The Ledge

Go Back   The Ledge > Main Forums > Rumours
User Name
Password
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Mark Forums Read


Make the Ads Go Away! Click here.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 09-25-2021, 11:00 AM
elle's Avatar
elle elle is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DC
Posts: 12,150
Exclamation Stevie Nicks: More Foul Finch than Fine Skylark

this "gossip" article is far better written than most of the "serious" articles flying around these days -



GOSSIP
Stevie Nicks: More Foul Finch than Fine Skylark

The Grosby Group/ Reproduction Prohibited
As Lindsey Buckingham Promotes a New Album, we Lament the Door that Slammed Shut

Lindsey Buckingham was thrown out of the band he cultivated and hand-crafted for 45 years by a vengeful lover. Vengeful? Oh, you know the kind I mean, the kind that will follow you down ’til the sound of her voice will haunt you and you’ll never get away.

That’s the fate that befell Buckingham, but he’s not crying his heart out in a silver spring. No, he just released a new, eponymous solo album last week and is currently on tour and doing press to promote it, which, in itself, is a contrast from his former band Fleetwood Mac who has long eschewed new music and has been touring to promote its 1977 Rumours’ album for over 40 years now.

But that raises the question that lies at the heart of Fleetwood Mac’s rupture with Lindsey. Ricky Nelson asked it in Garden Party after getting booed during a Madison Square Garden show because they wanted him to be Ricky Nelson from Ozzie and Harriet, not the adult man he was, with a family of his own and new songs to sing.

Ricky Nelson concluded, “If memories were all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.” Most members of Fleetwood Mac were outraged by the notion and exclaimed, “We’ll never drive a truck! Not unless it’s a lambo!” They’d rather tour with the old tunes, perish the thought of writing new ones, and keep on raking in the loot from their affluent, nostalgia audiences. Lindsey compromised. He was happy to perform Go Your Own Way for the millioneth time, but he also wanted to record new songs and present them to captive fans. Eh, not exactly captive. Sure they might run to the bathroom and concession stand, every time they heard something less familiar than Landslide or Don’t Stop, but just the exhilaration of plucking music from his psyche and releasing it to the universe fulfills Lindsey, even if his name never graces a Billboard Top 40 chart again.

Do you rest on your laurels, live on your legend, or do you remain an artist, questing to create and evolve, even while mortality is nipping at your heels. Buckingham has chosen the latter path and his erstwhile partner, Stevie Nicks, is clinging to the former. And because Stevie was once a witchy wonder who mesmerized crowds with fiery versions of Rhiannon that some likened to an exorcism, the band sided with her. Quite simply, she sells more concert tickets than Lindsey (Who?). Never mind that he produced the songs that are sung at those concerts. He twiddled each knob and perfected every note, down to the sound of breaking glass in Gold Dust Woman. He badgered studio engineers and reworked tracks with an obsessive compulsion that wore everyone else ragged.

In 1990, an exasperated Mick Fleetwood once said of Lindsey to the Boston Globe, “Lindsey’s work with Fleetwood Mac speaks for itself, but I have to say, being as intense as Lindsey is as a person, he sometimes got to be a little too much for me. And sometimes we had to beg Lindsey to do a solo. He’d go, ‘No, I want it to sound like violins here.’ Then he’d sit for hours, trying to get a violin sound out of his guitar.”

In the maddening process, Lindsey made music so meticulous that it still stands up to the demands of today’s remastered, high definition, technology that didn’t even exist when the songs were created. That’s the main reason the songs are still played today, still revealing intricate patterns, echoes, and hidden layers, like a Da Vinci painting under x-ray.

In 2003, Stevie explained Lindsey’s wizardry to Performing Songwriter. She described her songs as skeletons waiting for meat and bones, “What he does is take the skeleton and then he goes in for hours that we never see him and he plays parts and parts and more parts. He arranges right underneath my skeleton. It’s like I laughingly said to him when we first started this new record, because his songs were pretty much done, I said, ‘Your songs are like beautiful, hand crated Russian boxes with enamel and cloisonné and sound like you’ve worked on them for seven years, and my little songs are like pine boxes.’ I said, ‘You’ve got your work cut out for you., because you have to somehow make my songs compare a little bit to yours.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry.'”


The Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited Fleetwood Mac in concert at the Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, America – 06 Apr 2013
After carrying them on his back since 1975 and crafting that Mac sound new generations are still appreciating and amplifying in internet memes, Lindsey was summarily kicked out the door. He gave everything. They greedily took it all and, only then, cut him out. That should never happen. It’s like Glenn Frey and Don Henley. No matter which you liked best, they climbed that pinnacle together. Each solidified their claim. Neither should be able to take it from the other. Henley couldn’t kick Frey out of the band. Only death could. Likewise, Stevie Nicks should not have been able to kick Lindsey Buckingham out of Fleetwood Mac. It was his birthright, even if he only got to claim it 25 years after being born.

Stevie’s choice was: (1) to leave Fleetwood Mac, not give them a phony ultimatum about leaving if she didn’t get her way, but actually leave it, (2) keep fighting with Lindsey just as she has always done since the sixties, or (3) wait for death to take him, like it took Glenn Frey. And that almost happened, since Lindsey suffered a debilitating heart attack soon after his firing.

The other Mac members, bassist John McVie, Drummer Mick Fleetwood, and singer/songwriter Christine McVie, all got along with Lindsey. Those three worked harmoniously with him on the 2017 Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie album (Buckingham McVie) that was originally contemplated as a Fleetwood Mac project, but had to be finished under the names of the remaining two songwriters, since Stevie Nicks refused to participate and contribute new music. Christine McVie even toured with Lindsey as a duo.

Indeed, both Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood have often shown unbridled affection for Lindsey, kissing and hugging him spontaneously in concerts and interviews. While John McVie and Lindsey share less PDA, the musical differences that had them chafing against each other during the first 5 years of working together seem to have long dissipated. It’s only Stevie Nicks that wanted Lindsey gone and the others, choosing tour millions over integrity, let her have her vindictive way.

Lindsey and Stevie have measured their relationship in terms of winning and losing since long before they joined Fleetwood Mac. In 1973, the year before they met Fleetwood Mac, they released an album together called Buckingham Nicks. It contains the song, Long Distance Winner. Stevie wrote:

Sunflowers and your face fascinate me.

You love only the tallest trees.

I come running down the hill,

but you’re fast. You’re the winner.

Long distance winner.

Many of their respective songs echo the theme of being in a race. One of them wins. One loses. They never simply succeed together. After many ups and downs, Stevie has finally prevailed over Lindsey. She tripped him and now holds the title of long distance winner.

The race started when they met at a Christian Youth Life gathering in Northern California. Neither was pious. They just attended for recreation. It was a way to get out of the house on Wednesday night. Stevie was a senior in high school and Lindsey a junior. Lindsey was there with his guitar. Stevie, just a year older, sauntered by. When he played California Dreaming, she was able to sing effortless accompaniment. She remembers that he was “darling”. He recalled that she fancied herself a poet even then and recited some of her lyrics to him. He doesn’t say that he found her darling, as well. But it’s likely he did.


Two years later when Lindsey was in a band called The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band (named after a hapless student who was not dead and was not being memorialized ;he just happened to have a fun name), Lindsey asked Stevie if she wanted to join. Well, she sometimes says that he was too shy to ask her directly. He had another Fritz member ask.

It was, thus, in 1966, that Stevie and Lindsey first became bandmates, along with Bob Aguirre, Javier Pacheco, Cal Roper, Jody Moreing and Brian Kane.

They played local gigs. For some reason, Stevie and Lindsey, now septuagenarians, deny being lovers while in Fritz. Stevie claims that all the Fritz men wanted her and none wanted the others to have her. That’s a running theme of hers. Everyone is always jealous of her, always watching, always worried she’ll be stolen away. But she insists she never slept with any of the Fritz guys. The other band members suspect differently. They say it was clear that Lindsey and Stevie were an item and whenever band decisions has to be made, they always paired with each other. Whatever their relationship, when Polydor records became interested in guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie says they knew they could never get Lindsey without her, so they began negotiating with Buckingham and Nicks as a duo. Stevie says that it was because they commiserated with each other over having to tell the other Fritz members that Polydor didn’t want the rest of them, that she and Lindsey became close.

