Fleetwood Mac Ironies

[RockawayBlind]

Having read the Rolling Stone interviews with Lindsey and Stevie, I was struck by some interesting developments. For years, Lindsey wanted to get away from FM and focus on his solo career, which in truth didn't go very far at all. He couldn't even get the label to release GOS, until it was folded into SYW. Then he finally gets a reasonably successful solo career going, and he seems to obsess with doing FM work.

Meanwhile, I would guess that a lot of Lindsey's fans, if not most, would rather he keep doing the solo stuff. When he is doing the "left-side" stuff, he is more creative and, yes, more self-indulgent. And the fans love that about him.

Now, Stevie -- she seems to be the one resisting Fleetwood Mac, even though it would be hard to deny that if anyone is the face of FM traditionally, it is she (even though Lindsey arguably has grabbed a bigger share of the spotlight in the last two tours). She appears to have agreed to the 2013 tour reluctantly, and she doesn't seem interested in doing an album. I really don't think she wants to record with these people, especially Lindsey, which is understandable.

Now, according to Lindsey, she comes into the studio with an old BN song for FM, then they record it and she decides she wants to use it in some BN project instead. This of course follows years of us hearing that she was the one tying up the re-release of the BN album or doing any work associated with it. She has hinted at doing a new BN album, true, but then, she has hinted at many things over the years that contradicted themselves.

So there are a lot of ironies here. While I think Stevie's fans would be perfectly happy with her turning her back on FM and focusing on her solo career, my feeling is her fans are more interested in new FM material than Lindsey's fans. And that is the biggest irony of all.

[louielouie2000]

Originally Posted by RockawayBlind

I think Stevie's fans would be perfectly happy with her turning her back on FM and focusing on her solo career

I agree with everything you said but this. I have never been a terribly big fan of Stevie's solo career. I fell in love with Stevie as the frontwoman for Fleetwood Mac. I tend to think her solo stuff is, for the most part, vapid pop music. I enjoyed In Your Dreams, but I would easily have given that album up for a new Mac one. I know many people try to challenge me on this, but I truly am a Stevie Nicks fan first and foremost. She infuriates & baffles the hell of me most of the time, but that's perhaps why she's kept my attention the past 20 years.

That being said, I have preferred Lindsey's solo albums of the 21st century to his contributions to Fleetwood Mac (Say You Will). I've actually become a much bigger Lindsey fan this past decade than I ever would have guessed. His solo concert I went to in Austin a few months ago is without a doubt my favorite concert experience, ever. I think his solo albums from this past decade have been terribly enjoyable & engaging. But at this point, after 3 consecutive solo albums, would I bypass a new Mac album for a new Lindsey one? Not on your life! It's time we heard from Fleetwood Mac again.

[WildHearted]

I like both of their work within FM far more than their work outside of it, with a few exceptions.

I love some of Stevie's solo albums, don't get me wrong, but I tend to always think that had those songs been recorded within FM they could have been even better. And same for Lindsey's.

[michelej1]

Yes, it's very ironic that for many years Lindsey was the one who could walk away and now he isn't. It troubles me. I don't want him to be vulnerable.

I will always want Fleetwood Mac over individual endeavors and it really has nothing to do with the music per se. If we just look at albums, I probably like Stevie's best, then Lindsey's, then Christine's. I probably have not played any album more than I have played Wild Heart. But I don't look at just the albums. I look at the talent and the personalities and the stage magnetism and, for me, Stevie doesn't rank #1 on those counts.

But I like to see people with a history together. I'm obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with it. Chemistry in synch, chemistry when and where it fails or lapses. The way people fight. The way they don't. What they take for granted. What they indulge or begrudge in the other. There's such a beauty in "We."

Before The Spirit of St. Louis was published, Charles Lindbergh penned another, much less perfect book about his Atlantic flight and he called it We, because he felt he was at one with his plane, as if it were a person or a soul, joined with his. I went to the Smithsonian and actually saw two of his planes and I tried to feel him there as well. Fleetwood Mac gives me that same sense of we.

I saw both FM and the Jacksons for the first time in 1979 and just like with FM, there is nothing that Michael Jackson could do for me as a solo artist, that I would not rather see him do with his brothers. I'm that way about every relationship I observe from afar; it is a compulsion.

Michele

[elle]

Originally Posted by RockawayBlind

Having read the Rolling Stone interviews with Lindsey and Stevie, I was struck by some interesting developments. For years, Lindsey wanted to get away from FM and focus on his solo career, which in truth didn't go very far at all. He couldn't even get the label to release GOS, until it was folded into SYW. Then he finally gets a reasonably successful solo career going, and he seems to obsess with doing FM work.

Meanwhile, I would guess that a lot of Lindsey's fans, if not most, would rather he keep doing the solo stuff. When he is doing the "left-side" stuff, he is more creative and, yes, more self-indulgent. And the fans love that about him.

Now, Stevie -- she seems to be the one resisting Fleetwood Mac, even though it would be hard to deny that if anyone is the face of FM traditionally, it is she (even though Lindsey arguably has grabbed a bigger share of the spotlight in the last two tours). She appears to have agreed to the 2013 tour reluctantly, and she doesn't seem interested in doing an album. I really don't think she wants to record with these people, especially Lindsey, which is understandable.

Now, according to Lindsey, she comes into the studio with an old BN song for FM, then they record it and she decides she wants to use it in some BN project instead. This of course follows years of us hearing that she was the one tying up the re-release of the BN album or doing any work associated with it. She has hinted at doing a new BN album, true, but then, she has hinted at many things over the years that contradicted themselves.

So there are a lot of ironies here. While I think Stevie's fans would be perfectly happy with her turning her back on FM and focusing on her solo career, my feeling is her fans are more interested in new FM material than Lindsey's fans. And that is the biggest irony of all.

yes to all of these, especially the bolded parts.

nice summation of interesting latest developments.

actually there were several Lindsey fans trying to convince him at the last series of m&gs to just continue solo when it's going so well, and at one point he said "so what do you want me to do, cancel the FM tour?"

[RockawayBlind]

I'm enjoying the responses. FM always gives fans plenty to talk about.

I actually was a Stevie Nicks fan first. Bella Donna was the first album I ever bought. I was about 14, and I thought she was the coolest singer out there -- and, well, I was a 14-year-old boy! When Mirage came out, I thought Lindsey's songs were weird, and as I got into the older FM, at first Tusk threw me, but it eventually became my favorite FM album. What started to turn me into more of a Lindsey fan was Go Insane. For that mid 80s time period, it was such a cool album. Of course it hasn't aged well, but at the time, it was brilliant and different from everything else Lindsey and FM had done before.

I confess I am not overly interested in a FM album, though if Stevie and Lindsey were able to work together, put aside their differences in a cooperative spirit to collaborate on songs, I would love that. Otherwise, I think they are better off doing solo work. Lindsey's Seeds You Sow was fantastic, and I think it has been growing on me over time more and more. And IYD was the first thing Stevie did in decades that really worked for me. I'd love to see more music from her like that.

[Jondalar]

It seems like Stevie is ready for the Buckingham/Nicks release and that is what she really wants.