RIP Bob Welch

The second phase of Fleetwood Mac is one of those great lost periods of a band that should be more remembered than it is. Songs from that era are almost never played on the radio, a shame because many of them are just as melodic as the ones from their late 70s era.

Bob Welch essentially set Fleetwood Mac on the course it took to become massive in the late 70s. It took Buckingham and Nicks to cement the sound, but he (and Christine McVie) got it rolling.

I own both Future Games and Bare Trees from the Welch era of Fleetwood Mac. Future Games is uneven, but the title track is fantastic, sort of an older cousin thematically to Neil Young's Cortez The Killer. (And one of the few Welch-era Mac songs I've heard on the radio once in a blue moon.)

Bare Trees is pretty good from start to finish. It has the original, weirder version of Sentimental Lady on it.

But the more popular version is better and a song I have a real soft spot for. Most of his former bandmates sang background on it.

Hate to hear he committed suicide. RIP to one of rock's more underrated gems.

 

I'll agree that Welch was part of some solid and overlooked Mac album from the early 1970s. I have played "Bare Trees" start to finish quite a few times, and always liked Welch's singing on that version of "Sentimental Lady" and the wacky space-cadet track, "The Ghost."

Always thought he and Christine McVie were a well-paired vocal tandem. And yeah, those songs set the stage for what was to come when Buckingham and Nicks joined the band.

Question: why exactly did he leave The Mac? I've read before that he flaked out, and the band was all-but-washed up popularity wise by 1974, but I've also seen some legal and money battles mentioned in the online obits. Just wondering.

RIP to a good songwriter and solid singer/guitarist.

 

Ebony Eyes, what a great song. Brings back a lot of memories.

 

And same here.

 

French Kiss and Three Hearts were the type of competent but soulless albums reminiscent of Toto, probably done on cocaine fuel. On some level, hee had to occasionally look back in anger at the Mac hitting the lottery after he left. I will say that French Kiss was better than Tusk

 

I got into Fleetwood Mac during the second incarnation, with Welch as main vocalist on the Bare Trees and Future Games albums. This is a sad day for Mac fans everywhere. RIP to a much underrated talent.

 

Still holds up after 35 years.

 

Even for a band known for its chaos and revolving lineups, that period with Welch was especially chaotic. In four years:

-- Jeremy Spencer went "out for a magazine" and disappeared, later to be found with a Jesus cult.
-- Danny Kirwan's drinking got out of control, and he and Welch fought constantly until Mick Fleetwood finally fired Kirwan.
-- John McVie also was crawling into a bottle, though apparently he was a great enough player and personality to muddle through.
-- The band hired and fired, in short order, a new vocalist.
-- The band hired, and Mick Fleetwood fired, in short order, Bob Weston, Kirwan's replacement, because he was fucking Fleetwood's wife (George Harrison's sister-in-law -- those Boyd girls were always trouble)
-- As a result, Fleetwood Mac canceled a tour, and their manager put together a fake Mac to go on tour, thus resulting in a lawsuit that kept in the band on ice for a year
-- And, Welch shepherded the move to Los Angeles in order to get Warner Brothers to pay more attention to the band, all while serving as the lead singer and guitarist because of all the other guitar players that kept getting fired
-- Oh, and in their limited spare time, the band was able to put out FIVE albums.

More legal and money battles came later when Welch sued for back royalties (case was settled), and Welch was snubbed from Fleetwood Mac's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction. He had said in interviews he was tight with Fleetwood, but the two McVies had stayed kind of cold to him, even though Christine was one of the many Macs on "French Kiss."

 

I always thought Dave Stewart was better.

Another pitcher who shares a name with an underrated rock star.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the best Fleetwood Mac album – by light years – was Then Play On, which was the climax of the first Mac incarnation. It kicks ass from start to finish. And that includes the long coda of Oh Well, with that haunting Ennio Morricone-style harmonica in the lead. I've always just loved that passage.

Everything after that was anti-climactic, IMO, although the Welch years produced some good moments. I happen to be one (of the few, apparently) who believes Mick Fleetwood shook hands with the devil when he invited Stevie Nicks into the band. Her "voice" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

 

Storm Davis would have been a helluva band name.

 

Forever_Town will stalk you for that!