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In 1970, Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac. Five years later, Christine McVie finished his song with Lindsey Buckingham
Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac in 1970, leaving Christine McVie concerned about the band’s direction and the loss of its original frontman. Five years later, she helped turn one of Green’s unfinished musical ideas into ‘World Turning’, a song that bridged the group’s blues roots and its emerging melodic sound.
The song began as Green’s ‘The World, Keep on Turning’, released on Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 debut. McVie recalled that she and new guitarist Lindsey Buckingham developed the idea from a guitar lick in about half an hour. Their collaboration featured on the band’s 1975 self-titled album, as Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined McVie in shaping the group’s next era.
In short
- Green’s departure left Fleetwood Mac searching for direction.
- McVie and Buckingham developed his earlier musical idea.
- ‘World Turning’ helped shape the band’s new sound.
Explained simply
Fleetwood Mac began in the late 1960s as a British blues band led by guitarist Peter Green. Green left in 1970, and the group later changed direction and membership as it developed a more melodic sound.
Christine McVie was the band’s keyboard player and songwriter. In 1975, she and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham built “World Turning” around an idea from Green’s earlier song “The World, Keep on Turning”; Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks had recently joined the group.
The song links Fleetwood Mac’s blues beginnings with the lineup that would bring it wider success. Its making also shows how the band’s members reshaped material across different periods of its history.