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Old 01-08-2017, 07:39 AM
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Question Bob Welch era

I was reading old interviews and Stevie mentioned it was Bob Welch's mysticism that really drew her to Fleetwood Mac. After Welch left the band, Mick, John, Christine, and Stevie all helped Bob record his 3 Hearts solo album. There were numerous shows including the Bob Welch and friends concert where the band re-united with Bob.
Then something went wrong. In 1999 Bob stated how hard it was that the band refused to honor and invite him to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Bob sued the band but it was over royalties which is a common civil action among musicians. Bob thought it was more about how dysfunctional the band was in his era and how they did not get along. If that was true then why did the band help Bob after he left? On the flip side, the Mac sold millions of records and why would they care to fight Bob over royalties for records he was a big part of? Both sides just don't make sense.
The Behind the Music segment on the Mac was created right around the time the band was inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame. The show completely ignores Bob Welch. When the show says the group came to America looking for a guitarist....it goes right to Lindsey and pretended Bob did not exist. Even worse the segment shows the back of the "Heroes are hard to find" album cover and cuts Bob Welch out of the picture only focusing on Mick, Chris and John. WTF? Did the band have creative control over the show to remove Bob from their history? Bob was such a crucial member of the band and I don't understand how he can be removed from the band's history.
Van Halen has a similar feud with former bassist Michael Anthony. On the band's website, they removed Michael Anthony from everything as if he never existed even though he was so pivotal in the band's success.
In Mick's latest book, he fawns all over Bob Welch and tells how great he was and how his membership transformed the Mac for Lindsey and Stevie joining.
Well Mick, that is a little too late. Does anyone know why Bob was treated so badly during the later years?
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  #2  
Old 01-08-2017, 02:12 PM
FuzzyPlum FuzzyPlum is offline
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Originally Posted by Macfan4life View Post
I was reading old interviews and Stevie mentioned it was Bob Welch's mysticism that really drew her to Fleetwood Mac. After Welch left the band, Mick, John, Christine, and Stevie all helped Bob record his 3 Hearts solo album. There were numerous shows including the Bob Welch and friends concert where the band re-united with Bob.
Then something went wrong. In 1999 Bob stated how hard it was that the band refused to honor and invite him to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Bob sued the band but it was over royalties which is a common civil action among musicians. Bob thought it was more about how dysfunctional the band was in his era and how they did not get along. If that was true then why did the band help Bob after he left? On the flip side, the Mac sold millions of records and why would they care to fight Bob over royalties for records he was a big part of? Both sides just don't make sense.
The Behind the Music segment on the Mac was created right around the time the band was inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame. The show completely ignores Bob Welch. When the show says the group came to America looking for a guitarist....it goes right to Lindsey and pretended Bob did not exist. Even worse the segment shows the back of the "Heroes are hard to find" album cover and cuts Bob Welch out of the picture only focusing on Mick, Chris and John. WTF? Did the band have creative control over the show to remove Bob from their history? Bob was such a crucial member of the band and I don't understand how he can be removed from the band's history.
Van Halen has a similar feud with former bassist Michael Anthony. On the band's website, they removed Michael Anthony from everything as if he never existed even though he was so pivotal in the band's success.
In Mick's latest book, he fawns all over Bob Welch and tells how great he was and how his membership transformed the Mac for Lindsey and Stevie joining.
Well Mick, that is a little too late. Does anyone know why Bob was treated so badly during the later years?

My question is (and I don't know the answer) if it was about royalties why did the feuds only come about in later years? Surely Bob negotiated his deals early on and he would have known how the royalties were panning out from album to album. If you knew you were being dicked over surely you'd leave after the first album not stay for another and then another and then another...
Why did he only decide there was a problem in the late 1980's?

As far as the documentaries... there seem to be so many that airbrush him out. I'm sure that's not down to the band. I get the feeling it's more down to the producers/editors who are thinking about viewers and ratings. Lindsey and Stevie are the big draws and they want to move onto that era as quickly as possible. There was a BBC documentary on the other night called Don't Stop (that I've seen quite a few times. That documentary speeds through even the Peter Green era (even though its a British production) and hardly mentions Bob Welch. Of an hour programme, about 52 minutes are dedicated to 1975 onwards. I don't know roughly when Bob met Wendy. I wonder whether she was the major catalyst for their falling out?

I really hope there will be a well made documentary that will explain everything. I'd love a 5-parter along the lines of The Beatles' anthology series.
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Old 01-08-2017, 02:35 PM
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I would like to get the full story not to mention the reissues of the Bob Welch years.

Future Games
Bare Trees
Penguin
Mystery to Me
Heroes are Hard to Find

5 Fantastic albums!
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Old 01-08-2017, 05:49 PM
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Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum View Post
My question is (and I don't know the answer) if it was about royalties why did the feuds only come about in later years? Surely Bob negotiated his deals early on and he would have known how the royalties were panning out from album to album. If you knew you were being dicked over surely you'd leave after the first album not stay for another and then another and then another...
Why did he only decide there was a problem in the late 1980's?

