Eye of the Hurricane

[Deeshere]

This is a new article that's just come out. Unfortunately, no one has posted the entire (readable) article on line, and I don't have a copy of it yet, but it looks so good I'm going to have to get it. I transcribed part of the first page,which is the only page I can read. The story Mick tells is so beautiful and sad it makes me cry.

Also I want ask does anyone know where the interview Mick's talking about is? I have not seen an print or video interview so far that talks about or shows this conversation between the three of them. Has anyone seen an interview where the three of them cry about the why Lindsey left the band in 1987? I can't see the way, TV, magazines and newspapers show/print everything these days (true or not) that a reporter would hold this story back because it was too personal, but who knows.

Classic Rock Magazine, October 2013
Eye of the Hurricane

In December 2012 three members of Fleetwood Mac cried together, in public, at the memory of something that happened all of 25 years previously. Singer Stevie Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, and drummer Mick Fleetwood were doing a round of interviews to announce the band’s 2013 tour when they were asked about the events of 1987, when Buckingham quit the band following the release of the album Tango In the Night.

Buckingham did not respond directly to the interviewer. Instead he turned to Nicks and Fleetwood and reiterated his reasons for leaving the group at a critical stage in their career, foremost among them his sense that Nicks and Fleetwood had lost their minds and souls to drugs. “What Lindsey said in that interview was very moving” Fleetwood says, “He told us:’ I just couldn’t stand to see what you were doing to yourselves. Did you ever realize that? You were so out of control it made me incredibly sad and I could not take it anymore. It was really powerful stuff. This was someone saying ‘I love you’. It hit Stevie and me like a ton of bricks. And we all cried right there in the interview.”
http://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/2013...ne-5-page.html

[nodmod]

Posted today on FMUK
http://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/wp/eye-of...zine-oct-2013/

[michelej1]

Very nice discussion of the Tango time from Mick's current perspective.

Michele

[RockawayBlind]

If this is true, it's actually quite moving. Mostly, we've heard accounts of this split-up from Mick and Stevie. All I remember Lindsey saying about this previously is something along the lines of having to leave the band for his own survival and sanity. If, along with that, he was also telling Stevie and Mick that he didn't want to be around the drugs anymore because of what they were doing to them, it raises the split from purely self-preservation, self-centered reasons to a more altruistic plane. If it's true...

[Deeshere]

Originally Posted by nodmod

Posted today on FMUK
http://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/wp/eye-of...zine-oct-2013/

Thanks so much for the link.

[bombaysaffires]

great interview, thanks for posting!

[TheWILDheart]

Ok, I'm a little confused. I thought Stevie cut coke in 1986 and her Tango songs were sent back to Lindsey et al as demo's whilst Stevie was on the RAL tour. So by the time Stevie turned up for the 2 weeks she was actually present for the Tango sessions, Chris and Lindsey's songs were done and Stevie was coke free, right?

It's funny that Mick refers to Tango as "Lindsey's album". I've always thought more of Tusk as Lindsey's album and Tango as Christine's album - she was at her best on that album.

[Deeshere]

Originally Posted by RockawayBlind

If this is true, it's actually quite moving. Mostly, we've heard accounts of this split-up from Mick and Stevie. All I remember Lindsey saying about this previously is something along the lines of having to leave the band for his own survival and sanity. If, along with that, he was also telling Stevie and Mick that he didn't want to be around the drugs anymore because of what they were doing to them, it raises the split from purely self-preservation, self-centered reasons to a more altruistic plane. If it's true...

I think it is true. I think Lindsey has gotten a bad rap over the years. Many times he's been portrayed as a very selfish, self-centered man (and to some degree that maybe true), but in his own way I think he's been very altruistic with the band.

He's produced songs for Stevie when he did not want to. (Tom Petty said that Lindsey is Stevie's best producer) He's put his solo work to the side when the band wanted to make a new record, and some how he managed to mostly stay civil to Stevie when they were making albums when he was very, very mad at her (honestly, I don't know if I could have done the same thing if I was in his position). And I think now with this tour and the band members finally to some extent coming clean about the past you can see that Lindsey really did love everyone in the band (in the past and present) and thinks of them as an extended family. Like Mick said "the misconception is that we don’t like each other. We do! We actually love each other. It’s just the co-existing of that from time to time no doubt has been incredibly hard"

[Deeshere]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

Ok, I'm a little confused. I thought Stevie cut coke in 1986 and her Tango songs were sent back to Lindsey et al as demo's whilst Stevie was on the RAL tour. So by the time Stevie turned up for the 2 weeks she was actually present for the Tango sessions, Chris and Lindsey's songs were done and Stevie was coke free, right?

Right, Stevie was coke free during Tango. She was wacked out on Klonopin by the time they were doing Tango. She had been on it for about 1 year when they were recording the album. From what I have read she was pretty high on the medication which made her zombie like. People have said she was there, but not really there mentally and if you look a the interviews and videos from that time, you can see her eyes are glassy, she speaks kind of slow and does not have much emotion.

[shackin'up]

Tango had a lot of Christine-hits, but the incredible slick and modern production and radiofriendliness was hugely influenced by Lindsey. He was the maker of the overall sound and vision on the album, not the writer of the most succesful tracks. from that view, I understand Micks perceptiën that it was Lindsey's album. But I'm happy to read that, in retrospect, Lindsey did think the album lacked artistic value. I agree with that. Excellent piece to read, btw.

