Stevie's Extra Vocals on Tango

[David]

Originally Posted by starshine

Its more of a Lindsey/Christine record really. Which if I'd been a member and wasn't really aloud to contribute to it that would've made me angry. Yes, Stevie had 'issue's than but they should've had some sort of understanding really. Its not like they didn't know her. I just don't think they handled well on all fronts really.

Agreed.

Nobody was very mature or sensible, & nobody laid down the law. Stevie Nicks should have said, way back at the Village Recorder in 1979, "The next time somebody in this band makes fun of me or my contributions, or criticizes me in a destructive rather than constructive way, I'm walking. I'm not going to stay in this band just to be belittled & mocked." And Fleetwood Mac should have told Stevie, "When this band is recording, you are expected to attend most, if not all, the sessions. Demos mailed to us in the studio from your sojourns in Australia or elsewhere will be marked RETURN TO SENDER."

TANGO's problems, as everyone seems to agree, seem attributable to drug use, unprofessionalism, & emotional fragility. Given Stevie's & John's absence & Mick Fleetwood's drunkenness day & night, Lindsey made the mistake of continuing to captain the project on through to completion. He should have said to the band during the troubled sessions, "We're done. There won't be an album -- at least one that I am creating or even participating in. I'd like you all to leave. When Stevie, Mick, & John decide to take the album seriously & commit their time & effort to it, we can reconvene & finish these tracks. If that takes six months or if that takes six years, it's up to the band members."

I now think that's what Lindsey should have done: sent everybody home. Stevie might have gone ahead with her cocaine treatment, Mick might have sought help for his drug & alcohol use (which had rendered him an obnoxious idiot by that time), & John too might have put the bottle down. The band might have reconvened in much better circumstances in 1988, 1989, or even 1990, & finished the album & toured.