Quote:
Originally Posted by Jondalar
I finally feel that I’m over her. It’s the way she acted the last few years. I just don’t see her in the same way. Looking back, I just think that she is someone who got extremely lucky and was able to surround herself with truly talented people.
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This is true to some extent but also is unfair and doesn't give her enough credit.
Would she have been anything without Lindsey Buckingham and the rest of Fleetwood Mac? Highly unlikely. That band (as it existed in the late 70s) brings the absolute best out of her and compliments her strengths and weaknesses perfectly. Same goes for her first solo album, had it not been for the collarboation with Tom Petty and Jimmy Iovine and the other wonderful talent hired for Bella Donna, the album may never have seen the success it did.
That being said, how is that different from any other popular artist? Music is always a collaborative effort and all of the cogs have to be turning for it to work. She may have been nothing without Fleetwood Mac, but would Fleetwood Mac be what it is without her? HELL NO. Lindsey is an amazing guitarist but if the band had only taken him in 1975 the band would've lacked all of the factors that she brought to the table that McVie and Buckingham could never do. That star power that only she possessed, a unique writing style that provided a contrast between McVie's lighter content and Buckingham's more un-relateable content, a voice that (while not necessarily the best from a technical standpoint ala McVie) was incredibly distinctive and managed to emote to an incredible degree, and finally a stage presence that could captivate audiences with little more than some chiffon-laden outfits and twirls.
And also most importantly, her writing: She's a writer first and foremost, with her musicianship limited to being able to craft basic song structures for her lyrics. While that strength was certainly running dry by RAL, her songs on the White Ablum, Rumours, and Tusk are by far the most lyrically interesting of the three members imo. The balance between esoteric and relatable is hard to pull off and she did wonderfully with it (at least until RAL forward).
(examples: Beautiful Child, Dreams, Gypsy, Gold Dust Woman, Sara, Storms, Landslide are AMAZING from a musicianship standpoint, but the lyrics are what most people connect to)
Do I approve of any of her recent comments/actions? I don't think it's as black and white a situation as many of the more emotional fans seem to think (Stevie just hates Lindsey so she got him fired vs the band decided to tour and rudely moved on without Lindsey when he did not agree), but that doesn't mean I approve. I don't really approve of any of the bands behavior at any point in time, frankly. They consistently squandered opportunities at every turn since 1979 that could have made them even greater than they are if they had just acted like adults for 10 minutes. None of them are saints, now or then. It leads to the question why recent events caused you to lose respect when she's kind of always been like this. Please don't take this as an attack, but what was your image of her before? If it was anything besides an out of touch, self-indulgent person with a propensity for petty nonsense than you must never have seen an interview with her from literally any time period post 1976.
In conclusion: she's never been a great human being and has relied on the talent of others but that's a part of collaboration. She's not a producer or a musician, but she is a personality/performer and a lyricist. Combine that with some of the best talent in the industry at the time and you've got the Queen of Rock and Roll. That is why I am still a fan of her work.