As far as the documentaries... there seem to be so many that airbrush him out. I'm sure that's not down to the band. I get the feeling it's more down to the producers/editors who are thinking about viewers and ratings. Lindsey and Stevie are the big draws and they want to move onto that era as quickly as possible. There was a BBC documentary on the other night called Don't Stop (that I've seen quite a few times. That documentary speeds through even the Peter Green era (even though its a British production) and hardly mentions Bob Welch. Of an hour programme, about 52 minutes are dedicated to 1975 onwards. I don't know roughly when Bob met Wendy. I wonder whether she was the major catalyst for their falling out?

I really hope there will be a well made documentary that will explain everything. I'd love a 5-parter along the lines of The Beatles' anthology series.
I don't know the answer either but speculating that the Mac albums he was involved with sold many more copies after he left the band. He had no idea Fleetwood Mac was going to turn into a super group. I bet he wanted some royalties for those albums. Its possible when he left out of anger and frustration he did not lay the groundwork for the future. I don't think anyone could blame him to think the band would be one of the most successful in history and sell many more of the albums he was involved with. Bob had a successful solo career. Once the 80's started his career fizzled and probably realized he was not getting paid properly. Once the hits stop and you sober up, you start to take a fresh look around.
Just my speculation.
In Mick's book he talks that Bob was as influential to the band as Lindsey (too bad Bob was not around to read this). I do agree though. Bob took the band to another level especially singing and harmonizing with Chris. Bob did bring mysticism to the band. It was the perfect transfer to exit and Lindsey and Stevie to join.
I love to hear Chris and Bob harmonize. Its so sad we will never hear them sing together again.
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Old 01-12-2017, 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Macfan4life View Post
I was reading old interviews and Stevie mentioned it was Bob Welch's mysticism that really drew her to Fleetwood Mac.
I just listened to an interview which someone uploaded on YouTube where Bob discusses UFOs. I know he had written the song about the Bermuda Triangle but didn't realize just how much he was into this. I see that it's also highlighted on his website bobwelch.com (which apparently hasn't been updated since his wife Wendy passed away).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzP19aWaxKE
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Old 01-12-2017, 03:40 PM
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I would like to get the full story not to mention the reissues of the Bob Welch years.

Future Games
Bare Trees
Penguin
Mystery to Me
Heroes are Hard to Find

5 Fantastic albums!
I just wish these albums were available on streaming sources such as Spotify. I'm sure their absence is a product of the lawsuit and royalty disagreement. It's just a shame newer generations of music fans are being precluded from the Bob Welch era because of this.

Not to mention I pretty much solely listen to music at home, work, and in the car through Spotify. So I never get to listen to Bob's Mac music anymore, which is killing me.

Perhaps now that Bob and Wendy are both gone, this may change. I do wonder who is the caretaker of Bob's music these days.
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Old 01-13-2017, 09:22 PM
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Drawing from similar situations with musicians/creators and health problems I speculate that there was a dire need for money to cover health care which fueled Bob to enter into conflict with the Mac/enterprise. Also, people who live with extremes of pain and meds for that have shown permanent changes to the brain physically, not that I can say for sure that could have been the situation with Bob, but if he seemed unreasonable to some perhaps he actually was. I don't know but continue to feel badly about the whole situation as I love the music he made and I love the music by the other members of the group. I'm sure the hall of fame thing was just salt in the raw area of the business/financial needs stuff, the insult to injury according to one side and the not at all related probably to the other.

Might-have-beens are the saddest things and there is no fixing this one now in this world really. The good will 'always have been'.
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Old 01-17-2017, 10:04 PM
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Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum View Post
My question is (and I don't know the answer) if it was about royalties why did the feuds only come about in later years? Surely Bob negotiated his deals early on and he would have known how the royalties were panning out from album to album.
Bob's legal suit was based on his belief that the other remaining members had successfully renegotiated their individual royalty payments without informing him.
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Old 01-17-2017, 10:19 PM
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I'm sure their absence is a product of the lawsuit and royalty disagreement.
Bob's royalty claim was settled in 1996.

I doubt if Mick would forgo his own share of the royalties to spite Bob or his estate.
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Old 01-18-2017, 06:20 PM
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Originally Posted by louielouie2000 View Post
I just wish these albums were available on streaming sources such as Spotify. I'm sure their absence is a product of the lawsuit and royalty disagreement. It's just a shame newer generations of music fans are being precluded from the Bob Welch era because of this.

Not to mention I pretty much solely listen to music at home, work, and in the car through Spotify. So I never get to listen to Bob's Mac music anymore, which is killing me.

Perhaps now that Bob and Wendy are both gone, this may change. I do wonder who is the caretaker of Bob's music these days.
A fair question but bear in mind Then Play On and Kiln House aren't on streaming services either. It seems Warner/Rhino/etc have little interest in making pre Buckingham/Nicks Mac in their catalogue widely available at present. Even when they brought out the remastered Then Play On in 2013 they only did so on CD.
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Old 01-26-2017, 11:53 AM
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It's also worth mentioning that Mick did in fact also sing Bob's praises in his original 1990 autobiography. Also there was a measure of reparation between the two men even after the lawsuit. In (I think) his last Q&A for The Penguin, Bob said he'd accepted an invitation from Mick to a show on the SYW tour and that the spirit between them had become "We're older now, let's move on." (his words).
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