Thank you so much for posting about this.

below is a link to leave a message about bob on a site that deals with obituarary messages for loved one's that passed this is for bob welch you can leave a message on here its to leave a message to the family.


http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/chic...&pid=157964920

Posted Jul 06, 2012 @ 04:09 PM Peoria Journal Star
http://www.pjstar.com/blogs/mindingb...s-superstardom

Non-success story #?: Leaving Fleetwood Mac just before the groups attains superstardom

By Steve Tarter

The recent death of musician Bob Welch (a suicide at the age of 65) is yet another reminder of the slippery slope of success.

Never heard of Welch? He was a member of the super-group Fleetwood Mac just before they became super.

Welch sang and played guitar for the British-based group from 1971 to 1974, composing songs like “Sentimental Lady” and “Hypnotized.”

After Welch left the group, a couple named Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined the band and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mac’s two albums, post-Welch, happened to be monsters, “Fleetwood Mac” and "Rumours.”

The first release had songs like “Monday Morning,” “Landslide” and “Rhiannon” while “Rumours,” which wound up selling 40 million copies worldwide, brought us “Don’t Stop,” “Go Your Own Way” and “Second Hand News.”

Fleetwood Mac had always been an interesting and inventive band, but with Nicks and Buckingham, they ascended into pop history.

Yet it was Welch who suggested that the one-time British blues band settle down in California, his home state.

David Fricke wrote about Welch’s contributions to Fleetwood Mac last month in Rolling Stone. He pointed out that Welch’s work on five albums prior to the arrival of the gold-dust twins “brought an L.A. polish and smart-pop delicacy” to the group’s sound.

I must, however, take issue with Fricke on the matter of “A Mystery to Me,” the 1973 album he described as “well-produced but bland.”

First of all, the album’s cover art that Fricke called “astonishingly bad — a garish painting of a crying gorilla eating a cake,” I found interesting. You want bad album art? Try this: http://www.boredpanda.com/worst-album-covers-ever/

As for that album’s contents, Fricke’s description of “Hypnotized” is profound: “Urgent noir propelled by a shuffling mix of guitars and (Christine) McVie’s’s electric-piano understatement, with Welch singing in a sleepwalking cadence like a Raymond Chandler detective musing to himself in a late-night rain.”

But Welch had other strong songs on that album. Starting with “Emerald Eyes,” there’s “Keep On Going,” “The City,” “Miles Away” and “Somebody,” all written by Welch. The guy was not only cooking artistically but here he was, propelling the band to its glitzy pop destiny.

Now talk about noir: One day, success is in your hand and the next, you’re scratching your palm. Welch left the band and tried unsuccesively to go the solo route. Later, he got into a legal squabble with Mac band members over royalties. When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the group[ failed to even list his name as a member. You do five albums and you get bumpkus.

If your connection to Big Mac is only through those mid-70s radio hits, you’re missing out on a lot. Aside from the early “Then Play On” (when Peter Green was with the band), there was the delightful “Kiln House” from 1970 (with “Station Man” from Danny Kirwan). As Fricke noted, Bob Welch’s albums — “Future Games” (1971), “Bare Trees” (1972), “Penguin” and “Mystery to Me” (both 1973) and “Heroes Are Hard to Find” (1974) — are hard to find in the digital-music era. They’re not available on either Spotify or iTunes.

So get the albums. Unless you have to hear “Go Your Own Way” one more time.

I understand that the whole Welch-left-Fleetwood Mac-right-before-the-band's-big-break makes a great story. But the truth is FM became huge in America because the chemistry between that particular five people was so potent it could not be ignored. If Welch had stayed on with or without Lindsey and Stevie, there would have certainly been some very good music--and maybe some stunning combinations if Lindsey and Stevie were there--but the group chemistry would not have been the same. I doubt the band would have reached the level of success it did.

I know this might not be a popular thing to say at the moment but it's honest. His leaving FM was the right thing for him (at the time) and for the band (in the long run). The fact that he approached FM about replacing Lindsey in 1987 and was turned down (see his second Q&A) suggests that the band may have recognized this, too.

The real curiosity is why Welch's solo career did not sustain itself as long as it should have. Three Hearts and The Other One are easily as good as (and possibly better than) French Kiss. He was doing fine solo work. The public seemed fickle--or maybe Welch didn't have the kind of pin-up image that most people expect from solo acts. Whatever the case, the real injustice to Welch was mass public ambivalence (which became apathy) after his initial breakthrough.

For those that don't read the Stevie forum, CADreaming posted this about her Nashville show last night:

At the bow, she mentioned Bob Welch: "I would also like to say one last thing. In the family and band of Fleetwood Mac, we are very sorry we lost Bob Welch who was from here and he was one of the great guitar players in my band, so I would like to say Bob, wherever you are -I know you're in a better place. So, thank you everybody. God bless you."

Once again I've got to say what a classy gal Stevie is. Top marks in my book. She and Mick are the only members of FM to say anything about Bob's death. The silence of the others--no matter what their history with Bob was--is really unforgivable.

Well, to be fair to John, he's admittedly not in contact with anybody but Mick and maybe Christine every blue moon, and doesn't say much when he's in the spotlight, except if it's about his marriage with Christine. Otherwise, he shuts the hell up and plays bass, which as a guy who has put bands together, isn't a bad thing.

John worked with Welch for many years. Whether shy or reclusive, he could at least have issued a brief press release--or even a sentence or two.