At that point, Lindsey and Stevie started living together and making music. Stevie is no musician. She only knows four chords and doesn’t use all of them. Words were her specialty. She’d pull concepts together out of the ether, love, lace and lavender bound, matching that knot in your heart. She touched the sore, hard place where unrequited passion dwelled and somehow her whimsical, inchoate phrasing seemed to express exactly what was in your soul. Her lyrics didn’t always make sense, but they felt like everything you’d been trying to say yourself. While her verses were Yeats, her personality was Yogi Berra. That was adorable. For a time.

Yet, whatever has become of her persona, the poetry still captivates. And Stevie had that knack with words, even before her voice evolved. In her early songs, she is high pitched. Her vocals on the Buckingham Nicks album make you think of chipmunks and helium. It’s not until a few years later that her voice emerges, guttural and pure, rough and innocent. In those early years, those unique tones were not only enough to elevate her own songs (and Christine McVie’s) but think of Gold by John Stewart and Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan. Where would those songs be without Stevie Nicks’ voice and Lindsey Buckingham’s production?

Stevie’s talent has always been undeniable. Pair that with cocaine and youthful exuberance and she put on a stage show of yelps, spins and kicks that easily captivated the masses and had women (and men) rushing out to buy the chiffon needed to emulate her high hatting style. But before she lured you to the stage, she needed the music to bring you to the concert in the first place. Lindsey supplied that.

When Lindsey and Stevie left their parents and traveled to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune, Lindsey had $10,000 ($70,500 in today’s money), inherited from an aunt he barely knew. He bought musical equipment with it. He used it to craft songs of his own and flesh out the skeletal melodies on Stevie’s tunes. They soon had enough demo records to make an album for Polydor and begin working on a second one (which never came to fruition). It was Lindsey’s intricate guitar work and musical detail on those songs which brought them to life. Hearing Lindsey’s work on the early Buckingham Nicks song Frozen Love, made Mick Fleetwood want to hire Lindsey for his own band, Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac had enjoyed success in the UK (largely due to the legendary Peter Green, who was one of it’s founders. Indeed, the band was first known as “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer”). But after sifting through a number of guitarists following Green’s exit, the band was floundering.


Just weeks before Stevie and Lindsey join Fleetwood Mac the newspaper in 1974
Mick wanted Lindsey in the band and was told by producer Keith Olsen that he could never get Lindsey without Stevie (which is the same thing Polydor learned about Lindsey). Stevie and Lindsey were a “package deal.” So, they joined Fleetwood Mac together on New Year’s Eve 1974. Christine McVie was already a member of the band and, a classically trained pianist, she had been writing almost-masterpieces years before ever meeting Lindsey and Stevie. In fact, during annual votes on old message boards, Fleetwood Mac fans regularly named Why as the band’s best song, a heartfelt tune Christine wrote long prior to the Buckingham Nicks merger.

Christine always had the voice and musical expertise, but she never had the chemistry she found with Lindsey and Stevie. She has famously said that she got “gooseflesh” when they first harmonized on one of her songs spontaneously, without rehearsal. Anyone who has ever heard the trio on Over My Head or Say You Love Me cannot deny their magnetism. They are far greater together than any of them are singly. You think Caesar, Pompey and Crassus were the First Triumverate? I beg to differ. It was McVie, Buckingham, and Nicks. No, Buckingham, who had the least remarkable voice of the 3, isn’t the one who made them sing such great harmony, but he is the one that made the music amalgamate.


Fleetwod Mac in concert, Wembley, London, UK – Jun 1980; Lindsey and Christine Perform a song they wrote together, World Turning. Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited
For Lindsey and Stevie becoming part of 5 after having been Buckingham Nicks was not an easy transition. Lindsey always thought that Buckingham Nicks was on the verge of taking off and wondered what would have happened if they’d found success without Fleetwood Mac. Stevie enjoyed having another woman to work with, but was jealous of the musical marriage between Christine and Lindsey. “I also remember getting very upset one night when I realized that he and Christine had written World Turning together [from Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 album]. I had been with Lindsey all of those years and we had never written a song together. Plus, I walked into the studio and they were singing it together,” Stevie recalled when speaking to Off the Record.

Christine told The Record in 1982: “There’s definitely a chemistry that transcends everything else that might happen before or after we’re on stage. We play well together and sing well together. That side of Fleetwood Mac I really enjoy. And I felt comfortable working with Lindsey. Dare I say it with him present? I have alot of respect for this man; I don’t really imagine anybody else being able to do what he does with my songs.”

Stevie told radio hosts Mark and Brian in 1994, “Lindsey had a weak moment when he even admitted to me that sometimes he felt that his best work was taking one of my songs and making it into something really, to him, extra special.”

Christine also witnessed Lindsey’s genius working on Stevie’s songs, in particular, in 1990 she told Roger Moore, “Before we recorded Dreams, Stevie played it on the piano and Stevie is a self-confessed non-musical person. She knows four chords on the piano, I think and, as Lindsey always says, rightly, ‘yes, but they’re the right four chords’ and she played the song for us. And I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know. This sounds a little bit tedious to me. It’s just going ting, ding, ting ding all the way through the song’ and Lindsey, I suppose, in his great hindsight said, ‘no this is going to be wonderful. We’ll record it and build each section differently so that those four chords run all the way through.’ Actually, I think she only used three chords for this one, but although they are the same three chords, it doesn’t sound like it. It was actually our first number one, our only number one single in Fleetwood Mac history.”

Just weeks ago, when Rolling Stone put out its annual list of the greatest rock songs of all time, Dreams was listed as #9. The song boasts Stevie’s indelible words, but it was Lindsey who pushed those 3 chords of hers through the world he created for the song, so that they remained beneath everything else, like a heartbeat drives you mad in the stillness of remembering what you had. And what you lost.

Stevie told Rolling Stone in 1980: “I write my songs, but Lindsey puts the magic in, and there’s no way — well, I could pay him ten percent. I could walk up to him and thank him. If I were to play you a song the way I wrote it and gave it to them, and then play you the way it is on the album, you would see what Lindsey did.”


Turn on Dreams or Hold Me. That’s not Lindsey singing lead. Those are not Lindsey’s words. And that’s certainly not his inimitable playing on the piano, but if you listen to those songs and don’t hear Lindsey’s work on them, you have no ears or understanding. He built the structure. They climbed up it and then, only after reaching the top, did they kick him off at Stevie’s bidding.

Lindsey and Stevie have always fought like cats and dogs. In fact, one of their biggest fights preceded his 10-year departure from the band in 1987. They had just finished making Tango. Stevie was recovering from drug addiction at the time and could not truly participate in the album. She contributed songs, but says she felt uncomfortable recording at Lindsey’s house, because he shared it with his girlfriend. Plus, she was suffering from dependency, so her vocals were awful and Lindsey had to remove them. Her fans have spun it as Lindsey removing her vocals because he was terribly jealous of her, which is their answer to everything. Lindsey’s jealousy is the answer to Covid, if you listen to them. But Stevie herself admits that she was physically and mentally at a low point when Tango was recorded and she could not fully take part. “I wasn’t there for a lot of that, ’cause I was on the road [she went on tour with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan]. It was me that was causing all the friction, ’cause Lindsey was the head guy and I was making him erratic. When I was not there it was good. They all got along fine.”

In his 1990 book, My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, Mick wrote of Tango, “We did have one blowout with Stevie when she came to the studio to listen to the mixes before Tango in the Night was released. After the playback was finished, she began to storm around the studio like a tornado. ‘It’s like I’m not even on this record,’ she complained. ‘I can’t hear myself at all.’ I knew Stevie pretty well and could tell she was angry. Then she threatened us, ‘All right, maybe I wasn’t able to get to the studio that much, but how is it going to look when the record comes out and I might have to tell Rolling Stone that I didn’t work on it?'”

“Christine McVie’s eyes narrowed. She’d had a couple of glasses of wine and wasn’t about to be trifled with. “OK, Stevie,’ she said, ‘what are you so upset about?”

“I should be singing on Everywhere,’ Stevie said. ‘You should hear me singing harmony on that song.’

