SPIN - LB Calls Current Group a “Cover Band" (Stereogum article excerpts)

[elle]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

I wonder what she thought of Road Runner or Mrs Scarrott.

plus, you'd think if she really listened to all those FM albums that she'd know before 2019 that Black Magic Woman is a FM song.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by elle

plus, you'd think if she really listened to all those FM albums that she'd know before 2019 that Black Magic Woman is a FM song.

"Idiot, party of one!"

[secret love]

The current line up of Fleetwood Mac is not any more a cover band than the Say You Will line up was. Did anyone say Stevie and Lindsey were "covering" World Turning and Don't Stop? No, of course not.

[cbBen]

Originally Posted by secret love

The current line up of Fleetwood Mac is not any more a cover band than the Say You Will line up was. Did anyone say Stevie and Lindsey were "covering" World Turning and Don't Stop? No, of course not.

The group works without Christine but does not without Lindsey and Stevie both. Lindsey and Stevie's value stems in large measure from one another (they really did prove to be a "package deal"). Without them both, the group does not work.

Without Christine, the group may be worse but still works as Fleetwood Mac.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by elle

plus, you'd think if she really listened to all those FM albums that she'd know before 2019 that Black Magic Woman is a FM song.

Umm…she didn’t say she JUST found that out.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by cbBen

The group works without Christine but does not without Lindsey and Stevie both. Lindsey and Stevie's value stems in large measure from one another (they really did prove to be a "package deal"). Without them both, the group does not work.

Without Christine, the group may be worse but still works as Fleetwood Mac.

The group didn’t work without Christine, though.

[button-lip]

Originally Posted by secret love

The current line up of Fleetwood Mac is not any more a cover band than the Say You Will line up was. Did anyone say Stevie and Lindsey were "covering" World Turning and Don't Stop? No, of course not.

I don't think I follow you. The SYW line up is the Rumours line up, minus Christine. World Turning is a Christine/Lindsey song. He wasn't "covering" anything.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by button-lip

He wasn't "covering" anything.

She did.

And, didn’t he sing “Oh Well” on the 2009 tour?

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by button-lip

I don't think I follow you. The SYW line up is the Rumours line up, minus Christine. World Turning is a Christine/Lindsey song. He wasn't "covering" anything.

And Don't Stop was a Lindsey/Christine duet.

I think you might need a detective to follow that logic.

[button-lip]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

And Don't Stop was a Lindsey/Christine duet.

I think you might need a detective to follow that logic.

Seriously. In that case, Mick and John were cover musicians from their first day in FM. If you're part of a band when a song is created, but you didn't write it, that doesn't mean you're covering that said song. Jeez!

[David]

Might I suggest that there's widespread misunderstanding—because it's a prosaic read of his comments—about what Lindsey actually means by "cover band"? It's not a literal-minded analysis of who wrote what and who is singing what thirty years on. That's simplistic. It's an esthetic judgment, an epithet. When Lindsey called Stevie and Christine in solo endeavors "lounge acts" in 1984, he didn't actually mean they were indistinct nobodies hired to work "the door" by crooning background ballads in casino bars. When Lindsey calls Fleetwood Mac a cover band, he means that they're out on the road—again—with a show built almost entirely on old achievements—those of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Crowded House, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks solo, Split Enz. The whole set belongs to distant yesterdays.

There's no universally accepted definition of "cover band," anyway. You know it when you see it. But your literal-minded analyses are bound to lead you into muddy, labyrinthine hollows. If Fleetwood Mac plays Jumpin' at Shadows, are they a cover band? If Peter Green is fifty years gone from the band and they play Black Magic Woman, are they a cover band? (Bless his heart, Peter probably doesn't even remember that he wrote it, or, worse, that he was once a member of said band.) If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote before joining Fleetwood Mac, are they a cover band? If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote while in Fleetwood Mac? If they play a Stevie Nicks or a Christine McVie solo album cut? If they play an eighties song by Neil Finn, now that he's in the band? What about a song he wrote after he joined but not as a part of? All of this is meaningless, except for parlor games. Lindsey is talking obviously about a cover band mentality. Step back from the actual wording and try to understand what he's saying.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by David

Might I suggest that there's widespread misunderstanding—because it's a prosaic read of his comments—about what Lindsey actually means by "cover band"? It's not a literal-minded analysis of who wrote what and who is singing what thirty years on. That's simplistic. It's an esthetic judgment, an epithet. When Lindsey called Stevie and Christine in solo endeavors "lounge acts" in 1984, he didn't actually mean they were indistinct nobodies hired to work "the door" by crooning background ballads in casino bars. When Lindsey calls Fleetwood Mac a cover band, he means that they're out on the road—again—with a show built almost entirely on old achievements—those of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Crowded House, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks solo, Split Enz. The whole set belongs to distant yesterdays.

