The Sunday Times: Excess all areas

[secret love]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

I saw the OTTC tour and it was fantastic. I have to say however: I disagree with Lindsey wanting all those extra musicians for Fleetwood Mac shows. I love the rawness of the previous tours, the harmonies, keying in on who is playing what. What has made them such a great band is that each of the instrumentalists are odd players and singers. They strangely gelled together so well. It's what made them so fresh and unique. Even the Bob Welch days worked because each of them had weird playing styles and vocals.

As for LB being afraid for Stevie's health... I totally buy that's a major part of it. And he is totally justified in wanting to get away from that behavior. Especially when he is doing a huge amount of the work.

As for LB and Christine. I simply think he took it hard and was not happy about her leaving. 1. He didn't understand it. 2. He'd just come back and gotten used to FM again.

But the guy that he is, he had to make it work without Christine, and musically he looked at the positives and opportunities. But as we've seen, Christine's absence has been a huge hole for them. SYW is lacking, and that famous blend of magic is a bit less without the 5 of them. And while I love them to death, their voices have aged to the point of making them very less exciting.

In 1987 they did continue without him and I thought Christine was the one that shined live on the Shacking and BTM tours. But when you add session musicians to the weirdness of those guys it becomes a tad boring and almost forced to my ears.

Christine you're lonely, Lindsey you want another album, Stevie, you want another woman...

...Fine Go back to The Chateau in France where Mirage was recorded and spend a month or two together for the last album. Do like Pink Floyd and do NY, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles, and add Honolulu. Another FM album with the FAB FIVE will sell if promoted properly. Problem solved.

I absolutely agree with the premise of your argument and its conclusion. I would like to add:

As a fan, I do not have any "must dos" or "songs that if we don't play, we'd be taken out the back and shot"...I simply don't care. If Fleetwood Mac wants to do a tour where they just sing what they want to, even if it includes covers, that is fine with me. My preference is for band originals but I believe this is also the preference of all the writers. Furthermore, I believe Mick and John are the only ones who would like to play the blues (and maybe Christine a little too).

I think it is reasonable and achievable provided all of the band members maintain their current states of good health (I'm not referring to drug use: I'm actually referring to conditions of old age! )

If all of the "FAB FIVE" are alive there is no reason why they can't do just as you've suggested, JBrownsjr. The only thing stopping them all is pride.

If we have a new Fleetwood Mac album like this:

3 Stevie songs
3 Christine songs
8 Lindsey Buckingham songs

I honestly don't care. It is better than nothing. My ideal would be

5 Stevie songs
4 Christine songs
8 Lindsey Buckingham songs

but that is just my opinion. I believe the first option I listed is more likely to happen, if at all. If we get a new studio album: I will be thankful and appreciate simply for the pure effort and dedication and hard work of the band at this point.