What are you most sick of hearing about?

[SortaSavageLike]

I'm feeling bored and a little irritated.

1. "Everyone in the band was sleeping with each other!" Well, gee... You had two couples, they broke up, Stevie had an affair with Mick, Lindsey kinda sorta may have had a "thing" with Christine...and everything else is just gossip. An overblown talking point.

2. "They did enough cocaine to burn a hole in Godzilla's nose!" So did just about every other band that was popular during the period - if not cocaine, then some other recreational substance. And they're all sober now - get over it, folks.

3. "Fleetwood Mac is nothing without (member)!" They're a band - "a group of musicians organized for ensemble playing." They need each other in order to create music. Stop fanwanking and look at the big picture.

4. "They were a hardcore blues band until Stevie and Lindsey ruined everything!" Convienently ignores the Bob Welch years - if Mystery To Me is a "hardcore blues" album, I obviously need to revise my musical dictionary.

5. "(Member) Is a saint and never did/does anything wrong!" No 'frickin way. I imagine even Christine could be a flaming bitch, and Stevie and Lindsey? You'd have to be living in a cave since 1975 to think they've got spotless records, drugs or not. Too much evidence to the contrary.

6. "(Member) (Insert vaguely libelous rumor here)!" Yeah, the Mac was just an endless parade of drug orgies, screaming fits, Satanic worship, and domestic abuse, but where's the physical evidence that it actually happened? Yeah, speculate all you want, but don't quote it as truth. Besides, since Stevie is a witch, she could use her ~magical powers~ to draw cocaine up her rear end without any actual help. Even through her clothes. Duh!

7. "(Member) never wrote any bad songs!" Well, you can go on thinking that Family Man and When I See You Again are the epitome of pop perfection, but I try to maintain a standard of healthy criticism when I can. The Macsters might be reading this forum and getting too cocky, you know.

[Moz]

Originally Posted by SortaSavageLike

I'm feeling bored and a little irritated.

3. "Fleetwood Mac is nothing without (member)!" They're a band - "a group of musicians organized for ensemble playing." They need each other in order to create music. Stop fanwanking and look at the big picture.

^ ten exciting characters

[Chrislit18]

I voted for the Cocaine thing, Who really gives a flying fck if they did drugs?

besides, the beatles, possibly the BEST band EVER, did more drugs than anyone can imagine.

and seriously, its only drugs, who cares.

[michelej1]

I remember something J. K. Rowling said about the stories of how she was a single mother on welfare, living in an unheated closet of an apartment, etc. She said that the truth of the years she spent struggling was bad enough and she didn't know why people felt the need to exaggerate it.

That's how I feel about Fleetwood Mac sleeping together. The stories have been retold for 30 years and they are so exaggerated now. Casual fans tend to think the 5 of them were in one big orgy and no story can be written about them without that all coming up again. I get tired of hearing about it. It's not that I don't think the real tangled romantic stories are intriguing. I do. It's just that they've been exaggerated to mythic proportions and that gets to be a drag.

As for the drug use, to me, I just can't believe they did massive drugs compared to hard rockers. As far as rock bands in general go, I think their drug intake must have been on the lower end of the scale. So, I don't know why that always makes the news either. But I think the Rumours romances are the most overblown.

Michele

[Villavic]

very good poll. I voted for:
3. "Fleetwood Mac is nothing without (member)!" They're a band - "a group of musicians organized for ensemble playing." They need each other in order to create music. Stop fanwanking and look at the big picture.(you couldn't say it better!!)

[Madelow]

Hello all-- I agree: a great poll with wonderful choices. I'm with Michelej: Enough with the "band sex arrangements" all ready. Blown out of all porportion, and not that interesting anymore. I'm curiou to see how the Ledgies vote. Best always, Madelow.

[Dreamz19]

I picked number 2, but number 1 is a very close second. Everytime I hear about FM or read a write up about them from casual fans, they always mention the drugs and 'incestous' relationships. Sooooo boring and overdone.

[jannieC]

Originally Posted by SortaSavageLike

1. "Everyone in the band was sleeping with each other!" Well, gee... You had two couples, they broke up, Stevie had an affair with Mick, Lindsey kinda sorta may have had a "thing" with Christine...and everything else is just gossip. An overblown talking point.

For real???

[SortaSavageLike]

Originally Posted by jannieC

For real???

Kindasortamaybe but not likely or so I've heard suggested from a few people over the last couple of years.

[starshine]

I also voted for #1 but it could've been #2 etc....I guess I'm tired of hearing about all the sleeping around....enoughs enough already.....it's been so over talked about.....I'd say one more that I'd add is the Stevie & Lindsey fighting over the years and all the press bickering back and forth.....I'm so sick of all of that....its like get over it already.....We don't know all about there relationship and the only people that really understand it (I guess??) is them....so who knows but them.....its like old news to me.....thats IMO that is........

[michelej1]

I just saw a VH1 special called I Love the 70s and it focused on 1976. It was made in 2006, but I just saw it tonight. They featured FM as a remnant of the seventies. Of course, they talked about the band members sleeping with each other, which got on my nerves, because they like to exaggerate things so much. They specialize in irreverence and have comedians and actors commenting, so they go for laughs more than anything else. But they made some generalizations that I didn't quite like (and jibes at Christine's looks, which made no sense).

Still, there was some nice live footage of the group's early photo shoot that I hadn't seen before. Just a couple of secs, but I cherished it. Even the footage I've seen dozens of times before looked good (USC, Tusk stuff) because it's nice to see it clear, first generation, rather than a copy of a copy.

Michele

[totallycait]

I went for the drugs. Because, really, I think we get the point.

I would've chosen Stevie/Lindsey, but all the relationships were grouped together, and quite frankly, this part....

Originally Posted by SortaSavageLike

Lindsey kinda sorta may have had a "thing" with Christine...

I would love to hear about this. I've had my own fannish theories but they don't mean much.

There's that one interview with John where he says every possible pairing between band members had already happened except maybe him & Lindsey. And then he said there was still time for that one.

Michele, I saw the 1976 ep of I Love The 70s on Monday too - the FM segment was pretty funny, for that series. Except for the bit later in the show where dummy comedian Godfrey thought "Afternoon Delight" was a FM song.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by totallycait

Michele, I saw the 1976 ep of I Love The 70s on Monday too - the FM segment was pretty funny, for that series. Except for the bit later in the show where dummy comedian Godfrey thought "Afternoon Delight" was a FM song.

I think they compared FM to ABBA as well. Michele

[njova]

They said FM was better then ABBA, they said ABBA was cheesy.

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by njova

They said FM was better then ABBA, they said ABBA was cheesy.

I was around back then and was a big fan of BOTH bands even seeing them both live at the end of 1979 when I was a senior in high school.Fleetwood Mac was more highly regarded by the critics back then but ABBA's stock and acclaim have grown exponentially over the years ..and it helped that they broke up for good while still near their prime unlike ..ahem well...