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Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo
I would put that in the context of his competitve relationship with Stevie and how Stevie was getting all the attention since joining Fleetwood Mac.
It's not like he's a Brit like John and Christine who doesn't need to talk himself up; he's cut from the same self-promoting cultural cloth as Stevie and, holy Rhiannon, can you imagine how suffocated your ego would feel when Stevie Nicks is sucking up all the air around you. By doing some self-promotion about his contribution to arrangement and production, or making some jabs at his replacements, I picture him merely clinging to a lifebuoy while the shimmering SS Stevie ploughs past through the waters of public opinion and recognition.
Regarding his predecessors, I don't feel like he ever went around 'dissing' them per se, as he light-heartedly did with his replacements, but rather, in the context of his having agreed to join FM not as a beholden jukebox player but as a new and independent creative force in the band, and having secured immense success with and for that band, he was simply pointing out the inarguable facts regarding the success of the band under its respective iterations and his own personal tastes for the musical direction he envisioned for the band.
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Said very well. The first part is spot on. As is the second, except I would say LB occasionally dismissed Bob Welch’s work with the band.
Mid-seventies interviews show him saying things like: I stopped listening to Fleetwood Mac after Bare Trees because I wasn’t thrilled with the direction Bob Welch took the band. And, with the exception of Green, he has never acknowledged the accomplishments of their previous guitarists. Many critics and general listeners have noted his stylistic affinities with Danny Kirwan, but he never admits to them. It’s part of his manner to underplay others in the band. Heck, even when he was being interviewed for the BuckVie record, he told the journalist he’s not really a fan of, or inclined to listen to, Christine’s work, that what he admires about her is her commitment to craft in songwriting—but even when the journalist pressed, he still did but concede that he’s terribly interested in her voice or her instrumental prowess. Strange man indeed.