ex Fleetwood Mac-er Bob Welch

yes

he's a songwriter/session player in nashville now or was a few years back when a friend met him there.

lol, pretty fun song though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnJOsfalSYs

here's Outskirts. so amazing http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/Outskirts.mp3

welch kinda looks like Jame Gumb : \

title of "ebony eyes" comes not from the verse or chorus but from a weird bridge that pops up about 2:20 into the song, when it otherwise seems like it's over. trying in vain to think of another song that fits that pattern, though i'm sure there are a bunch out there.

is that valerie bertinelli in the video?

picked up Future Games the other day, title track is so good. really digging the kirwan/welch lineup of FM </beardo>

are the 2(?) records after kirwan got axed but before Buckingham/nicks arrived decent?

are the 2(?) records after kirwan got axed but before Buckingham/nicks arrived decent?

There's three actually. Mystery To Me is the winner for having "Hypnotized" and a couple of good Christine songs on it. Penguin is OK and I honestly can't remember a single thing about Heroes Are Hard To Find.

Heroes Are Hard To Find - that's the one that came out right before the 1975 Fleetwood Mac LP, right?
Well I remember how I heard them both for the first time just a few years ago, and how I (to my considerable surprise) found Heroes Are Hard To Find a much more interesting rekkid than the certainly more lauded '75 alb with Lindsey & Nicks. The latter, to be frank, still sounds to me rather dull...

Heroes are Hard to Find predates an interesting part of Fleetwood Mac's history. Two Bob's -- Weston and Welch left and the band fell apart. The manager signed Mick Fleetwood on, with a reconstituted band including ringers who would later be Stretch, for a tour of the US. Fleetwood didn't show for the first date and then pulled out. The manager just replaced him and put what was effectively a Fleetwood Mac tribute band on the road as Fleetwood Mac. For many of the shows, fans didn't seem to know.

Eventually one of the rock magazines, probably Rolling Stone, got wind of it and blew the whistle, ending the tour.

The ringers went home and after a year or two of hiding out put together Stretch. Stretch's only chart action was a single, "Why Did You Do It?", off their first album, aimed at Mick Fleetwood and the fake FM biz.

The Stretch members were Elmer Gantry, who from a distance was supposed to be "Bob Welch" and Kirby, who played the part of "Bob Weston."

Mystery to Me absolutely recommended, especially for anyone who likes a more rocking FM. Personally it's probably my favorite album of theirs these days. Heroes Are Hard To Find isn't the dud I've seen it described as, but it's not a classic. Penguin is pretty forgettable, unless I've missed something.

Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me

just discovering french kiss and three hearts for the first time and finding a handful of pretty good glammy/bubblegummy moments, like "hot love, cold world," as well as the disco nuggets noted above.

but mostly wanted to post about the awesomeness of following up this album cover

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Bob_Welch_-_French_Kiss.jpg

with this one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/3hearts.jpg

Church from Three Hearts is awesome. Sometimes he really sounds like Steve Miller

cant believe no ones mentioned his website - http://www.bobwelch.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7urR1xFH3k

http://www.bobwelch.com/new_philosophical_ramblings.htm

Very sad news:

http://www.wkrn.com/story/18730944/former-fleetwood-mac-member-bob-welch-dead

ugh what a bummer. only recently got into his era of the mac, but really enjoyed it.

fuck.

i posted this to a fleetwood mac thread the other day, sweet 1971 clip of Bob Welch era F-Mac

this clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKrA-Z68Cs&feature=related

Sad but weird. I was just thinking about him yesterday.

Still don't own a one of those mid seventies Mac records.

they're good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUxCzEhLQY

yeah I dismissed solo Bob Welch in the late 70s as too slick but he forged his own style and it's aged surprisingly well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5auuDqHA_lU

Still don't own a one of those mid seventies Mac records.

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:11 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

re this, they are not currently available via itunes, amazon mp3.

this really sucks
Title track of future games is top 5 fm songs for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3SqYMgKhsk

ALL TIME

should be more Paris love on here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GcptsQFsc8&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LTybSLLoBk&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjQKESka-BY&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4Tq5K4SXs&feature=related

sorry! i just really like the Paris albums. but i like the solo albums too. and the mac albums.

i kind of admired welch's willingness to write original songs called "sentimental lady" and "mystery train."

never heard those paris albums! will be digging in.

These Paris tracks have a definite Zep lean. Haven't figured out if it's in a good or bad way yet.

