Is it inevitable?

[larg]

Hey everyone--been a while since I posted anything really (so busy with midterms, finals, term papers and working!!) but I just wanted to share a few comments and post a question I've come up with. Please read the whole thing through once you start so you get my full message, though. Here goes!

A long, long time ago, when I was in the sixth grade, I fell in love with Fleetwood Mac when I saw them performing the Dance on TV. For Christmas that year, I got the Dance as my first ever CD, and from there, my love of Fleetwood Mac grew. I had to have everything they ever released and absolutely needed to start playing the guitar; after all, I thought, how cool would it be to sound like Lindsey on the guitar?

I remember my naive disappointment when I picked up the Bare Trees album about two years later. I assumed it would be more of the Lindsey, Chris and Stevie stuff I'd fallen in love with. It wasn't, and I didn't understand. So, I did some research and learned the history of the band. I decided that I'd only buy albums by Fleetwood Mac from after 1975 then.

One day I found a casette tape of Behind the Mask in my father's truck. I asked if I could have it and he said that would be okay. Once again, I was confused when I listened to it. Christine sounded the same, and so did Stevie, but those other guys singing didn't come close to Lindsey's voice I loved so much. And the guitar playing? All I could think was, "Yeah, these phonies couldn't EVER even attempt to do Big Love like Lindsey does on the Dance."

My post-75, Lindsey/Stevie/Chris collection nearly complete (including solo stuff) by sophomore year of highschool, I shelled out the money for the 2-disc version of the Chain. Disc one rocked, I loved it, especially the new-to-me stuff like Make Me A Mask. Disc two, however, did not please me at all. I hate to admit it now, but I could not appreciate that bluesy sound. I only liked Oh Well because I had heard it on the Live album from 1980, but I still felt Lindsey's version to be superior. Oh boy, was I ever in a rut!

Fastforward to sophomore year in college, where I stand now. I own every album Fleetwood Mac ever made, the boxed sets, and tons of the solo stuff, not to mention bootlegs and more bootlegs. I also listen to music other than just Fleetwood Mac, which is a huge change from four years ago and before.

Here's the amazing part, though: I can't get enough of Peter Green and the other pre-75 music. I find myself in love with the blues. Mostly all I want to play on the guitar now is the blues.

Was this change inevitable with time? As I matured, did my understanding of music and appreciation therein mature as well? It makes me think of literature, and how I had to read John Steinbeck, H.G. Wells and F. Scott Fitzgerald in highschool because there was no way I'd be mature enough to enjoy the much-more complicated and beautiful works of people like John Milton, Alexander Pope and James Joyce which I now devour in college. Similarly, I could not yet enjoy Peter Green because I needed to be introduced to all of blues through rock and roll first, and Lindsey Buckingham hopping around on The Dance during Tusk was my introduction paragraph, that "hook" that my 8th grade teachers were so insitent on, to rock and roll.

I think that any open-minded fan will eventually grow out of a strict post-75 mind; it's just easier to focus on that alone to explore the nuances of the music, rather than also trying to look at Green, Welch, Kirwan, etc.

So, is it inevitable?

Adam

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by larg

I think that any open-minded fan will eventually grow out of a strict post-75 mind; it's just easier to focus on that alone to explore the nuances of the music, rather than also trying to look at Green, Welch, Kirwan, etc.

So, is it inevitable?

Short answer: No, it's not inevitable. Longer answer: There's always going to be music that you like, and music that you don't like, and sometimes there's music that you don't like at first but grow to appreciate later, and sometimes there's music that you like at first but later grow out of and don't care for anymore. And that's different for everybody. It just depends on your own personal aesthetic.

Some folks just don't like the blues, or the harder rock sound of early Mac, or the moodier sound of a lot of Kirwan/Welch-era Mac. It's not that they're not open-minded, it's just not their thing. Fleetwood Mac's been around for so long in so many different incarnations that different versions of the band appeal to a lot of different people in different ways (I don't for a minute think that I like Stevie's music in the same way that most of the people on her Ledge forum do). It's just different strokes for different folks.

And of course there's those of us who like it all, and aren't we lucky, because check out how much more great Mac music we get to enjoy listening to compared to the others! But still, I think it's a little unfair to imply that the folks who don't really care for pre-75 Mac just aren't being open-minded enough. It just might not be their thing, and that's fine, there's plenty of room for everyone around here, right?

[Wouter Vuijk]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

I think it's a little unfair to imply that the folks who don't really care for pre-75 Mac just aren't being open-minded enough. It just might not be their thing, and that's fine, there's plenty of room for everyone around here, right?

RIGHT

[marc402]

i'm glad i like all of the mac incarnations and have a deep respect for all 16 members. but truth be told i tend to listen to some incarnations of the band more than other incarnations,
i mean i stil (even though i own it) can't sing all of the bob weston , dave walker era tunes. i agree with Jyqm though to bad not everyone can apriciate all of there work but there will always be difirence in taste as we have seen in many song survivor rounds :P
room enough for all

[David]

Originally Posted by larg

Was this change inevitable with time? As I matured, did my understanding of music and appreciation therein mature as well?

