Beatles were more fun than Fleetwood Mac

[Paul New]

Layla never did a thing for me.

 

[fhm555]

Since when does celebrity give you a free pass to place your morals on the back shelf?

When the paparazzi quit hanging out in front of your house and you need something to spark renewed interest in someone past their creative prime and on the downward slide to obscurity?
Extra points if they are pathological attention whores who cannot exist without outside adoration.
I'm thinking of a certain wild man who dodged the draft when there was an actual war on but once he was too old to serve and was slipping into the cut corner bin, he reinvented himself as uber patriotman. It didn't do much to revive his musical career but the paparazzi were once again hanging out in his front yard.

 

[Skokiaan]

Okay... Well, none of that sounds like "fun."

You also only gave the Beatles side of the story. The Fleetwood Mac side includes:

• Peter Green did too much LSD, left the band, and spent years struggling with mental illness
• Jeremy Spencer, while on tour, said "I'm going to get a magazine" and never came back; it turns out he joined a religious cult
• Danny Kirwan developed issues with alcohol, smashed a custom Gibson before a show, then refused to go on stage, and was subsequently fired
• John McVie developed alcohol issues, which strained his marriage to Christine (keyboard player/singer) and contributed to their divorce
• Christine had an affair with the band's sound engineer, Martin Birch... who was married at the time (and later went back to his wife)
• After the divorce, she hooked up with the band's lighting engineer Curry Grant, wrote "You Make Loving Fun" about him, which of cours John had to play for years (note: she told him it was about her dog in a vain attempt to reduce some of the fighting)
• John's post-divorce tactic was to bang groupies at the band house, which Mick described as "a bordello with blacked out rooms, thick shag carpets, deprivation tanks, and a very liberal sprinkling of assorted drugs"
• Guitarist Bob Weston had an affair with Jenny Boyd Fleetwood (Mick's wife and Patti Harrison's sister), which resulted in Bob getting fired (natch) and contributed to their divorce 2 years later
• By the way, Jenny was 15 when she first met Fleetwood... Yuk
• The band's manager, Clifford Davis, then put together a completely different band and toured as "Fleetwood Mac," causing lawsuits (turns out that Fleetwood and McVie signed away the use of their names... oops)
• After the band reformed with Buckingham and Nicks, the McVies spit up; B&N were also constantly fighting; most of the band was drinking heavily and doing lots of cocaine....
• By the way, Buckingham allegedly abused Nicks during their relationship; the last time that happened, he choked

And that is, like... half the history of the band. I'm sure I missed a bunch of pre-1977 stuff too.

There is little doubt that, to the degree any such comparisons make sense, the history of Fleetwood Mac is much more dramatic and traumatic than that of the Beatles.

You left out Nicks/Fleetwood affair. Also, the Buckingham/Nicks feud got physical during Tango in the Night sessions, ten or so years after the couple split up.

 

[lizardking837]

Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen. It ended when Patti Harrison caught them in bed. John Lennon was disgusted, referring to it as "incest".

Meanwhile, Eric Clapton was hitting on Patti Harrison. She rebuffed him, causing him to turn to heroin for solace. When Patti tired of George's infidelities and obsessive Indian mysticism, she divorced George and married Clapton, initiating 10 years of alcoholic wife beating. George referred to Eric as his husband-in-law.

When George quit the band in 1969, John Lennon suggested Eric Clapton as a replacement . Eric had cut several tracks with the band including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" whereas George took numerous takes to get his part. George returned to the band and it became moot. But Clapton noted that he and George had already bonded musically, so a stint in the beatles was unlikely .

Patty was overwhelmed when she heard "Layla" which supposedly was Erics love cry to her. With the Beatles over and Clapton's star on the rise, he made his move. In 1970, he showed up at Georges house drunk and played a musical duel. George gave him the poorer guitar and amp, but Eric bested him in a 2 hour match watched by actor John Hurt.

Can someone make a movie of this?

 

[buldog5151bass]

When the paparazzi quit hanging out in front of your house and you need something to spark renewed interest in someone past their creative prime and on the downward slide to obscurity?
Extra points if they are pathological attention whores who cannot exist without outside adoration.
I'm thinking of a certain wild man who dodged the draft when there was an actual war on but once he was too old to serve and was slipping into the cut corner bin, he reinvented himself as uber patriotman. It didn't do much to revive his musical career but the paparazzi were once again hanging out in his front yard.

