Rick Vito Vs. Billy Burnette..... Your preference.
 

So, of these two fabulous musicians, whom do you prefer with the work in the Mac???? Feel free to discuss.

Much Love,
Ethan

I voted for Billy, although I really love Rick's work on Love Is Dangerous. I LUUUREVE that song.:nod:

I love 'em both. I had to vote Billy, though, because he sounded great with THREE other singers, where Rick sounded great with only TWO other singers. My two favorite songs from this era would have to be "When The Sun Goes Down," and "Talkin' To My Heart."

I picked...
 

The obvious choice.

I went with Rick.
Billy's terrific, but I've never been much of a country fan... so Rick's style appeals to me more.

Hmmm...

I have to say my overall preference is Rick. I prefer Billy's songwriting, though. Rick gets me more on the guitar and voice, and I love Love Is Dangerous too!

Since I know Rick (on an acquaintance basis), I'm a bit biased. I haven't met Billy in person, yet.

Plus, I'm in awe of Rick's guitar prowess.

I loved Rick since I saw his performance of Another Woman in Tango video. No more comments.

I voted for Billy. I really like his BTM work & he played on "Love Shines" too.

I voted for Rick...
Talented guitar player, his solo album was good (King Of Hearts?), another version on the Tango tour... I think it rocks...

Now,
I think Billy has it in his blood... and might have more longevity(sp?)

We have a new troll in our midst.

Lucky us.

You make it sound as though Rick only has one solo album. If you think King Of Hearts is good, check out:

Pink & Black
Lucky Devils
Crazy Cool
Bandbox Boogie
Rattlesnake Shake

...as well.

I quite like the result of this being a tie, so I haven't voted in it.
Since I prefer Rick's guitar over Billy's, but it's Billy's songwriting that got me into FM in the 1st place, my vote would have to go to Billy, though. It's just that I'd love to hear him do a pop record again, after all those rockabilly discs. Yes, I do enjoy rockabilly, but some additional variety would do a lot of good to Billy's back catalogue. (I think Coming Home and All Night Long are his best discs.)
Rick's solo material hasn't been as likeable for me, so I just got a used copy of King Of Hearts, though I try to like his albums every time a new one appears in the store, by having a listen right there, but no 2nd Rick album made it into my collection. May he stay away from Jump Blues and Acoustic Blues, and move a bit into the pop direction as well, and that might change rapidly.

Sure...have the guy go in a direction that is opposite of his strengths...good move. :cool:

And, you would've had Stevie Ray Vaughan go ahead & tour with David Bowie in 1983 instead of record his first album with Double Trouble, too, eh? :shrug:

I deleted the spam. :)

I don´t know. Well, Tango Video is the best mac´s video for me (but probably thanks to Stevie:D ). Billy is great singer and Rick is great guitarist.....:shrug:

I LOOOOOVE the Tango video. I really like when at the beginning of the chain when they start singing and they have that close-up of Stevie. It's GREAT!!!

But I miss Rhiannon, Gypsy... there, it would be better with more songs not only Stevie´s... it has only 60 minutes...

These times was best!!! I think Stevie had amazing voice there.

True, but we got more TITN songs, which is cool....


I chose Rick obviously because he is 100000x better than Billy. :laugh:

Seriously though, Rick is such an awesome player.

Absolutely. I love the editing on the Tango video, it's much more than just the usual concert video, it's just so much more creative in how it's all put together. The only problem is that Lindsey wasn't there.... :distress: Oh I miss the hotness :D

I think the comment that Rick is a good guitarist and Billy is a good singer is quite accurate :nod:

Weird that a concert lasts 60 minutes. Sure they excluded several songs in the video.

I voted for Rick, because he's more talented, but it was really a toss up. I'm one of the few that really likes Billy's voice. I think he's got a "sweet" voice, like Christine, and blends perfektly with her.

But Rick sings well, and is a bad ass on guitar, so based on that, he won my vote(with all due respect to Billy).

I've just voted for Billy. I didn't really like BTM but given the choice, I think I'd prefer Billy's material on that record a bit more. It's more pop oriented and fits in slightly more with the FM style. I think Time is a slightly better album and Billy largely carries that record.

For me, I've never shaken the belief Rick is a great session player, whereas Billy should have been a bigger star.

Love Shines and Heart of Stone seal it for me. Those tracks supposedly do not feature Rick. Had that line up continued as a foursome I'd feel confident I'd have liked their output.

Ps... Its funny reading through all these old posts of people praising the Tango video. I'm one of those people who find it absolutely dreadful... the camera doesn't dwell on anything for more than 2 seconds before it segues into a different shot....throughout the entire concert. Stop messing with my head!!!!!!

Neither one is a great singer. Rick is a better guitarist but because I have seen Billy work with Mick with the Zoo and with Christine and Stevie solo work, I am partial to Billy because he is the "comfort" player.

It is funny how the older posts praise the Tango video concert. We discussed that recently on another thread. Its just a cut/paste, and snipped together concert scenes video rather than a live concert. The lip syncing, the posing for cameras, and the edited in concert crowds is just too much for me. Its a time capsule why the 80s music sucked so bad.

I almost wrote the same thing, word for word! The only difference was, I voted for Billy. I finally went with Billy based on the preponderance of material on BTM- In the Back of My Mind, When It Comes to Love, and the beautiful duet with Christine Do You Know. I also LOVE Game of Love, the demo that didn’t make it on the album. Rick’s guitar work is absolutely amazing, and I also love the way he handles himself on stage. Fleetwood Mac was fortunate to have them both.

