Quote:
Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams
Stevie said meeting Lindsey was her destiny. Christine and Mick are both in print saying that Lindsey knew the best what to do with Stevie's songs. But here the sentiment seems to be Lindsey added nothing to Fleetwood Mac that another guitarist couldn't, like Rick Vito could have done everything Lindsey did and better.
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I wasn’t really going to dignify that with a response, but since Tony responded…
So, Keith Olsen tells them Mick Fleetwood wants them to join Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey declines. Does anyone believe that Stevie wouldn’t have still elbowed her way into Fleetwood Mac, dragging along Waddy and possibly Warren Zevon?
Better? No. But still compelling.
I love Lindsey, but he gets gets a little too much credit. Keith scouted Fritz when Lindsey played bass and neither Stevie nor Lindsey were singing their own songs. Buckingham Nicks got signed because of their harmonies. Keith told them to ditch their band, start writing their own songs, and move to Los Angeles. Lindsey got mono and learned the crafts of guitar playing and producing, but Stevie honed her craft in songwriting. Who dominated the Coffeehouse Demos?
Stevie was the driving force for them moving to Los Angeles and, later, joining Fleetwood Mac.
For me, it all comes down to “Rhiannon,” because Christine had a solid body of work prior to 1975. It’s easy to hear Lindsey’s contributions to her songs, which were largely cosmetic. But the Buckingham Nicks “Rhiannon” from January, 1975 was comically amateurish compared to the legendary version we know. I could hear any bar band do something akin to the Buckingham Nicks version in any town across the country.
The Fleetwood Mac version several months later, by comparison, had elements that are steeped in the blues and numerous tours with bands like Deep Purple and Rainbow. There’s a dynamic and edge Fleetwood Mac developed with Peter, Danny, and especially Bob that went well beyond Lindsey’s vocabulary prior to 1975. They deserve great credit, too, and I think Lindsey has been all to happy to take the credit without acknowledging he couldn’t have gotten there without his bandmates.
He’s the proverbial was born on third and acts like he got a triple.