Fleetwood Mac 2018 Reunion/Farewell Tour...

Great post. The other female rock superstar that comes to mind is Linda Ronstadt that preceded her by a little bit. Linda, however, was tired of doing the rock thing by around 1982 so she bailed to do standards, Mexican music, country, and AC.

 

The Buckingham/McVie album did debut in the top 10 on the Album Sales chart (where older/veteran acts have a fair shot at a decent ranking, even given the decline of sales- at least it's an oranges-to-oranges ranking comparison top what the albums chart had been).

I have yet to hear any of the pre-Christine McVie/Stevie Nicks material. One of these days...

 

Great post but I’d bet Stevie couldn’t act her way out of a wet paper sack.

Also, she is not a conventional singer in the least. While that’s inspiring to a lot aspiring singers, she’s also a target of ridicule for sounding like a goat. She also seems to take herself VERY seriously.

My point being is she definitely had her detractors in terms of her talent and it had nothing to do with her being a woman. I’d also agree with @bartels76 that Ronstadt preceded her in terms of being a great looking woman singing rock music and had far superior talent.

 

Linda had better singing chops but she couldn't write, so kudos go to Stevie here. Linda was great though too..

 

Yeah I didn't mention the writing as @sunspot42 didn't mention that as a criteria. I looked on Wiki and found that Linda wrote just one song in her career. Even Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, and Sinatra wrote more songs than that!

 

Yes!

I read on the PG/FM Facebook group that Danny’s ex-wife was caring for him now. I’m glad he’s in a stable and safe environment now.

Another member there ran into Mick Fleetwood who’d seen Peter a few days earlier and said that Peter was living a quiet life at home now and very content.

 

Stevie has made several refreshingly honest "I chose career over kids" comments in interviews. I've wondered if it annoys her that LB had kids late in life and can still have a busy career.

 

There's a big difference between performing existing material with your ex for a couple of hours a night and spending weeks with your ex locked in a little room working on an album of new material, and then having to do promotion of it with him for months.

 

I thought about Ronstadt, but while she sold extremely well, I never particularly thought of her as a "rock" act. I thought she always wove between rock, country and pop (and folk rock), and what she did - singing songs others composed - while she did it very well, didn't place her in the same category as a "rock" star like Springsteen, or Billy Joel, or later Tom Petty, who were all noteworthy for mostly writing and performing their own material.

Also, she never had the definitive sort of style that Nicks had. Stevie had a definite, unique look. Linda was beautiful, but I never felt she was as iconic as Nicks, and I don't think she attracted the same kind of fanatical following.

She was definitely part of the same wave of female "rockers" though, going it more or less alone or as peers with the men in a group. Carole King's massive success probably had something to do with unleashing the money to make recording and promoting many of these records possible. The labels are always, always chasing the "next" whoever.

Mostly though, I think it comes down to me thinking of Ronstadt more as a pop performer than a rock performer. I can't imagine Ronstadt performing something like "Dreams", or "Sisters Of The Moon", or heaven forbid "Edge Of Seventeen".

 

I was about to agree with you, but then recalled FM concerts where she stares longingly and lovingly at Lindsey. That's brilliant acting.

 

Peter Green is happy doing jam band kind of playing from what I can figure out.

You might enjoy the 1973 Mystery To Me album the most, lots of top drawer songs and it was just starting to catch on and getting airplay when the wheels fell off (Bob Weston being fired for spending, er, time with Mick's wife and Mick cancelling a load of booked dates, and then the manager putting together a fake Fleetwood Mac to keep those dates saying he owned their name).

Chriustine was voted best female vocalist in England a couple of times before she was officially in Fleetwood Mac. She was first with Chicken Shack (and Stan Webb) for quite awhile and a couple albums, then had her own group as the Christine Perfect (her maiden name) Band (which included original Yardbird Top Topham), they did one album and one song was by Danny Kirwan. She didn't enjoy so much travel and wanted to settle down and really didn't want to properly join Fleetwood Mac, just be Mrs. McVie, she had played on Then Play On and Kiln House, even drew the cover art for 1970's Kiln House, but Jeremy left suddenly and they really needed her to keep the group afloat (Madison Blues collection documents this period with demos and live recordings).

