Quote:
Originally Posted by David
Fleetwood Mac obviously needed a clever project manager—someone to make some band-centric decisions and lay down the law (otherwise known as Hobson's choice)—after 1980. "Your tour schedule conflicts with the band's schedule. Guess who wins?"
Solo activities started in 1980–81 as an outlet for Fleetwood Macsters to let off a little steam and find their center (even though there had been a few solo projects during earlier incarnations). But those activities wound up toxifying the band until finally the group paid a heavy price for all the individuals running off on their own. It entered a state of suspended animation—much of its audience (and maybe even a few of its members) thought repeatedly that it was dead.
All of the maneuvering over the years to get the band back into a room together again was nothing but a lot of wasted energy. It's no wonder nobody enjoyed the recording or the touring. The finagling of schedules drained everybody. The moment you saw your fellow Macsters at the airport on the eve of a tour, you were already sick of them.
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I will take your point either further. This "suspended animation" really impacted the music.
Mirage was an over correction from Tusk. Very commercial and SAFE. It also was vital to the band to have a successful #1 album to almost counter Bella Donna.
Tango had even more pressure to be a commercial success. Its pure bubble gum pop even more than Mirage. Plus the suspended animation only allowed Stevie to spend very little time on the album.
I am not trashing Mirage and Tango. But just imagine the music we could have gotten if the band did not feel the pressure to be commercial pop successful. When members are having extremely successful solo careers......they are not going to waste time and go back to the band if their music is not commercially successful. The White album, Rumours, and Tusk were much more organic and did not feel the fester and pressure to sell albums to counter solo careers.