Althouse: "But I was an integral part of that band... I put more of myself into that band than anything else I've ever done."

June 8, 2012

"But I was an integral part of that band... I put more of myself into that band than anything else I've ever done."

"It basically comes down to the fact that they don't like me anymore."

An old quote from the Fleetwood Mac member whose name you might not remember, who shot himself to death yesterday.

49 comments:

madAsHell said...: Oh, well; 6/8/12, 9:51 AM
chickelit said...: MadAsHell wrote Oh well

Wasn't that Peter Green's song?

Bob Welch was more "Hypnotized"; 6/8/12, 9:55 AM
Scott M said...: Without looking...Christie McVie's husband or Bob Welch? Just as long as it's not Mick or Stevie. I just couldn't deal with that...(lol); 6/8/12, 9:55 AM
madAsHell said...: You're probably right. I didn't research it. It was the first thing that popped into my head.; 6/8/12, 9:58 AM
chickelit said...: I think somebody fought pretty hard to keep Bob Welch's solo work off of YouTube. I say this because it used to be hard to find versions of "Sentimental Lady" for example. His work with Fleetwood Mac seems less zealously protected: Hypnotized. The song is pre-Buckingham/Nicks.; 6/8/12, 10:00 AM
edutcher said...: My sympathies, although I'm sure every successful group has its Pete Best.; 6/8/12, 10:09 AM
Barry said...: RIP.

Side note: according to the article, Bill Clinton had a 2002 presidential campaign:

"It later became the anthem for Bill Clinton's 2002 presidential campaign."; 6/8/12, 10:10 AM
Anonymous said...: Another overrated pop tart with mental problems has departed.

Good riddance. If only all leftists took the same path.; 6/8/12, 10:17 AM
chickelit said...: whoresoftheinternet said...
Another overrated pop tart with mental problems has departed.

Another ugly psyche has arrived here for us to examine.; 6/8/12, 10:20 AM
Chip S. said...: At the link:

Problems with alcohol and drugs, as well as well-publicized fights between band members, led to their breakup.

Fights are clearly the No.1 cause of breakups.

Alcohol and drugs lag well behind sex for second place.

I don't suppose there was any competition for Stevie Nicks involved.; 6/8/12, 10:22 AM
Scott M said...: I don't suppose there was any competition for Stevie Nicks involved.

Well, duh. If you were a tween or a teen male during MTV's golden era, how could you have NOT had a crush on that woman?; 6/8/12, 10:26 AM
Anonymous said...: @chicklit:

Another ugly psyche has arrived here for us to examine.

For lefties, there can be no rational dissent from their totalitarian plans. Therefore, just as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany did, dissenters must be classified as having a mental disease and thrown into mental hospitals.

You repeat history well, scumbag.; 6/8/12, 10:27 AM
Pastafarian said...: I think I once tried to buy Hypnotized on iTunes, and it wasn't available. The one Fleetwood Mac song I would pay money for, and I couldn't.

What's up with that?

I don't really want to go out and try to buy the CD. I haven't purchased a CD in 10 years.; 6/8/12, 10:29 AM
Pastafarian said...: It appears as though this filthy whore in our midst is a foul hybrid of troll and moby. Trollby.; 6/8/12, 10:31 AM
Chip S. said...: @whoresoftheinternet: You know how, when people start a remark with the phrase "With all due respect," they're about to offer no respect at all?

Well, with all due respect, your reply to chickelit was insane.; 6/8/12, 10:32 AM
ricpic said...: ...they don't like me anymore.

To which the proper response is fuck them! Learn to like yourself despite them and you won't end up a suicide.; 6/8/12, 10:34 AM
Scott M said...: "Landslide", in all of it's many, many forms, is the only Fleetwood Mac song you need. Billy Corrigan's version wasn't half-bad either.; 6/8/12, 10:35 AM
Seeing Red said...: I saw him with Dave Mason. They were both good. That is very sad.; 6/8/12, 10:35 AM
Anonymous said...: @ChipS:

chicklit is merely engaged in the same leftist argument we've seen throughout history---anyone who disasgrees with us is crazy and must be put down/"re-educated." BAMN.

