Just Skimmed Through STORMS

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by macpai

I don't have that kind of clarity on things that happened 10 years ago in my own life, so I can't imagine how someone stoned would be that much better than me.

Well, she says she kept audio journals that helped her refresh her memory. Which reminds me, in another thread I said I think that one tape that's been circulated with Beverly and Sara talking with another woman named Kell -- I now think that's probably Carol Ann, not "Kell." They were calling her Carol and we just didn't know it at the time. I haven't heard that Conversations tape in a long while, but I'd like to hear it again and see if the pieces fit.


David,

As far as the dramatic language goes, the only thing I'd give her leeway on is that Stevie and Lindsey do talk in crazy extremes sometimes. So, I believe they would say some pretty unnatural, overblown sounding things.

But the moment when the book started off with her and her six (?) sisters sitting curled up around the room reading, I knew I was in for a ride.

Now, what do you think about the shooting of the Rolling Stone bed cover? To me, that's not only odd because no one else describes it taking place that way and in that place (Carol's home), not even Annie, who would be an objective source. But I think it's a calculated lie, in that it seems designed to undermine what Lindsey and Stevie have said more recently about holding each other (Stevie says for a couple of hours) during that shoot. Carol seems to have written in a way deliberately designed to undermine that story.

You know, I was watching a documentary on the Amityville Horror phenomenon and one guy pointed out a passage in the story where the priest (I believe) was driving away from the haunted house and the hood of his car flew up and blocked his vision. The critic pointed out that that couldn't have happened in that car because the hood is reversed on the model and could not fly up and block the windshield. So, then in the second edition of the book, they put the priest in another car. It made me laugh. Carol once talked about a second edition of her book coming out and I would have been interested in seeing what she would have changed. But it was never published.


Michele

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Well, she says she kept audio journals that helped her refresh her memory.

I think she's a liar. I don't think she used old tapes as refreshers. I think she used old newspaper clippings & Mick's book as refreshers.

As far as the dramatic language goes, the only thing I'd give her leeway on is that Stevie and Lindsey do talk in crazy extremes sometimes. So, I believe they would say some pretty unnatural, overblown sounding things.

Carol wrote a Victorian melodrama, & Lindsey is the wicked villain with devilish looks, a Jack the Ripper mustache, one eyebrow arched, an evil red glow across part of his face (the other part is always in shadow).

Open any page at random. "Malevolent glances" are always being cast at this person or that person; "storm clouds" are always hanging over everything (inside people's homes!); angry lovers don't talk -- they "snarl," etc. etc.

She keeps making fun of the "soap opera" that the band's lives have become, but nothing in Fleetwood Mac history is as soapy as this book.

Now, what do you think about the shooting of the Rolling Stone bed cover? To me, that's not only odd because no one else describes it taking place that way and in that place (Carol's home), not even Annie, who would be an objective source. But I think it's a calculated lie, in that it seems designed to undermine what Lindsey and Stevie have said more recently about holding each other (Stevie says for a couple of hours) during that shoot. Carol seems to have written in a way deliberately designed to undermine that story.

I'm with you. But it's surprisingly brief & surprisingly free of high drama. I agree that it's very odd that Carol makes absolutely no mention of ex-lovers hanging out together after everyone else leaves the room or goes home or whatever they did.

My notion is that Carol is seriously ill, but not in the way she might think. Either she's lying to a pathological degree or she's emotionally crippled to a pathological degree. Somebody is always scratching her arms, scratching her face, strangling her, punching her in the face, punching her in the back, pulling her hair, dragging her, or slapping her. She portrays herself as a pincushion. Worse, she appears to be getting off on this sadomasochistic portrait. No matter who is physically or verbally abusing her, she stands there, weeping like a sob sister, unable to speak or to move (how many people, when their arm is being twisted, don't use their free arm to push or elbow?). She is frozen in place, time after time, wondering what did I ever do to make them so angry with me? I love them and I know they love me because they said so, and . . .
Does anyone believe this dreck?

"I twisted myself out of his grasp & stumbled backward, speechless with shock" (speechless, mind you, even if it's the twenty-fifth time her romantic lover has smacked her). She is concocting a weirdly idealized "Carol Harris" in her febrile brain, a character who is as guileless and wide-eyed as Cinderella. She even says numerous times, "My life had become a fairy tale." My bull**** meter hit the red back around page 36.

