Dave Remembers: Like a Cover Band

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by MacShadowsBall

Awhile back I posted a thread with Time era performances, in case anybody is curious about the on stage dynamics.

The problem was that they (Dave, Bekka, and Billy) were peforming songs by mainly Stevie and Christine. Fleetwood Mac lost that link from the previous incarnation that had been there since the beginning, Yeah Billy was there, but were any of his 3 BTM songs peformed? I don't think so. From those performance mention earlier, Billy is more in the "John McVie" position on stage. Its really Dave and mainly Bekka up front with she doing alot of Stevie and Christine songs. Dave seemed to be doing mostly non-Fleetwood Mac songs. So yeah I can see Dave Mason saying it felt like a cover band, especially since no new songs from Time were done until the end of the tour.

I agree that they should have done at least one of Billy's "Behind The Mask" songs. But, I disagree that Billy was in the John McVie position. NOT EVEN CLOSE! I saw them twice on that tour (and have a few bootlegs somewhere), and I'd say it was pretty equal between Billy and Dave. Dave had more solo lead vocals, but Billy did more duets with Bekka. It was pretty clear at the shows that the real chemistry was between Bekka and Billy. Also, they usually did "Blow By Blow" early in the tour, as it was released on the "Soccer Rocks The Globe" album. It appears that it got dropped when "Dreamin' The Dream" was added.

Here was a typical set list:

The Chain (all three)
You Make Loving Fun/Say You Love Me (Bekka)
Oh Well (Billy and Bekka)
We Just Disagree (Dave)
Blow By Blow (Dave)
Gold Dust Woman (Bekka)
Only You Know And I Know/Dear Mr. Fantasy (Dave -and Bekka on OYKAIK)
World Turning (Bekka and Billy)
Go Your Own Way (Billy)
Don't Stop (Bekka and Billy)
Imagine/Dreamin' The Dream (Bekka)

Other songs they sometimes played include (I've only seen a couple of these done on bootlegs):

Dreams (Bekka)
All Along The Watchtower (Dave)
The Bigger The Love (Billy)
Tear It Up (Billy)