 

Tina Turner(Ike era) played lots of big rock fests to large audiences.

 

Meh. You're touring with the guy over the past few years. And I seriously doubt that either of them are holding on to any part of their past relationship. This isn't the late 70's or 80's

 

Tina has the same problem as Ronstadt though - not really a rock act, and didn't have the fan base (in the '70s anyhow) that Nicks had. Also wasn't writing her own material, apart from a couple of cuts. Tina was also a star in the late '60s and early '70s, so she predates this whole era.

I think you could make a good argument that Turner paved the way for R&B/rock crossover acts of the '80s though, like Prince. And of course, she had the talent to stage a truly massive comeback, probably still the gold standard for music industry comebacks. You can thank Bowie for that, too - I think he recommended EMI sign her when he was negotiating his own deal with the label. Man knew his music!

 

There's tons of bad blood there. They see each other for two hours a night, up on stage busy doing their thing. And for Nicks, I bet that's plenty.

 

It’s not acting. I think they love each other dearly. That doesn’t mean they want to write and/or record together. Those things don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

 

It's acting. I know a couple of FM/Nicks superfans - they both insist the pair can't stand each other. They just put on a front for the fans. Apart from that, they limit contact, because it seldom goes well. Another reason why Nicks probably doesn't want to cut a record with FM.

 

I was about to reply on the matter of Stevie’s voicemail then @drbryant posted this;

Landslide was the highlight of the 2013 Fleetwood Mac date I saw. Stevie’s deeper voice, Lindsey’s guitar, just magic. They may well have played it a thousand times before and for all I know might well be bored to tears of it. Entire arena was captivated though, me included. Moments like that cut through the whole FM soap opera.

Anyone who’s hearing goats in Stevie’s voice, then or now, isn’t listening.

 

I think that in large part due to the lack of high quality video footage from FM tours during their peak years, people have forgotten how good Stevie Nicks was as a live performer. Her signature live songs, Rhiannon, Gold Dust Woman and later, Sisters of the Moon, were spectacular live. Night after night, it was Stevie's numbers that were the centerpieces of the show. This performance of "Sisters of the Moon" from the LA Forum 1982 is epic. From about the 4:50 mark, she does her witch thing, followed by the speaking in tongues thing, and the crying thing - it's a compelling performance. I mean, Linda Ronstadt singing "Tumbling Dice" or "Living in the USA" is fine, but there is no way in the world she could pull this off.

 

The deal breaker for me was when Stevie stopped being able to sing that beautiful trill on "Dreams" (the "It's only me..." part-- Her single best moment as a singer). Granted, that happened pretty soon after she recorded it.

 

Yeah, I hate how she goes down on that part. Ruins the song for me.

 

I feel like people are getting the impression I’m bashing Stevie as a singer. I’m not.

Full disclosure: I don’t care for any of her solo material and have never found her the rock goddess many have, but her work on those first two FM albums are great. Even if her voice is, let’s say, unconventional it works and that’s all that matters.

But no, I’m not a huge FM fan whether it be the Buckingham/Nicks era or before. My favorite era is the Mystery to Me and Heroes with Welch. Outside maybe 10 songs, I’m not terribly familiar with the Green era (hence my clueless Kirwan comment earlier). I do have a high degree of respect for Lindsey Buckingham as a songwriter though.

 

Well, I think she only sang it like the studio version for a few months. By 1978 she was singing it lower. It doesn’t bother me that much.

 

I'd say Grace Slick was far more beautiful in her prime. She was, after all, a model. She also had a far better voice. Stevie's voice deteriorated so rapidly, probably due to all the cocaine use. Grace was also an accomplished songwriter and multi-tambourine. I believe Stevie just plays.... the tambourine??

 

for any band to last 50 years is something special, and wow did this band have its ups and downs.
I'll forever love them for caring about what they committed to tape, and it shows.
It's also amazing the fab 5 still have their chops after having such a long history. Bless 'em.