What up with that?
October 19, 2018 3:20 PM   Subscribe

Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac are fighting again.
posted by prize bull octorok (55 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
busted: Dad Rock
new hotness: Mom And Dad Are Fighting Again Rock
posted by thelonius at 3:27 PM on October 19, 2018 [31 favorites]


“Don’t Start (Thinking About Tomorrow)”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:38 PM on October 19, 2018 [6 favorites]


Well, they haven't been this entertaining since Peter Green left.
posted by evilDoug at 3:43 PM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


busted: Dad Rock

I prefer "Year 3000".
posted by biffa at 4:08 PM on October 19, 2018


I have no idea about the merits of the case, but I am currently imagining trying to do a tour with my ex boyfriend/bandmate/bass player from more than 25 years ago and singing the songs we wrote back then. Does not sound fun. I’m pretty thankful my career does not rely on my romantic choices from my twenties.
posted by frumiousb at 4:10 PM on October 19, 2018 [36 favorites]


My first thought: What's Neil Finn doing with those losers?

(Answer: topping up the retirement fund.)
posted by suetanvil at 4:18 PM on October 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


I’m pretty thankful my career does not rely on my romantic choices from my twenties.

I dunno, that’s when I picked my major.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:20 PM on October 19, 2018 [10 favorites]




Would've been cool if he showed up as part of the rival warlock coven on this season of American Horror Story.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:29 PM on October 19, 2018 [13 favorites]


Oooooooooh Weee!
posted by hypersloth at 4:32 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


You would never break the chain

(Never break the chain)
posted by clavdivs at 4:51 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Yesterday's gone
Yesterday's gone
posted by ovvl at 4:51 PM on October 19, 2018


Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
posted by ardgedee at 4:53 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Lindsey's 'Street of Dreams' has a bit of ambiance on headphones.
posted by ovvl at 5:01 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Let’s spend our autumn years playing songs about the slow-motion car crash of our relationship back in the day. What could possibly go wrong?
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:09 PM on October 19, 2018 [11 favorites]


Again? I thought it was still...
posted by elsietheeel at 5:29 PM on October 19, 2018


My pal Spooner calls 'em Meatwad Flack. The man just got it wrong.
posted by zaixfeep at 5:31 PM on October 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


The first link has a clip of them playing "The Chain" on Ellen DeGeneres' show with their new lineup, with Neil Finn replacing Lindsay. And - you know, this is the fifth time I've heard someone other than the original Rumors lineup do that song, and dammit, it simply doesn't work with anyone else. That song just needs that unique blend of long-simmering unconscious resentment circulating all through the band for it to sound as intense as I like it.

Which is heartbreaking for them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:34 PM on October 19, 2018 [15 favorites]


("It's heartbreaking for them" meaning that "it's heartbreaking that it's all their suffering that makes that song what it is".)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:46 PM on October 19, 2018 [7 favorites]


if he's still playing they should just call peter green back and see what happens - "hey, lindsey, we've found a great replacement for you ..."
posted by pyramid termite at 5:54 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I think I'm in trouble....
posted by gimonca at 6:39 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Wait, Fleetwood Mac are still together? I thought all this happened in 1990.
posted by not_on_display at 6:42 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Or, "...Neil Finn of Crowded House"? Whatever happened to Split Enz?

Oh.
posted by not_on_display at 6:44 PM on October 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


The first link has a clip of them playing "The Chain" on Ellen DeGeneres' show with their new lineup, with Neil Finn replacing Lindsay. And - you know, this is the fifth time I've heard someone other than the original Rumors lineup do that song, and dammit, it simply doesn't work with anyone else. That song just needs that unique blend of long-simmering unconscious resentment circulating all through the band for it to sound as intense as I like it.

The Chain is an anthem of pain, "fuck you" in musical form. And half the band is singing like they mean it because they lived through it, remember what it felt like & still feel some echo of that old pain but to the other half it's just just a song. No matter how skilled they are, no matter how well they hit the notes it's not their pain, they're outsiders to it.

Nicky's still as crazy as ever, every bit the wyrd-eyed witchy woman. And Mick's clearly having fun with it. It's close, very close. But no, it's not Fleetwood Mac.
posted by scalefree at 6:48 PM on October 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


I am currently imagining trying to do a tour with my ex boyfriend/bandmate/bass player from more than 25 years ago and singing the songs we wrote back then. Does not sound fun.

