[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Really, though, the band has been making one bad decision after another since 1988. They made the right decision to to bring in two talents like Billy and Rick and Billy. But, then they screwed everything up. I think "Red Rocks," the "Tango In The Night" video, and "Greatest Hits" were terrible ideas. Two concert videos that really don't show Stevie at her best AND have that stupid close-up footage that wasn't part of the actual show was amazingly bad in judgement. Then, a "Greatest Hits" package that had all of the stuff that everybody wanted, thus making anything new obsolete before it was even released was very stupid. Add to that, Stevie releases a mediocre at best solo album that really does more to hurt everybody's career than help it. (Hey, if you want to give her all of the credit for their success, then you have to accept that she deserves some of the responsibility for their demise.) By the time "Behind The Mask" came out, Fleetwood Mac's image took a real beating. The fact that it was horribly produced, and a lot of the best songs were omitted in favor of safe, bland songs didn't help. Fleetwood Mac lost its edge (no fault of the new guys, btw), and rendered itself irrelevant.

Well said, Steve, and I agree. And of course you can go well beyond Behind the Mask with the bad decision-making. The Chain is a pretty crappy box set, with too much focus on Rumours-era songs and not nearly enough unreleased tracks or alternative versions of songs. Pretty much everything about Time was botched, from conception to execution. The reunion tour was a good thing, though it could have leaned on Rumours a little less, but waiting six whole years to release another studio album, thereby losing any and all commercial momentum and renewed interest from the public, was stupid. And then there was the ensuing tour, which wasn't bad per se, but it was for all intents and purposes The Dance Part Deux, with Christine's songs replaced with songs from Say You Will.

(What are these "best songs" that were omitted from Behind the Mask?)

If you add up the amount of time she gets per album, she was on par with that of Lindsey and Christine. Maybe not the first album (although, she gets royalties from "Chrystal"), but certainly by "Tusk." The three song thing is only due to her refusal to edit her songs down a bit.

I added it up once, and Stevie's songs actually take up the most vinyl on Tusk, though she has the fewest in number. This isn't a bad thing; one of the album's many charms is the way Lindsey's short frenetic freak-outs are juxtaposed with Stevie's longer, mellower mini-epics. With Christine as always falling somewhere in between.