Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveMacD
Sure.
Fleetwood Mac had already sold 1.5-2 million albums and had just had a Top 40 album with HAHTF by Dec. 31, 1974. There’s a reason they weren’t dropped. There’s a reason they got a $250,000 advance (equivalent to $1.2 million today) to make the 1975 album. There’s a reason Bob Welch was offered a deal with Capitol Records with Paris before Fleetwood Mac were megastars. Fleetwood Mac never got dropped, Paris didn’t get dropped. Buckingham Nicks got dropped after one album. Fleetwood Mac without Buckingham Nicks was still viable. The opposite cannot be said. Stevie got that equation, Lindsey spent much of his initial time in the band railing against it.
|
And Bob had just left.
They weren't ever going to get above their typical sales of 100k or so albums without someone to replace him. Would they even have sustained those numbers otherwise? Doubtful.
Apples to oranges where each was at in their respective careers. Fleetwood Mac had the history of huge fame from the Peter Green days to fall back on. There was a built in fan base from the better part of the previous decade. And multiple albums and hit singles. But most of those were in the rear-view mirror.
BuckNicks was new. They had ONE album to their credit at that point. However, they were slowly building a groundswell, and they had a collection of songs with great potential (that went on to push the FM white album). So in that respect Lindsey is right in his thought that the potential for those BN songs was high. Would they have fulfilled that potential? Given that those songs in the versions we all know and love were produced by Keith Olsen, who was already working with them, again the likelihood of fulfilling that potential seems high. Stevie and Lindsey were the charismatic front people that they became for FM. I love Chris, but she was never going to be the charismatic front person a band needs (nor did she want to be).
So sure, FM at that moment in time had a back catalogue and a dedicated fan base, but on their own as the 3 they weren't going to get any bigger unless/until they found new players. BN as a self-contained unit was on the precipice of breaking through.
Saying BN propelled FM to success they wouldn't otherwise have had makes someone a "shipper" is pretty laughable. Especially for those of us who get ripped by actual shippers. One can find Stevie's behavior lately reprehensible, and still see the value she and Lindsey brought to the mix.