“‘I wanted you to sing on it too,’ Chris said in measured tones that signaled she was furious, ‘but you weren’t here. In fact, we’ve been working for a year and you were only with us for a couple of days. Now, why don’t you just say you’re sorry and we’ll work it out?’ Quite gracefully, Stevie capitulated in front of the whole band, and we gleefully layered her vocals into the mix of the album, which now sounded more indeed like Fleetwood Mac.”

That was a prime, but far from singular example of Stevie falling short, blaming everyone else, threatening them, but backing down when challenged. The problem is, in 2018, the scales had shifted so far out of balance that no one dared challenge Stevie any longer. They didn’t need Lindsey’s magic in the studio, because they were no longer creating as a group. They didn’t need his indefatigable energy on stage (he was the only bandmember who never left the stage in a set lasting more than two hours), because Fleetwood Mac was now a “bucket list” group. Today, seeing Fleetwood Mac is, like visiting Niagara Falls, something to say you’ve done, not something you long to experience. Lindsey once wrote “And I guess I need to be amazed.” Fleetwood Mac fans no longer expect to be amazed. They just want to be reminded of a lost past.

After producing the Tango album for them and creating something that he deemed a better artistic exit from the band than their last album, Mirage, had been, Lindsey told the other Macsters he did not want to tour and was leaving. When Stevie heard that, she says she sprung up and started choking him. Mick remembers Lindsey screaming that they should get the “schizophrenic bitch” off him.

Then, Stevie says Lindsey broke free from her grasp, turned the tables and started chasing her. They ran down the block and back (they were at Christine’s house) and security had to pull them apart. After that John McVie joked that he told Lindsey to leave the room, but Lindsey left the band instead!

Lindsey left. He removed himself. He didn’t try to kick Stevie out of the band they had joined together. And he only departed after giving them a platinum album to tour on, an album that had Stevie songs on it (developed from vocal tapes she sent the band in her absence) but was mostly a studio collaboration between Lindsey and Christine.

The band hired two guitarists to replace Lindsey, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. They released an album with Burnette and Vito, Behind the Mask. It did not sell and at the end of the Behind the Mask tour, when Lindsey made a cameo appearance on stage with his old colleagues, Stevie dedicated Landslide to him saying, “This is a very simple song. And I would like to dedicate it to Buckingham Nicks, because, I hope, that maybe some day he will find it in his heart to spend some time with me again and maybe do some new music.”

That was back then, when she still cared about new music and thought Lindsey could help her make it. Now, that she is no longer interested in that, she does not want him around.

Stevie herself left Fleetwood Mac at the end of the Behind the Mask tour. She was angry, saying she did not know why she stayed as long as she did, without Lindsey there. She badmouthed Fleetwood Mac to such an extent that even the taciturn John McVie had to speak out, talking to Rock Family Tree in 1995. “We’re her worst enemies from what I read, Mick is. All that Fleetwood Mac has ever done to her is bad things. So boring — and untrue.”

Lindsey returned to the band in 1997, after first appearing with them at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Clinton loved Don’t Stop. He was their most famous fan. Stevie told The Island Ear, “Actually, what was even more amazing was getting Lindsey on stage with the four of us again. It took the President of the United States, to do that. We all didn’t think Lindsey would do it. I called him and said, ‘If you cheat me out of this honoring moment, I’ll never speak to you again.’ So, he did it.”


Lindsey Buckingham on 19.09.1984. | The Grosby Group/Reproduction Production
In 1997, they had a highly successful reunion and did a short tour, The Dance, that ended abruptly because Christine McVie, suffering from anxiety, wanted to leave the road and return to England. At the time, Stevie fans blamed Lindsey for Christine’s exit. But when Christine returned to the fold in 2014, she revealed that Lindsey was actually the one who used to flag down her limo after The Dance shows, climb in and try to talk her out of leaving.

In 2003, Lindsey and Stevie released their first Fleetwood Mac album that did not include Christine McVie, Say You Will. Stevie told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “We stopped being a duo the day we joined Fleetwood Mac. And that was great, but it was different. in the end, Christine even knew it. We always wanted to sing by ourselves, and in some ways, this album is very reminiscent of that time.”

By then, Stevie was 55 and the gal who “wore boots all summer long” began to pay the price for those high heels. Her joints gave out on her and she lost the vitality she had summoned at will during the Rhiannon exorcist days. Audiences came to Fleetwood Mac shows expecting Stevie mysticism and left discussing Lindsey’s endless vigor, instead. He whooped, jumped and ignited the arena with contagious zest. He became the whirling dervish Stevie used to be. Stevie minded. Over the years, she had become used to adoring fans and she wanted Lindsey, the man who’d known her when she was 17, to become one of them. He was not supposed to approach her as a peer any longer.


Stevie Nicks Attending The Twilight Saga movie, Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited
She told Q magazine, “So if Lindsey Buckingham wants to be the Lindsey Buckingham that he was a long time ago and be happy with me and enjoy what I do, and enjoy my celebrity and just appreciate the marvelous gift of being in this elite band, then I will do it again. I will also walk away so fast that the palm tree tops will fall on his head.”

Lindsey had to appreciate Stevie’s celebrity, but she didn’t much appreciate his. As her stage verve flagged physically, she compensated and began to tell long, rambling stories during their sets, discussing how they met, describing the Velvet Underground where she shopped or the inspiration for her old songs. Lindsey gave song introductions of his own. They tended to be repetitive and boring, but at least his were concise.

The more static Stevie became, the more the spotlight shifted to Lindsey. When the band finally announced Christine’s return, it seemed as if balance would return. After Say You Will, Stevie would not record new Fleetwood Mac music. She had Lindsey work on one of her solo songs, Soldier’s Angel ,saying only he could achieve the sound she wanted, but she did not want to return to the studio with the band. The most she would do was lend her voice to songs Lindsey wrote for an EP. There would not be another full FM album.

Lindsey must have thought Christine’s return would give him more album ammunition. If Christine wanted to record new music, like he did, they would outnumber Stevie, right? Wrong. The band was no longer a democracy. It wasn’t majority rule any longer. It was Stevie rule. She was responsible for the most ticket sales. That gave her more weight at least in her eyes and her manager’s.

However, when a band has 3 singer/songwriters even a “star” like Stevie can’t carry the load alone. Audiences would at least expect to hear 2/3 of the band’s top songs in concert. That’s why, when Christine was gone, Stevie still needed Lindsey on stage. When Christine returned and brought Little Lies, Everywhere and Songbird back with her, it became possible to put on a full concert show, even after dropping most of Lindsey songs from the setlist, just as Stevie and Lindsey had dropped most of Christine’s, during her absence. It would be especially easy to perform without Lindsey, if they brought in replacements who had hit songs of their own, as Mike Campbell (former Heartbreaker) and Neil Finn (Don’t Dream its Over).

Christine’s return didn’t get Fleetwood Mac back into the recording studio, but it did give Stevie a way to finally terminate her rival. She claims she didn’t fire him in 2018. She simply fired herself. In other words, she told the band that if they kept Lindsey, they would lose her. She issued an ultimatum. Despite all that they owed Lindsey, John McVie, Christi McVie and Mick Fleetwood bowed down to her. They could have been honorable, but that would have required more backbone and less avarice.

They could have called her bluff. After all, Stevie needs an FM tour as much as they do. She cannot attract the solo crowds she once did. She revels in the chartered jet, limousine phalanx, luxury hotel type glamor the band provides. On her own, she’d been serving as the opening act to Rod Stewart. Constantly dodging soccer balls at his shows must have gotten to her. If the FM had said to her, “You won’t tour with Lindsey, but we wont’ tour without him,” she would have relented eventually. But because they never stood up, she never backed down.


MusiCares Person of the Year Gala, Arrivals, New York, USA – 26 Jan 2018. This was the last event where Lindsey performed with Fleetwood Mac,. Lindsey is shown with his wife, daughter LeeLee and son Will. Fleetwood Mac tossed him aside shortly thereafter and, following Lindsey’s heart attack which left him without vocal ability for some time, his wife Kristen decried Fleetwood Mac’s conduct in the press on his behalf. The Grosby Group. Reproduction Prohibited.
Cast out of Eden, Lindsey has released a new solo album and is touring with the same gusto he possessed before his ouster and subsequent heart attack. Stevie, by contrast, has not released a new album in seven years and has lost her songwriting prowess. The last song she released, Show them the Way is a plodding dirge in which Martin Luther King and the Kennedys beg her to sing them a song. Such hubris is typical of Stevie who has been known to gift wounded soldiers with iPods full of her own music. Her song Soldier’s angel is not about soldiers. It’s about Stevie envisioning herself as a solider’s mother, nurse or girlfriend. She is a soldier’s angel. Most people mellow with age, Stevie’s ego has only grown. She’s outlived all of the people who used to keep her, well, never “down to earth,” but at least loosely tethered to earth. Now, has a cliamte controlled vault dedicated to her shawls, which Vanity Fair toured. Lindsey is equally obsessed with himself, but his dedication is to sound, not shawls.


