The Problem with "Time"

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

I think it's ridiculous to wish that the Rumours phenomenon had never occurred, because if it wasn't for Rumours...

...there would be no Tusk (as a reaction to Rumours)

Interesting scenario.

Well, let's say that there was a Rumours without the phenomenon. It was hailed as a good album, but it didn't sell mad crazy. Let's say that it would have sold a million or 2 more than the White Album did. I think that would have been enough to keep the ball rolling a little.

After all, the guys were going to break up romantically anyway and the White album held them together a little longer. The White album gave them more money than they had ever had before. They liked that. So, a non-astronomical, but successful Rumours might also have given them enough incentive to, ah, keep on trucking. They would still have had all the emotional problems, but they also would still want to be successful and maintain their new riches, so I don't know if they would have been that quick to walk away from the band.

So, if they kept having Top 10 hits, I think the public would have remained interested in them through the eighties, without getting as psychotic as it did. Maybe they would have made even more albums, so they would have something to tour on.

It was funny to me in the pre-Rumours interviews Lindsey was saying that Rhiannon was a hit they didn't expect and they just keep on having singles off of the album. Stevie said, if that's the case, then they could take even longer to release the new album, if the singles from the first album were still popular.

If Rumours had been less popular, I agree with you we wouldn't have gotten Tusk in reaction. I think Lindsey would still have wanted to make Tusk, but the rest of the band wouldn't have had as much reason to indulge him as the Rumours success gave him. Maybe we wouldn't even have gotten Tango, but we might have gotten 4 Mirage-type albums instead. More albums and more touring, before they broke up gradually at the end of the eighties and faded away because the public lost interest -- not because of some big, Tango fight.

Oh well. I'm happy with how it all happened. I'm proud that they reached the stratosphere, even if it left them Leashed for ever after.

Michele

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Interesting scenario.

Well, let's say that there was a Rumours without the phenomenon. It was hailed as a good album, but it didn't sell mad crazy. Let's say that it would have sold a million or 2 more than the White Album did. I think that would have been enough to keep the ball rolling a little.

A million or two more than the white album is still quite a ****load of albums! But let's say for the sake of argument that the album sold three million copies (like Mirage)- a hit by any metric, but not exactly setting the world on fire- would Stevie have had the cred to put out a solo record with top shelf producers and musicians? Would Tom Petty bother writing songs for her? Would Lindsey have been allowed such creative control on Tusk and every one of his quirky solo albums? If there was no Tusk and if Bella Donna was a half-assed affair, and they continued to crank out Mirage Parts I, II, III and IV, I am pretty sure I would not be too interested. And for me part of the allure of FM has been this built-in tension whenever they regrouped- almost as if they are doing it under protest and that any spark could blow up the powder keg. And of course they worked together because of the immense reward as well as, some shred of artistic cohesion lying far beneath the layers of jealousy, resentment and antipathy. If it wasn't for the big tours, private jets and lofty advances and artistic freedom, I suspect they would have finally called it a day after Mirage (or whatever album that would have followed Rumours).

[David]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

And for me part of the allure of FM has been this built-in tension whenever they regrouped- almost as if they are doing it under protest and that any spark could blow up the powder keg.

That reminds me of the Steve Pond review of the Hollywood Bowl Sept. 1, 1980, show. He referred to the "powder-keg detonation of Go Your Own Way" ... the "awesome momentum of The Chain and Tusk" ... the "oppressive brilliance of a slow I'm So Afraid" ... the "deft keyboard touches that illuminate Over & Over."

And then he says that Stevie's "dying swan poses & Fairie Queene pretensions" are "still essentially decorative."