There are descriptions of things here -- we've talked about this already -- that wouldn't be here at all if they hadn't already been described, in virtually identical ways, in Mick's book. Examples: the New Zealand business on the Tusk tour, the show at the Munich Olympic Horse Riding Stadium, the various rehearsals, the photo shoots, the album sessions, the radio broadcast of "Tusk" before release, etc.

Virtually every other page, we read something like, "I could see the rage in his eyes and I knew that I was helpless." This is a romance novel, for chrissake -- a bodice-ripper. It's cheap, it's corrupt, it's hypocritical, & it's fake. The only Polaroids in the whole book that aren't mysteriously blurry are those of Carol herself, professionally taken as part of her modeling. What the great Mary McCarthy once said about Lillian Hellman is true here: Every word in this book is a lie -- even "a" and "the."

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by David

I think she's a liar. I don't think she used old tapes as refreshers. I think she used old newspaper clippings & Mick's book as refreshers.

Carol wrote a Victorian melodrama, & Lindsey is the wicked villain with devilish looks, a Jack the Ripper mustache, one eyebrow arched, an evil red glow across part of his face (the other part is always in shadow).

Open any page at random. "Malevolent glances" are always being cast at this person or that person; "storm clouds" are always hanging over everything (inside people's homes!); angry lovers don't talk -- they "snarl," etc. etc.

She keeps making fun of the "soap opera" that the band's lives have become, but nothing in Fleetwood Mac history is as soapy as this book.

I'm with you. But it's surprisingly brief & surprisingly free of high drama. I agree that it's very odd that Carol makes absolutely no mention of ex-lovers hanging out together after everyone else leaves the room or goes home or whatever they did.

My notion is that Carol is seriously ill, but not in the way she might think. Either she's lying to a pathological degree or she's emotionally crippled to a pathological degree. Somebody is always scratching her arms, scratching her face, strangling her, punching her in the face, punching her in the back, pulling her hair, dragging her, or slapping her. She portrays herself as a pincushion. Worse, she appears to be getting off on this sadomasochistic portrait. No matter who is physically or verbally abusing her, she stands there, weeping like a sob sister, unable to speak or to move (how many people, when their arm is being twisted, don't use their free arm to push or elbow?). She is frozen in place, time after time, wondering what did I ever do to make them so angry with me? I love them and I know they love me because they said so, and . . .
Does anyone believe this dreck?

"I twisted myself out of his grasp & stumbled backward, speechless with shock" (speechless, mind you, even if it's the twenty-fifth time her romantic lover has smacked her). She is concocting a weirdly idealized "Carol Harris" in her febrile brain, a character who is as guileless and wide-eyed as Cinderella. She even says numerous times, "My life had become a fairy tale." My bull**** meter hit the red back around page 36.

There are descriptions of things here -- we've talked about this already -- that wouldn't be here at all if they hadn't already been described, in virtually identical ways, in Mick's book. Examples: the New Zealand business on the Tusk tour, the show at the Munich Olympic Horse Riding Stadium, the various rehearsals, the photo shoots, the album sessions, the radio broadcast of "Tusk" before release, etc.

Virtually every other page, we read something like, "I could see the rage in his eyes and I knew that I was helpless." This is a romance novel, for chrissake -- a bodice-ripper. It's cheap, it's corrupt, it's hypocritical, & it's fake. The only Polaroids in the whole book that aren't mysteriously blurry are those of Carol herself, professionally taken as part of her modeling. What the great Mary McCarthy once said about Lillian Hellman is true here: Every word in this book is a lie -- even "a" and "the."

ROFLOL!!!!

One note: I love the end where Lindsey begs her to come back to him and sing with him. Yeah. Sure.

[michelej1]

Spectacular post -- and not uncommon.

Originally Posted by David

My notion is that Carol is seriously ill, but not in the way she might think. Either she's lying to a pathological degree or she's emotionally crippled to a pathological degree. Somebody is always scratching her arms, scratching her face, strangling her, punching her in the face, punching her in the back, pulling her hair, dragging her, or slapping her. She portrays herself as a pincushion. Worse, she appears to be getting off on this sadomasochistic portrait. No matter who is physically or verbally abusing her, she stands there,

You know, I was thinking this recently about a post I made regarding John's wedding. Carol says Jenny (in an argument with Stevie) pulled Carol in the closest with them. It's really a meaningless little passage, about very minor players in the book, but it just represents how she never has herself DOING anything. She is entirely passive. Little red wagons have been pulled around less than Carol. Things happen to her and she has no explanation as to why and no reaction when they do. This is so unnatural that it's not even physically or psychologically possible.

Just from the way she wrote that, my guess is she instigated the entire argument between Jenny and Stevie and jumped into the closet to egg them on.

She's no one and is so passive as to be nonexistent, but still people see her from across a room and instantly want to sleep with her or -- even stranger -- lie to Christine about sleeping with her. How could a woman who never does anything inspire such feeling?

And what I think about that Rolling Stone cover shoot is that it's somewhat diabolical what she does. If Lindsey and Stevie hugged (and SnL are psychotic themselves, so who even knows if they did), I wouldn't expect Carol to have been in the room at the time. She wouldn't know about it, so I would never expect her to mention it.

So, she doesn't fall into the trap of denying it or even acknowledging it. She just very subtly sets up the whole photo shoot in a way that would make it clear that such a thing couldn't have happened. Yeah, it was in my house, in my bed, with me standing outside the door and it was over very quickly. With no time for anyone to do one single thing but jump in bed, pose for Annie's camera and then jump out. It's such an odd lie (how many band photo shoots take place in a band member's bed?) that it's not something that could be created from a memory lapse. It has to be deliberate. Forget the big events in the book. It's very abnormal to go out of your way to lie about something so minor, to want so badly to create such a very specific picture.

Michele

[Nico]

Originally Posted by michelej1

So, she doesn't fall into the trap of denying it or even acknowledging it. She just very subtly sets up the whole photo shoot in a way that would make it clear that such a thing couldn't have happened. Yeah, it was in my house, in my bed, with me standing outside the door and it was over very quickly. With no time for anyone to do one single thing but jump in bed, pose for Annie's camera and then jump out. It's such an odd lie (how many band photo shoots take place in a band member's bed?) that it's not something that could be created from a memory lapse. It has to be deliberate. Forget the big events in the book. It's very abnormal to go out of your way to lie about something so minor, to want so badly to create such a very specific picture.

Michele

How interesting. It's quite obvious that, if this is the case, Carol knows that her story is a tired tale and she needed some spice to make it sound more interesting, less dull, MOR. Frankly, she probably wanted herself to sound more interesting ,sharp, innocent, and alluring to keep it from falling to the ground. She hasn't got much in terms of credentials to build upon, but her connections and experiences, and any of the drama she can elaborate on was the basis for this, I believe.

And then to paint her characters into more luminous beings she made herself seem like the naive, passive bystander who was walked all over, assaulted, insulted, and drugged up. Everything DOES always happen to her. It's crazy, but it makes sense. She had to make the story more captivating by building up these people to the stereotypical public perception: Stevie the pointy-toed, mystical pixie, Lindsey the over-intense, passionate madman genius, Christine the very English Mother Hen with handsome boyfriends, Mick the business-minded jerk, John the quiet drunk...she touches on all this, some more specifically than others, and it's all quite predictable, eh?

I can't deny that I believe some of the things happened. It's probably true to some extent, but the way she presents herself and many of the other people is so surface-level that it's a joke to take her too seriously. I could have opened up a copy of some bio summary rag comparable to Teen Beat and read about the same info on some of these people. If not more.

[Lori40]

I was just reading the reviews of "Storms" on amazon and found it interesting that Jeremy Spencer just posted a review on April 9, 09. He starts off by writing, "Poor Carol. What she said about me was atrocious. A total lie..." Carol Ann then responded, "...I stand by every single word that I wrote in "Storms" and I wish you only the best."

[Erin]

Originally Posted by Lori40

I was just reading the reviews of "Storms" on amazon and found it interesting that Jeremy Spencer just posted a review on April 9, 09. He starts off by writing, "Poor Carol. What she said about me was atrocious. A total lie..." Carol Ann then responded, "...I stand by every single word that I wrote in "Storms" and I wish you only the best."

Runs off to read it...gee Michele sure you can't get Carol Ann to do a Q&A?

[Nico]

Here's what Carol Ann apparently wrote:

Jeremy,
The party in my book that you attended was not Lindsey's birthday party, but a summer barbecue. I'm sorry that you're distressed, but everything I wrote pertaining to you was either told to me by Mick Fleetwood or John McVie - (exactly as I've described it in my book) or I experienced myself when you came to our barbecue so many years ago - again, exactly as I've described in my book. I stand by every single word that I wrote in Storms and I wish you only the best.
Carol Ann

Hmm...Mick I had no doubt. But John!

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yeah, it was in my house, in my bed, with me standing outside the door and it was over very quickly. With no time for anyone to do one single thing but jump in bed, pose for Annie's camera and then jump out. It's such an odd lie (how many band photo shoots take place in a band member's bed?) that it's not something that could be created from a memory lapse.
Michele

That bed was on the floor, wasn't it??

Originally Posted by Nico

Here's what Carol Ann apparently wrote:

Jeremy,
The party in my book that you attended was not Lindsey's birthday party, but a summer barbecue. I'm sorry that you're distressed, but everything I wrote pertaining to you was either told to me by Mick Fleetwood or John McVie - (exactly as I've described it in my book) or I experienced myself when you came to our barbecue so many years ago - again, exactly as I've described in my book. I stand by every single word that I wrote in Storms and I wish you only the best.
Carol Ann

The question is what single words did she write? Maybe she has a point. ha.

Of course, on the other hand, she can stand by every single word she wrote, look them in the eye and call them a LIE.

[michelej1]

So, after commenting to redtulip in the other thread, I was just reading the passage and I had to laugh at CAH. Lindsey told her to come over and she got dressed in a pleated skirt and white shirt like a school girl. This drove the men wild.

Lindsey said to her, "Hey, little girl, looks like you're looking for your daddy. I like it Carol. You should wear this stuff more often." [That was pervy].

Mick and Lindsey pretended to fight over her. "Stevie sat silently, apparently not thrilled by my arrival and the happy reception I was receiving."

The band members followed Annie meekly into a back bedroom as I made myself comfortable on Lindsey's couch. Knowing the size of his extra bedroom and the number of people and the amount of equipment that had been crammed into it, there was no way I could follow them. I flipped through magazines and listened to the laughter echoing down the hall. In less than an hour the shoot was finished and forty-five minutes after that the house was empty except for Lindsey and me. He pulled me up from the couch and led me into his bedroom. as he showed me the Polaroids that Annie'd left for him, I could see that the cover shot was amazing.

Michele

[Sleepless-Child]

Originally Posted by michelej1

So, after commenting to redtulip in the other thread, I was just reading the passage and I had to laugh at CAH. Lindsey told her to come over and she got dressed in a pleated skirt and white shirt like a school girl. This drove the men wild.

Lindsey said to her, "Hey, little girl, looks like you're looking for your daddy. I like it Carol. You should wear this stuff more often." [That was pervy].

Mick and Lindsey pretended to fight over her. "Stevie sat silently, apparently not thrilled by my arrival and the happy reception I was receiving."



Michele

The image of Lindsey being able to switch from Carol to Stevie to Carol is kind of disturbing to me. You know, "oh you're hot as a school girl", then i'm making out with my ex on a photoshoot bed and driving everyone crazy, and then back to you, Carol! Oh well.
The thing i was the most looking forward to when i started the book was to see Carol's reaction after reading the lyrics' to songs like "That's enough for me", or you know, any Lindsey song on Tusk. There is no way she wasn't even a little pissed it was all about Stevie. But no...

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Sleepless-Child

The thing i was the most looking forward to when i started the book was to see Carol's reaction after reading the lyrics' to songs like "That's enough for me", or you know, any Lindsey song on Tusk. There is no way she wasn't even a little pissed it was all about Stevie. But no...

True, it's a pride thing, like you said. But after the book was out, they did an interview about FM in one of the magazines (the article title was a take off on the movie, Sex, Lies and Video Tape) and she was a lot more honest about SnL than she was in her book.

But very often in these autobiographies, because people are proprietary and don't want to make themselves seem too aggressive or combative, they end up telling more about what they observe than what they feel and their reaction to those feelings. I mean, you might expect it from CAH because she knows that people are more interested than FM than in her own story, but I feel that she may have played more active parts in the FM events that unfolded around her and it would have been interesting if we could read all the details.

Michele

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by Sleepless-Child

The thing i was the most looking forward to when i started the book was to see Carol's reaction after reading the lyrics' to songs like "That's enough for me", or you know, any Lindsey song on Tusk. There is no way she wasn't even a little pissed it was all about Stevie. But no...

It's been a long time since I read this book but remind me someone, please. Wasn't it the release of the Go Insane record where she read all his lyrics and determined they were all negatively about her and that is when she knew she had to leave him for good?

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by David

I think she's a liar. I don't think she used old tapes as refreshers. I think she used old newspaper clippings & Mick's book as refreshers.

Carol wrote a Victorian melodrama, & Lindsey is the wicked villain with devilish looks, a Jack the Ripper mustache, one eyebrow arched, an evil red glow across part of his face (the other part is always in shadow).

Open any page at random. "Malevolent glances" are always being cast at this person or that person; "storm clouds" are always hanging over everything (inside people's homes!); angry lovers don't talk -- they "snarl," etc. etc.

She keeps making fun of the "soap opera" that the band's lives have become, but nothing in Fleetwood Mac history is as soapy as this book.

I'm with you. But it's surprisingly brief & surprisingly free of high drama. I agree that it's very odd that Carol makes absolutely no mention of ex-lovers hanging out together after everyone else leaves the room or goes home or whatever they did.

My notion is that Carol is seriously ill, but not in the way she might think. Either she's lying to a pathological degree or she's emotionally crippled to a pathological degree. Somebody is always scratching her arms, scratching her face, strangling her, punching her in the face, punching her in the back, pulling her hair, dragging her, or slapping her. She portrays herself as a pincushion. Worse, she appears to be getting off on this sadomasochistic portrait. No matter who is physically or verbally abusing her, she stands there, weeping like a sob sister, unable to speak or to move (how many people, when their arm is being twisted, don't use their free arm to push or elbow?). She is frozen in place, time after time, wondering what did I ever do to make them so angry with me? I love them and I know they love me because they said so, and . . .
Does anyone believe this dreck?

"I twisted myself out of his grasp & stumbled backward, speechless with shock" (speechless, mind you, even if it's the twenty-fifth time her romantic lover has smacked her). She is concocting a weirdly idealized "Carol Harris" in her febrile brain, a character who is as guileless and wide-eyed as Cinderella. She even says numerous times, "My life had become a fairy tale." My bull**** meter hit the red back around page 36.

There are descriptions of things here -- we've talked about this already -- that wouldn't be here at all if they hadn't already been described, in virtually identical ways, in Mick's book. Examples: the New Zealand business on the Tusk tour, the show at the Munich Olympic Horse Riding Stadium, the various rehearsals, the photo shoots, the album sessions, the radio broadcast of "Tusk" before release, etc.

Virtually every other page, we read something like, "I could see the rage in his eyes and I knew that I was helpless." This is a romance novel, for chrissake -- a bodice-ripper. It's cheap, it's corrupt, it's hypocritical, & it's fake. The only Polaroids in the whole book that aren't mysteriously blurry are those of Carol herself, professionally taken as part of her modeling. What the great Mary McCarthy once said about Lillian Hellman is true here: Every word in this book is a lie -- even "a" and "the."

Well CAH is a classic codependent. She gave up on her own life's ambitions to give everything to Lindsey. This is just not how healthy relationships work. People lose interest in someone when they do not have their own identity. She's also a classic love addict romanticizing everything (not living in reality) and staying in an awful relationship because she is "so in love". So yes she had/has some serious psychological issues that reveal themselves in the book. She even admits to having had panic attacks and being hospitalized for a bit due to them. Of course she blames Lindsey for them and again takes no responsibility for herself.

[hippilil86]

I just checked out "Storms" from the library yesterday and finished it today. It was a quick read, mostly because it was easy to skim. I guess it was interesting, but the writing was a little too flowery for my taste. Any new information about Fleetwood Mac that I can get my hands on is a bonus. I thought that she was purposely avoiding talking about anything deep involving Stevie, but I guess I would have avoided learning much about my boyfriend's ex, as well. One of the parts that I thought was intriguing was when Stevie, (apparently high out of her mind) came up to Carol and threatened her, telling her that she would do anything that it took to make sure that Carol and Lindsey would never be married. Then...it was back to silly stories about Stevie's poodle and gaggle of girlfriends. We got that little snippet of substance, then nothing.