Lindsey prepares to promote his new album on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, New York, USA – 15 Sep 2021;
The Grosby Group/ Reproduction Prohibited
Michael Jackson wanted to be known as the King of Pop. Lindsey wants to be called a “visionary.” He was described that way in a review once and has been trying to “make fetch happen” ever since. He even put it in a song lyric,

Reading the paper saw a review
Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew
Now that’s been a problem feeling unseen
Just like I’m living somebody’s dream

Still, decades in, Lindsey’s pride has been more palatable than Stevie’s. and more justified.

Along with Long Distance Winner, Stevie also wrote Races are Run in 1973.

Races are run
Some people win
Some people always have to lose

This time, the people who lost are the fans. There didn’t have to be a farewell tour, with insincere hugs following the final bow. But there shouldn’t have been petty insults following the final blow either. Fleetwood Mac fired Lindsey and lied about the reason, until they settled the lawsuit he brought against them and were forced to admit that Stevie was the reason they pushed him out, not tour scheduling (as they’d initially claimed). She’s called a finch in the title, for facetious reasons, but also because a finch is a small songbird with a short pointed beak. Stevie sports a deadly one.


In one of his better new songs Lindsey sings,

It’s another fight
As the queen dims the lights
It’s far too late, and in the rage
It’s up to fate
It always ends up black and white.

But is it right to keep me waiting?
Is it right to make me hold out so long?
Yeah, is it right to keep me waiting?
In the shadow of our swan song

That’s our swan song, Stevie, as much as it is yours and Lindsey’s. You know what it sounds like when doves sing, but not when rock history gasps in pain.

SEPTEMBER
__________________

"kind of weird: a tribute to the dearly departed from a band that can treat its living like trash"
Reply With Quote
.
  #2  
Old 09-25-2021, 05:17 PM
Storms123 Storms123 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 985
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by elle View Post
this "gossip" article is far better written than most of the "serious" articles flying around these days -



GOSSIP
Stevie Nicks: More Foul Finch than Fine Skylark

The Grosby Group/ Reproduction Prohibited
As Lindsey Buckingham Promotes a New Album, we Lament the Door that Slammed Shut

Lindsey Buckingham was thrown out of the band he cultivated and hand-crafted for 45 years by a vengeful lover. Vengeful? Oh, you know the kind I mean, the kind that will follow you down ’til the sound of her voice will haunt you and you’ll never get away.

That’s the fate that befell Buckingham, but he’s not crying his heart out in a silver spring. No, he just released a new, eponymous solo album last week and is currently on tour and doing press to promote it, which, in itself, is a contrast from his former band Fleetwood Mac who has long eschewed new music and has been touring to promote its 1977 Rumours’ album for over 40 years now.

But that raises the question that lies at the heart of Fleetwood Mac’s rupture with Lindsey. Ricky Nelson asked it in Garden Party after getting booed during a Madison Square Garden show because they wanted him to be Ricky Nelson from Ozzie and Harriet, not the adult man he was, with a family of his own and new songs to sing.

Ricky Nelson concluded, “If memories were all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.” Most members of Fleetwood Mac were outraged by the notion and exclaimed, “We’ll never drive a truck! Not unless it’s a lambo!” They’d rather tour with the old tunes, perish the thought of writing new ones, and keep on raking in the loot from their affluent, nostalgia audiences. Lindsey compromised. He was happy to perform Go Your Own Way for the millioneth time, but he also wanted to record new songs and present them to captive fans. Eh, not exactly captive. Sure they might run to the bathroom and concession stand, every time they heard something less familiar than Landslide or Don’t Stop, but just the exhilaration of plucking music from his psyche and releasing it to the universe fulfills Lindsey, even if his name never graces a Billboard Top 40 chart again.

Do you rest on your laurels, live on your legend, or do you remain an artist, questing to create and evolve, even while mortality is nipping at your heels. Buckingham has chosen the latter path and his erstwhile partner, Stevie Nicks, is clinging to the former. And because Stevie was once a witchy wonder who mesmerized crowds with fiery versions of Rhiannon that some likened to an exorcism, the band sided with her. Quite simply, she sells more concert tickets than Lindsey (Who?). Never mind that he produced the songs that are sung at those concerts. He twiddled each knob and perfected every note, down to the sound of breaking glass in Gold Dust Woman. He badgered studio engineers and reworked tracks with an obsessive compulsion that wore everyone else ragged.

In 1990, an exasperated Mick Fleetwood once said of Lindsey to the Boston Globe, “Lindsey’s work with Fleetwood Mac speaks for itself, but I have to say, being as intense as Lindsey is as a person, he sometimes got to be a little too much for me. And sometimes we had to beg Lindsey to do a solo. He’d go, ‘No, I want it to sound like violins here.’ Then he’d sit for hours, trying to get a violin sound out of his guitar.”

In the maddening process, Lindsey made music so meticulous that it still stands up to the demands of today’s remastered, high definition, technology that didn’t even exist when the songs were created. That’s the main reason the songs are still played today, still revealing intricate patterns, echoes, and hidden layers, like a Da Vinci painting under x-ray.

In 2003, Stevie explained Lindsey’s wizardry to Performing Songwriter. She described her songs as skeletons waiting for meat and bones, “What he does is take the skeleton and then he goes in for hours that we never see him and he plays parts and parts and more parts. He arranges right underneath my skeleton. It’s like I laughingly said to him when we first started this new record, because his songs were pretty much done, I said, ‘Your songs are like beautiful, hand crated Russian boxes with enamel and cloisonné and sound like you’ve worked on them for seven years, and my little songs are like pine boxes.’ I said, ‘You’ve got your work cut out for you., because you have to somehow make my songs compare a little bit to yours.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry.'”


The Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited Fleetwood Mac in concert at the Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, America – 06 Apr 2013
After carrying them on his back since 1975 and crafting that Mac sound new generations are still appreciating and amplifying in internet memes, Lindsey was summarily kicked out the door. He gave everything. They greedily took it all and, only then, cut him out. That should never happen. It’s like Glenn Frey and Don Henley. No matter which you liked best, they climbed that pinnacle together. Each solidified their claim. Neither should be able to take it from the other. Henley couldn’t kick Frey out of the band. Only death could. Likewise, Stevie Nicks should not have been able to kick Lindsey Buckingham out of Fleetwood Mac. It was his birthright, even if he only got to claim it 25 years after being born.

Stevie’s choice was: (1) to leave Fleetwood Mac, not give them a phony ultimatum about leaving if she didn’t get her way, but actually leave it, (2) keep fighting with Lindsey just as she has always done since the sixties, or (3) wait for death to take him, like it took Glenn Frey. And that almost happened, since Lindsey suffered a debilitating heart attack soon after his firing.

The other Mac members, bassist John McVie, Drummer Mick Fleetwood, and singer/songwriter Christine McVie, all got along with Lindsey. Those three worked harmoniously with him on the 2017 Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie album (Buckingham McVie) that was originally contemplated as a Fleetwood Mac project, but had to be finished under the names of the remaining two songwriters, since Stevie Nicks refused to participate and contribute new music. Christine McVie even toured with Lindsey as a duo.

Indeed, both Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood have often shown unbridled affection for Lindsey, kissing and hugging him spontaneously in concerts and interviews. While John McVie and Lindsey share less PDA, the musical differences that had them chafing against each other during the first 5 years of working together seem to have long dissipated. It’s only Stevie Nicks that wanted Lindsey gone and the others, choosing tour millions over integrity, let her have her vindictive way.

Lindsey and Stevie have measured their relationship in terms of winning and losing since long before they joined Fleetwood Mac. In 1973, the year before they met Fleetwood Mac, they released an album together called Buckingham Nicks. It contains the song, Long Distance Winner. Stevie wrote:

Sunflowers and your face fascinate me.