Yes. In fact, in the coming years, you will grow out of rock & blues altogether, & spend your days in thoughtful study & pensive reverie with Die Kunst der Fuge.

[larg]

Actually, I already listen to WBAQ, the local classical music station all the time.

Adam

[bretonbanquet]

I think your musical taste is something that evolves throughout your life. I don't think there ever comes a time when you stop being open to a progression in your tastes. Everybody starts somewhere in music, usually by listening to something accessible - that's why accessible music makes a lot of money. Some people then decide they want to go off in a different direction and listen to more challenging stuff, but it's important to see that others are pefectly content to stay right where they are listening to the accessible music. Neither is right or wrong, that's the wonderful thing about music.

It's easy to look back on what you started out listening to, and say "I'm glad I left that pop music behind - I get so much more fulfilment out of the unsyncopated Peruvian jazz-blues I listen to now." It may well be that you got just as much enjoyment from the pop music, just in a different way. It is a kind of snobbery, but pop music fans can be just as snobbish to blues fans, metal fans etc. etc. Musical fascism is widespread - the attitude that "the only good music is the music that I like", and it's hard for most of us to see past it sometimes.

Fleetwood Mac is such a great band in that you can be exposed to many different types of music without leaving the confines of one band. I started off listening to the blues-era, but grew into the Kirwan/Welch era, and eventually on to the later stuff. I still prefer the early Mac, but I consider my tastes to be far wider and more tolerant than they were before my Mac phase. I never would have entertained any notion of listening to synthesised music before I heard Lindsey and Christine - even though I still much prefer 'primitive' blues and rock.

[chiliD]

"It's just a phase"

These days I find myself listening to music that is based around long improvised pieces within a basic structure (and I guess you could call it "jazz played with rock instrumentation")...or, easier yet, groups such as:

Allman Bros
Little Feat
Grateful Dead
Cream
Miles Davis
Return To Forever
Weather Report
(The 1970 edition of) Fleetwood Mac

[robm]

Originally Posted by chiliD

"It's just a phase"

These days I find myself listening to music that is based around long improvised pieces within a basic structure (and I guess you could call it "jazz played with rock instrumentation")...or, easier yet, groups such as:

Allman Bros
Little Feat
Grateful Dead
Cream
Miles Davis
Return To Forever
Weather Report
(The 1970 edition of) Fleetwood Mac

It's inevitable...most people seem to evolve their musical preferences as we get older....I also enjoy all of the above mentioned groups music as it allows each listener their own interpretation of the music, and certainly early Mac is in that catagory. (I would include early to mid Santana also)

larg(Adam) you have matured and sought out the "roots" of the music you enjoyed in high school, and found a greater understanding, and thus your newer preferences...good for you, and keep seeking the music that your inner self finds solace and fullfilment. If you are becomming a guitar player, this will surely help develop you "own" style, which is why the above mentioned bands are enjoyed by many.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by robm

(I would include early to mid Santana also)

Yes, yes...the Caravanserai through Lotus era!! Great stuff. Very "Coltrane-esque".

[dino]

Originally Posted by chiliD

Yes, yes...the Caravanserai through Lotus era!! Great stuff. Very "Coltrane-esque".

Yes, but look at Carlos NOW...sell out, anyone?

I enjoy Green-Mac, post Green-Mac and also the Lindsey Mac. But the post-Green stuff isn't as deep, and doesn't feel as ground-breaking. It's more good "pop" music, excellent in some cases. Something you can have on and enjoy without listening too hard...

[Alan Olson]

When speaking of matureing your musical tastes and growing your own personal music library through out one's life, it is a really great feeling when you pick up a CD or Album that you originally thought was garbage, and to give it another chance, another listen, a year or so later and find it to be very good. It is a wonderful surprise....

I'm a huge John Mayall fan and the album USA Union was for me awful when I 1st bought it, then a year later I gave it another chance and found it to be one of my favorite disks.....

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by dino

Yes, but look at Carlos NOW...sell out, anyone?

Well, he's BEEN in a "commercial vein" (as opposed to the term "sell-out") since the Amigos album way back in the late '70's...his albums just haven't garnered much mass appeal until Supernatural. I still like just about everything he's done from "Evil Ways" through Shaman (haven't gotten his latest, yet). "Game Of Love" is one of the catchiest tunes of the last 5 years.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by bretonbanquet

It is a kind of snobbery, but pop music fans can be just as snobbish to blues fans, metal fans etc. etc. Musical fascism is widespread - the attitude that "the only good music is the music that I like", and it's hard for most of us to see past it sometimes.

Oh, and I raise my hand...I'm a "music snob" of the Nth degree!

Originally Posted by bretonbanquet

Fleetwood Mac is such a great band in that you can be exposed to many different types of music without leaving the confines of one band.

That's the uniqueness of Fleetwood Mac...it is actually been, through the years, many DIFFERENT bands under one name; since it has been the constant changing of the frontline, the singers/songwriters.

[sharksfan2000]

Originally Posted by Alan Olson

...it is a really great feeling when you pick up a CD or Album that you originally thought was garbage, and to give it another chance, another listen, a year or so later and find it to be very good.

And of course there's the feeling of playing an old album you enjoyed that you haven't listened to in years and thinking "how could I have ever liked this crap?"