The guy was a meaningless pop tart. The world's better off without him and the asinine worship people put into such pop tarts.; 6/8/12, 10:36 AM
Hazy Dave said...: I have some sympathy for people with chronic back pain. Welch apparently had unsuccessful spinal surgery, and according to the account I read, didn't want to burden his wife with caring for an invalid.

He was a talented guitarist, singer, and songwriter.; 6/8/12, 10:59 AM
bagoh20 said...: I hate suicide except when:

"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."

While it may not be everyone's choice, I can understand that reasoning. I would need to be pretty useless, and burdensome, but I would hope to have that option when I am.; 6/8/12, 11:00 AM
greenlantern said...: Typical of Stevie Nicks to do the kind and the right thing by this man in being the only one to comment and give this man his due.

The article said he got news from a medical test that his health condition would render him an invalid for the rest of his life and he could not bear to do that to his wife. Maybe it's not a good enough reason, but understandable.; 6/8/12, 11:01 AM
Pastafarian said...: ScottM: ""Landslide", in all of it's many, many forms, is the only Fleetwood Mac song you need."

A little too Nicks-intensive. I loved Stevie Nicks when I was 15, but my palate has shifted and I find her...cloying? When I start listening to that again, I might as well go whole-hog and break out the Billy Squire tapes, get my skateboard out of the attic, find an XL Zeppelin winged Icarus t-shirt, and grow my hair back down to my shoulders.; 6/8/12, 11:09 AM
Charlie said...: Why would someone shoot himself in the chest? That doesn't seem like an effective suicide strategy. Junior Seau did the same thing, as I recall.; 6/8/12, 11:10 AM
William said...: He will achieve obscurity long before the other members of the Fleetwood Mac band.....Intractable pain drives a lot of people to suicide......I've been told that the two maladies from which the psyche does not recover are intractable pain and quadriplegia.; 6/8/12, 11:11 AM
Scott M said...: A little too Nicks-intensive. I loved Stevie Nicks when I was 15, but my palate has shifted and I find her...cloying? When I start listening to that again, I might as well go whole-hog and break out the Billy Squire tapes, get my skateboard out of the attic, find an XL Zeppelin winged Icarus t-shirt, and grow my hair back down to my shoulders.

The vocals are completely secondary for me. Landslide is one of those guitar songs that's a lot like Chess. Simple as hell to learn, wonderfully complex if you want it to be. The only other song, for me personally, that comes close is Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill". Again, simple as hell to play, but it can be extremely complex in the right hands.

And both songs can be change completely depending on how emotive the singer and guitarist want them to be. Sort of like seeing every community theater groups take on Jesus Christ Superstar.; 6/8/12, 11:16 AM
Scott M said...: Why would someone shoot himself in the chest?

Because shooting yourself in the head hurts like the dickens.; 6/8/12, 11:17 AM
Jaq said...: Suicide is about punishing the living, a way of forcing them to care about you.; 6/8/12, 11:24 AM
chickelit said...: whoreoftheinternet wrote:
chicklit is merely engaged in the same leftist argument we've seen throughout history---anyone who disasgrees with us is crazy and must be put down/"re-educated." BAMN.

No, I wasn't calling for your censure--just holding the mirror up for you and you're welcome.

@bagowater: well said at 11 AM; 6/8/12, 11:37 AM
sakredkow said...: To which the proper response is fuck them! Learn to like yourself despite them and you won't end up a suicide.

Have you ever, ever, EVER not shot from the hip ricpic?

Did you read the article and make note of his health problems?

Regards.; 6/8/12, 11:50 AM
Steve Koch said...: The guy had just gotten terrible news from his doc that his spinal problems were just going to keep getting worse. His wife said that he did want her to have to take care of him when he became (remained?) an invalid.

Check out Fleetwood Mac in the Peter Green years (i.e. very early), they were an awesome band back then.; 6/8/12, 12:07 PM
Steve Koch said...: Whoops, I should have read the comments first.; 6/8/12, 12:11 PM
Alex said...: What's sad is how you can't report to a private "suicide center" where you can be put to death in a dignified fashion via IV drip while surrounded by loved ones.; 6/8/12, 12:30 PM
MadisonMan said...: I see something like I was an integral part of that band about a band that exploded after he left and I think Uh huh.

