Letter to the editor: Did someone from here write this??

Livia · #1 07-01-2005, 09:31 AM

Big Mac Attack
A Fleetwood Mac fan just aint gonna take it.

June 30, 2005

Letters to the Editor
In the blurb for the Stevie Nicks/Don Henley show at Mohegan Sun in your 7 Days column [June 2], you seem to have allowed for factual errors and omissions in favor of a clever way to promote the double billing. I don't find anything in their history that merits their being called a "bluesy band that shared turf with Deep Purple or the Stones," neither of which did much in the way of Peter Green's minor blues style, a style that was the hallmark of the early Fleetwood Mac style, which ended in 1970.
Real music fans, and real Fleetwood Mac fans, would probably see the Stevie Nicks addition to the Mac as just one more step in trying to keep a band going. There were many shifts in style that have been omitted. Even the style exhibited in the 1975 Buckingham Nicks album, while serving as a wonderful resume for Fleetwood Mac, and the source for Crystal , offers little evidence that this influenced the Mac's shift to "adult lite mode." Ironically, the breakup of their romance created internal tensions, said to have been the basis for the songs for 1977's Rumours , their biggest commercial success. There is no doubt that they brought distinctive talents to the band. There was Buckingham's devotion as a skilled pop craftsman, capable of arranging a commercial song while keeping it musically adventurous. And there was Nicks' songwriting style and a sexy, hippie-gypsy stage persona, which gave the band a charismatic frontwoman, which it had never had. I really don't see the analogy to Yoko!

It was luck that after the Mac moved to California in 1974 to revitalize their viability, they heard the duo's recording while auditioning recording engineers and asked them to join Fleetwood Mac to complement an already mainstream pop/rock influencebegun with the leadership on 1971's Future Games coming from Christine McVie and Danny Kirwan. New guitarist Bob Welch exerted a heavy influence on 1972's Bare Trees , which saw the band move more to the rock end of the spectrum.

Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band constantly evolved over the course of a decade. Though Peter Green named the band for the blues rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, with whom he played in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, it was he and slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer who provided the band with its gutsy, neo-psychedelic blues-rock influence. Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members were Fleetwood and McViethe rhythm section that provided the band with its nameand they have always had the least influence over the musical direction of the band.

From those very early blues purist roots, their constant evolution began with the release of their debut album; the instrumental " Albatross" saw them experimenting with jazzy riffs, and on "If I Loved Another Woman" Green offered us an early glimpse of the Latin-blues fusion that he would perfect with the next album's "Black Magic Woman." Their next album, 1970's Then Play On , produced their first U.S. commercial hits, "Oh Well" and "Man of the World," and made it to number 2 on the charts. Although this success did prompt Epic Records to re-release their first two UK albums and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, where they backed up blues legends such as Otis Spann, most people still probably think "Black Magic Woman" is a Santana song!

When Stevie Nicks arrived, she added to Fleetwood Mac's latest evolvement. Though I still favor the Peter Green incarnations, I will not fault Nicks for her contribution to a style that she was only asked to join five years into that particular phase of the band's evolution. Though I might be prone to fault her with helping the Mac achieve status as one of the longest, continuously playing American bandsa 40-year evolving legacy!

David Melhado

Middletown

New Haven Advocate

dissention · #2 07-01-2005, 10:27 AM

Ha! I read that when the new issue came out on Wednesday and I cracked up.

SuzeQuze · #3 07-01-2005, 10:42 AM

I think I'm in love.

catinthedark · #4 07-01-2005, 10:42 AM

I just this second finished reading that article and came over here to post and ask that very question! Fess up!!

chiliD · #5 07-01-2005, 11:00 AM

Inaccuracies when trying to point out inaccuracies:

Quote:

1975 Buckingham Nicks album

Um...it was released in 1973

Quote:

Their next album, 1970's Then Play On , produced their first U.S. commercial hits, "Oh Well" and "Man of the World,"

"Man Of The World" was not on Then Play On...it wasn't on ANY album, until they started releasing compilations from the Peter Green era.

Quote:

It was luck that after the Mac moved to California in 1974 to revitalize their viability

"Luck"?? No, they emigrated to the US to save their asses.

Quote:

New guitarist Bob Welch exerted a heavy influence on 1972's Bare Trees , which saw the band move more to the rock end of the spectrum

Bob was "new guitarist" on Future Games, not Bare Trees...Danny was the catalyst toward the "rock end of the spectrum". Bob really didn't have a "heavy influence" until Penguin.

dissention · #6 07-01-2005, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiliD

Inaccuracies when trying to point out inaccuracies:

That's precisely why I cracked up.

chiliD · #7 07-01-2005, 12:39 PM

Actually, I quoted the wrong portion of the statement.

"...revitalize their viability..."

Fancy way of saying..."to save their asses".

Anyway, sometimes what seems like "luck" turns out to be a "curse"

sodascouts · #8 07-01-2005, 01:10 PM

While the minor inaccuracies are annoying, it's a noble effort and I for one and suprised and dismayed by the condemnation this person is receiving when his/her views are overall intelligent and well-spoken (Note: I am from here on using masculine third person to save time). Most people couldn't care less about any of these people besides Lindsey and Stevie. This poor guy tries to give them some ink and instead of appreciation from like-minded individuals, he's sniffed at for not being perfect. Geez, give him a break. Not everyone exudes the blinding brilliance of those flawless pillars of knowledge who have expressed their disdain.

chiliD · #9 07-01-2005, 01:12 PM

If one is to rebut, one should have their ducks in order.

dissention · #10 07-01-2005, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sodascouts

While the minor inaccuracies are annoying, it's a noble effort and I for one and suprised and dismayed by the condemnation this person is receiving when his/her views are overall intelligent and well-spoken (Note: I am from here on using masculine third person to save time). Most people couldn't care less about any of these people besides Lindsey and Stevie. This poor guy tries to give them some ink and instead of appreciation from like-minded individuals, he's sniffed at for not being perfect. Geez, give him a break. Not everyone exudes the blinding brilliance of those flawless pillars of knowledge who have expressed their disdain.

Common sense dictates that if you're going to rebut the flaws in someone else's work, you shouldn't include such flaws in your own.