Does $10 million sweeten the deal any?
posted by rhizome at 6:49 PM on October 19, 2018 [12 favorites]


It is interesting that with Lindsey gone they are now free to perform things from the pre-Buckingham/Nicks era that Lindsey had refused to explore. Stevie singing "Black Magic Woman" is a perfect fit. And the new version of "Hypnotized" is actually pretty cool.
posted by Ber at 7:16 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I saw them in Iowa last week with my high school friends. My friend Chris is a long time Stevie Nicks devotee and I’ve loved Neil Finn with a pure girlish passion ever since I was twelve (I’m 50). It was a little like “you got peanut butter in my chocolate,” but “Hypnotized” was indeed a high point.
posted by Malla at 7:32 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Chain was not so good, but they sang it first and got it out of the way. Mick seemed to be having fun.
posted by Malla at 7:34 PM on October 19, 2018


Nicky's still as crazy as ever, every bit the wyrd-eyed witchy woman.

Stevie. What was I thinking?
posted by scalefree at 7:43 PM on October 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Steves Nicky?
posted by Rinku at 7:53 PM on October 19, 2018


> ...with Lindsey gone they are now free to perform things from the pre-Buckingham/Nicks era that Lindsey had refused to explore... the new version of "Hypnotized" is actually pretty cool.


Here's Fleetwood Mac in 1975 with the Rumours lineup, Buckingham singing "Hypnotized".
posted by not_on_display at 8:52 PM on October 19, 2018 [2 favorites]




A couple of decades of Stevie Nicks singing "Silver Springs" at me because she wrote the song about me might make me wanna quit, too.
I follow you down until the sound
Of my voice will haunt you
Give me just a chance
You'll never get away from the sound
Of the woman who loves you
Was I just a fool
posted by kirkaracha at 9:38 PM on October 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Last year's Lindsay Buckingham Christine McVie album (which also featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie) is so good. I really thought it was the beginning of something properly new and creative for the classic lineup, to which Christine McVie had recently returned after a long period away. It's so disappointing that things have turned out this way.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 9:39 PM on October 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Sounds like a case of he said, she said, we said, me said.
posted by newper at 9:42 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


with Lindsey gone they are now free to perform things from the pre-Buckingham/Nicks era that Lindsey had refused to explore

Oh Well has been a regular part of the Buckingham era Fleetwood Mac sets since at least the Rumours tour. When a band's had as many major hits as Fleetwood Mac and is trying to promote new stuff there's only so much any concert can cover, so going light on the songs before Buckingham/Nicks joined seems pretty reasonable.

The video linked for The Chain sounds like a cover version, and that's what it pretty much is. Finn doesn't have the same qualities as a singer that Buckingham did in how he offset Nicks' voice, for one thing. One of the more unusual qualities the band had was that Buckingham was the sharper, or more "shrill" singer, often coming in over Nicks' lower more grounded vocals.

In The Chain, for example, it's Buckingham that provides the greater emotional force to the song by his vocals "topping" those of the rest of the band to the point of feeling close to the breaking point when he gets to the "Running in the shadows" part. His guitar work duplicates that, again setting off the rest of the band. McVie's bass line and Fleetwood's drumming sets a low driving sound that's pierced by Buckingham's proclivity for high short notes on guitar. He's more of a plucker than most rock guitarists, which suited the styles of the other members well.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:57 PM on October 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


Around the time they were recording Rumours Christine McVie had an affair with the band's lighting director, Curry Grant; Christine McVie and John McVie got divorced; Stevie Nicks and Lyndsey Buckingham broke up; Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood had an affair; amd Mick Fleetwood got divorced and started dating Stevie Nicks's best friend.