'hypnotized' is all-time

RIP, and btw ILM, Tusk pales in comparison to Mystery To Me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/bob-welch-dead-fleetwood-mac-gunshot_n_1579166.html?ref=entertainment&ir=Entertainment

very very sad. RIP BW.

I could have sworn he died last year ...

Oh, wait, that was Bob Weston.

Helen Daniels effect

My local paper allowed a rare self-published obit, by Howard Cohen. From what I've heard about the Welch years this is OTM:

Welch’s sound — polished, radio-friendly yet moody and bewitching on songs like Sentimental Lady, Future Games and Emerald Eyes allowed the band to sell a steady 250,000 copies per album, good enough to keep the members signed and on the college touring circuit. More importantly, Welch helped Fleetwood Mac develop its distinctive male-female vocal blend that would prove formidable when Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham replaced him on New Year’s Eve 1975, after he quit.

In that respect, Welch joined Peter Best as rock’s unluckiest man. Best, of course, was the Beatles’ original drummer who toiled in obscurity with the pre-Fab Four before Ringo Starr’s arrival. Within a year of Welch’s departure, Fleetwood Mac hit No. 1 in America in 1976 with an eponymous album.

From that Fleetwood Mac LP, Nicks’ signature smash Rhiannon, which she always introduced on stage as “a song about a Welsh witch,” was a clear extension of Welch’s fascination with the otherworldly — UFOs, strange disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle off the coast of Key Biscayne and ghosts.

Nicks agreed to join Fleetwood Mac, she said, only after listening to Welch’s albums with the group and finding a common mystical thread that she could hear herself fitting into.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/07/2838184/former-fleetwood-mac-guitaristsinger.html#storylink=cpy

Aw:

Welch’s fame was short-lived. Subsequent albums didn’t sell, and he had a falling out with Fleetwood, later suing his old band mates for back royalties. Welch believes this was one reason for his omission from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 when Fleetwood Mac members who were in the band before and after him were inducted.

“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thing hurt my feelings, naturally,” Welch said in a 1999 online interview. “Mick (and John McVie and Chris) associate Peter Green with the high flying glory days of their youth, when FM was first breaking out in Europe. They associate Stevie and Lindsey, naturally enough, with the most glamorous, successful and exciting period in FM’s history. They associate my five years with the band, in contrast, with a very difficult time emotionally, which it was. Even though the band survived because of what we went through in that period, it’s not pleasant to think about for them, and so they don’t think about it and pretend it doesn’t exist.”

That's awful. They let the band decide who goes in? I would think that'd be left entirely in the hands of an induction committee (or voting board...whatever), precisely to preempt such grudge-settling. Not that rock and roll bands are ever afflicted with grudges.

From Future Games to Hypnotized to Sentimental Lady, loved his voice a ton. RIP.

Future Games, Mystery to Me and Bare Trees are my fave FM albums bar Tusk — slightly uneven but often gorgeous records. Sad news.

Bob Brunning died October 18 2011
Bob Weston died January 3 2012
Bob Welch died June 7 2012

and then of course i think of the other bob weston when you say bob weston.

Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association, quoted his wife Wendy as saying Welch had spinal surgery three months ago and doctors told him he would not get better, and he did not want her to have to care for an invalid.

"Sentimental Lady" was already a shoe-in for my FM ballot. Side 2 of "Bare Trees" is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXcKxJBBDYU

Future Games is a timeless beauty of an LP. RIP.

so yeah, Weston death not "last year", but very much this year -- January.

Two suicides from the 'Mystery to Me' era within months -- one by gunshot, one by alcohol

so sad when you watch how electric that 'Midnight Special' bit is

That's awful. They let the band decide who goes in? I would think that'd be left entirely in the hands of an induction committee (or voting board...whatever), precisely to preempt such grudge-settling. Not that rock and roll bands are ever afflicted with grudges.

Here's an interesting article on the whole Hall of Fame thing and some background on the voting process.

I just looked at his website for the first time. Between the ugly layout, the "ARTAGRAPHIC 3D HAND SIGNED FRENCH KISS COLLECTIBLES ...HEY ,IT'S BETTTER THAN BEING IN THE %&%## RNR HALL OF FAME" and the fact that he recently self-released Bob Welch Sings The Best Songs Ever Written ("Alfie," "Moon River" etc.) I'm really feeling for the guy. Add in his obsessions with UFO's and his rants on the music industry, and the whole thing just humanizes him (if that's the right word) in a way I'm having a hard time coming to grips with. Then to learn that he ended his life, facing some sort of paralysis after spinal surgery, I'm just gutted... Hope he's found a safe harbour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a4Kejk97uM

christ that website is nuts, totally unreadable.

it might actually be the most poorly designed website i've ever seen.