[TheWILDheart]

Originally Posted by Deeshere

Right, Stevie was coke free during Tango. She was wacked out on Klonopin by the time they were doing Tango. She had been on it for about 1 year when they were recording the album. From what I have read she was pretty high on the medication which made her zombie like. People have said she was there, but not really there mentally and if you look a the interviews and videos from that time, you can see her eyes are glassy, she speaks kind of slow and does not have much emotion.

So why does Lindsey say that he left because he couldn't take Mick and Stevie being coked up? Makes no sense if she was clean by then.

I know she was in the early stages of the klonopin, but from some interviews, she seems fine and the opening night of the tour she was full of energy.

Seems to me that it's not just Stevie's memory that's a little blurry. I've always been under the impression that Lindsey left because he'd sacrificed his solo project, put in a ridiculous amount more work than any other band member (especially Stevie) and the felt the pressure was really on him to sort this album out. Stevie was barely there and the rest of the band were working on her tracks whilst she was off touring the world in 86, so I can see how that would cause problems - maybe Lindsey felt he would have to do the same on tour and didn't want that amount of pressure on him.

That was always my understanding anyway.

[louielouie2000]

Originally Posted by nodmod

Posted today on FMUK
http://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/wp/eye-of...zine-oct-2013/

I like all of the comparisons of Tango to Rumours. I've been saying the same things for many years... the 2 most consistent, listenable Mac albums were born out of exactly the same circumstances: excess and turmoil. Except after Tango, the band really did collapse. It's interesting to hear Mick & Lindsey say what we've all said for so long, too: Tusk was their creative pinnacle, and the bottom fell out with Mirage. It's just refreshing to see Tango discussed in so much depth. It was every bit as important a piece of Fleetwood Mac history as Rumours, perhaps more so because of the way the band permanently changed afterwards.

[applebucked]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

Seems to me that it's not just Stevie's memory that's a little blurry. I've always been under the impression that Lindsey left because he'd sacrificed his solo project, put in a ridiculous amount more work than any other band member (especially Stevie) and the felt the pressure was really on him to sort this album out. Stevie was barely there and the rest of the band were working on her tracks whilst she was off touring the world in 86, so I can see how that would cause problems - maybe Lindsey felt he would have to do the same on tour and didn't want that amount of pressure on him.

That was always my understanding anyway.

I think it's a combination of all that. Let's also not forget that this was also the period where Mick filed for bankruptcy and was staying in a trailer outside Lindsey's yard. If these are the kind of things that happened when they made tango, it sure as hell would be tenfold when they take it out on the road.

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

I like all of the comparisons of Tango to Rumours. I've been saying the same things for many years... the 2 most consistent, listenable Mac albums were born out of exactly the same circumstances: excess and turmoil. Except after Tango, the band really did collapse. It's interesting to hear Mick & Lindsey say what we've all said for so long, too: Tusk was their creative pinnacle, and the bottom fell out with Mirage. It's just refreshing to see Tango discussed in so much depth. It was every bit as important a piece of Fleetwood Mac history as Rumours, perhaps more so because of the way the band permanently changed afterwards.

Yes. The story of Tango was, IMO just as interesting, perhaps even more so, than that of Rumours.

[Deeshere]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

So why does Lindsey say that he left because he couldn't take Mick and Stevie being coked up? Makes no sense if she was clean by then.

I know she was in the early stages of the klonopin, but from some interviews, she seems fine and the opening night of the tour she was full of energy.

Seems to me that it's not just Stevie's memory that's a little blurry. I've always been under the impression that Lindsey left because he'd sacrificed his solo project, put in a ridiculous amount more work than any other band member (especially Stevie) and the felt the pressure was really on him to sort this album out. Stevie was barely there and the rest of the band were working on her tracks whilst she was off touring the world in 86, so I can see how that would cause problems - maybe Lindsey felt he would have to do the same on tour and didn't want that amount of pressure on him.

That was always my understanding anyway.

Lindsey didn't say Stevie was doing coke during Tango, Mick said he and Stevie were doing coke when he's retelling the story of what happend during the making of the album. I think Mick is confused about what who did what and what happened during the Tango recording sessions, because (I read) he was so messed up during the making of the album that he kept falling asleep between takes while sitting at his drum kit and Lindsey kept having to wake him up. So I am pretty sure his memory of that time is hazy at best.

As for Stevie, she told Rolling Stone this: “I think one of the reasons that Lindsey left is because I was very, very high on this horrific tranquilizer,” she says referring to her much-documented Klonopin addiction, for which she received treatment in late 1993. “I didn’t even make it to most of the recording sessions for ‘Tango in the Night (1987).’ I was sick.”

I read in an interview ( I think it was Ken Caillat) that Stevie was so messed up during the recording sessions that they had to "scoop her up off the floor" at night when they were done.

[MikeInNV]

Originally Posted by Deeshere

Right, Stevie was coke free during Tango. She was wacked out on Klonopin by the time they were doing Tango. She had been on it for about 1 year when they were recording the album. From what I have read she was pretty high on the medication which made her zombie like. People have said she was there, but not really there mentally and if you look a the interviews and videos from that time, you can see her eyes are glassy, she speaks kind of slow and does not have much emotion.

I believe Stevie worked on Tango sporadically both before and after rehab, but I know she entered Betty Ford in the fall of 1986 and was prescribed Klonopin sometime thereafter. Tango was physically in stores by April of 1987, so no way had she been on it a year. The "there but not there" description seems like something I heard about the TOSOTM or BTM periods. I found her very clear and lucid during all of the Tango promotion.