My Top 1000 Songs #951: Hypnotized

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I can't really explain it, but I'm kind of a sucker for the Bob Welch era of Fleetwood Mac. After the initial Peter Green-helmed highly-respected British blues band of the late 60s, but before the Buckingham/Nicks commercial juggernaut, Welch helmed 5 albums (from '71 through '74) which were--ok, I guess? Not great, but mild-mannered and perfectly fine. (And transitioned the band from British blues to laid-back SoCal yacht-ish rock long before Lindsey & Stevie were a twinkle in the eyes of the band's founders.)

Their peak may have been "Hypnotized," off 1973's Mystery To Me. It's got this slow, mellow shuffle that sounds like everyone playing on the song, and everyone listening to the song, is simultaneously getting high out on the lawn on a sunny afternoon. It was one of the few songs from that Mac incarnation to get much traction, a second-tier staple on classic rock years that the DJ would throw on after hitting all the more obvious songs from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours and needing to fill another few minutes. Which doesn't really do the song justice, because it's got this entrancing psychedelic vibe that would be perfect for some inspired jam band to cover and stretch out to 15 minutes or so.

Live:

Performed by Buckingham/Nicks version of the band, 1975:

Fleetwood Mac 2018 (Neil Finn vocals):

Pointer Sisters cover: