Poll: Would Fleetwood Mac have broken through as a huge band without SN?

[daniellaaarisen]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

That's definitely an interesting way of looking at it. Why do you think Bob Welch didn't help the band break into the US market then?

I should clarify: I also don't think Fleetwood Mac would've been as successful with the new 1975 lineup had they just hired Lindsey or just hired Stevie.

If the band only took Lindsey, I feel like they would have been in a position similar to that of the original Peter Green lineup but without the "Green is God" spark, for an obvious set of reasons. They would have had a phenomenal new guitarist emerging in 1975 with the potential to be something exquisite-- and yet I feel that so much of Peter Green's popularity is due to the outstanding hype and opportunity tied to 1960s British blues. Of course Peter deserves every ounce of praise he recieves as a musician, but I think that he came around at the perfect time to be recognized and fully credited for his work. That era was truly special and Green got the chance to really make something out of it. Although they are similar musicians in some ways (I think of their "tortured soul" element primarily), that just wasn't going to happen for Lindsey, nor did Fleetwood Mac expect that in asking him to join the band. I do, however, think that songs such as "I'm So Afraid" and our modern renditions of "Big Love" show their similarities if you take all technicality out of it. Yet at this point, Fleetwood Mac wasn't ever going to be a boys club band-- Christine served as a focal point of the new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac post-1970 and to become as successful as the Rumours lineup eventually became, I think the band needed another singer/songwriter who both contrasted and complimented Christine's sound. Long story short, I feel that a 1975 Fleetwood Mac without Stevie would have been way too divided. Lindsey (hyper-emotional, angsty, emotive, inventive, powerful) plus Christine (delicate, bluesy, relatively simple, detached, calm) would have just created all contrast and little compliment.

I feel like Stevie is the balancing factor. Although Stevie can be just as (if not more) emotionally intense as Lindsey in her work, she also is delicate and vulnerable, ultimately feminine. She has the emotive strength of Lindsey and the soft beauty of Christine-- and yet I feel like Stevie (if you look at her whole career) is debatably less consistent. So yes, she may be the best of both worlds in a sense, but she doesn't always have those two forces in balance with one another. Had the band miraculously discovered Stevie and not Lindsey and found another random, somewhat uninspiring (and yet still decent) guitarist (not singer) instead... the band would have just been too feminine.

As I've said before, its that trinity that made Fleetwood Mac so unbelievable. Its easy to discuss the power of those harmonies and the equilibrium of the incessantly strong personalities.... but I really credit their success to the totally different elements that each writer brought to the table. And the best part is that one person would beautifully compensate for another's weaknesses-- Lindsey and Christine more than made up for Stevie's lack of musical/instrumental insight. Christine and Stevie softened Lindsey's edges up with songs like "Songbird" and "Sara". And Lindsey and Stevie brought the emotional pull that Christine doesn't consistently show through her songs.

What a trifecta.