What if.. Stevie had left the band instead of Christine?
 

I don't know if this has been mentioned before. Imagine it was Stevie who had left the band after The Dance and the Reunion tour. How would Say You Will have sound? Probably a mix of the known SYW with the best of In the Meantime. And how would the tours have been? Obviously always finishing with Songbird. I think they would be as succesful as the actual last tours. Christine is great.

I don't think it would've gone over so well, Stevie's the face of Fleetwood Mac now, at least to people that aren't hardcore fans like us.

I think it would have been amazing... McVie Buckingham collaborations are some of the best tunes Mac has to offer...

I think attendance would be down quite a bit, but a niche following would support smaller venues. Album sales would be low of course as well. Stevie does sell for them, due to the fact she has her own following.

Musically I think it would be very very interesting.

I agree... Say what you want about Stevie, girlfriend comes with quite the fanbase and always draws a crowd...

Agreed. It would have been pretty rewarding, musically, and this lineup would have probably gotten rave reviews. But the "tour" as it were would be pretty sad: I don't think they'd do more than a dozen or so of medium-venue shows.

It definitely didn't work well last time around with the whole Time era. I think Christine's absence from the Time tour (which happened before the album was released) had a large part to do with the failure. Not only were Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks absent, but Christine was as well. Those are your 3 most notable people from the Rumours crew, because they were the singer/songwriters. My point being, I don't know if that's comparable to just Stevie being out of the picture. I won't argue with you that Stevie is without a doubt the face of Fleetwood Mac. She's the one that gets the butts in the seats of concerts for sure. Fleetwood Mac with Stevie would probably sell only half the concert tickets, maybe less.

I do however think the idea of Stevie being gone and Christine still being in the band is very provocative. Chris and Lindsey have such a musical bond, and they really work well together. Christine's voice seems to just improve with age, whereas Stevie's continues to decline. Just Lindsey and Chris as songwriters would make an incredibly tight, well crafted record, I can tell you that. But without Stevie as a foil, would it be dry, and lacking character and soul?

I must admit, with all this negative yammering from Stevie lately, I do wish she'd retire, and Christine step back up to the plate. There's no sense of Stevie being in the band if she's not happy personally or musically. Add to the fact that Christine's and Lindsey's latest solo albums from this decade are the best of their respective careers, and it does make for a good argument for Christine to step into Stevie's shoes. However, that will never happen... and it's unfortunate.

I sincerely think Lindsey would have not collaborated with Fleetwood Mac if Stevie were not part of it. I think he genuinely (at the time SYW was in the working/beginning stages) was happy about making music with FM again. And (again, this is my opinion) I think he views Fleetwood Mac as something he does WITH Stevie. I think he would have been just as willing (at that point in time) to go out and do BuckinghamNicksII. For all the blood, sweat and tears (oops, wrong group!) they make fantastic music together. Yes, Lindsey and Chris have done a couple of interesting things together but...it's not the same dynamic. Not the same chemistry and not the same passion and fire. And the audience, for the most part, wants that. I don't think they give a tinker's damn over an interesting musical collaboration. They want Chemistry with a capital C.


So...I don't think it would have happened. If it had, I think it would have bombed.

Without Christine, you lose the one who kinda pulls all the loose strings back in again. She musically complimented Lindsey specifically, but just in general, I see her as the balancing force.

Without Stevie, you lose the emotional pull that brings people to love Fleetwood Mac to the level that we do, I think. I think she brings something so personal to the band that people can't really shake it off... she gives Fleetwood Mac a specific punch that Christine and Lindsey just don't.

They were a perfect union of three-- a trinity-- for a reason. Each of the three songwriters compliments the other two in an irreplacable way. Without Stevie, I'm sure the popularity of the band would dramatically fall... and its not like Christine and Lindsey could go redefine Fleetwood Mac and draw a new pool of fans in because a) they are over 60 years old in a young market and b) I'm not so sure the spark is there without Stevie.

I'd be extremely excited about a Christine/Lindsey album. Unfortunately, I don't think it would work in concert. I mean, it would work for me, fine. But Fleetwood Mac would leave with empty pockets and bruised egos. So, no tour, but Christine and Lindsey on an album? Bring it on.

I disagree about ITMT being Christine's best solo work though. I found most of the album pleasant, but the 2 songs that gripped me weren't written by her. So, maybe Dan could work with them, he could be like Eddie was on Tango.

I like Christine's second solo outing the best. But I agree that her voice has improved with age as have her interpretative skills. You take Lindsey on Bel Air Rain and Christine on Calumny and put that kind of emotion, reflection and wisdom of experience together on new songs -- it would be mindbending.

Michele

Now, see, I think ITM is amazing. Her self-titled 84 record is simply too bland and generic for me--with the exception of Smile I Live For.

I don't mind that the two Dan-penned songs were highlights, since it shows that Christine can still interpret other people's material.

Great post...

My first instinct is to say that the demand wouldn't be there and the band would cease to be, but when it comes to the current configuration of the band, Stevie has ALWAYS been the one who's most in it for the money (if you doubt me- why does she continue to stick around year after year, despite the fact she has nothing but a constant stream of complaints? Its because she likes the attention/making ~$200K per show. No problem with that. She has her cake and eats it too, and everyone seems to be fine with it.)

Lindsey's fine with losing money on his ridiculously self-indulgent solo tours, and (in this alternate universe) Chris is there for the music. Mick & John have always been along for the ride, and their pay wouldn't be all that different from a tour that Stevie was involved with.

If you really want to know what it would have sounded like, just listen to the "Tango In The Night" album.

Without Stevie, there would be no Fleetwood Mac...
But also it's not the "real" Fleetwood Mac now because of Christine left the band...
But I think Stevie is the lead poet/singer/songwriter of the group and she's the best so it wouldn't been the same if she wasn't there during the SYW album and NOW!!

Not only would I have liked to have seen it, I would have preferred it.

Matt