[face of glass]

Originally Posted by chiliD

...he JOINED Fleetwood Mac...a band with a history, maybe it didn't have the success of what they were to achieve with him, but still they had a history and a fairly decent fan base...and a fan base in which many were alienated by Lindsey's lack of respect.

Most of that fan base was alienated because the Rumours line-up were pidgeonholed to be soft-rock, or lite-pop, or whatever (which I think was inaccurate; listen to any live recording from 1979-82 in its entirety and that assumption is proven to be mostly wrong). A significant number of fans had already deserted ship after the departure of Peter Green (Kiln House may have sold well, but the albums released between 1971-74 initially didn't) so surely Lindsey's "lack of respect" isn't responsible for all of that.

You've seen a few quotes of Lindsey appreciating Then Play On and "Oh Well" throughout the years (a search at BLA finds some of them anyway). Unlike you, I do not see him showing a complete disregard to the past of Fleetwood Mac.

Big contradiction in logic: If Lindsey doesn't want to be in a cover band, then why is he recording Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, & Donovan tunes? Gee, those are "covers"? Why not "cover" (although I'm not in total agreement of even my own usage of the term in this case) Fleetwood Mac songs while touring as a member of Fleetwood Mac??

In my opinion he did very new twists on "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", "Here Comes The Sun" and "Try For The Sun", they are atmospherically unlike the original versions and that's how Lindsey usually communicates through his music; with all those atmospheres that he achieves through his layering of various tracks.
About the Rolling Stones songs, I guess I can give you that one (although we still haven't heard all of "I Am Waiting"), those aren't changed too much from their original beginnings. But it's not certain how many of those he would have even wanted to release; the tracklist of GOS that David first received contained THREE of them and that seemed very excessive on a single album. But then we don't know if some of the songs on the tracklist were just suggestions; after all, 17 tracks is a lot for a single album.
Now considering things like "Hypnotized"; most fans seem to think that Lindsey doesn't sound right doing the song and they consider it Bob Welch's property. I agree with that, and therefore I understand why Lindsey wanted to drop it; he couldn't add anything that was significantly his own to the song, and therefore it's not the same case as with those Dylan/Donovan/Harrison covers, which he totally makes his own, IMO. And I'd rather hear an "Oh Well" from 1969-1990 (I haven't unfortunately heard an entire Time tour bootleg) than a lackluster "Oh Well" from 1997-2004, period. If he feels he can't add anything of importance to "Oh Well" anymore, it is his right to leave it in peace.
And as to the band dropping "Oh Well" from the setlist, I still don't think Lindsey is all to blame; I think the band has been alienating itself from its past for a long time to come anyway. It plays the songs in its setlist that have always been the most easily negotiable between the members; it takes a lot of concrete to be shifted in order for them to bring an old classic back into play. Rick Vito and Billy Burnette could do it, but then Rick probably joined them on the condition of getting to play some Peter Green-era songs (furthermore, how come I haven't seen you complaining of the 1987-1995 tour line-ups ignoring WELCH-era songs? It's not like they were in bad blood all that time, were they?), after all that is his favourite period of Fleetwood Mac.

I'll just bet Lindsey would LOVE to be considered a member of an OLDIES band.

You seem to think that Lindsey of the '70s has the same mind as the Lindsey of now. Maybe he had a problem with being in an oldies act before, but now he doesn't seem too bothered by it; I'm sure he is well aware of how nostalgic the band is these days and is even somehow perversely enjoying it.