There's no universally accepted definition of "cover band," anyway. You know it when you see it. But your literal-minded analyses are bound to lead you into muddy, labyrinthine hollows. If Fleetwood Mac plays Jumpin' at Shadows, are they a cover band? If Peter Green is fifty years gone from the band and they play Black Magic Woman, are they a cover band? (Bless his heart, Peter probably doesn't even remember that he wrote it, or, worse, that he was once a member of said band.) If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote before joining Fleetwood Mac, are they a cover band? If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote while in Fleetwood Mac? If they play a Stevie Nicks or a Christine McVie solo album cut? If they play an eighties song by Neil Finn, now that he's in the band? What about a song he wrote after he joined but not as a part of? All of this is meaningless, except for parlor games. Lindsey is talking obviously about a cover band mentality. Step back from the actual wording and try to understand what he's saying.

As usual, this post is graced with clear, sound observations. However, in fairness to others who are getting hung up on LB’s language, it must be said the man chooses wording that has less-than-flattering connotations. He sometimes uses those words like razors—passive aggressive ones. When he referred to Christine “burning her bridges” he wasn’t technically incorrect, but he might have used a less harsh way to word it. He did that, too, with the “rule of good writing” bit he used on Stevie in the DR doc. I think “lounge act” and “cover band”—again not technically inaccurate in their spirit, are crafted phrases meant to suggest how much the others need him. Again, I don’t think he’s wrong—but he’s not being neutral or purely objective either.

[jeets2000]

Originally Posted by David

If Fleetwood Mac plays Jumpin' at Shadows, are they a cover band? If Peter Green is fifty years gone from the band and they play Black Magic Woman, are they a cover band? (Bless his heart, Peter probably doesn't even remember that he wrote it, or, worse, that he was once a member of said band.) If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote before joining Fleetwood Mac, are they a cover band? If they play a Dave Mason song he wrote while in Fleetwood Mac? If they play a Stevie Nicks or a Christine McVie solo album cut? If they play an eighties song by Neil Finn, now that he's in the band? What about a song he wrote after he joined but not as a part of?

BRB, starting new threads on all of these topics now.

Originally Posted by David

Lindsey is talking obviously about a cover band mentality. Step back from the actual wording and try to understand what he's saying.

Thank you, David! Lots of needlessly argumentative tangents in this thread. Unlike other members of the band, I've never found it all that difficult to figure out what LB is saying, despite using some $5 words to say it.

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I think “lounge act” and “cover band”—again not technically inaccurate in their spirit, are crafted phrases meant to suggest how much the others need him. Again, I don’t think he’s wrong—but he’s not being neutral or purely objective either.

Agree with this point, too. He knows what he's doing, which is why I suspect some have had such a visceral reaction to it. I remember reading the "lounge act" remark (well after the fact, as I didn't become a fan until The Dance) and feeling a bit defensive about it (on behalf of Stevie and Chris). I'm not the type to throw barbs like that in my own life, so I remembered feeling like I wished he had chosen softer language, but at the same time, I understood his meaning right away.

[JohnL]

I havent posted here in quite a while for obvious reasons but I swear you people are just full on mean ass no hearted assholes. Ban me...kick me out...I could care less. All of you people who just come on here to knock Stevie and Mick and anyone else who pisses you off for the day are just pure losers. No one even reads your posts anymore because any true Stevie fan knows not to come here anymore because of you asshats. All I can say is.....FU!! Bye!!

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by JohnL

I havent posted here in quite a while for obvious reasons but I swear you people are just full on mean ass no hearted assholes. Ban me...kick me out...I could care less. All of you people who just come on here to knock Stevie and Mick and anyone else who pisses you off for the day are just pure losers. No one even reads your posts anymore because any true Stevie fan knows not to come here anymore because of you asshats. All I can say is.....FU!! Bye!!