'Musician Magazine' -'Last Tangos, New Beginnings' (Feb. 1989)

[greendaze5]

Cover teaser: How Fleetwood Mac Fired Lindsey Buckingham

Uploaded to here.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading (and hopefully enjoying) these trips down memory lane.

Note: This was written by the late music journalist Timothy White, who also did the Rolling Stone Magazine cover story on Stevie Nicks in 1981.

[Macfan4life]

Thanks for posting. I never read this before so I really enjoyed it. When I see You again was supposed to be the closing song on Tango but Chris and Lindsey thought the song was too depressing
We were discussing Dennis on the sad song thread and this article mentions how he moved in with Chris in 1978 and took advantage of all her wealth. Article mentions she spent 28 days in rehab but fails to mention she left 2 days early because of how much she hated it. Surprised at how much fan mail she got at Betty Ford since many did not know did not know about it and she left early.
I had forgotten about the meeting at Stevie's house in July 1987 to talk and plan the tour a month before Lindsey left.

[Nathan]

WOW.

So much in this...

Le Dome looks like it closed in 2007.

Clementine's; I'd heard this before but hadn't looked it up. Not much out there on this place. It is interesting that it appears there was one in Beverly Hills, as well as one in Palo Alto. I wonder if she began working at the one in BH because she was familiar with the one in PA.

I'd never heard her described as "inattentive" as a teenager before.

I liked the bit about her keeping a guitar at the foot of her bed. I wonder if she still does that.

I didn't know the sequence of events from early meetings to LB finally quitting. The bits of the interview with her that the article opened with, describing her semi-circular, ivory leather couch...and her storming around her art-nouveau decorated mansion were fascinating.

I didn't know SN was a Judy Collins fan.

Good long read here. THANK YOU OP.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Thanks for posting. I never read this before so I really enjoyed it. When I see You again was supposed to be the closing song on Tango but Chris and Lindsey thought the song was too depressing
We were discussing Dennis on the sad song thread and this article mentions how he moved in with Chris in 1978 and took advantage of all her wealth. Article mentions she spent 28 days in rehab but fails to mention she left 2 days early because of how much she hated it. Surprised at how much fan mail she got at Betty Ford since many did not know did not know about it and she left early.
I had forgotten about the meeting at Stevie's house in July 1987 to talk and plan the tour a month before Lindsey left.

Really good article. That bit about the closing track on Tango was interesting. Imaging if it had been What Has Rock & Roll Ever Done For You!

Didn't she leave her 1990s rehab stint early too?

[bwboy]

I used to have this magazine, so it was nice to be able to read this article again. This is how I always knew the specifics of the 1987 tour, and how Lindsey DID in fact agree to tour, only to back out at the last minute, after dates had already been set.

I’ve often wondered, if Lindsey had toured with them, if it might have been a better experience than the recording of Tango. By the time the tour began, Stevie was off cocaine and Mick’s drug use had subsided. Surely those two things alone would have made for a better working relationship. I certainly don’t fault Lindsey for leaving when he did, even though I was devastated at the time. He clearly didn’t enjoy recording Tango because of all the crap going on, and probably thought a tour would have been more of the same. And by leaving, he finally got to concentrate on his solo career.

Also, for all those folks who claimed Stevie ALWAYS wanted Lindsey gone from FM- well, this article makes if clear how false that was.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Didn't she leave her 1990s rehab stint early too?

Yes, so that she could do the Inauguration.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Also, for all those folks who claimed Stevie ALWAYS wanted Lindsey gone from FM- well, this article makes if clear how false that was.

Oh, SHE HATES HIS GUTS, just not his talent.

That's why she asked Mike Campbell to play more like Lindsey.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by bwboy

I used to have this magazine, so it was nice to be able to read this article again. This is how I always knew the specifics of the 1987 tour, and how Lindsey DID in fact agree to tour, only to back out at the last minute, after dates had already been set.

I’ve often wondered, if Lindsey had toured with them, if it might have been a better experience than the recording of Tango. By the time the tour began, Stevie was off cocaine and Mick’s drug use had subsided. Surely those two things alone would have made for a better working relationship. I certainly don’t fault Lindsey for leaving when he did, even though I was devastated at the time. He clearly didn’t enjoy recording Tango because of all the crap going on, and probably thought a tour would have been more of the same. And by leaving, he finally got to concentrate on his solo career.

Also, for all those folks who claimed Stevie ALWAYS wanted Lindsey gone from FM- well, this article makes if clear how false that was.

Lindsey had made the decision to leave the band during the making of Tango. With all the crap Mick and Stevie put him through he was silent on his desire to tour when the album was released. How do we know this? Christine said that the band knew Lindsey was going to leave. They did not know he would leave how he did but they knew he was leaving. Chris stated her song Little Lies was partly about Lindsey being coy. The little lies were that he was never committing future plans with the band. The lyrics of that song pretty much explain how Lindsey was breaking apart from the band. His mistake was being coy for too long. As the article suggested, any tour should have been in the works for 6 months before the release of the album. But Lindsey was silent until confronted.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Yes, so that she could do the Inauguration.