You love only the tallest trees.

I come running down the hill,

but you’re fast. You’re the winner.

Long distance winner.

Many of their respective songs echo the theme of being in a race. One of them wins. One loses. They never simply succeed together. After many ups and downs, Stevie has finally prevailed over Lindsey. She tripped him and now holds the title of long distance winner.

The race started when they met at a Christian Youth Life gathering in Northern California. Neither was pious. They just attended for recreation. It was a way to get out of the house on Wednesday night. Stevie was a senior in high school and Lindsey a junior. Lindsey was there with his guitar. Stevie, just a year older, sauntered by. When he played California Dreaming, she was able to sing effortless accompaniment. She remembers that he was “darling”. He recalled that she fancied herself a poet even then and recited some of her lyrics to him. He doesn’t say that he found her darling, as well. But it’s likely he did.


Two years later when Lindsey was in a band called The Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band (named after a hapless student who was not dead and was not being memorialized ;he just happened to have a fun name), Lindsey asked Stevie if she wanted to join. Well, she sometimes says that he was too shy to ask her directly. He had another Fritz member ask.

It was, thus, in 1966, that Stevie and Lindsey first became bandmates, along with Bob Aguirre, Javier Pacheco, Cal Roper, Jody Moreing and Brian Kane.

They played local gigs. For some reason, Stevie and Lindsey, now septuagenarians, deny being lovers while in Fritz. Stevie claims that all the Fritz men wanted her and none wanted the others to have her. That’s a running theme of hers. Everyone is always jealous of her, always watching, always worried she’ll be stolen away. But she insists she never slept with any of the Fritz guys. The other band members suspect differently. They say it was clear that Lindsey and Stevie were an item and whenever band decisions has to be made, they always paired with each other. Whatever their relationship, when Polydor records became interested in guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie says they knew they could never get Lindsey without her, so they began negotiating with Buckingham and Nicks as a duo. Stevie says that it was because they commiserated with each other over having to tell the other Fritz members that Polydor didn’t want the rest of them, that she and Lindsey became close.

At that point, Lindsey and Stevie started living together and making music. Stevie is no musician. She only knows four chords and doesn’t use all of them. Words were her specialty. She’d pull concepts together out of the ether, love, lace and lavender bound, matching that knot in your heart. She touched the sore, hard place where unrequited passion dwelled and somehow her whimsical, inchoate phrasing seemed to express exactly what was in your soul. Her lyrics didn’t always make sense, but they felt like everything you’d been trying to say yourself. While her verses were Yeats, her personality was Yogi Berra. That was adorable. For a time.

Yet, whatever has become of her persona, the poetry still captivates. And Stevie had that knack with words, even before her voice evolved. In her early songs, she is high pitched. Her vocals on the Buckingham Nicks album make you think of chipmunks and helium. It’s not until a few years later that her voice emerges, guttural and pure, rough and innocent. In those early years, those unique tones were not only enough to elevate her own songs (and Christine McVie’s) but think of Gold by John Stewart and Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan. Where would those songs be without Stevie Nicks’ voice and Lindsey Buckingham’s production?

Stevie’s talent has always been undeniable. Pair that with cocaine and youthful exuberance and she put on a stage show of yelps, spins and kicks that easily captivated the masses and had women (and men) rushing out to buy the chiffon needed to emulate her high hatting style. But before she lured you to the stage, she needed the music to bring you to the concert in the first place. Lindsey supplied that.

When Lindsey and Stevie left their parents and traveled to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune, Lindsey had $10,000 ($70,500 in today’s money), inherited from an aunt he barely knew. He bought musical equipment with it. He used it to craft songs of his own and flesh out the skeletal melodies on Stevie’s tunes. They soon had enough demo records to make an album for Polydor and begin working on a second one (which never came to fruition). It was Lindsey’s intricate guitar work and musical detail on those songs which brought them to life. Hearing Lindsey’s work on the early Buckingham Nicks song Frozen Love, made Mick Fleetwood want to hire Lindsey for his own band, Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac had enjoyed success in the UK (largely due to the legendary Peter Green, who was one of it’s founders. Indeed, the band was first known as “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer”). But after sifting through a number of guitarists following Green’s exit, the band was floundering.


Just weeks before Stevie and Lindsey join Fleetwood Mac the newspaper in 1974
Mick wanted Lindsey in the band and was told by producer Keith Olsen that he could never get Lindsey without Stevie (which is the same thing Polydor learned about Lindsey). Stevie and Lindsey were a “package deal.” So, they joined Fleetwood Mac together on New Year’s Eve 1974. Christine McVie was already a member of the band and, a classically trained pianist, she had been writing almost-masterpieces years before ever meeting Lindsey and Stevie. In fact, during annual votes on old message boards, Fleetwood Mac fans regularly named Why as the band’s best song, a heartfelt tune Christine wrote long prior to the Buckingham Nicks merger.

Christine always had the voice and musical expertise, but she never had the chemistry she found with Lindsey and Stevie. She has famously said that she got “gooseflesh” when they first harmonized on one of her songs spontaneously, without rehearsal. Anyone who has ever heard the trio on Over My Head or Say You Love Me cannot deny their magnetism. They are far greater together than any of them are singly. You think Caesar, Pompey and Crassus were the First Triumverate? I beg to differ. It was McVie, Buckingham, and Nicks. No, Buckingham, who had the least remarkable voice of the 3, isn’t the one who made them sing such great harmony, but he is the one that made the music amalgamate.


Fleetwod Mac in concert, Wembley, London, UK – Jun 1980; Lindsey and Christine Perform a song they wrote together, World Turning. Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited
For Lindsey and Stevie becoming part of 5 after having been Buckingham Nicks was not an easy transition. Lindsey always thought that Buckingham Nicks was on the verge of taking off and wondered what would have happened if they’d found success without Fleetwood Mac. Stevie enjoyed having another woman to work with, but was jealous of the musical marriage between Christine and Lindsey. “I also remember getting very upset one night when I realized that he and Christine had written World Turning together [from Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 album]. I had been with Lindsey all of those years and we had never written a song together. Plus, I walked into the studio and they were singing it together,” Stevie recalled when speaking to Off the Record.

Christine told The Record in 1982: “There’s definitely a chemistry that transcends everything else that might happen before or after we’re on stage. We play well together and sing well together. That side of Fleetwood Mac I really enjoy. And I felt comfortable working with Lindsey. Dare I say it with him present? I have alot of respect for this man; I don’t really imagine anybody else being able to do what he does with my songs.”

Stevie told radio hosts Mark and Brian in 1994, “Lindsey had a weak moment when he even admitted to me that sometimes he felt that his best work was taking one of my songs and making it into something really, to him, extra special.”

Christine also witnessed Lindsey’s genius working on Stevie’s songs, in particular, in 1990 she told Roger Moore, “Before we recorded Dreams, Stevie played it on the piano and Stevie is a self-confessed non-musical person. She knows four chords on the piano, I think and, as Lindsey always says, rightly, ‘yes, but they’re the right four chords’ and she played the song for us. And I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know. This sounds a little bit tedious to me. It’s just going ting, ding, ting ding all the way through the song’ and Lindsey, I suppose, in his great hindsight said, ‘no this is going to be wonderful. We’ll record it and build each section differently so that those four chords run all the way through.’ Actually, I think she only used three chords for this one, but although they are the same three chords, it doesn’t sound like it. It was actually our first number one, our only number one single in Fleetwood Mac history.”

Just weeks ago, when Rolling Stone put out its annual list of the greatest rock songs of all time, Dreams was listed as #9. The song boasts Stevie’s indelible words, but it was Lindsey who pushed those 3 chords of hers through the world he created for the song, so that they remained beneath everything else, like a heartbeat drives you mad in the stillness of remembering what you had. And what you lost.

Stevie told Rolling Stone in 1980: “I write my songs, but Lindsey puts the magic in, and there’s no way — well, I could pay him ten percent. I could walk up to him and thank him. If I were to play you a song the way I wrote it and gave it to them, and then play you the way it is on the album, you would see what Lindsey did.”


