Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveMacD
And Christine was still there. You know, the person with most of the bands hits...
I’m not a shipper. The only “ship” I care about is the Fleetwood-McVie-Perfect/McVie groove that’s been the defining part of the Fleetwood Mac sound since “Mr. Wonderful.” Those three together have something unique.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers didn’t get dropped after their first album, the one they made prior to Clapton.
Chicken Shack didn’t get dropped.
Christine Perfect didn’t get dropped.
Fleetwood Mac didn’t get dropped.
Paris didn’t get dropped.
Buckingham Nicks got dropped. There was no demand for them outside of a few towns in the Deep South. They didn’t have a label that liked them, believed in them, or was willing to stand by them. Certainly not a label that was willing to advance them $250k.
I half suspect Keith Olsen specifically played a couple of Buckingham Nicks songs to Mick because he knew enough about Fleetwood Mac’s history to see a potential opportunity to recoup some money off the freeloaders (Stevie and Lindsey). Making great music is all well and good, but it doesn’t pay the bills unless someone buys it. Keith could have just as easily recommended Waddy, who may have been a more appropriate replacement for Bob Welch (weird looking, wears glasses, plays a Les Paul).
You imply that the band wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without Peter, Bob, or Stevie and Lindsey. I don’t disagree about Peter, but where were Bob or Buckingham Nicks before Fleetwood Mac? Christine had ten of the band’s eighteen Top-40 hit singles and Fleetwood Mac always had Top-40 albums when Mick was managing the band, including “Rumours.” At some point, aren’t they also responsible for the band’s success?
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First off the shipper comment was not about or towards you it was in response to someone else who commented after you.
If you didn't cherry pick my comments you'd see that I acknowledged Chris.
However, those 18 top 40 hits of hers that you mention-- tell me, were those before or after they hooked up with BN-- those magical 3-part harmonies and LB and his production?? (Indeed Chris said on Johnny Walker right before returning that when she heard the material L&S had she thought 'right, I need to up my game here' with regards to her songwriting).
I agree that she was the only one of the Mick/Chris/John trio to have had individual success. She writes and sings, so that makes sense. What would Mick or John be doing without a singer songwriter? Maybe they'd have ended up doing session work if they hadn't found new frontpeople. Thing is, while Chris is fabulous, she is not really a "front person" -- by her own words. Nor does she want to be one -- by her own words. So again, having Chris is great, but it wouldn't have gotten them the crowds and recognition having a more charismatic person up front would have (Bob, Peter, etc). With BN they got TWO.
You seem to want to argue that the Brits in the band without adding anyone new could have gone on to be as big as they were minus BN. Preposterous. With someone new upfront other than BN, possibly. But it wouldn't clearly have ended up with the same batch of songs that they still all cash in on to this day. (Rumours reissue volume 12, anyone?) There is (was
) a unique chemistry to the mix of those 5 that I personally doubt they would ever have had with anyone else.
As for Keith, no one doubts he knew the mix of the two BN/FM had the potential to make it big. That's his stock in trade. I don't see how that negates anything. If neither side had anything to bring to the equation why would he have bothered to bring them together? After all he's the guy who saw Fritz and said the band wasn't that special but those two kids out front, now they had something and he'd be interested in them. And again, Rhiannon, Landslide, I'm So Afraid along with half of Stevie's eventual solo material were already written when they were working on BN2. Waddy is a great player, he might even be technically more sophisticated than LB, but would he have been a great front person? Would he have the charisma to pull FM out of its cult status, getting them to sell more than the same 100k albums? I'd vote no.