According to Snopes, this story is unproven.

 

[JPaulGeddy]

Difference is the Beatles didn't sleep with each other. Well, maybe.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I'm not a Fleetwood Mac fan. I throw up a bit whenever I see one of their songs approaching in the set list. In this sense, yes, The Beatles are more fun.

An ex ruined FM for me.

Aw man... I thought we had a bond.

I'm a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, although mostly for Mick and John's sake. I often wish I had a gig where we covered a couple of their tunes.

 

[fhm555]

According to Snopes, this story is unproven.

So all the press coverage and career boost he enjoyed from the anti war crowd in the first instance was just more hype to pull him back into the spotlight? Or has he always been uber patriotman?
And unproven only means a 50/50 chance it is either or. Based on the fact i read accounts of his antics at the draft board in Time, Life, and The Great Speckled Bird and heard it on the CBS Evening New at the time it supposedly happened, I'm gonna go with a 50% chance it's true.

 

[Element Zero]

Since when does celebrity give you a free pass to place your morals on the back shelf?

You must not live in the US.

 

[higain617]

IamGroot presents: Lysergic History. It's on the History Channel after Ancient Astronauts.

 

[buldog5151bass]

So all the press coverage and career boost he enjoyed from the anti war crowd in the first instance was just more hype to pull him back into the spotlight? Or has he always been uber patriotman?
And unproven only means a 50/50 chance it is either or. Based on the fact i read accounts of his antics at the draft board in Time, Life, and The Great Speckled Bird and heard it on the CBS Evening New at the time it supposedly happened, I'm gonna go with a 50% chance it's true.

Read the Snopes article. They usually are about as thorough as anyone else, and probably as objective.

 

[Alkali Ike]

Read the Snopes article. They usually are about as thorough as anyone else, and probably as objective.

It's like everything else today: If you don't like it or agree with it, it's automatically fake. That's how it works now.

 

[rodak]

I'm a Rush fan. According to the movie "Beyond the Lighted Stage", they like to sit quietly and read books after a concert. As far as I know, Lee and Lifeson are still married to the same women they married back in the 70s. Peart probably would be as well, if his wife hadn't tragically died.

My kind of guys.

 

[buldog5151bass]

It's like everything else today: If you don't like it or agree with it, it's automatically fake. That's how it works now.

No. That's why I suggested reading the article.

 

[micguy]

I'm a Rush fan. According to the movie "Beyond the Lighted Stage", they like to sit quietly and read books after a concert.

Celebrity (well, more accurately money) allows you to do whatever it is you really want to, and if it eventually involves lawyers, pay them to do your arguing for you. But I also believe that a life with fewer hobbies that necessitate interactions with lawyers is.....a better life.

 

[Alkali Ike]

No. That's why I suggested reading the article.

"I don't like what the article says. Therefore it's fake."

That's where an increasing percentage of the population is these days.

 

[Alkali Ike]

Layla never did a thing for me.

That's not what she says.

 

[MichelD]

There is not one correct statement in this entire post.

I agree. I have extensively read Beatles history and that post is full of half-truths and just plain bs.

 

[EricMordus]

What tracks were those?

That was pretty much it as far as Beatles songs go. Eric did collaborate with individual Beatles on their respective "solo" works at times before and after the official band breakup, many of which had other Beatles as well on the tracks

 

[Machiavelli]

Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen. It ended when Patti Harrison caught them in bed. John Lennon was disgusted, referring to it as "incest".

Meanwhile, Eric Clapton was hitting on Patti Harrison. She rebuffed him, causing him to turn to heroin for solace. When Patti tired of George's infidelities and obsessive Indian mysticism, she divorced George and married Clapton, initiating 10 years of alcoholic wife beating. George referred to Eric as his husband-in-law.

When George quit the band in 1969, John Lennon suggested Eric Clapton as a replacement . Eric had cut several tracks with the band including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" whereas George took numerous takes to get his part. George returned to the band and it became moot. But Clapton noted that he and George had already bonded musically, so a stint in the beatles was unlikely .

Patty was overwhelmed when she heard "Layla" which supposedly was Erics love cry to her. With the Beatles over and Clapton's star on the rise, he made his move. In 1970, he showed up at Georges house drunk and played a musical duel. George gave him the poorer guitar and amp, but Eric bested him in a 2 hour match watched by actor John Hurt.

People dont just start up heroin because a girl said no. There must have been other issues.