Turn on Dreams or Hold Me. That’s not Lindsey singing lead. Those are not Lindsey’s words. And that’s certainly not his inimitable playing on the piano, but if you listen to those songs and don’t hear Lindsey’s work on them, you have no ears or understanding. He built the structure. They climbed up it and then, only after reaching the top, did they kick him off at Stevie’s bidding.

Lindsey and Stevie have always fought like cats and dogs. In fact, one of their biggest fights preceded his 10-year departure from the band in 1987. They had just finished making Tango. Stevie was recovering from drug addiction at the time and could not truly participate in the album. She contributed songs, but says she felt uncomfortable recording at Lindsey’s house, because he shared it with his girlfriend. Plus, she was suffering from dependency, so her vocals were awful and Lindsey had to remove them. Her fans have spun it as Lindsey removing her vocals because he was terribly jealous of her, which is their answer to everything. Lindsey’s jealousy is the answer to Covid, if you listen to them. But Stevie herself admits that she was physically and mentally at a low point when Tango was recorded and she could not fully take part. “I wasn’t there for a lot of that, ’cause I was on the road [she went on tour with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan]. It was me that was causing all the friction, ’cause Lindsey was the head guy and I was making him erratic. When I was not there it was good. They all got along fine.”

In his 1990 book, My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, Mick wrote of Tango, “We did have one blowout with Stevie when she came to the studio to listen to the mixes before Tango in the Night was released. After the playback was finished, she began to storm around the studio like a tornado. ‘It’s like I’m not even on this record,’ she complained. ‘I can’t hear myself at all.’ I knew Stevie pretty well and could tell she was angry. Then she threatened us, ‘All right, maybe I wasn’t able to get to the studio that much, but how is it going to look when the record comes out and I might have to tell Rolling Stone that I didn’t work on it?'”

“Christine McVie’s eyes narrowed. She’d had a couple of glasses of wine and wasn’t about to be trifled with. “OK, Stevie,’ she said, ‘what are you so upset about?”

“I should be singing on Everywhere,’ Stevie said. ‘You should hear me singing harmony on that song.’

“‘I wanted you to sing on it too,’ Chris said in measured tones that signaled she was furious, ‘but you weren’t here. In fact, we’ve been working for a year and you were only with us for a couple of days. Now, why don’t you just say you’re sorry and we’ll work it out?’ Quite gracefully, Stevie capitulated in front of the whole band, and we gleefully layered her vocals into the mix of the album, which now sounded more indeed like Fleetwood Mac.”

That was a prime, but far from singular example of Stevie falling short, blaming everyone else, threatening them, but backing down when challenged. The problem is, in 2018, the scales had shifted so far out of balance that no one dared challenge Stevie any longer. They didn’t need Lindsey’s magic in the studio, because they were no longer creating as a group. They didn’t need his indefatigable energy on stage (he was the only bandmember who never left the stage in a set lasting more than two hours), because Fleetwood Mac was now a “bucket list” group. Today, seeing Fleetwood Mac is, like visiting Niagara Falls, something to say you’ve done, not something you long to experience. Lindsey once wrote “And I guess I need to be amazed.” Fleetwood Mac fans no longer expect to be amazed. They just want to be reminded of a lost past.

After producing the Tango album for them and creating something that he deemed a better artistic exit from the band than their last album, Mirage, had been, Lindsey told the other Macsters he did not want to tour and was leaving. When Stevie heard that, she says she sprung up and started choking him. Mick remembers Lindsey screaming that they should get the “schizophrenic bitch” off him.

Then, Stevie says Lindsey broke free from her grasp, turned the tables and started chasing her. They ran down the block and back (they were at Christine’s house) and security had to pull them apart. After that John McVie joked that he told Lindsey to leave the room, but Lindsey left the band instead!

Lindsey left. He removed himself. He didn’t try to kick Stevie out of the band they had joined together. And he only departed after giving them a platinum album to tour on, an album that had Stevie songs on it (developed from vocal tapes she sent the band in her absence) but was mostly a studio collaboration between Lindsey and Christine.

The band hired two guitarists to replace Lindsey, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. They released an album with Burnette and Vito, Behind the Mask. It did not sell and at the end of the Behind the Mask tour, when Lindsey made a cameo appearance on stage with his old colleagues, Stevie dedicated Landslide to him saying, “This is a very simple song. And I would like to dedicate it to Buckingham Nicks, because, I hope, that maybe some day he will find it in his heart to spend some time with me again and maybe do some new music.”

That was back then, when she still cared about new music and thought Lindsey could help her make it. Now, that she is no longer interested in that, she does not want him around.

Stevie herself left Fleetwood Mac at the end of the Behind the Mask tour. She was angry, saying she did not know why she stayed as long as she did, without Lindsey there. She badmouthed Fleetwood Mac to such an extent that even the taciturn John McVie had to speak out, talking to Rock Family Tree in 1995. “We’re her worst enemies from what I read, Mick is. All that Fleetwood Mac has ever done to her is bad things. So boring — and untrue.”

Lindsey returned to the band in 1997, after first appearing with them at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Clinton loved Don’t Stop. He was their most famous fan. Stevie told The Island Ear, “Actually, what was even more amazing was getting Lindsey on stage with the four of us again. It took the President of the United States, to do that. We all didn’t think Lindsey would do it. I called him and said, ‘If you cheat me out of this honoring moment, I’ll never speak to you again.’ So, he did it.”


Lindsey Buckingham on 19.09.1984. | The Grosby Group/Reproduction Production
In 1997, they had a highly successful reunion and did a short tour, The Dance, that ended abruptly because Christine McVie, suffering from anxiety, wanted to leave the road and return to England. At the time, Stevie fans blamed Lindsey for Christine’s exit. But when Christine returned to the fold in 2014, she revealed that Lindsey was actually the one who used to flag down her limo after The Dance shows, climb in and try to talk her out of leaving.

In 2003, Lindsey and Stevie released their first Fleetwood Mac album that did not include Christine McVie, Say You Will. Stevie told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “We stopped being a duo the day we joined Fleetwood Mac. And that was great, but it was different. in the end, Christine even knew it. We always wanted to sing by ourselves, and in some ways, this album is very reminiscent of that time.”

By then, Stevie was 55 and the gal who “wore boots all summer long” began to pay the price for those high heels. Her joints gave out on her and she lost the vitality she had summoned at will during the Rhiannon exorcist days. Audiences came to Fleetwood Mac shows expecting Stevie mysticism and left discussing Lindsey’s endless vigor, instead. He whooped, jumped and ignited the arena with contagious zest. He became the whirling dervish Stevie used to be. Stevie minded. Over the years, she had become used to adoring fans and she wanted Lindsey, the man who’d known her when she was 17, to become one of them. He was not supposed to approach her as a peer any longer.


Stevie Nicks Attending The Twilight Saga movie, Grosby Group/Reproduction Prohibited
She told Q magazine, “So if Lindsey Buckingham wants to be the Lindsey Buckingham that he was a long time ago and be happy with me and enjoy what I do, and enjoy my celebrity and just appreciate the marvelous gift of being in this elite band, then I will do it again. I will also walk away so fast that the palm tree tops will fall on his head.”

Lindsey had to appreciate Stevie’s celebrity, but she didn’t much appreciate his. As her stage verve flagged physically, she compensated and began to tell long, rambling stories during their sets, discussing how they met, describing the Velvet Underground where she shopped or the inspiration for her old songs. Lindsey gave song introductions of his own. They tended to be repetitive and boring, but at least his were concise.

The more static Stevie became, the more the spotlight shifted to Lindsey. When the band finally announced Christine’s return, it seemed as if balance would return. After Say You Will, Stevie would not record new Fleetwood Mac music. She had Lindsey work on one of her solo songs, Soldier’s Angel ,saying only he could achieve the sound she wanted, but she did not want to return to the studio with the band. The most she would do was lend her voice to songs Lindsey wrote for an EP. There would not be another full FM album.

Lindsey must have thought Christine’s return would give him more album ammunition. If Christine wanted to record new music, like he did, they would outnumber Stevie, right? Wrong. The band was no longer a democracy. It wasn’t majority rule any longer. It was Stevie rule. She was responsible for the most ticket sales. That gave her more weight at least in her eyes and her manager’s.

