Lindsey Buckingham: C o' D?

i've seen him do the fingerpicked "big love" literally every time i've seen the mac and him solo, to the point where i'm like idk man maybe retire it and translate "murrow turning over in his grave" to solo guitar instead

jk the fingerpicked "big love" is amazing, hits every time

I remember pulling up the tab when I was 16, not having heard that version yet, and thinking I had it.

Then pulled my mom's copy of The Dance out and realized he was playing at 4 times the speed I had learned it at.

Love that piece but yea I guess it'd get old after a while!

I was bored with acoustic "Big Love" by late '97 when I saw him live -- so much so that the programmed Mac version is underrated.

Not big on synth version. I need fingers

Nah. Just one finger to program.

Plus: Arthur Baker!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfpPUsfmVO4

Yeah seeing him multiple times some of the shtickier stuff gets old, but he's still a blast to just watch and listen to.

Meanwhile, I started clicking on headlines about his divorce to see how many used some version of "going his/her own way," and the answer is all of them.

Quick reminder LB’s girlfriend during the Rumors/Tusk period wrote about his abuse in her autobiography.

My new self-titled album is one I’ve been intending to get out for a couple of years now, but on more than one occasion, unforeseen circumstances necessitated a postponement of plans. Now that we’re back in gear, I’m thrilled to finally be sharing this new music with my listeners!

In other words, "my new album is once again stuff I'd been sitting on for potential use on a new Fleetwood Mac album, but now that they've gone their own way, I'm keeping them for myself."

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, June 8, 2021 8:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

sorta assumed he was referring to his recent health issues here

I think, as a decades long master of passive aggression, that he means both health *and* getting fired by Fleetwood Mac. Hence the addition of "on more than one occasion." Ie, lest you think this was just about health, here's a bonus fuck you to FM. But certainly from "Tusk" on, every FM album has been filled out with more or less solo Lindsey tracks. Maybe not "Mirage," that one seemed to be a conscious attempt to return to a "band" album, but after saving their bacon so many times I think he had had enough after that and went into full time FM mercenary mode. Which was probably healthiest for everyone concerned, until it wasn't.

I've seen him live solo a few times, with FM once, and on that McVie tour. The differences between him solo and with the others was nominal, he just does his thing and does it well and everyone else falls in line. There's a reason both times they've had to replace him with *two* ringers. Speaking of which, that new song sounds like something Neil Finn would write ...

Yikes, divorced again? It's not like I know them, but given all the photos and upbeat messages both of them posted since his emergency heart operation, it didn't seem like a split was coming anytime soon.

And after 22 years or something right? Also sounds like she filed for divorce from him. Maybe that's why he sold his gajillion dollar Bel Air mansion. Going to get a bachelor pad.

Quick reminder LB’s girlfriend during the Rumors/Tusk period wrote about his abuse in her autobiography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-IKgoPjv00

“On the Wrong Side” is about the peaks and valleys of life on the road with Fleetwood Mac, and sports one of the album’s most thought-provoking lyric: “We were young, now we’re old / Who can tell me which is worse?” The song evokes “Go Your Own Way,” in that it’s not a happy song, subject-matter wise, but it was an ebullient song musically. This was sort of the same idea.

Not a good sign when Marc Maron looks like the healthy one:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/s1080x2048/227103336_366236324860408_8423276956210511833_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=EGvW0UC4PJYAX-IWRDx&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=37874af922b46d4615735482115259c6&oe=6107F9F8

He's 71! A pretty good 71

Fair enough. Lotta sun.

LB looks like he steps out of the shower and rides the matterhorn every morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=selaVY2iYQ0

tight

It's his best since Out of the Cradle. Melodically on-point.

i suspected it might be as much!!!

and the songs posted here aren't even the best

Dude remains an ingenious and utterly distinctive arranger.

still wish Fleetwood Mac had gotten their mitts into these lovely demos

lol, you know they would sound 90% the same, only with the occasional Christine McVie harmony or Stevie popping up on backing vocals.

Thanks for the tip Alfred - really looking forward to this now.

The hypocrisy and bitter, passive-aggressive doublespeak in the new Lindsey interview in the LA Times (that I saw incorporated into a Variety article), from all involved, is pretty hilarious. Lindsey considers himself not “as aggressive” and “less self-involved” as he has been in the past, but admits he had asked the band asked to delay its 2018 tour in order to promote his new music. Stevie claims she did not have him fired. "To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my wellbeing. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it. And after many lengthy group discussions, Fleetwood Mac, a band whose legacy is rooted in evolution and change, found a new path forward with two hugely talented new members."

So ... she fired herself and had to be talked back into the band, yet somehow she is there and Buckingham is not?

And then Azoff claims to have "been aligned with Stevie Nicks in thought and purpose from the earliest of days," whatever that means, with the delicious kicker that "while financial gain was not a motivator for me, it was a delightful bonus that the band scored their highest grossing tour ever without Lindsey.” Sure, Irv, you didn't care about the money.

So it sounds to me that:

Lindsey was his usual my way or the highway asshole self, and was willing to sacrifice monetary gain to get it.
Stevie used her position in the band as leverage to get Lindsey out and probably a bigger cut of the proceeds.
Notorious asshole Azoff probably played a role in the mess to guarantee a big payday for the 2018 tour.

