Five Tips For Saving FM (Chicago Sun Times)
 

[I liked this because the writer sounded like one of us complaining when they say there are songs that they "have" to do]

Fleetwood Mac Revamp — Five ways the iconic band could reignite the flame

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainmen...the-flame.html
By THOMAS CONNER [email protected] April 10, 2013 1:54PM, chicago sun times

The classic rock institution that is Fleetwood Mac has embarked on its umpteenth reunion tour this spring. The band isn’t supporting a new album.

Nevertheless, despite saying never many times, they’re going back again — and again and again, with 66 arena concerts scheduled around the world this year.

It’s hard to get excited about this go-round — even for me, a lifelong Mac addict undeterred even by the “Time” album. The biggest news out of the tour so far is that the band plans to perform “Sisters of the Moon,” a 33-year-old “Tusk” track.

Yawn.

The last time Fleetwood Mac toured the tambourines and scarves, in 2009, singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham told me that, even after all these years, it felt like “a proving ground.” But this time, even the band doesn’t seem exactly juiced about their jaunt.

“We know we’re going to do certain songs,” namesake drummer Mick Fleetwood said in a recent online interview, “and if we don’t do them, the audience will shoot us.”

“We always have to play ‘Dreams,’ ‘Rhiannon,’ ‘Don’t Stop,’ ‘Tusk,’ ‘Big Love,’ ‘Landslide’ and all our most famous songs,” Lindsey Buckingham told Rolling Stone. “For now, I have no particular vision of what this tour is going to be.”

Actually, guys, you don’t have to.

In fact, I call upon all Fleetwood Mac fans to join me in declaring: Lindsey, Stevie, John, Mick — we release you! Whatever social-setlist contract you think exists between us is officially now and forever nullified, voided, torn asunder. You are pardoned.

Please: Play whatever you want. Forgo the hits, play the misses. Play jazz, play bluegrass. Throw out the setlist altogether. Try improvising. Try failing.

Anything but this put-upon resignation to the slavish “demands” of your fans — because, frankly, it makes us all sound like jerks.

“2013 is going to be the year of Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks told Rolling Stone.

Here are five ways the Fleetwood Mac crew could announce a tour that would actually make a dent in the absurdity of that statement and once again activate my salivary glands:

1. Record a real Fleetwood
Mac album

“Say You Will,” the most recent Mac album, already is a decade old. The last new record the band actually wrote and recorded while generally in the same room with each other was “Mirage” in 1982. Since then, it’s been hijacked Buckingham solo projects (“Tango in the Night,” “Say You Will”), misfired lineups (“Behind the Mask,” “Time”) and greatest hits. The recently announced EP (due any day now) smacks of merch, not creativity.

Y’all need to hole up and jam. Not just the requisite two new songs (such as “Sad Angel” and “Miss Fantasy”), not another dredged-up B-side turned into a new A-side (“Silver Springs”), not a 37th anniversary repackage of “Rumours” — but a full studio set. If the members of this corporate board have the time for 66 unasked-for shows, you can stare at each other over a sound board again.



2. Scale it down

We get it, you’re huge. Every tour is an arena tour. The music has echoed around so much steel and concrete it’s stopped being songs and just devolved into mere momentary memory cues. Why not bring it down, focus the attention — play theaters?

Sure, you’ll boost the ticket price, but you can also loosen things up to make it worthwhile. Setlists could change up. (The play-an-entire-album trope might work here.) Unscripted banter could break out. (Maybe even a long-simmering argument.) Most of your fans could see you in the flesh, rather than on a video screen. (You’re not computer projections yet, are you?)



3. Bribe Christine

Christine McVie packed it in after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and though she’s attended a few Mac concerts since then she hasn’t joined the band on stage. Given the tone of comments from her mates — Nicks said the chances of Christine returning to the band were equal to an asteroid collision — we understand she’s probably a write-off. Retirement from rock should be respected and, in so many cases, encouraged.

But there’s hope. First, an asteroid did nearly plow into the planet a few weeks ago. Second, McVie actually joined Fleetwood and former Mac guitarist Rick Vito (and, for some reason, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler) on stage in Maui just last February for a sporting run through “Don’t Stop,” playing keys and singing.

