What if LB didn't go back to save the Mac in 97?

[elle]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

And that’s exactly why he did it. He wasn’t riding in on his white horse saving Fleetwood Mac, he was raising his own profile. They were all doing that, except Christine, who was going out on a high note.

actually, you are projecting what you want to see, on both Lindsey and Christine (and sure, i'm also talking about what *i*want to see, here). if he refused, there would be no saving the Fleetwood Mac. the other 4 were there for the start of the Mac demise, so their reunion would have been meaningless without LB.

Rob Cavallo said that he / record company practically forced LB's hand. he was gonna go out with the solo album, and tried couple of times - first time they told him he should do FM reunion / the Dance instead since he's been inactive. next time when he tried putting it out again (in 2001), they told him to wait (for SN's solo stuff that she was doing, riding the reunion coattails solo instead of recording with the band - whoever was managing her was a genius!) and put it out as SYW. i'm not saying he went with it completely unwillingly, but what i am saying is that his products would have been much stronger if he released them solo instead of SYW. and there would have been more products instead of a practically a decade wait for FM / SN solo. yes, less people would hear it, but let's face it - other than Peacekeeper which was played extensively on the mainstream radio, nobody other than FM hardcores knows other SYW songs.

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

The fact that he recruited Mick, John and Christine to back him up tells me that he approached the project in a way that gave it durability as to how it could be released from the gitgo. Otherwise, why bother going there?

wouldn't be the first time he recruited them for solo stuff - starting from Trouble. these were his friends / family, people he knew. he recruited them for other projects too, like SN for Egan stuff. Mick may have had ulterior motives, but as far as LB goes, looking at all of this now, he was mostly just emotional and stupid or went with familiar and many many times got screwed by macsters as far as his output goes.

although like i said above, in the 90s he still had aspirations as far as being commercial artist, he let that go only in the early 2000s (and therefore, Castaway Dreams).

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Richard has always rejected commercialism. He turned down The Eagles. He was always on a more intrinsic, cultural journey with his music. Lindsey was part of one of the most commercial bands ever, and sought commercial success/fame and fortune.

I don’t disagree. Why anyone with a big enough name would go that route anymore is puzzling, especially someone like Lindsey, who isn’t especially commercial, which is part of his appeal.

glad you don't disagree. going with the label has downsides as far as the output goes, and as we can see with this newest FM clusterf*ck after label changed the order and dates of his solo releases. that said, i think label has been good to BuckVie and they did push them nicely. so he won there, but so far is not winning as far as the solo side goes. we'll see.

i mean don't get me wrong, i don't think LB would agree with me for a second. i think he's probably more-less happy with the path he took, money he made, plus he's probably thinking karma etc. this is just my opinion as a fan of his music, someone who sees i could have gotten so much more from him if he never went back to FM. on the other hand, i've never heard of him before seeing Second Hand News from the Dance on MTV in the 90s, so if he never rejoined i may have never knows any of his music!