Lindsey throws some bombs his other bandmates' ways, too:

Mick Fleetwood has “never quite gotten to the point where he’s financially stable all the time,” Buckingham says of the band’s namesake. “He’s been married and divorced many times. He’s just not smart with his money.”

The same theory applies to Christine McVie, whom Buckingham says sent him an email after his firing that read: “I’m really sorry that I didn’t stand up for you, but I just bought a house.” (Both she and Fleetwood declined to comment for this article.)

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-09-08/lindsey-buckingham-fleetwood-mac-stevie-nicks

I rather liked this thread in response:

This is a fascinating LA Times story by @AmyKinLA on the split b/w Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac. https://t.co/u7NRPqzrr1

I'm on Team Lindsey, but for the record he's out of his mind.

— ʙɪʟʟ ᴡʏᴍᴀɴ (@hitsville) September 9, 2021

Especially these two bits, which just makes me think of why Bruce Willis keeps doing what he does. At what point do you just not have financial planning or don't have anyone around you who does?

I'm on Team Christine, too, but what does she spend her money on?!?

The band grossed more than $100 million touring as recently as 2019.

— ʙɪʟʟ ᴡʏᴍᴀɴ (@hitsville) September 9, 2021

David Crosby has been whining about his financial situation as well. He has a mortgage to pay, he says.

Me, I can remember when CSN were pioneering the $200 concert ticket.

— ʙɪʟʟ ᴡʏᴍᴀɴ (@hitsville) September 9, 2021

Deep in the replies, this anecdote:

40 yrs ago I was a college student waitressing an end-of-tour Halloween party 4 the band. Christine unkindly told young me that my costume was "not very original." Mick hit a busboy because we couldn't serve alcohol after 02:00. It was 30 yrs B4 I could enjoy their music again.

— A Texan In Scottsdale (@WiseOldTexan) September 9, 2021

Is it in fact possible that the only sane member of the band is...Neil Finn?

would pay money to not hear any of the members of fleetwood mac talk about each other ever again

Fleetwood Mac: The Debate Tour

I forget what book it was in, but I once read a breakdown of how much basic upkeep in a giant mansion alone costs. Potentially tens of thousands of dollars a month in mortgage, heating, electric, landscaping, staff, pool maintenance, that kind of stuff. Now multiply that times several houses or properties, factor in a lifestyle that long ago outsourced the logistics of money and other boring stuff like that to accountants and managers and other yes-men leeches who know the bottom line and what it takes to maintain said lifestyle yet at the same time encourage it, and it's no wonder these big babies have so much trouble with money. The article claims Lindsey would have made $12 million on that 2018 tour, so figure everyone else in the band made something more or less similar. That's a ton of money, but I don't know how far it goes if you're bad with cashflow and impulsively buy, like, islands or castles or shit like that. (I'm looking at you, Nic Cage and Johnny Depp, you big dummies.) When was the last time any of these lunatics probably even carried a wallet?

I hate the thought of "Team Lindey."

Men are so stupid.

Lindsey even

But we must have teams or we have no identity and *cries, flails*

For all the collective bullshit John has done such a good job extracting himself that there is no Team John.

Maybe Team John is really Team Put Your Money in the Bank and Make Sound Investments.

the way lindsay acts doesn't do much to dispel the account of him being a manipulative abuser

...but I just bought a house

As someone looking into home ownership, I'd just like to say I commiserate with this excuse far more now than I ever did before. Buying a home, any home, is expensive shit in every possible way!

I daresay hanging out with Neil Finn night after night and earning money for a house sounds better than doing the same with Buckingham.

But Bill Wyman makes a good point. I'm not 1/5th of any $200 million grossing endeavor.

Or $100 million I should say

You're just not posting the right way yet!

Yeah, still learning...I'm a slow learner all right!

When was the last time any of these lunatics probably even carried a wallet?

That reminds me of my favorite Paul McCartney impression. From Dana Carvey's stand-up, probably from the '80s before SNL:

"Linda! I lost me wallet! It had a million dollars in it...I'd hate to go back to the bank and get another million."

I read somewhere that the Beatles never carried money or wallets post-Beatlemania.

Picasso never needed a wallet.

Would anything have been missed, musically, if he had just kept his distance from the band post 1988? A couple of songs on Say You Will, maybe? Plus a stronger solo career, which seems to be his focus anyway?

he should forget about FM, join forces with & write an album for little big town. it would rule....maybe even reach the charts.

xpost I think what's clear is that it's the *band* that needed him. Even "Tango," a lot of that is essentially solo Bucky, as was "Tusk." They had to lure him back (again) for the reunion, and then lured him back *again* for Say You Will, because they needed his (more or less complete) songs. As the Times article noted, his new solo album was apparently done 4 years ago, so he's just been sitting on his hands (health scares aside). No doubt had the band decided to do something in the studio they would have borrowed at least some of his solo stuff (as they did for Say You Will). Neil Finn and Mike Campbell are great, great songwriters, but there is no way this current version of FM (which is probably done, anyway) is going to write and record anything new. They're too cautious and unmotivated. That's the crux of it.