Its a video rather than a concert. So much of it is lip synced and only the far, far away shots are actual concert footage. There is live concert footage edited in but you can see they performed without an audience and shot their close ups and then edited in the crowd clapping. Its horrible.
At least Red Rocks is so bad its funny good. Tango is just annoying as s**t.

Well, let's face the facts....inside or outside of FM, NEITHER one of them ever "made it big" as anything but a sideman. Billy has quite a few solo albums, but I don't know if he ever had even a minor hit.

He regularly posts on FB, and almost NOBODY even likes his posts. It makes me feel sorry for him. He posts Tango pics of him and $tevie(and occasionally Christine) and even then, maybe 10 people care.

Rick did some great guitar work live and some on BTM, especially on Save Me and the end of Freedom. I agree that Billy blended well with Christine and at least one gem in Do You Know came through on the album. I felt though writing wise and singing Rick was there more to prop up Stevie and give her some fiery (Love is Dangerous- succeeds) and sentimental (The Second Time- fails) and his time alone was fairly bland. I also give Billy some kudos for the risks he took with In the Back of My Mind, which I used to turn up loud and loved to listen to. Rick and Stevie's best work came a couple years later in the smoking hot Desiree. As for Time though, Billy was fairly generic and nothing particularly memorable. I haven't paid much attention to Rick since the solo album.

I agree with all of you points as it relates to Billy and Ricks contributions to Fleetwood Mac. I have all Billy’s and Rick’s solo releases….I like most of Billy’s but every one of Rick’s are amazing. I wish they would have just had Billy and Rick do the last MAC tour. It would have at least made some sense for “the legacy”

I'd give anything if I had screen shot Billy's rant, the morning he found out they weren't invited(he deleted it shortly, before I thought to save it). He was pissed!

The BTM era I think was treated similar to Bob Welch. After the Dance, it was "let's pretend Behind the Mask and Time didn't happen". Notwithstanding All Over Again surfacing on the Finn/Campbell tour. It would've been interesting to reunite that line up though as it did have potential and who knows where it would've gone after licking the wounds of the BTM sales and learning from its flaws- writing and production.

I really would have loved it if Rick and Billy had been invited back… but I bet Rick would have said no and didn’t Billy have heart bypass surgery shortly after Neil and Mike joined? So the tour wouldn’t have happened if he had rejoined. 3 or 4 people here blamed Stevie and Mick for Lindsey’s heart attack, but not for Billy’s. John and Christine escaped blame, though. But I could be wrong about the timeline of Billy’s health. Fortunately, like Lindsey, he lived through it. Lindsey’s health got way more press and attention than Billy- I know Lindsey made an incredible recovery, but I’m not sure how well Billy really bounced back.

That would have been a truer ending to the band, if they'd been invited back into the band. I'll bet Rick would have said yes. FM was fading away back when he left the band. They're big again now. Everyone wants to go out on top.

I forget the exact timeline, but you're right. Billy had surgery either right before the tour began, or right as it began.

You know....STEVIE DIDN'T GET BILLY FIRED FROM ONE OF THE BIGGEST BANDS OF ALL TIME. You understand that, right? There's a huge difference! We know, Stevie can do no wrong, in your eyes.:rolleyes:

Billy has been back playing gigs for some time now.

But Stevie refused to let Billy or Rick rejoin FM, so naturally that caused Billy’s heart attack. I mean, if kicking someone out of a band can cause a heart attack, not letting someone rejoin would also cause a heart attack. Genetics be damned, I say.

I don’t know about Rick, though- I just kind of get the feeling he was more irritated about how the band handled things, especially with the RRHOF, and maybe had their number by 2019. Billy, I could see having more faith they’d give him another chance, which was probably why it hurt him so much when they didn’t. Rick seemed to understand where he stood in the big picture when it comes to FM.

Rick is at least a guitar star. He's played with a lot of amazing artists. I sure hope he got royalties from Bob Seger's Like A Rock, because Chevy used that in their commercials for about a decade! That's Rick playing slide guitar on it!

Billy has never really been more than a side man, IMO. He plays rhythm guitar, and sings backup vocal(some lead). BUT, he's been in many more of Mick's projects than Rick, or anyone else. Billy should have been pissed. There's no loyalty with FM, especially with Satan, err Irving, at the helm.

I don't think Billy actually had a heart attack. I think they found blockage during a checkup, and decided they needed to clear it.

Has anyone ever discovered who the mystery guitarist was that auditioned after Lindsey was fired? Billy broke the story so it was circumstantial evidence it was him. We know Stevie demanded Mike Campbell so one position was already taken. It may have been odd to invite only one of Billy and Rick back into the band. A true Sophie's choice. So that is circumstantial evidence that maybe neither Billy and Rick were considered. If Stevie had not already promised Mike Campbell, it may have seemed obvious to invite them BOTH Rick and Billy back. But with one position already taken, it would have been tough.

I want to know who played with the band and the band said.....no thank you.

I remember a name was thrown out, but it was a man I had never heard of from a band I had never heard of. Sorry, I know I’m not a big help right now LOL but I can at least confirm that a specific man was mentioned, and he wasn’t as big a name as either Neil or Mike. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t talented or whatever… I also believe he was quite a bit younger, like in his 40s or something like that.

I’m sure someone will post his name here.

From an Irving standpoint, Mike and Neil are bigger names than Billy and Rick, so in his satanic eyes, that's strengthening his brand.

Much akin to putting Vince Gill and Glenn's son in The Eagles.

I need that guy managing my IRA...

John Paul White of Civil Wars, but Brett wasn’t completely sure.