She’s this band’s leavening agent. Privately, you guys need her. Musically, so do we. To get just one more ridiculously great song out of her (even a “Temporary One”!), give her the moon to get her back.



4. Reboot Buckingham Nicks

The musical and certainly the personal dynamic between Buckingham and Nicks first clarified on the 1973 pre-Mac album as a duo; the “Buckingham Nicks” LP is now an industry legend, having never been reissued digitally. (Still no straight answer about why that is.) But for at least a decade now, both have been hinting at the desire to record again and tour just as the pair.

“We had already started our second Buckingham Nicks record,” Nicks reiterated in an interview last month at SXSW, describing the project that was dropped when Fleetwood Mac discovered her and then-boyfriend Buckingham and brought them into the band. Buckingham recently and repeatedly has voiced his interest in rebooting that aborted sophomore album — even saying late last year that some sessions had begun with producer Mitchell Froom.

So . . . do it already. Go even more intimate with the resulting tour (clubs!) to highlight your own unique bond. Two people, two guitars, no fuss.



5. An ‘us’ festival

Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players concert in March at SXSW was an enjoyable enough rock and roll revue, spanning generations. Nicks’ performance — dueting with Grohl and backed by the Foo Fighters — was surprisingly great. The Mac songs didn’t sound stale in a modern setting, and Nicks was more than capable of leading the bashing hard rock band with witchy panache.

So go the Ringo all-stars route — but with a larger scope and fewer track suits. Keep Grohl on board, call it Fleetwood Fighters & the Rolling Thunder Always Happens Revue! A half dozen shows across the country, on the Sound City Players model. It could be part reunion (guest turns from Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, Bekka Bramlett, Dave Mason), part intergenerational parade of pals (Tom Petty, Don Henley, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Matthew Sweet), part torch-passing (Buckingham can show off his new song with Delta Rae, Best Coast can roar through their magnificent cover of “Rhiannon”), part vaudeville (I’m seeing Chevy Chase on drums for “Holiday Road”). That’s almost enough all for everyone.

ENOUGH SAID !!! I couldn't agree more. Until some of these things get done, the artistic and spiritual death of this band in imminent. :distress:

Fess up...which one of you writes for the Chicago Sun Times?

Bang on Mr Conner, you have captured what most of us have been feeling and talking about for a very long time. It is so, so hard to stay interested but I'm hanging in there after these 36 sometimes very frustrating years being a hardcore fan of this band. While I've been impressed with some of the clips of the tour, I made the very hard decision when it was announced, not to go and still have no regrets. I am excited about the "EP" but the Mac will never fully redeem this fan until they put a stop to the "big machine", ie the never ending ATM that is that old and worn out set list going around to the big sheds. I get the classicness of Rumours but 35 or so years on, 3, maybe 4 selections max, not 3/4 of a concert to the detriment of their vast and stellar catalogue and the new music they've kept from we fans for far too long. Would be great to get excited about Rumours and not bored with it, pull out I Don't Want to Know for instance and drop a staple like Go Your Own Way, I'm sure the applause would be just as loud. Listened to "That's Enough for Me" a few times over and what a great set list opener that little nugget would be. Sigh....

On Ice.....you are singing to the choir !!! Amen to that! If The Mac is not that excited about putting out new music, they could at least dig a little deeper into that "stellar catalog" for those of us who having been driving down the road for 35+ years to relish their live shows. "That's Enough For Me" is an AMAZING song that has seldom seen the light of day. Dust off that gem and jump start some new life into the show. For years, I camped out to stand in line for front row tickets to FM concerts (even during the lean/lame BEHIND THE MASK years)......Well, tickets went on sale weeks ago and I have yet to buy them. Guess I'm sitting in the balcony for the first time in my life.........Oh well, at least I have "SISTERS OF THE MOON" to look forward to.

The reason they keep pushing Rumours re-releases, and packing the setlist with its tracks, is because they have little else to show for this lineup's nearly three decades as a band. Let's do the math: 26 years with Lindsey and Stevie in the band, and six studio albums. I can't think of any other band with such a meager output.