However, when a band has 3 singer/songwriters even a “star” like Stevie can’t carry the load alone. Audiences would at least expect to hear 2/3 of the band’s top songs in concert. That’s why, when Christine was gone, Stevie still needed Lindsey on stage. When Christine returned and brought Little Lies, Everywhere and Songbird back with her, it became possible to put on a full concert show, even after dropping most of Lindsey songs from the setlist, just as Stevie and Lindsey had dropped most of Christine’s, during her absence. It would be especially easy to perform without Lindsey, if they brought in replacements who had hit songs of their own, as Mike Campbell (former Heartbreaker) and Neil Finn (Don’t Dream its Over).

Christine’s return didn’t get Fleetwood Mac back into the recording studio, but it did give Stevie a way to finally terminate her rival. She claims she didn’t fire him in 2018. She simply fired herself. In other words, she told the band that if they kept Lindsey, they would lose her. She issued an ultimatum. Despite all that they owed Lindsey, John McVie, Christi McVie and Mick Fleetwood bowed down to her. They could have been honorable, but that would have required more backbone and less avarice.

They could have called her bluff. After all, Stevie needs an FM tour as much as they do. She cannot attract the solo crowds she once did. She revels in the chartered jet, limousine phalanx, luxury hotel type glamor the band provides. On her own, she’d been serving as the opening act to Rod Stewart. Constantly dodging soccer balls at his shows must have gotten to her. If the FM had said to her, “You won’t tour with Lindsey, but we wont’ tour without him,” she would have relented eventually. But because they never stood up, she never backed down.


MusiCares Person of the Year Gala, Arrivals, New York, USA – 26 Jan 2018. This was the last event where Lindsey performed with Fleetwood Mac,. Lindsey is shown with his wife, daughter LeeLee and son Will. Fleetwood Mac tossed him aside shortly thereafter and, following Lindsey’s heart attack which left him without vocal ability for some time, his wife Kristen decried Fleetwood Mac’s conduct in the press on his behalf. The Grosby Group. Reproduction Prohibited.
Cast out of Eden, Lindsey has released a new solo album and is touring with the same gusto he possessed before his ouster and subsequent heart attack. Stevie, by contrast, has not released a new album in seven years and has lost her songwriting prowess. The last song she released, Show them the Way is a plodding dirge in which Martin Luther King and the Kennedys beg her to sing them a song. Such hubris is typical of Stevie who has been known to gift wounded soldiers with iPods full of her own music. Her song Soldier’s angel is not about soldiers. It’s about Stevie envisioning herself as a solider’s mother, nurse or girlfriend. She is a soldier’s angel. Most people mellow with age, Stevie’s ego has only grown. She’s outlived all of the people who used to keep her, well, never “down to earth,” but at least loosely tethered to earth. Now, has a cliamte controlled vault dedicated to her shawls, which Vanity Fair toured. Lindsey is equally obsessed with himself, but his dedication is to sound, not shawls.


Lindsey prepares to promote his new album on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, New York, USA – 15 Sep 2021;
The Grosby Group/ Reproduction Prohibited
Michael Jackson wanted to be known as the King of Pop. Lindsey wants to be called a “visionary.” He was described that way in a review once and has been trying to “make fetch happen” ever since. He even put it in a song lyric,

Reading the paper saw a review
Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew
Now that’s been a problem feeling unseen
Just like I’m living somebody’s dream

Still, decades in, Lindsey’s pride has been more palatable than Stevie’s. and more justified.

Along with Long Distance Winner, Stevie also wrote Races are Run in 1973.

Races are run
Some people win
Some people always have to lose

This time, the people who lost are the fans. There didn’t have to be a farewell tour, with insincere hugs following the final bow. But there shouldn’t have been petty insults following the final blow either. Fleetwood Mac fired Lindsey and lied about the reason, until they settled the lawsuit he brought against them and were forced to admit that Stevie was the reason they pushed him out, not tour scheduling (as they’d initially claimed). She’s called a finch in the title, for facetious reasons, but also because a finch is a small songbird with a short pointed beak. Stevie sports a deadly one.


In one of his better new songs Lindsey sings,

It’s another fight
As the queen dims the lights
It’s far too late, and in the rage
It’s up to fate
It always ends up black and white.

But is it right to keep me waiting?
Is it right to make me hold out so long?
Yeah, is it right to keep me waiting?
In the shadow of our swan song

That’s our swan song, Stevie, as much as it is yours and Lindsey’s. You know what it sounds like when doves sing, but not when rock history gasps in pain.

SEPTEMBER
It's much more balanced than any of the other articles out there.
Can honestly say I never thought I'd see Yeats and Yogi Berra in the same sentence.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 09-25-2021, 06:07 PM
sleepless child's Avatar
sleepless child sleepless child is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 862
Default

This is actually well written and I think tells the real truth of the story.
__________________

I have changed, but you remain ageless
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 09-25-2021, 07:37 PM
jmn3 jmn3 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,842
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sleepless child View Post
This is actually well written and I think tells the real truth of the story.
My first reaction was: “alright who from The Ledge wrote this??” It’s a hell of a lot more thorough and detailed than most anything you’d ever see.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 09-25-2021, 08:21 PM
BLY BLY is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,915
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmn3 View Post
My first reaction was: “alright who from The Ledge wrote this??” It’s a hell of a lot more thorough and detailed than most anything you’d ever see.
My thoughts exactly. It’s pretty much spot on.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 09-25-2021, 10:22 PM
Neal's Avatar
Neal Neal is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Jose, CA USA
Posts: 1,739
Default

I read the article while waiting at the shop for new tires this morning, and couldn't wait to get home and see what others were saying about it. Great stuff!
I don't think I've ever read anything quite so scathing (albeit accurate) directed toward Stevie; outside of a few negative album reviews back in the day, nearly everything to see print about her is dripping with praise and adoration.

Fully expect to see "foul finch" join the list of descriptors flying around these boards...
__________________
"Ooh, there is magic...all around you...
every time you walk in the room..."
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 09-26-2021, 12:32 AM
BombaySapphire3 BombaySapphire3 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: San Francisco Bay area
Posts: 4,499
Default

This writer sums it up well. The "foul finch" sh#t all over Fleetwood Mac's legacy and ruined the band in the end .I used to worship her. I'm a bit hard pressed to understand how people still do.
__________________
Children of the world the forgotten chimpanzee..in the eyes of the world you have done so much for me. ..SLN.

Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 09-26-2021, 07:42 AM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default

I have been online reading comments regarding this article from indignant Stevie fans who say that a woman should not be forced to stay with someone who makes her miserable. My answer to that is:

1. No one was forcing her to stay. She could leave anytime. She opted to stay and to force his exit. I have a problem with that.

2. You are assuming that Stevie is a reliable narrator and I disagree. I don’t believe everything she says. Just because she has said it in interviews since the seventies does not make it credible. Repetition is not evidence.

2. The test is not whether someone makes you miserable. The test is whether a REASONABLE PERSON would be miserable under the same circumstances. I posit that Stevie is not reasonable. Sure if you want to talk about the rumors that he kicked her in the shin; put a jacket over his head and mocked her on stage; threw a guitar at her, or he flicked her (and I do not even know what that means), then I agree that no one should be forced to work or live with someone who is doing those things to her.

However, no one has accused Lindsey of doing anything like that for almost 35 years. He certainly has not physically abused her since they reunited for The Dance. So, the last time he did anything to her was when he threw her over the hood of the car in 1987. Yes, you should never work with someone who did that to you, again. But she did and he has not assaulted her. So, the 1987 bonnet attack is no reason to get him fired from the band in 2018. If her fans want to assume that Lindsay has been beating her all of this time and she just has not said anything because she is too polite or intimidated having been cowed and silenced by him for decades, I think they are delusional. You are not rescuing Gabby Petito, here.

From what I can gather, the worst thing that Lindsey has done to Stevie, since 1997 forward, is tell her that she should not refer to the same person as “he” and “you”. Lindsey did that despicable pronoun thing to her and clearly it made her very miserable for more than a decade. However, no normal person would be made miserable by that. He also supposedly told her to wear a sweater and I am sure that was humiliating for her and everyone who loves her but what can I say? I do not think that forcing Stevie to continue to work with someone who taunts her grammatically and recommends cardigans is cruel and unusual punishment.

