Has Fm.lb,sn Reached Their End?

[cbBen]

Joni Mitchell and Phil Collins more or less retired too.

Lindsey should reach out to Nonesuch. If his record is good, they'd pick it up. Otherwise New West.

In the eighties Stevie's, sales were based in part on her sex appeal. There are flashes of brilliance elsewhere, but I think Bella Donna and The Other Side Of The Mirror are her only through-and-through great solo albums.

Her voice has lost so much since The Dance.

The problem with Fleetwood Mac is they have ceased to be a band. Even their website has individual photos rather than a single group shot.

And they always are trying to look dark and mysterious. Lindsey is especially guilty here. They don't need an "image." They need to find a way to enjoy each other, or call it a day and just be solo artists. They should smile for the camera like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers do and look like they are having fun rather than they like have something to prove. They've already proven it.

At the beginning of Destiny Rules, Lindsey asks to John something along the lines of "ready to show these young punks hot to play?" See? Something to prove. Chip on the shoulder. You think Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers get together to prove anything to anybody? They enjoy playing together and Fleetwood Mac could learn a thing or two from them in this regard.

And Lindsey needs to learn that Stevie is the star power. In Destiny Rules he keeps going on about how much more work he's put into the project, as though his doing so should give him more political power in the band dynamic. Wrong! Stevie is the star power. You think she faces the problems Lindsey does getting a record deal outside Fleetwood Mac? Lindsey seemed to forget that the reason that Warners more or less insisted he rejoin Fleetwood Mac because his selling power outside the group was nil.

Lindsey is also the master of the false dilemma. It's either be progressive or you're a total sell out. There's no middle ground. He acts in Destiny Rules as though wanting to limit the album to eighty minutes is tantamount to "playing it safe" and "stifling creativity." The Beatles did the White Album with three--count 'em three--of the greatest songwriters ever all at the peak of their writing powers. Say You Will featured two writers both of whom were well past their peak. Lindsey is a great producer, but he resorts to tactics to get his way that are unfair.

Has Lindsey ever listened to an outside producer the way he would need to in order to keep Fleewtood Mac going for real? Are he and Stevie willing to get some lyricists to help them.? The title track to Say You Will had a great melody but the lyrics needed work. And "everyone's gone to the moon" is such a bad line that it ruins an otherwise good song. When Dear Mr. President covered the song, they pointedly left out the line -- even though it was the centerpiece of the chorus!

This band could make it but they need to become a "band" again and not Lindsey and Stevie sharing a rhythm section. Lindsey did add some great touches to Stevie's songs last time around. But his creative decisions regarding album length and his stubborn insistence that things like "Come" represent a step forward and anything else represent a sellout cost him and the band a great great deal.

That's my thirty-two cents.