So of course they have to keep harping on Rumours. Take Rumours out of the equation, and what do you have? A very decent 1975 album that may or may not have catapulted them into stardom, and a brilliant 1979 album that would have never happened without Rumours because it was created as a reaction to Rumours. And if it had happened, the public would have rejected it, anyway.

In light of the meager catalog, FM knows they have two things going for them: Rumours and the soap opera. Without these two elements, they have close to nothing. On the other hand, to build a humongous musical empire on those two elements is nothing short of masterful.

God I hope someone who works for the band reads them that article.

I can think of one. Boston (who I happen to be listening to as I type this) has had 5 albums since 1976 and are still active, having toured as recently as last year with an album in the works. Though who knows when it'll be released. Their last album came out in 2002.

Wow Mr Conner must be reading the Ledge boards.

Now the word is out in print.

MTE :laugh:

THANK YOU. If I had the money I'd be bribing Christine McVie so fast.....I wish one of Stevie's "computer friends" would relay the message: "by the way, your fans want new songs!"

And I'm just hoping and praying they play Angel live before they bite the dust. pretty please? and Crystal? Blue Letter? and Frozen Love? PLEASE FROZEN LOVE.

Preach it.

Although I agree with much of what he's sayin', he does contradict himself a lot. He says "don't play the hits" then says "do a whole album". Since he doesn't seem to care much about the non BN albums, I'm guessing he wants one of '75/Rumours/Tusk played, which include hits, and many of them. Having said this, I guess this is as close to preaching to the choir as we've ever heard from a member of the press so at least it's a step in the right direction for sure. :)

John

This guy looks like he's been reading our complaints!

I think the band is dying a slow death without Christine and I'm a chiffonhead so this is not easy to say but it's true. Where Stevie & Lindsey were all dramatic and dark, Chris had those happy songs like Don't Stop, Love in Store, Everywhere etc. She was the balance, she evened things out. Not to mention the harmonies of the 3 voices. When I saw them in '03 I didn't miss her probably because I was all excited about seeing them again (I didn't get to see them in '09). But watching the clips of '09 and the present, they sound kinda empty without her. They used to be such a great band, just the 5 of them would blow my mind. But now they sound like 4 different people who came together and just happen to play the same song. It's probably different when you're actually there but what I've seen on youtube so far from Unleashed and this tour, I'm not impressed. When they first announced the tour I was all excited and willing to travel, spend money which I don't have but I miss the cohesiveness, the unity. The only ones that seem to be really into it are Mick & Lindsey. John hardly moves and well, the same goes for Stevie and after being a fan for 36 years I'm kind of tired of defending them. We all know they can do it, they could be that great band that blows your mind no matter how many times you go and see them on a tour. Unfortunately there's one link in the chain missing and that's Christine. She left 15(!!!) years ago and people are still talking about her and asking if she's coming back. Goes to show you what an important part she played in the band. Of course this merely my humble opinion.

very good article and hope the band reads this one and takes some notes.I am a maybe about going to see them at Mohegan Sun Arena here in Connecticut on April 20th.I wish they would rehash there set list and like everyone else.Lindsey and Stevie can read the bible and we would be happy with it.lol.

I agree with the sentiments expressed in this article.

I saw David Gilmour some years ago at the Royal Albert Hall; he did the old Floyd trick of playing the entirety of his new album before the interval, prefaced by one old track. He then did hits/lost treasures in the second half.

No one jeered in the first half. No one walked out. They were hearing stuff for the first 80 mins which was not 'hits' and they didn't care. They came to hear David's beautiful voice and amazing guitar playing.

The Mac could do the same. To pretend that if they changed the set list people would walk out or wouldn't come is disingenuous.

Add Angel, Seven Wonders, Tango in the Night, Crystal, Save Me A Place, Blue Letter, Peacekeeper, Bleed to Love Her, I Don't Want to Know... And you know what, if your voice has changed since you last did it, then change how the song sounds live. Plenty of older artists do, and it works; you've done it for SotM.

Get rid of Rhiannon, Gypsy, NGBA, Stand Back, World Turning and others. They're tired and they need a rest (esp if you are going to trot the same versions out as you did on the last tour).

I love Fleetwood Mac but I'm a little fed up of hearing the band complain that they 'have' to play a particular batch of hits every tour. You don't. You have the power to change that. Sure, some must stay in, but not all, and frankly both you and the audience will reap the rewards of a fresh set and a renewed vibe.

