This Classic Early Fleetwood Mac Song Was Inspired by a UFO Sighting

Musicians often draw from their own lives when they sit down to write a song. But in the case of a classic Fleetwood Mac song, the inspiration was out of this world.

In 1973, with Bob Welch at the helm, Fleetwood Mac released the eighth album, Mystery to Me, with “Hypnotized” as a B-side to “For Your Love”. The B-side ended up being the more popular song.

“I was (and still am) interested in the paranormal – UFO’s, the Carlos Castaneda books about the Yaqui Indian ‘sorcerer’ Don Juan – so I incorporated a lot of these themes and references into the song,” Welch once explained in an interview.

In addition to Castaneda’s writing, Welch drew from personal experience, stories from friends, and the Hickson Pascagoula UFO sighting. That was an incident in which two men who had been fishing together claimed they were abducted and examined by aliens.

The lyrics of the first verse of “Hypnotized” describe “two friends having coffee together/When something flies by their window,” as well as “a playing field.” Welch explained that it was a reference to a large tennis court on the property where he wrote the song.

The second verse is about “a strange, strange pond” with sides “like glass.” That is based on a real anomaly, which Welch chose for its imagery.

“The ‘strange, strange pond’ with ‘sides like glass’ refers to a strange anomalous depression in the North Carolina woods near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which a friend told me about, which, at the time, freaked him (and his dirt-biking buddies) out,” Welch explained.

In the final verse, Welch sings of “a place down in Mexico/Where a man can fly over mountains and hills.” He’s referring to a man who claimed he was capable of astral travel.

“Hypnotized” remains a standout of not only Mystery to Me but also Welch’s time with Fleetwood Mac. It’s since been overshadowed by the band’s later hits with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. But, at the time, it was one of the band’s most well-known songs. And during their live shows, it was often played as their final encore. It also won an ASCAP award for 35 years of continuous radio play.

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