New to the pre-Rumours Mac

[BrokenWing]

I've been a Mac fan since 1987, but have only recently become acquainted with the pre-BN incarnations of the band. I'd never been a real blues fan, so I wasn't expecting to be all that impressed...but I was quite pleasantly surprised.

What surprised me even more was which songs jumped out at me. I'd heard all the superlatives used to describe Peter Green in his Mac days, and he is indeed an amazing talent, but it was Danny Kirwan's music that really grabbed me and drew me in. Is it just me, or does it seem that you hardly hear about Danny when people talk about the band's pre-Rumours incarnations? Mostly it's all Greenie the blues legend, or Jeremy's Elmore James act and 50s parodies, or Welch's California pop/rock sensibilities. Even reviews of Bare Trees, where Danny really came into his own, all you hear about are Homeward Bound and Sentimental Lady and Spare Me A Little Of Your Love. In fact, that was pretty much all Mick talked about on the album in his autobiography. I know Danny had gotten very erratic at the time and would soon leave the band under very unhappy circumstances, but it seems a travesty to write off his contribution to that album.

While the blues-era Mac sounds excellent, my favorite incarnation is the Future Games / Bare Trees Mac. There's something about the combination of Christine, Bob Welch and Danny that seems to mesh well, at least in the music, and it's shocking to hear of the personality clashes that were actually going on. But then, it does seem like the Mac produces its best music under the worst of circumstances--Then Play On (Greenie's growing disillusionment), Bare Trees (Danny's worsening mental state), Rumours (no explanation necessary). My favorite pre-BN album so far is Bare Trees. The song Dust in particular gives me the shivers, Child of Mine and the title track rock, and I'm surprised at how much I enjoy the original version of Sentimental Lady. And I can't get enough of Danny's songs from Future Games as well--Women of 1,000 Years, Sands Of Time and Sometimes. The amazing thing about his music is that, in most cases, the lyrics are really rather minimal and often not that good, but the music rocks so much that I barely notice anything lacking in the lyrics.

Incidentally, am I the only one who wonders if maybe the outcome might have been different for Danny, had more been understood about mental illness back in 1972? Sure, we had come a long way since the nineteenth century, but there's been a lot of progress in recent years, especially with medication. It just makes me so sad to think of such incredible talent wasted like that.

On another note, I've been reading through the Q & A sessions with many of the pre-Rumours members, especially the epic first session with Bob Welch. I was absolutely shocked to read about his falling out with the band. I wasn't following the Mac as closely in the early 90s, so I never knew about the lawsuit, and Mick's book had led me to believe Welch was closer with the band than any other ex-member. I'm glad it sounds like they've ironed things out somewhat, and he's at least friends with Mick again, but it makes me wonder how much of what he said in the first session is true and how much was his bitterness about the R&RHOF speaking. (On a side note, his being snubbed by the R&RHOF was a horrible travesty; one can easily argue that, say, Walker or Brunning don't merit being inducted with the Mac, but Welch was such an integral member for so long.) I guess it's not really appropriate to speculate on what each of the members are like offstage, but I was just rather shocked at Welch's characterizations of Mick, John and Christine--nothing like I'd imagined any of them. But I guess we only see a small fraction of the people behind the music from our vantage point. And aside from his comments about the English trio, I was struck by how much Bob put into that Q & A. He came across as a really nice guy, and you could tell he enjoyed conversing with the fans.

Just a few thoughts from a new convert to the pre-Rumours Mac...

BW