I think David Gilmour and Fleetwood Mac have different audiences though. Fleetwood Mac is more of a pop band with hit songs. Not the case with Pink Floyd. So Gilmour's audience might be more willing to sit and listen to new stuff. Now, I do believe many of those songs you mentioned are expendable and not songs they HAVE to play, but they still have quite a bit of songs they do have to play IMO.

You're right that the audiences are different, but I do think there are a few staples which they can just retire. Many of the hits disappeared when Christine left; she, after all, had the most chart hits amongst her repertoire and yet the last three tours have worked without her (even if I'd rather she was there).

Fleetwood Mac have artistically constrained and boxed themselves in with a flawed and limited mindset. Mick, Stevie and Lindsey have all stated, in their own terms, that a huge block of songs always have to be in the set "other wise people will run for the doors."

Where is this twisted thought coming from? If they took this approach at their onset, they'd still be playing Peter Green era songs, and the Tusk tour would feature only three new songs at most.

What happened to their creative ambition? Both Lindsey and Stevie, in their solo careers, have shown some of that ambition. Yet, within the context of Fleetwood Mac, they button up tight. Where is the drive to explore their overlooked and under-exposed work? They obviously see the positive reaction they get when something unexpected is offered. Yet they default to the same old same old material, because "they have to."

I don't think they have any clue about the true nature of their hard-core fan base, and instead, cater to casual mom and pop fans who only know the hits, not wanting to disappoint that audience. This seriously limits them. I know of many big bands who don't operate this way. They know they can put on a great show without any constraints or expectations other than performing well.

My sister, who will be seeing them at the upcoming Boston show, is a very casual fan. When she told me she was bought tickets to the show, I asked her if she had any Fleetwood Mac albums, and she didn't. So I can understand that she would want to hear some songs she recognized. Yet, those songs don't need to dominate the show. I'm sure she will enjoy Sad Angel, Without You, Sisters of the Moon etc...having never heard them, because a good performance can be entertaining and enjoyable even though you may not be familiar with it! That's not a revelation by any means.

All those well-worn, over-familiar songs were, at one time, new and unfamiliar songs, so why are Fleetwood Mac, at this late stage in their lauded career, so sheepish about introducing new material? They need grow a big pair of balls, listen to their fans (who are more in touch with their catalog of work than they are), and give us new recorded music and perform it. It's not about aiming for chart-topping success (it's unreasonable as they are beyond that phase), but artistic growth and creative progression. Lindsey talks a lot about that, and it has shown in his recent solo work, but the "Big Machine" mentality seeps in when he's the the Fleetwood Mac fold.

In lieu of that, I'm so frustrated that they don't mine their previous work: Buckingham/Nicks tracks, Crystal. I Don't Want To Know, Tango In the Night, Seven Wonders, That's Alright, Walk A Thin Line, Twisted, etc...so many missed opportunities, and so many stale choices.

^ Amen.

It just feels lazy of them, which of course is silly because they work hard. New stuff in the set would be a tonic for them and us.

I remember some interview with one of them (FM) talking about when they went on tour to promote Rumours, they played almost all of Rumours at the first couple of shows - maybe even just the first one - and they saw a lot of the audience bored and whatnot... And they immediately changed the set list to include songs the audience would know...
And it was at that moment, they all decided never to do too many songs the audience did not know...

Silly as it is... It seems like they have never moved from that stance.

Does anyone remember this interview?

Yes, I think it was a recent one with Lindsey and Stevie.

On the other hand, Lindsey, Mick and John did record nearly an album's worth of songs for a FM album and want to release them. It's Stevie that's holding them back. Last time they released an album they played plenty of new music.

I think they just don't like recording with each other and Stevie is not about to hand over her songs to Lindsey again.

I just wish they would SAY it's over.

I feel like either she is leading him on or they are leading me on.

:laugh:

They ought perhaps just to have finished in 1998. It's been 'over' for a long time, really.

LB and SN could have done their own thing after The Dance and it wouldn't, for me, have made much difference. I don't like SYW and I haven't been overwhelmed by the last two tours, though the 09 one was enjoyable enough.

