[cbBen]

It makes little sense why they would not let her participate in the making of the album just because she was not prepared to tour behind it.

First, didn't they do just that for Time?

Second, if Lindsey was so keen to make Say You Will a double-CD, one would think he would see the need for all three songwriters.

Would the public have expressed more resistance to the four-piece lineup after her participation in the album than it would have had she not participated? To any meaningful extent, I don't see why that would be the case. It seems like a case of overthinking the situation. Just make the best album you can, and then subsequently make the best live show you can. The Tango tour proved you could successfully tour an album without the songs of one of the three songwriters.

If Lindsey thought it such a blessing to have Christine contributing songs to what became Buckingham McVie (and to our knowledge she hadn't committed to touring behind the album first, nor did he seem to be of a the view that Stevie would not be contributing to the album), one would think he would have felt the same about Say You Will.

It seems convoluted to say, "If you won't tour behind it, we don't want you contributing songs to it." I mean does Lindsey think that, given his failure to tour behind it, the band was retrospectively ill-served by his having contributed songs to Tango (production aside, as plenty of producers don't tour with the band after making an album with them)?