2/3 of the links are broken, there's a lot of black text on black backgrounds, he appears to using frames in part of the page but not all of it, blinking text, etc. it seems that when it occurred to him to add something to his site, he simply added it to the page without regard to where it is, if there's a subject heading, etc...

ickensPlan: The Plan T. Boone Pickens is an oil billionaire ; check out his plan..

pickensplan.pdf...not quite as RADICAL as "zero-point" energy...but we NEED to do it too !

http://www.theorionproject.org/en/ Want 10$ gas in 10 years ??? NO ?=The Orion Project FREE ENERGY NOW ! Watch Steven Greer's video introduction

ORION PROJECT BREAKING NEWS 10/29/08 IF THIS IS TRUE......!!! ..WOW !!

DECISION BRIEFING.."FREE ENERGY"

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0608/how-cover-works.html (paste link into browser)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3975546396136405829 ..Great Nick Cook video(author of "The Hunt For Zero-Point Energy") ; "Billion Dollar Secret"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-286184459501486399&q=&hl=en Another Anti-gravity presentation....a little "dry", but well worth watching

What's inspiring me right now musically ; ( click link ) the incredible John McLaughlin w/Johnny Carson's big band..amazing ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6HDUKBbzE

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0508/pinon.html CHECK OUT THIS LINK

http://ufohastings.com/ (Robert Hastings....a serious UFO researcher's site)

poor guy seemed like a mess. :-(

i really like those welch-period mac albums.

http://www.bobwelch.com/crazywhite.gif

ah, c'mon. Just becase he does his own website uploading?

have you looked at that website????

and he's dead.

That clip above with the Peter Green cheese anecdote reminds me so much of an old friend of mine, funny, intense, and yeah, a little crazy.

I had never seen or heard this Kirwan/Welch era Mac tune before today. Shimmery and beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsH7mVmFBec

some of the christine mcvie songs from this era are all-time.

Bare Trees is a fucking lovely record. Their finest start-to-finish album of the 1971-1974 era Mac for me. Amateurist otm about some of Christine McVie's songs from this era being very good indeed; it's not like her songwriting just appeared fully formed on the 1975 self-titled release, she'd already hit the target more than once or twice before then!

i'm partial to this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwpE42bkfj8

Everybody in this thread vote in the F.Mac ballot poll coming up!

So if forced to choose one of these Mac-associated hits from the late seventies which would it be:

John Stewart - Gold
Kenny Loggins - Whenever I Call You "Friend"
Bob Welsh - Sentimental Lady

"Gold" is a masterpiece, the other two are good but John Stewart all day

Agreed!

in case anyone's interested, just posted a welch-era live-in-the-studio thing over here: http://ow.ly/bsxpw

this album is regarded as one of the mac's lesser efforts but this is an absolutely booming xtine mcvie track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L66GYO73DLY

Sentimental Lasy just popped up on my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify – which sent me off looking into Bob.

Not sure it's been mentioned here yet but "Emerald Eyes" is terrific, the chorus has the most amazingly tight harmonies and this great loping piano groove.

sweet guitar solo too

Should've known Seward would rep Paris on here. Just got their s/t and it's a blast. Kind like later Zeppelin but more fun.

Alright, that's a dumb comparison, it's just a kickass fun hard rock album. Check out "Nazarene" man.

Since the Mac stuff is now on Spotify, I’d recommend this playlist to the uninitiated:

https://open.spotify.com/user/congainnautica/playlist/6HiN2LtXjN196BJ1bUxygi?si=TWq4k2kZTSOYdFl0ucrQ5A

This...was a thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM_9nfDMzE8

SENTIMENTAL LADY, a poll

I am glad this was already addressed (including the inevitable Mardones connection).

That video is awesome. He and that (sentimental) lady are really macking down, when his big cigar isn't getting lit.

Self-promotion alert: I did a vocoder version of this as part of my #SadRobotCovers when I first discovered this song about 3 1/2 years ago. Came out pretty well. Found here: https://soundcloud.com/the-me/sentimental-lady

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZIgHEnC5qY