As Christine said, it's basically now Buckingham Nicks with a very good rhythm section.

Its not silly though. We, the diehard fans, would probably love to hear deep album tracks and new songs. Many of the concert goers though want the hits and just the hits. I saw Mac on the Say You Will tour in Madison WI. When a Say You Will song was being played, you could see lines of people heading for concessions/restrooms. Every single time. That has to be really hard to take when you're playing your new stuff that you're really excited about.

About 6 min in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPlK7nPJpA0

Thanks!

It wasn't that particular interview - however, same thing said.....

Face The Music..
 

Let's face it. All of my heroes are for the most part disconnected from or don't care about their TRUE fans. OOOOOP)S did ya hear what KID ROCK (YUK) IS DOING. FM,Paul McCartney ( although he's sloooowwwwllly integrated rare/new songs in recent years), THE MOODY BLUES & sooooo many more just keep mailing it in & refuse to put in rare (save for the token new/rare song) ,previously undone songs never done live etc. After all this time they CAN play those rare songs because after all this time it doesn't matter. THEY WILL COME. if many go on bathroom breaks for the non hits so be it. If they've come many times before they will come again ( how many more agains can there be). And if they don't come back SO WHAT. Others will fill the seats.
We die hard fans have been beating this topic to death for all these bands . They really don't care folks. It's all about disconnect & the almighty $$$.
GEEEE sounds like a politician. But, that's another story.

having just seen Madonna and Bon Jovi recently i can honestly say most people come to only hear the hits. i have never seen people leave a show so early like i did during Madonna. the people around me complained the entire time because she played so many songs from MDNA. i was embarrassed that anybody would act that way. i got my seats for like $99 each before the show but the rest of the people around me paid $350 a seat and if i was going to spend that much you better believe i would check the setlist in advance.
for bon jovi i heard people bitching because they played songs from their last few albums as well as 5 new songs or so from their new album. its like they just came to hear stuff from the 80's which is so irritating to me since they have had like 10 albums since then.
i know for me the hard core fan i would die if fm played some of my favorite rare songs but for the rest of my friends or family that come to see the show if they did that they would be so angry. i'm getting tickets for my in-laws and while they are mac fans they havent kept up with them much past Tango and if they went to see them on the Say You Will tour they probably would have complained about them playing those 4-5 new songs. they have the cd because my hubby's brother bought it for them but they didnt like it because they thought it was too heavy. lol for me i loved that part of it but they were expecting something closer to Rumours. its sad because for me i love it when artists mix it up a a bit but many people want them to keep the same formula. its like whatever they do they cant win!
i am so happy fm is still touring though and i will keep paying to hear them because the music is just so damn good.

What I Don't Get?
 

What I don't get in all of this is.............

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO PLAY THE SAME SHOW EVERY NIGHT?

We can solve the hits v. no hits issue by having a revolving list of songs by show. They want to sell more tickets, you get people going to multiple shows, and paying more for it too if there was variety between shows.

Let's be honest these songs are the staples largely....

The Chain
Dreams
Rhiannon
Tusk
Landslide
Go Your Own Way
Don't Stop
Never Goin' Back Again

(you can make arguments for a couple others that's fine, but for the sake of this discussion let's say those 8)

I do like hearing the hits...I really do, but I don't need to hear them all, and a I surely don't need to hear them all everytime. Why not rotate through that list and play 1/2 of them on any given night.

Then take this next list, of near staples or singles....

Second Hand News
Big Love
Sara
Gypsy
I'm So Afraid
Silver Springs

And rotate these and play 1/2 of them a night. That gets you to about 7 or 8 a night, and leaves room for about 12 songs to have fun with...imagine something like this.

Night #1

Tusk
Dreams
Never Goin Back
Tango
The Ledge
Crystal
Save Me A Place
Angel
Big Love
Sara
I don't want to know
Smile At You
Long Distance Winner
Red Rover
That's Alright
Caroline
Rhiannon

Encore:
Silver Springs
Go Your Own Way


Night #2

The Chain
Landslide
Come
Save Me A Place
Storms
Second Hand News
Straight Back
Big Love
Sara
That's All For Everyone
Oh Well
Thrown Down
Cryin in the night
Oh Diane
Beautiful Child
I'm So Afraid


Encore:
When I See You Again
Don't Stop


For example

Fun, But you simply cannot skip GYOW.

