[TrueFaith77]

This is my attempt to summarize

RE: iamnotafraid

I still don't understand how one separates Danny and Jeremy from Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac--just because they stayed on after Peter left? I'm confused.

What your approach to Mac history proposes is that there are only two iconic Fleetwood Macs--and they are very much distinct, with very different m.o.'s and functions and identities. Each era also kicked off with an eponymous album, it should be noted. In this case, you actually agree with chili that Lindsey/Stevie ruined FM--in the sense that they totally changed it. However, you seem to be stretching that ruination back to Peter leaving the band with a resurrection when Lindsey/Stevie joined the band. Your argument is further bolstered by the idea that Rick, Billy, et. al. were brought in, not to function like Peter Green's conception of the band, but as replacements to carry on the AOR sound of the Rumours era. t'was folly.

However, I don't think this argument holds up. Future Games found its own following among the surfer subculture. Bare Trees had radio popularity in the Detroit market. Those are NOT second-rate records nor was it a second-rate band w/ the Danny-Christine-Bob lineup.

Mick's approach to Bob Welch is not just a hit on Lindsey; it really, I think, retains fidelity to Mick's view of the band--which is that it is an evolving thing that his main job is to keep alive (his success at that may be argued, but not really the motivation)--and that a) it might have died without Welch and b) there would have been no supernova success if it had died or it had not planted roots in the US and c) Bob moved the band's sound closer to the Rumours sound. This kinda corresponds with that motivational speaker who uses Fleetwood Mac as an example of how success doesn't come all at once, it takes time to foster the elements and success, making changes and try new things.

RE: chiliD

chili, I think, believes in this simple rule: if it's Mick & John, it's Fleetwood Mac (the law happens to agree with Chili, btw).

However, he takes his own controversial stand on the Mac history: that Lindsey/Stevie weren't just another evolutionary link in the chain--but the Rumours phenom and the Lindsey/Stevie mythology RUINED Fleetwood Mac. First of all, it dictated how they were perceived and the nature of expectations. Second of all, it made them cogs in a money-making machine which meant the freedom to change and experiment and release-as-they-recorded was no longer permissable (from the standpoint of the record execs, the managers, the artists themselves).

Consequently, even post-Lindsey Mac, for Chili, seems to hold with it the promise of a return to the band's original conception while affected by compromises to post-Rumours expectations and demands. But that reflects the band's history. Thus: it IS all Fleetwood Mac.