Here's my twopenny worth and I'm posting it as one who loved Behind the Mask as well as most of the pre-BN stuff.
It was so obvious to me back around 1989/90 that Stevie would hardly care if she never worked with Lindsey again. Mick was saying like "Hey he was too dominant, we need to get back to being a democracy".
Of course the BTM line-up collapsed a few months after that album came out and for a variety of reasons.
Time... don't get me started.
I was amazed when the Rumours line-up reformed. I was even more amazed when Say You Will came out - Stevie was right to describe it as "a Buckingham Nicks album with power trio backing" but crikey it was amazing. I even fell for the overture of mutual forgiveness between L & S on the closing two tracks.
But... really Mick. Did you really think having those two together again in the same band was going to work for any great length of time? Oh sure, 21 years but what did that produce? One new album which gave a tour rich in new material to compensate for the absence of Chris's songs, sure but then a looooong silence apart from a couple of tours with neither Chris nor (very much) new material and all because Stevie wouldn't do another album as the only girl. OK there was that EP but that was just a glorified LB solo work really and not just because of SN being on compassionate leave - It Takes Time was no more a true Mac track than Make Me A Mask and had a reused tune from Show You How to boot. And then Chris comes back and then what? Stevie can't bring herself to go into a studio with Lindsey and we get the BuckVie album. Seriously Mick, why didn't you just ditch Stevie then like you have Lindsey now? The words "money" and "talks" spring to mind as well as I bet you've still got a bit of a soft spot for her.
Look at Deep Purple. Their classic line-up reformed in 1984 but it only took a few years to work out that Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore could not co-exist in a band anymore. They tried it without Gillan, realised their mistake and brought him back before Blackmore spit his dummy (pacifier) and quit mid-tour but even then they still came out with something new every three years and knew that with four out of five classic members they still stood a good chance of packed venues even if the albums weren't going platinum. No question of twenty years of virtual silence with just the odd nostalgia tour.
And now Mick... now that you have finally wised up and got a line-up together that I think could easily work, you, John, Chris and (almost) Stevie have all passed the threescore and ten mark. It's back to the whole "We're renewed and going forward" that was being touted when Billy and Rick joined. Let's hope you can deliver something new before either you or John croaks it.
I rest my case.
|