Quote:
Originally Posted by David
This “solution” was precisely the problem. The casino and fair audiences (who were out to see live music from Benatar, Mac, Crosby/Stills/Nash, REO) love Rumours, but I bet most of them weren’t terribly enthralled to see a band power through those songs without Nicks, Buckingham, and McVie. It struck everyone as a lame, cover-band show because the classic Mac catalogue was so insistently the core of the show. I’m suggesting that a set of songs not tied to the annus mirabilis of 1977 would surely have been less cringeworthy. Even the band itself would have been energized by not having to compete with “sacred” untouchable songs, and would have performed with more conviction. (The one time Mason showed any commitment to his performance was when he sang his own song We Just Disagree.) Not having any of the three 1977 singers and instead having a front line with talented incongruities made it all the more essential for the band to reinvent itself that year. It didn’t reinvent itself (at least as a live act), and it busted big.
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The most cohesive, convincing song, other than the originals from that lineup, was “Only You Know & I Know.”
And that’s really the problem. That lineup was much more Delaney Bramlett than Peter Green, Bob Welch, or Lindsey Buckingham. All three of them were directly connected with Delaney & Bonnie, and I think Mick felt that would help jumpstart the chemistry with the new lineup, and it definitely did as far as Bekka and Billy were concerned, just not in a way that was especially relevant to what Fleetwood Mac had been. The other issue is Bekka being so much younger than the others. Bonnie Bramlett would have been a more appropriate choice.