Going Their Own Way (Sunday Times, 24th May)

[BigAl84]

It's a shame that they can't all just get into the studio under no specific set of expectations. Let's just work on stuff and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. No harm, no foul. Maybe that's what they did when Lindsey, Mick, John and Christine went into the studio...but I get the feeling Stevie doesn't work like that. Either it's an album or no album, no trial and error phase. Her time is probably so diligently contracted by a team of lawyers, there is no kind of informal involvement.

[bombaysaffires]

You know after all this chatter I went home last night and rewatched Destiny Rules. Things that stood out:

Stevie: "No matter what happens, if Lindsey and I blow up into a mass of exploding timbers the fact is the record will be done, and that if we're dead, people will at least have the record to enjoy and the music will live on and that's really I guess what's most important." Seems like putting up with the process to get the music out isn't as appealing to her these days.

And what they didn't show at ALL in that doc, only referring to it after the fact, was the HUGE blow up about the track listing etc that seems to have gotten particularly nasty on all sides ("I hear angry words/flying across the ocean/like some seabirds/I feel my blood racing/can't believe what you are saying")

Mick: there was "an aggressive fight" that led to a "rethinking of some things", and "indeed all of the joy of looking forward to ever making another album had pretty much gone out the window" Seems like for Stevie it never really came back.

Lindsey: "The only reason that I was willing to eat the kind of money that would have made the double album possible in terms of bringing the price down, I had to contemplate a scenario which would have been to do much more touring, to do another album, and to do more touring after that. Now if there's any chance even that Stevie were to have pulled out after 40 dates, I couldn't take the chance and do that because you know I've got a family, I've got a new house to pay for so...ah, it was really my call to pull it back into being a single album"

Well, really, it wasn't his call, because she knew he needed the bigger tour on SYW to recoup the money he would lose in royalties and she played her trump card and threatened not to do the longer tour if she didn't get what she wanted in terms of track listing on the SYW album. So he caved (he didn't have much choice) and they made the album shorter and she did the full tour including extra dates. Doing another album at that point was wrapped in the need to make back money lost on SYW... once SYW was shortened, and the tour lengthened, maybe she felt that another album was no longer a given. Maybe she agreed to the longer tour to get in return him to agree to the shorter album and to not have to make any promises about another album...

At the end when the credits roll it says "Fleetwood Mac is: Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood." Things like credits don't just happen, they are negotiated by managers etc. It's all the "politics" that LB talks about... like "I get the Presidential suite because I demand it". Oy.

[SteveMacD]

The fact that the answer isn't obvious to Stevie is disturbing. She has only a fraction of the star power as a solo artist that she has with Fleetwood Mac, especially with Christine back. If it would make her happy, just add Waddy to the mini-Mac.

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by BigAl84

Agh! Yes, so swell said. I almost said in my post the other day...It's almost as if she knows they are into their final years and the big decision will be, does she spend more of it with Fleetwood Mac or Solo. She knows if she splits for a few years for solo work, by the time FM gets back together they will all be 75 years old and at that point there will be definite limitations to touring etc. She doesn't have time to do her usual 2 years with fleetwood mac, followed by maybe a year off and then 2 years spent on solo things. They don't have the actual years to spend as buffer between each other anymore. There may be resentment in feeling like she has to choose what that last act may be and who it's with.

Absolutely.

I'll refer back to a post I made on another (almost exactly the same) thread a while back; the last chapter of Mick's book almost seems to be alluding to this. I always thought it was an odd way to end the book (prior to the 'conclusion');

'One thing I do know is whenever this band ends, no matter what, that won't be the end for Stevie. I believe she will perform until her very last breath, much like Edith Piaf, whom she reminded me of the first time I heard her sing. The first gift I ever gave Stevie was a boxed set of albums by Edith Piaf, because those two are one and the same in many ways. Edith was on stage only twenty hours before she dropped dead and I think Stevie will go in much the same way, because as much as she claims she'd love time off, the girl never stops. I picture Stevie in her eighties, writing gorgeous romantic novels and finally telling her incredible life story. Like Edith's, Stevie's fans will be there because they are devoted and they will follow their Gypsy, wherever she goes. And me, perhaps I'll be the same.'

Basically Mick is begging Stevie. He's trying to persuade her to choose Fleetwood Mac as she has so much time left as a successful solo artist afterwards. If she doesn't continue with FM at this stage and contribute to a new album he knows they'll soon be too old. Unfortunately Stevie really wants solo time now but is finding it hard to let go.

[aleuzzi]

With all this bull, I'd have much preferred Christine to go on her own and do another solo album. At least then we'd get new songs from her. She's the real reason I am excited for the new Mac album.

Couldn't Lindsey produce her solo album? With Mick and John as the rhythm section?

Or, as many on this board have already said time and again, couldn't the band simply do a Lindsey-Christine album with the Mac name?

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

With all this bull, I'd have much preferred Christine to go on her own and do another solo album. At least then we'd get new songs from her. She's the real reason I am excited for the new Mac album.

Couldn't Lindsey produce her solo album? With Mick and John as the rhythm section?

Or, as many on this board have already said time and again, couldn't the band simply do a Lindsey-Christine album with the Mac name?

Crosby, Stills, and Nash have duel solo albums. So why not?

[teedeerocks]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Being completely unfiltered & combative has pretty much been Stevie's standard operating mode since her Mother passed. She just seems to no longer care if what she says impacts anyone or anything. She's suddenly started talking completely openly about formerly hands off subjects- the termination of her pregnancy with Don Henley, specific affairs with married men (even naming names!), stuff like that. I think her Mother was the last person that kept Stevie in check. And since her passing, Stevie finds no reason to filter her actions any longer.