You are right most of the time around here but this is not correct. The inauguration was in January 1993. Stevie crashing into her fireplace and banging her head did not happen until months later when Street Angel was mostly finished. Her rehab was not until much later that year.

[vermicious knid]

Good article.

I had thought that Lindsay reneging from the 1987 tour was something he only revealed at the infamous meeting at Christine's house, prompting Stevie to jump up and attack him in a passion of the moment. But this makes it clear that the outburst was much more premeditated. She found out by phone call in Phoenix, and had to fly to Los Angeles for the meeting where they already knew what he would be saying. The timeline of events (and her hot-tempered quotes at the beginning of the article) make it clear that she was preparing to unleash some fury!

I had never read about Christine's mother supposedly curing a woman's leukemia with her supernatural powers.

I'm surprised that the parody album from 1969 that John mentions has never been released, as it seems like every bit of recorded material from those early years has been so thoroughly exploited.

I also noticed Stevie saying about her 1986 Betty Ford stay that "I have not had a drink or anything else since I left". Which is surely not true since her stated reason for going to the doctor who put her on Klonopin was that her friends were worried she was replacing cocaine with alcohol, and she was already on Klonopin by 1989.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by vermicious knid

Good article.

I had thought that Lindsay reneging from the 1987 tour was something he only revealed at the infamous meeting at Christine's house, prompting Stevie to jump up and attack him in a passion of the moment. But this makes it clear that the outburst was much more premeditated. She found out by phone call in Phoenix, and had to fly to Los Angeles for the meeting where they already knew what he would be saying. The timeline of events (and her hot-tempered quotes at the beginning of the article) make it clear that she was preparing to unleash some fury!

I had never read about Christine's mother supposedly curing a woman's leukemia with her supernatural powers.

I'm surprised that the parody album from 1969 that John mentions has never been released, as it seems like every bit of recorded material from those early years has been so thoroughly exploited.

I also noticed Stevie saying about her 1986 Betty Ford stay that "I have not had a drink or anything else since I left". Which is surely not true since her stated reason for going to the doctor who put her on Klonopin was that her friends were worried she was replacing cocaine with alcohol, and she was already on Klonopin by 1989.

yeah Stevie is not the reliable narrator she pretends to be. She also says in this that Whole Lotta Trouble is like one of her great songs (could have been, but wasn't and not because of Mike Campbell's music but because of her repetitive lyrics), and she also claims that she changed the words to Seven Wonders in a way that just changed the whole song for everyone. Really? She changed one word, and it changed nothing about the song.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

yeah Stevie is not the reliable narrator she pretends to be. She also says in this that Whole Lotta Trouble is like one of her great songs (could have been, but wasn't and not because of Mike Campbell's music but because of her repetitive lyrics), and she also claims that she changed the words to Seven Wonders in a way that just changed the whole song for everyone. Really? She changed one word, and it changed nothing about the song.

She's an idiot.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by vermicious knid

I'm surprised that the parody album from 1969 that John mentions has never been released, as it seems like every bit of recorded material from those early years has been so thoroughly exploited.

I think it was the companion EP that was supposed to be released with TPO. The songs were released on Vaudeville Years.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

yeah Stevie is not the reliable narrator she pretends to be. She also says in this that Whole Lotta Trouble is like one of her great songs (could have been, but wasn't and not because of Mike Campbell's music but because of her repetitive lyrics), and she also claims that she changed the words to Seven Wonders in a way that just changed the whole song for everyone. Really? She changed one word, and it changed nothing about the song.

That caught my eye, too. Have we actually heard the Sandy Stewart version though? How do we know it wasn't more different than just Emmaline?

[soul_drifter333]

Thanks for sharing this article. I guess the magazine wanted to sell more copies so the headline reads "How Fleetwood Mac Fired Lindsey Buckingham". It clear that Lindsey left of his own free will due to the toxic relationships and substance abuses of the members and was not fired. From what I can tell Lindsey didn't request anything from the band to stay, he just wanted out. Furthermore, he did get the last laugh as Stevie suggests he wouldn't when BTM flopped. I was a big fan then and the TITN tour did well because the band was still popular. It was the 1st FM show I went to and I remember the radio station mentioned that Lindsey wouldn't be there, which I though was odd and I was dispapointed. But the show was great and it allowed the band to continue...for a little while longer. I think that Stevie took it personally because she knew she really put Lindsey through it as well as he did to her. Her drug addiction, rehab, affair with Mick, success of BD, and her being absent for most of the TITN recording definately contributed to the band's demise.
To me, Mirage was weak and the Mirage tour was disjointed, so the writing was already on the wall. TITN is my least favorite album from the lineup. Altough the bonus disc on the deluxe edition had some good stuff on it.