successful eponymous 1975 LP.
Related: An interview with Lindsey Buckingham
The CD and a blue-vinyl edition and an Amazon-exclusive yellow vinyl edition are available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.
(Click here to read about this writer’s pre-fame lunch meeting with Buckingham and Nicks.)
Burger wrote one of the first interview-based profiles of Bruce Springsteen to be published in a national magazine. He has interviewed many other music-world luminaries as well, including Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tom Waits, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Steve Forbert, Tommy James, the Righteous Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin, and members of Steely Dan and the Marshall Tucker Band. He has also interviewed many other public figures, such as Suze Orman, Daymond John, James Carville, Donald Trump, Sir Richard Branson, F. Lee Bailey, and Cliff Robertson.
His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters, all of which are published in the U.S. and Canada by Chicago Review Press. The books have been republished in numerous other countries.
Burger has been the editor of several periodicals, including Business Jet Traveler, from which he retired in 2024. During his 20 years at that
publication, it received more than 120 major editorial awards, including multiple wins for the world’s Best Consumer Travel Magazine in the annual Folio:Eddie competition.
Burger lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His wife, Madeleine Beresford, is a puppeteer and former preschool director and teacher. The couple have two grown children.
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