Certainly they have argued verbally over the last 25 years but I do not think that it has been a one-sided argument and that she has been subjected to his abuse unilaterally. She and Karen both seem to have been torturing him a lot over the last 20 years as well. Even Steven. He was not thrown out of the band because he is worse than she is. He was thrown out of the band because he makes them less money than she does. The injustices are not stacked in Stevie's favor.

Last edited by michelej1; 09-26-2021 at 07:51 AM..
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 09-26-2021, 08:45 AM
Storms123 Storms123 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 985
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by michelej1 View Post
I have been online reading comments regarding this article from indignant Stevie fans who say that a woman should not be forced to stay with someone who makes her miserable. My answer to that is:

1. No one was forcing her to stay. She could leave anytime. She opted to stay and to force his exit. I have a problem with that.

2. You are assuming that Stevie is a reliable narrator and I disagree. I don’t believe everything she says. Just because she has said it in interviews since the seventies does not make it credible. Repetition is not evidence.

2. The test is not whether someone makes you miserable. The test is whether a REASONABLE PERSON would be miserable under the same circumstances. I posit that Stevie is not reasonable. Sure if you want to talk about the rumors that he kicked her in the shin; put a jacket over his head and mocked her on stage; threw a guitar at her, or he flicked her (and I do not even know what that means), then I agree that no one should be forced to work or live with someone who is doing those things to her.

However, no one has accused Lindsey of doing anything like that for almost 35 years. He certainly has not physically abused her since they reunited for The Dance. So, the last time he did anything to her was when he threw her over the hood of the car in 1987. Yes, you should never work with someone who did that to you, again. But she did and he has not assaulted her. So, the 1987 bonnet attack is no reason to get him fired from the band in 2018. If her fans want to assume that Lindsay has been beating her all of this time and she just has not said anything because she is too polite or intimidated having been cowed and silenced by him for decades, I think they are delusional. You are not rescuing Gabby Petito, here.

From what I can gather, the worst thing that Lindsey has done to Stevie, since 1997 forward, is tell her that she should not refer to the same person as “he” and “you”. Lindsey did that despicable pronoun thing to her and clearly it made her very miserable for more than a decade. However, no normal person would be made miserable by that. He also supposedly told her to wear a sweater and I am sure that was humiliating for her and everyone who loves her but what can I say? I do not think that forcing Stevie to continue to work with someone who taunts her grammatically and recommends cardigans is cruel and unusual punishment.

Certainly they have argued verbally over the last 25 years but I do not think that it has been a one-sided argument and that she has been subjected to his abuse unilaterally. She and Karen both seem to have been torturing him a lot over the last 20 years as well. Even Steven. He was not thrown out of the band because he is worse than she is. He was thrown out of the band because he makes them less money than she does. The injustices are not stacked in Stevie's favor.
I believe, but someone please correct me if I am wrong, this is the incident Mick wrote about in one of his many missives, and Stevie came out, refuted Mick's recollection of it, and defended Lindsey. Her followers really need to stop throwing that out there, when Stevie herself denied this incident happened (at least in the way it was relayed) In fact, I believe Stevie said she attacked Lindsey. I agree no one should be thrown over the front of a car, but until I hear Stevie and Lindsey's version of the incident, this needs to me put to bed. Further, while Stevie has said Lindsey is mean, angry.....she's never, to my knowledge, accused him of being physically violent with her.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 09-26-2021, 11:35 AM
vivfox's Avatar
vivfox vivfox is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,956
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by michelej1 View Post
he flicked her (and I do not even know what that means)
flicked = middle finger
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 09-26-2021, 12:06 PM
jbrownsjr jbrownsjr is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 16,384
Default

What a fantastic article! That's the closest to the truth that I've ever witnessed about Goat's behavior. The author even covers the relationships that other members of the band have with Lindsey.

I love how John called Stevie boring. She became a legendary and entitled, liar. I'm glad not everyone follows her big bag of bulls*t. What a loon. What a foul finch! haha
__________________
I would tell Christine Perfect, "You're Christine f***ing McVie, and don't you forget it!"

Last edited by jbrownsjr; 09-26-2021 at 12:13 PM..
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 09-26-2021, 12:16 PM
aleuzzi's Avatar
aleuzzi aleuzzi is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 5,983
Default

It’s pretty thorough, but I have a problem with one of its key assumptions, namely that Lindsey “carried” FM from 1975-87. While it is true that since 1970 the core trio of Brits have always relied on the musical vision of whatever guitarist was leading them (Kirwan, Welch, Buckingham), the talents of the rhythm section, Stevie’s voice and stage presence, and Christine’s combined songwriting talents and intuitive sense of musical texture were equally important in the band’s success, especially with Rumours and the White Album. Without the trio’s musical foundation, and without Stevie’s personality, Lindsey’s genius would have been relegated to session music, likely some arranging and producing, and possibly some limited success as his own front person. In short, they needed and benefited from each other.

One more thing: Lindsey might be the architect/producer for Tango, but commercially the album would have been consigned to a fate similar to Go Insane if it weren’t for Christine’s songs, the band brand (including Stevie’s voice and persona), and the powerful rhythm section on Caroline, Little Lies, and the title track. Even Big Love, which appears to be 100% Lindsey with no band input, would not have hit as big if people didn’t see the FM name.

Last edited by aleuzzi; 09-26-2021 at 12:23 PM..
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 09-26-2021, 02:47 PM
bwboy's Avatar
bwboy bwboy is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 2,697
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by aleuzzi View Post
One more thing: Lindsey might be the architect/producer for Tango, but commercially the album would have been consigned to a fate similar to Go Insane if it weren’t for Christine’s songs, the band brand (including Stevie’s voice and persona), and the powerful rhythm section on Caroline, Little Lies, and the title track. Even Big Love, which appears to be 100% Lindsey with no band input, would not have hit as big if people didn’t see the FM name.
I agree. I truly believe that the ultimate reason for the incredible success of FM was always the COMBINATION of Christine, Lindsey, and Stevie. Remove one of them, and the band is not as successful, especially in the recording studio. FM, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, and Tango would not have been as good as they were if even one of them were gone from the mix. Their songs balanced each other out in the best possible way. And as you pointed out, the powerful rhythm section of Mick and John.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 09-26-2021, 03:31 PM
HomerMcvie's Avatar
HomerMcvie HomerMcvie is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Posts: 15,738
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by bwboy View Post
I agree. I truly believe that the ultimate reason for the incredible success of FM was always the COMBINATION of Christine, Lindsey, and Stevie. Remove one of them, and the band is not as successful, especially in the recording studio. FM, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage, and Tango would not have been as good as they were if even one of them were gone from the mix. Their songs balanced each other out in the best possible way. And as you pointed out, the powerful rhythm section of Mick and John.
Look at FM when Christine was gone. It was awful, and felt empty. The balance was missing.
__________________
Christine McVie- she radiated both purity and sass in equal measure, bringing light to the music of the 70s. RIP. - John Taylor(Duran Duran)
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 09-26-2021, 03:50 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by vivfox View Post
flicked = middle finger
Oh. Is that how the English say it? I think Americans say flipped the finger .
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


BEKKA BRAMLETT - I Got News For You - CD - **Excellent Condition** - RARE picture

BEKKA BRAMLETT - I Got News For You - CD - **Excellent Condition** - RARE

$59.95



RITA COOLIDGE CD THINKIN' ABOUT YOU BEKKA BRAMLETT LETTING YOU GO WITH LOVE 1998 picture

RITA COOLIDGE CD THINKIN' ABOUT YOU BEKKA BRAMLETT LETTING YOU GO WITH LOVE 1998

$14.99



The Zoo Shakin' the Cage CD Mick Fleetwood Bekka Bramlett Billy Thorpe picture

The Zoo Shakin' the Cage CD Mick Fleetwood Bekka Bramlett Billy Thorpe

$14.72



I Got News for You - Audio CD By Bekka Bramlett - VERY GOOD picture

I Got News for You - Audio CD By Bekka Bramlett - VERY GOOD

$249.52



Bekka (Bramlett) & Billy (Burnette) - Bekka & Billy - 1997 Almo Sounds - Used CD picture

Bekka (Bramlett) & Billy (Burnette) - Bekka & Billy - 1997 Almo Sounds - Used CD

$9.00




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:53 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
© 1995-2003 Martin and Lisa Adelson, All Rights Reserved