Exactly my thoughts. It wouldn't go over well, for sure.

^^I love how everyone loves to make career decisions for Fleetwood Mac, as if somehow THEY know what is best for them. After all, they deserve to control FM because, you know, they are, like, hardcore fans and stuff. Puhlease. The bottom line is that it would be impossible for FM to please everybody so, at best, they are trying to please as many people as possible. Invariably, that means appealing to the general unwashed masses whose FM collections may be limited to The Dance and one of the many greatest hits compilations. Sadly, there are not 15,000 hardcore FM fans in every major North American city. The number one rule of show business is do not be boring. And for 90% of the audience at an FM concert, that means keeping the hits flying at a decent, consistent pace. The worst feeling for any performer, especially a sober performer, is the feeling of losing an audience. When people are displeased, they vote with their feet. Literally; they get up and go to the restroom. Or you hear the loud cackling or people yelling at each other over that distracting, unfamiliar new tune that 90% of the audience did not come to hear. As evidenced by the first few dates of the SYW tour, some of the new songs went over like a fart in church, and were summarily dropped. It isn't because they were particularly bad or difficult to perform. It's simply because the audience passively voiced their disapproval. As such, we should be grateful that they are doing anything new/obscure at all in the current setlist. And I believe it is particularly ballsy, especially for an arena-level act, to perform new songs that haven't even been released commercially.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I caught a Rickie Lee Jones concert last week. Rickie, who used to play small-medium theaters, was at the City Winery- with a capacity of perhaps 250-300 people- most of whom I could tell were pretty diehard fans. It was just her and two accompanists on stage. Reviewing her previous setlists on setlist.fm, I already knew that Rickie played a different set every night. What I didn't know beforehand is that she doesn't have a setlist :eek:! She wings it. She would start strumming some chords and once her players recognized the song, they would chime in. And when they didn't know what song she was playing, she would start humming into the mic or she would start singing without them. Or she would instruct one to take the low harmony and the other to take the melody. I could see puzzled expressions and then smiles of recognition on her guitarist's face all night. For another song, she forgot all of the guitar chords, so she sang the song acapella. It was all so off-the-cuff that, when the show came to an abrupt end and the houselights came up and recorded music started playing over the loudspeaker, the audience was so into the show that they stayed in their seats and clapped and cheered for, like, five minutes until Rickie, who had already put on a coat and hat (as if she was about to leave the building), came back and performed three more songs. I thought the show was pretty cool in the sense that it was so small, intimate and spontaneous. But on the other hand, I thought it was a bit thoughtless and perfunctory. And it is obvious why Rickie is no longer headlining bigger venues- she could never get away with this lack of professionalism on a bigger stage. But then again, this is probably who she really is- someone who has always resented the conventional rules of show business. Accordingly, from what I've read, she has always struggled financially.

The writer does sound like a Ledgie, completely disconnected from the masses! :laugh:

I enjoyed the piece, but Fleetwood Mac basically has a guarantee to make lots and lots of money with an arena tour and that trumps all fantasies and pipe dreams.

Good point.

Its hard to please anybody.

If we manage FM.They probably quit on us because we will have different ideas and they will get confused and say take this gig and shove it.

As I say to the fans. DON'T Blanking GO if you are tired hearing the same setlist tunes over and over again.

They will not hold it against you if you dont show up at the show.



BTW I do enjoy Rickie's tunes .I'm glad she still makes her rounds.Thanks for sharing that Ed.

I think rotating songs from night to night would be the most practical way to compromise between pressures here, if you can take for granted that all the songs are rehearsed enough that is.

I don't know who is putting the pressure on the band to make a lot of money, but my gut reaction is to wonder why a band that's sold this much at this point can't just do whatever the hell they want at this point (so long as they can pay the venues they choose). I guess it's partly that Fleetwood Mac only gets its **** together every so often, that puts a lot of pressure on those moments to please everyone, which yes is impossible.