Maybe it's a coincidence that FM was more successful commercially after he left, or maybe he was in some way holding them back.

What a horrible ending to a life though. Un-ending back issues, and a feeling of being a burden. Give me a quick heart attack.; 6/8/12, 12:37 PM
ricpic said...: Have you ever, EVER not shoot from the hip ricpic?

Never. Damned proud to say the something I have to say without referencing nothing articles first.; 6/8/12, 12:46 PM
Anonymous said...: @chicklit:
No, I wasn't calling for your censure--
----of course you were. By claiming I had something mentally wrong with you and your leftist mindset. Next comes the re-education, comrade!

just holding the mirror up for you
--and yet your little Nazi soul didn't like the ugly mirror I held up for you.

Trying to shame me using vague psuedo-scientific rationale only works on the commune, baby.; 6/8/12, 1:12 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Because shooting yourself in the head hurts like the dickens.

But it's over in an instant, whereas a chest shot gives you time to reflect on "what the hell was I thinking?"

Better a lethal dose of opiates.; 6/8/12, 1:24 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Suicide is a sin, and old people are more likely to commit it than young people.; 6/8/12, 1:43 PM
LordSomber said...: I never listened to him but I felt bad because his albums were always in the cut-out bins.; 6/8/12, 1:44 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Why would someone shoot himself in the chest?

Bob Welch had an NFL career?; 6/8/12, 1:49 PM
MadisonMan said...: Why would someone shoot himself in the chest?

Clouds of Witness. Great Dorothy Sayers book.; 6/8/12, 1:55 PM
cold pizza said...: Had a friend shoot himself in the head. Funeral home had to patch things back together best they could. At least with a chest shot, they can still have an open viewing. -Cp; 6/8/12, 2:07 PM
Jeffrey said...: Maybe it's a coincidence that FM was more successful commercially after he left, or maybe he was in some way holding them back.

It's a complete coincidence. Welch in fact saved the band from complete dissolution in the aftermath of Jeremy Spencer's and Danny Kirwan's twin freakouts, and was the songwriting glue that held FM together for four years. Mystery To Me (the album with "Hypnotized," among other things) is definitely his greatest triumph, and one of the band's best albums -- it ranks with the best of the Buckingham/Nicks LPs.

Welch only left the group because he had gotten so sick of the inter-band fighting (everyone was screwing everyone else except for him, pretty much) and the legendarily insane legal struggles (look it up on Wikipedia, it's hilarious!) that the struggle was wearing on him. The timing was terrible, but he gave one major parting gift to FM, which was convincing them to relocate to Los Angeles in order to have a higher profile with their record label, Warner Bros. That, of course, is where they met Lindsay Buckingham when searching for a replacement.

I feel bad for Welch, as he should have been inducted as a core member of the group when they were put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He wasn't a mediocrity and he did the opposite of holding the group back: he helped them transition from a blues band into the pop-rockers they became famous as, during a time when nobody else in the group was carrying any weight.; 6/8/12, 3:23 PM
Scott said...: Chronically depressed people should not allow themselves to have access to firearms.

(I hope that dim screechy Moby gets bored with himself and leaves.); 6/8/12, 3:28 PM
Scott said...: Maybe Mick Fleetwood didn't like him?; 6/8/12, 3:34 PM
who-knew said...: I agree with Jeffrey. 'Mystery to Me' remains my favorite Fleetwood Mac album, by far. And Bare Tress (except for the old lady's poem) is a close second and every bit as good as the Buckingham/Nicks stuff. I can't believe they left him out of the Hall of Fame presentation.; 6/8/12, 3:37 PM
who-knew said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/8/12, 3:41 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: But I was an integral part of that band...

No you weren't.; 6/8/12, 4:24 PM
greenlantern said...: Sadly what is good is not always a commercial success and vice-versa. Nicks has proven in her work with FM and solo career that she was the main creative drive behind FM from the beginning of her tenure. She is the rare combination of good and successful. As I have become more acquainted with her character, I think she deserves all her success. 64 freakin' years old and still creating and rockin' it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPxR5LlkrWI; 6/8/12, 4:38 PM