[David]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

There was never a scenario where Lindsey joins Fleetwood Mac without Stevie while he and Stevie were still a couple that doesn’t end with her still joining the band.

I don't know why you're insisting so vehemently on that while rejecting any other scenario as an Easter Bunny scenario. Between 1971 and 1975, Lindsey and Stevie weren't quite as tied at the hip as you imagine. He had done session work without Stevie and he had been on tour with an outfit without Stevie (she later said that he left her in Aspen at the time). For her part, in either 1972 or 1973, she went back up to the Bay Area without Lindsey, and in fact fell in love with someone else, seriously considering staying with this dude and to hell with Buckingham Nicks (and wrote the song "Destiny" about the little interlude). Stevie told Denny Somach in 1980 that she and Lindsey were breaking up already even before they decided to join Mac. So the perfectly plausible scenario is that Lindsey might have decided to take the band's offer to join, even temporarily, just to make some money. You can reject the scenario out of hand, but it's perfectly plausible. He of course still wanted the Buckingham Nicks thing to work, but had already demonstrated that he'd take a time-bounded job to tide him over. Stevie has indicated many times that, certainly by late 1974, she was sick of trying to push the Buckingham Nicks project (which for her meant holding down a crappy day job). She always gave me the sense that, by late 1974, she thought the project was a failure and should be abandoned (but she had nothing else to do except go home to mom and dad).

Because, hate to break it to you, it wasn’t his guitar playing.

That flies in the face of everything Mick has ever said about hearing all the guitar work on the BN album.

She’d already played with Peter Green and Danny Kirwan. Lindsey’s a great guitarist, but he’s not at that level as a lead guitarist (which is why he didn’t want to join).

Well, of course LB, especially at that point, was no Peter Green -- as a guitarist OR a songwriter. But I doubt the Green legacy was driving the band's decisions during those chaotic years. Green was long gone, as was Kirwan. Welch, Weston, and Walker, and all their respective strengths and weaknesses, were undoubtedly much fresher in the minds of the McVies and Fleetwood. When Welch finally split, the band was nothing but a rhythm section and a singer-songwriter who preferred hanging back musically. Fleetwood Mac could have gone no further without hiring someone.

No, the game changer for Christine was the harmonies. Plural.

Oh, now you are completely making that up out of thin air, or at least out of your own conjecture. Christine has NEVER said that she wanted Buckingham Nicks in the band BECAUSE of their harmonies on the BN album. For all you know, she never even listened to the BN album. She has only said that when Buckingham Nicks added live harmonies to HER songs in rehearsal, she loved it. By that time, they were already in the band. There is no evidence anywhere that she wanted anything but a lead guitarist.

Same for John, BTW.

If you have any reliable evidence that John listened to the BN album BEFORE those two joined his band, spill it.

So, let’s just dispel this glorified fan fiction that St. Lindsey, Lord of the Overdubs, high upon his horse, demanded that Stevie be included once and for all. She would have been in the band eventually anyway. It was really less Lindsey wouldn’t join without Stevie as it was you buy one, you buy both because that’s just how the Buckingham Nicks equation was.

You contradict yourself in your fanatical craze to push your own glorified fiction. The scenario of "You buy one, you get both" -- which you say you accept -- probably came from Lindsey (or, by extension, from Keith).