Rock's Back Pages
http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2...ldies-circuit/

the new oldies circuit

Author: Mitchell Cohen 13 Apr 2013

Anyone who goes to see Fleetwood Mac or Rickie Lee Jones in 2013 knows what to expect, at least in terms of repertoire. Paying for a ticket — neither admission price being what you’d consider inexpensive — is like striking a bargain: I’m going to come hang out with you for a couple of hours, and you’re going to play a bunch of songs I recognize, and there aren’t going to be more than a few surprises (arrangements might change, some songs may be more passionately rendered, vocal keys are adjusted for age, that kind of thing). This implied deal is a trap that the artists find themselves in, especially at the Fleetwood Mac level. Walking into Madison Square Garden, I was reassured that the band had no current album to promote (turns out they have recorded new music, and shared one song from the sessions), because if you go into the house of Lindsay and Stevie, you want to watch that dynamic play out with the script you know: it’s like a revival of Death of a Salesman or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with the text (and in this case, the cast) locked in place and only the staging and performances the unknown factors.

The problem with Fleetwood Mac 2013 isn’t that the band is slack or uninspired — those rock songs from Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk crackle (“Go Your Own Way” is one of the best singles of the ’70s), and Nicks still twirls girlishly on the spacier songs, and Buckingham squeezes out sparks on guitar — but that there’s a central character missing. Without Christine McVie, there’s nothing to bring the band down to earth, no calming moments, no soulfulness, really, and no “Over My Head” or “Say You Love Me” (or “You Make Lovin’ Fun,” or “Over & Over”). Everyone loves Stevie Nicks — the young women jump out of their seats and sing along with every note of “Landslide” and Rhiannon,” songs that they hold close to their hearts — but she was the third-best writer in the group, and on the numbers where she isn’t throwing ambivalent darts at her guitarist, she can be a bit much, slinking around the stage in her wardrobe of scarves.

A couple of nights later at City Winery, Rickie Lee Jones faced an audience similarly inclined: they came to reminisce, primarily, although they paid homage by buying the new CD (of cover songs, it should be noted) at the merch table. Jones’ impressive debut album came out in 1979, the same year as Tusk, on the same label, and it’s probably a safe bet that not a small number of the post-boomers at both shows own Rickie Lee Jones and at least Rumours, if not its complicated follow-up. Backed by a guitarist and a cellist, Jones tossed off her hit “Chuck E’s In Love” early on in the set — get that out of the way — and eventually made her way to the piano where she locked into “Living It Up” and “We Belong Together,” two songs from her second album Pirates, and that was where the show lifted off. She wasn’t bound by the original arrangements, and couldn’t have recreated them under those musical conditions anyway, so she found the centers of them, and re-sculpted them. But what if there were a new album of new songs? Would the audience get fidgety? That’s part of the trap. The Devil You Know(nice title) visits The Stones, Tim Hardin, Donovan, Neil Young, “St. James Infirmary,” so she could throw a few of those into the set without disrupting the flow, but this new generation of oldies artists also wants to stay vital, and how do they manage that?

For a few minutes, everyone was saying how good the new David Bowie album is, and they’re right, but I listened to it once, just to check in, was pleased that it shows some vitality, and then filed it away (not literally, since I didn’t purchase a hard copy, but mentally). If he does tour, how much of it could he get away with, in arenas where people are paying hundreds of dollars to see him? He’s not alone. What if Tom Petty album put out an album of new songs before storming the Beacon Theater for a week, and used those shows to hype it? And it doesn’t matter so much whether Tempest, Psychedelic Pill, Wrecking Ball and Old Ideas are ok, disappointing or great Dylan, Young, Springsteen and Cohen albums: they aren’t going to convert many new fans, and if there are new fans to be made, each of those artists has at least ten albums that are more essential entry points. I’m seeing a lot of pre-publicity for new Elton John and Rod Stewart albums, each being called a return to form, or something like that, but honestly, does anyone believe that either is going to deserve to sit alongside Tumbleweed Connectionor Never A Dull Moment? Or that it’s going to mean much if, by some bolts of inspiration, they do? We all know which Elton and Rod songs are going to get people on their feet at Madison Square Garden.

http://emscee.com/foolsparadise/

I was thinking the same thing because I swear I saw Item #3 posted here somewhere recently.