Five Alive

I was hanging out with a group of friends recently when “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac came on. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love that song. Maybe it was the courage that comes with a few Bud Lights, but I blurted out a pet theory of mine that I had previously been too embarrassed to admit.

“You know,” I said. “You can put Fleetwood Mac’s five best songs up against pretty much any band or artist’s five best songs.”

(Pause for mocking.)

Much to my surprise/relief, no one made fun of this statement. In fact, one of my friends said, “I used to agree with that until I got sick of ‘Rumours.’ ” Anyway, this all sparked a debate about which bands could meet the standard of, “their five best songs could stand up against anyone else’s five best.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the band that was most hotly debated was The Beatles. The argument against them was that even though The Beatles are the most influential band ever, they don’t have five songs that stand out. Those in favor said that they do, it’s just that it’s hard to stand out when you have dozens of great songs. This argument reminded me of those that surround baseball’s Hall of Fame. For some players, like Eddie Murray, their case revolves around career value. For others, like Jim Rice, it’s based on peak value.

What makes The Beatles special is that they have both the necessary career value and peak value. To me, they’re the musical equivalent of Barry Bonds. Both The Beatles and Bonds were instant superstars who had incredible longevity. But let’s face it, neither did their best work until they discovered drugs.

Fleetwood Mac is sort of a tricky case, in that many people think they have career value, but in my mind they are all about peak. You can put “Everywhere,” “Say You Love Me,” “Gypsy,” “Landslide” and “Rhiannon,” up with anyone else’s five best songs, but the rest of their repertoire is kind of crappy. In fact, when Lindsey Buckingham is singing (as opposed to Stevie Nicks or Christine McVie), this is a pretty mediocre band. In thinking about it, I’d say Ichiro is the baseball player most comparable to Fleetwood Mac. When he’s hitting .340 and stealing 40 bases, he’s an elite player. But in most seasons, he’s not nearly as good as people think he is. Like Ichiro, Fleetwood Mac is occassionally brilliant, but not nearly as good as their airplay suggests.

The other band that stirred quite a debate was Guns N’ Roses, though there ended up being a pretty strong consensus that they pass the “five best songs” test. The only question was what their five songs would be. My choices would be “Estranged,” “Mr. Brownstone,” “November Rain,” “Rocket Queen,” and “Yesterdays.” Their baseball equivalent is probably Sandy Koufax. Incredibly dominant for about five years, before falling off the face of the earth. The only difference is that Koufax didn’t attempt a comeback a decade later while trying to pitch with a bucket on his head.