Yes.I said the same thing about Stevie on a post sometime/somewhere long ago.A real change in her personality since her Mom died noted in her interviews shortly thereafter.She's talked about alot of things she never mentioned and is swearing alot,which doesn't offend me but it's not like her (in public anyway).In a nutshell,she doesn't have her reputation to keep up,doesn't give a f***,and is just saying"I Don't Care".

[MikeVielhaber]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

Crosby, Stills, and Nash have duel solo albums. So why not?

What to call their albums is a lot easier to figure out since it's just the name of whoever is involved, be it Crosby and Nash, Stills and Young, Crosby Stills and Nash, or Crosby Stills Nash and Young.The comment you replied to was saying that they should release it as Fleetwood Mac. And they should. They did it without Christine and they did it without Lindsey and they did it without Stevie And Lindsey together. Shouldn't be a problem.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by MikeVielhaber

What to call their albums is a lot easier to figure out since it's just the name of whoever is involved, be it Crosby and Nash, Stills and Young, Crosby Stills and Nash, or Crosby Stills Nash and Young.The comment you replied to was saying that they should release it as Fleetwood Mac. And they should. They did it without Christine and they did it without Lindsey and they did it without Stevie And Lindsey together. Shouldn't be a problem.

I just want to hear the music. I get your point, and I get Elle's point. (without prejudice, mind you.) But, I really am dying to hear the music.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

I just want to hear the music. I get your point, and I get Elle's point. (without prejudice, mind you.) But, I really am dying to hear the music.

Amen. That's the bottom line. Where's the music? Enough bs--it's been a looooooooong time.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Amen. That's the bottom line. Where's the music? Enough bs--it's been a looooooooong time.

...makes weird Mick Fleetwood noises..... shahshshsahshsahshahshshsaahsshsah

[gssmith]

Ok, here is the deal because I have inside info.... Lindsey and Chris keep talking about how their new collaboration is so great. What else would they say? Well Stevie listened to it and thought it sucked my 7.5 cut (circumsized) d!€£. She told them the last hurrah (besides the cash grab tour) should be The Dance. She is right. The Dance is brilliant!

[KenshiMaster16]

Originally Posted by gssmith

You made a few decent points until you said her solo career was a joke. Now your a joke. Her last two albums actually did well compared to other classic rock artist. 24 KG had almost no publicity too. The only reason the band had been going since 1997 is because of Stevie. I'm sure they can carry on with out her on a smaller scale now that Chris is back

Stevie and the Mac are ever-present now not because of her and only her but because retro is currently 'in' in the music world. Look at whats going on; vinyls are making it big again, a Marvin Gaye remix is getting good spins and selling quite well, Meghan Trainor has blown up with retro-sounding music, Bruno Mars and his Motown-ish style.... classic rock bands just happen to be trendy again and making a lot of leeway with casual audiences and the younger generation. That's why Glee did a tribute to them, that's why American Horror Story used their music and had the only witchy personality show up on set......because it's marketable again. If they weren't, I'd bet everything I own the networks would've sh*t-canned those ideas before they got past the scripting phase. I mean, look at the wonders Glee did for bringing Rumours into the eyes of the youth and how well it sold on iTunes after that episode aired; that certainly wasn't because Stevie Nicks pimped it out in the press, it's because others made it cool to like Fleetwood Mac.

If anything, every member of this band is stuck in a teeny-tiny bubble as to how they manage their publicity and their careers. They've hardly changed a thing since the 70's and are so obviously stubborn and set in their ways its frustrating. Honestly, when they released an online only EP I thought I was in some weird alternate dimension where they actually made smart creative decisions for once instead of milking the cows dry with the same lies and publicity spun bullsh*t they've been spinning for decades. Honestly, it'd probably get them more headlines and sell more albums if Stevie and Lindsey just outright admitted they want to murder each other in cold blood and duke it on in a deathmatch ring. At least that'd be more interesting of a read than "Oh, it's the ever eternal forbidden love affair of a long gone era....." blah blah blah, spare me the nonsense babble.

[Danigirl]

I hadn't read this... Shocker. I see a long standing pattern with Stevie since BD; tour with FM, want rest, buy a home (relocate, fresh scenery, etc) then through interviews and such, (or we hear after the fact in her songs) she misses the "love" of FM. She begins bringing up how no one leaves, no one breaks The Chain, and that she is destined to be an old woman up on that stage. The only difference now Stevie.... Y'all old!!!! Jeez I love her, cause I'm just as indecisive and yes, selfish... Yet I also want to shake her cause there may not ever be a next time and I'm almost certain she will have reconsidered if only she took a step back and saw that this situation is beautiful.

I'm also very convinced that Stevie and Lindsey love hate thing is most certainly palpable. The fact that even Chris mentions it, is a real shocker, she has always been the peace maker, the mother figure now she along with Mick concur that they probabaly will NEVER GET ALONG.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by gssmith

Ok, here is the deal because I have inside info.... Lindsey and Chris keep talking about how their new collaboration is so great. What else would they say? Well Stevie listened to it and thought it sucked my 7.5 cut (circumsized) d!€£. She told them the last hurrah (besides the cash grab tour) should be The Dance. She is right. The Dance is brilliant!

"inside info" and rooster size

I'm betting Stevie's reluctance has more to do with the Epstein-Barr Syndrome than anything to do with creativity. She sounds like she really needs a rest more than anything else.