Bob Welch and the disappearance of Mystery to Me and Heroes are Hard to Find...

[Wendy Welch]

There have been no conflicts with Bob Welch or any members of FM prior to 2000.
So what gives. The label should be putting out his albums. Request them from Warner Brothers/Reprise if you want them released. They could have made a lot more money since Bob's death, unless Chris, John and Mick prevented them from being released. I know that Rhino wanted to do a Tribute album to Bob Welch and couldn't get permission from the other three members last fall. So take it for what it's worth. Rhino and I even had all the song titles selected for the album, when they could't get an approval from Warners and the three band members.

[Wendy Welch]

The only answer I can give you is that FM is trying to delete and break "The Chain" of the band between the years 1971 and 1975 as if it never existed You can go on all of their sites and look at the discography ob "Fleetwood Mac News" on Facebook and it is as if these years never existed and as if Bob Welch never existed. They may not like me, but Bob Welch gave his heart and soul to that band and they have treated him horrendously. He cared so much that his music would live on and about his legacy and the band members that he loved and gave so much to left him out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 15 years ago. Ask them on their sites why, even though they said "Bob saved Fleetwood Mac" and there never would have been a Stevie or Lindsey had he not moved them to LA, they don't still consider him an honorable band member and have deleted him from his rightful place in the band and have removed his musical legacy and history from the band. Please help Bob to fight for what's his due!

[Wendy Welch]

Please pray for John McVie and his family. He held such a dear place in Bob and my hearts. God bless you, John

[jjfabbsy]

Originally Posted by TheGreenBlues

I never knew that (I don't use iTunes). Let's hope as mentioned the newly released Then Play On shows the record companies that there is a market for this era and it gets on iTunes at least.

I don't understand how anything can remain out of print, particularly in this digital age with Itunes etc. It's just asking for piracy. Surely the record company can just make it available online (or via HDTracks *hint hint*), and if no-one buys it - oh well, at least they didn't print 1,000,000 CD's.

I was also shocked when I couldn't find any of the Welch era FM on Spotify, although Bob's solo work is well represented.

Would love to see a remaster of Mystery to Me as I find I am listening to that album more than any other lately.

I'll never forget the pleasant surprise when I bought the vinyl many years ago, just on a whim because I was wanting to complete my FM discography - it ended up hooking me from the start, and I feel "Why" is one of the best FM songs ever.

[applebucked]

If I had a freakin' turntable, I would have bought vinyls of those too.

[michelej1]

Radio IO, Reprise Records October 2013

http://www.radioio.com/2013/10/40-ye...mystery-to-me/

40 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Release ‘Mystery to Me’

By the start of 1973, Fleetwood Mac were in a state of flux, trying to find solid footing and an identity for the band. The recent departure of longtime guitarist Danny Kirwin led to a fluctuating lineup, with the addition of guitarists Bob Weston and Bob Welch, as well as Dave Walker, who would supply some of the vocals on Mac’s first 1973 offering, ‘Penguin.’ But the overstuffed lineup didn’t last long, and by the time sessions started for their next album, ‘Mystery to Me,’ Walker was gone, and Welch had settled into his role as frontman.

Fleetwood Mac were somewhat out of step in their homeland in 1973. A landscape of glam and prog made little room for the group’s more homespun sound. But in the U.S., things were starting to look up for the band: ‘Penguin’ hit the charts, and people began showing up at their shows.

That summer, the band started work on a new album and once again called upon producer Martin Birch for assistance. “‘Mystery to Me’ was probably the best Fleetwood Mac album since Peter Green had left the band three years earlier,” Mick Fleetwood wrote in his 1990 autobiography, ‘Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac.’ “It was atmospheric and intelligent, and we knew it was going to be a big hit.”

It was also the album that finally opened the door to radio play for the band in the U.S. “We sensed we were on the verge of a breakthrough and had another real shot at the Big Time in the U.S.A.,” Fleetwood wrote. ‘Mystery to Me’ cracked the Top 70 and eventually went gold.

Most of the songs on the album were written by Welch, with only a handful penned by Christine McVie. But they rank among her all-time best. ‘Mystery to Me’ kicks off with ‘Emerald Eyes,’ which features what would become Mac trademarks, like radio-friendly production, clean vocals and tasteful guitar work, while McVie’s ‘Believe Me’ and ‘Just Crazy Love’ could have come from the band’s first two hit records with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

But it’s Welch’s ‘Hypnotized’ that caught fans’ ears. Originally written as a raw blues, but later rearranged as a dreamlike pop song, the cut’s shuffling rhythm and smooth guitars are hard to resist. It not only netted the band some well-deserved FM airplay, the song remained in Mac’s live sets after Welch left. “I was reading about, as the lyric says, ‘a place down in Mexico where man can fly over mountains and hills,’” Welch is quoted in Fleetwood’s book. “One night I had a vivid dream that a UFO piloted by a Navajo shaman landed on out overgrown grass tennis court one moonlit night. That was the feeling that went into ‘Hypnotized’.”

Other LP highlights include the Welch-penned but McVie-sung ‘Keep on Going,’ and ‘Miles Away,’ a grooving Welch rocker. A cover of the Yardbirds hit ’For Your Love’ was a late addition to the album, but it’s given enough of a Mac stamp to fit onto ‘Mystery to Me.’ McVie’s ‘Why’ ends the album on a haunting and beautiful note, with some fine slide-guitar work by Weston, who would soon be ousted from the band because of his extracurricular activities with Fleetwood’s wife. And you thought the group’s internal drama started when Buckingham and Nicks joined?