Christine McVie's affair inspired her to write "You Make Loving Fun." She told her husband it was about her dog.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:12 PM on October 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


The building they recorded it in is still there in Sausalito, and it's for sale.
posted by rhizome at 10:26 PM on October 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Does anyone remember Bare Trees? Lovely album. It's pre-Nicks and Buckingham—make of that what you will.
posted by she's not there at 12:18 AM on October 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


Oh yeah, I recently bought Uncut magazine's Fleetwood Mac edition of their 'Ultimate Music Guide' series, and have been working through all their albums chronologically. That whole period between Peter Green and Buckingham/Nicks is just really poorly represented on the average Fleetwood Mac compilation, but there's some really nice 'west coast rock' throughout. Bob Welch and Christine McVie really turned out some great songs, and the band as a whole made some interesting music during the early 70s.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 1:20 AM on October 20, 2018


I have now redoubled my fitness efforts with the faint hope I will stiil be alive when the Buckingham Nicks album is finally re-released (45 years and counting).
posted by fairmettle at 4:20 AM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


They haven't been good since Bob Welsh left.
posted by chocolatetiara at 5:40 AM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Managed to see Fleetwood Mac in, I think it was 2015 when Buckingham was with them. We were far enough away that I'm pretty sure they were in the tour bus by the time we heard the music fading from the last song... but they sounded damn good.

There was a fair bit of stage chatter about "look, after all that fighting, here we are back together!" Buckingham struck me as somebody whose ego and ability were just barely even, he was very showboaty - damn good, but definitely struck me as somebody who felt that they were just a little better than everybody else on stage.

If I wasn't imagining that, I suspect that was also a part of daily life living & touring with the man. I feel a bit bad for him in that it has to hurt (financially and emotionally) to lose out on touring with a band that's such a major part of your career - but I've had co-workers like that and would not want to spend months or a year in close quarters with them.

Maybe, contractually, he's in the right - but I think it would have been better for all involved if he'd taken it gracefully and (ahem) gone his own way.
posted by jzb at 5:52 AM on October 20, 2018


What if the whole thing is a ruse? What if Stevie and Lindsey are in cahoots on this, and a year later have a big blockbuster reunion tour (again)?

I mean, this is a pretty gargantuan heap of free publicity, lots of sorting through lyrics and back catalogs and Rolling Stone articles from the eighties, looking for clues. Isn’t what any band would want at this point?
posted by newdaddy at 7:12 AM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


By 1977, the only pre-Buckingham/Nicks song that remained was "Oh Well".
posted by Ber at 7:28 AM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Hasn't been the same band since Pigpen left.
posted by sydnius at 7:39 AM on October 20, 2018 [13 favorites]


From the complaint, Buckingham seems to think this stems from him wanting to do a solo tour in the same cities as the Fleetwood Mac tour on their off nights. The band wanted to limit performances to three shows a week, and he wanted to backfill the open nights with his own shows.
posted by hwyengr at 10:42 AM on October 20, 2018


Hasn't been the same band since Pigpen left.

it's been a long time since anyone hung out before the show for a i need a miracle ticket - and now that grace is through singing ...
posted by pyramid termite at 3:05 PM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I enjoy many Lindsey Buckingham songs, but he's just so bad at self-editing. Like, I need to do my own remix of I Want You without the skeevy first 41 seconds if I'm going to have that in my playlist.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 5:53 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


We gotta get Bill Clinton re-elected, quick!
posted by not_on_display at 6:00 PM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Lindsey, I think, never got over that he was the one asked to join the band; he's the one who said, not without my girlfriend, too; he's the one who in the studio developed the band's new sound and fleshed out Stevie's compositions into the hits they became - and yet, Stevie was the one who became the big star and the face of Fleetwood Mac.

The resentment and outright rancour was musically inspiring but made the work environment very difficult. Physically attacking Stevie onstage didn't earn him any points with the band, either.

And now the band is at the stage in its career where making new records is irrelevant. The profit is now in touring, the fans come to hear all the old songs, and the band is fine with that. They also realized that since they don't plan on making new records, they don't need Lindsey like they did before. Which means they don't have to put up with him any more.
And Stevie, who bore the brunt of Lindsey's ire, gets to call the shots.

So: goodbye Lindsey, we don't need you anymore, and we haven't wanted you around for a long, long time.
posted by Lunaloon at 8:29 AM on October 21, 2018


I wish my new home was their old Sausalito studio. I'd love to sleep overnight in the studio where Stevie Nicks put down the freaky howls for the end of Gold Dust Woman.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:29 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I wish my new home was their old Sausalito studio

To be sure, it wasn't their studio per se, it was The Record Plant (III), and a whole shedload of big-name music was recorded there.
posted by rhizome at 9:48 AM on October 21, 2018


Physically attacking Stevie onstage didn't earn him any points with the band, either.

Hold up WHAT.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:38 PM on October 21, 2018


This is insane.
posted by homunculus at 10:56 AM on October 23, 2018


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