Station Man

According to Fleetwood in his 2014 memoir Play On, "Station Man" was the first song that Fleetwood Mac performed live with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, when the lineup made their live debut in El Paso, Texas on 15 May 1975.{{cite book|last1=Fleetwood|first1=Mick|last2=Bozza|first2=Anthony|title=Play On: Now, Then & Fleetwood Mac|date=October 2014|publisher=Little Brown and Company|location=1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104|isbn=978-0-316-40342-9|page=175|edition=First}} At the time, Buckingham and Nicks only had material from their 1973 Buckingham Nicks album and 1975 Fleetwood Mac album to pull from, which required them to cull earlier songs from the band's discography for live performances.{{Cite book |last=Hanson|first=Amy|title=Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters |publisher=Chicago Review Press |date=21 November 1997 |isbn=978-161373-234-2 |editor-last=Egan |editor-first=Sean |chapter=Never Break the Chain - Goldmine |publication-date=2016|page=216|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/fleetwoodmaconfl0000unse_f7y2/page/216/mode/2up|chapter-url-access=registration}} The song was also retained for the first leg of the band's 1977 Rumours Tour, but it was later dropped from the setlist by the end of March. "Station Man" was also performed live by the Kiln House lineup of Fleetwood Mac, with a few recordings from 1970 and 1971 appearing on the Madison Blues album.{{Cite web |last=Jurek |first=Thom|title=Madison Blues - Fleetwood Mac {{!}} Album {{!}} |website=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/madison-blues-mw0000462535 |access-date=17 February 2025 |language=en}}

In his review for NME, Nick Logan said that "Station Man" was "possibly the album's premiere track and the one Reprise are trying to persuade the group to release as a single." He further commended the song's instrumentation, including Fleetwood's percussion and Kirwan's "tasteful guitar", and called it "one of the group's foremost achievements to date."{{cite magazine |last=Logan |first=Nick |date=12 September 1970 |title=Fleetwood's Latest LP Full of Surprises |magazine=NME}} In their book, Fleetwood Mac: Rumours n' Fax, Roy Carr and Steve Clarke labeled "Station Man" as "the premiere cut" on Kiln House with a melody "neatly slung over the kind of dense broken riffing which has become a trademark with numerous mid-70s American West Coast band like Little Feat." Beat Instrumental cited "Station Man" as a successful demonstration of the band's "multi-guitar work".{{cite magazine |date=October 1970 |title=Records |magazine=Beat Instrumental |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-Instrumental/Beat-Instrumental-1970-10-S-OCR.pdf |page=62 |via=World Radio History}} Alexis Petridis of The Guardian identified "Station Man" as a highlight on Kiln House and described it as a "hard rocking" song.{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |author-link=Alexis Petridis |date=25 July 2024|title=Hard rock, ambient weirdness and UFOs: exploring the greatness of early 70s Fleetwood Mac |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jul/25/early-70s-fleetwood-mac |access-date=17 February 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Phil Lesh said in an interview that he borrowed aspects of "Station Man" for the song "Passenger" on Grateful Dead's 1977 Terrapin Station album. "What's weird about that song is I sort of did it as a joke. It's a take on a Fleetwood Mac tune called "Station Man". I just sort of sped it up and put some different chord changes in there."{{cite book|last=Dodd|first=David|title=The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics|year=2005|publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York, NY 10104|isbn=978-0-7432-7747-1|page=278}} Pete Townshend also borrowed the guitar riff from "Station Man" for his song "Won't Get Fooled Again", which was recorded by The Who. During a 2020 Peter Green tribute concert organised by Fleetwood, Townshend prefaced his performance of "Station Man" by noting similarities between the two song's chord progressions.{{Cite web |last=Rowley |first=Scott |date=26 February 2020 |title=The Peter Green tribute concert: 10 guitar highlights from David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, Pete Townshend and more |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/news/the-peter-green-tribute-concert-10-guitar-highlights-from-david-gilmour-kirk-hammett-billy-gibbons-pete-townshend-and-more |access-date=17 February 2025 |website=Guitar World |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Blake (writer) |title=The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac |publisher=Pegasus Books |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-63936-732-0 |location=New York |pages=388-389 |chapter=Peter green Tribute Concert}} This performance, recorded at the London Palladium, was later included on the album Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac |website=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/celebrate-the-music-of-peter-green-and-the-early-years-of-fleetwood-mac-mw0003456526 |access-date=17 February 2025|language=en}}

• Mick Fleetwood – drums, congas
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Jeremy Spencer – guitar
• Danny Kirwan – guitar, vocals
• Christine McVie – keyboards, vocals

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Category:Fleetwood Mac songs

Category:Songs written by Danny Kirwan

Category:1970 songs