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I never realized John Mcvie was so good

#161
Thor said:
Does he have any biography in print? I'd love to hear his side of his years with FM.

And the back story about working with John Mayall. Since he and Mick are among hundreds fired by Mayall, it's got to have some interesting moments.
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IIRC, Fleetwood and Peter Green walked out on John Mayall to found FM, but McVie either was still unconvinced or opted to make the transition more gradual for his long-time boss (he'd been on board since Mayall's first album) - either way, he lingered on for the Crusade record (while the Mac-less Macs recorded their first sessions with Bob Brunning on bass). Yet another example of his class. Great taste in women to boot, at least in the one case I'm aware of and alluding at...
But yeah, I'd love to read about his experiences with the B-Breakers (sounds hippier like this, in a vintage way).

EDIT: oops, it appears Mick did get the sack from Mayall after all. The other two guys did quit on their own accord, giving appropriate notice aforehand (unlike others in BB history).
 
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#163
20 years ago today, Fleetwood Mac released "Time". Mostly regarded as a commercial disappointment, there are a couple gems within. McVie plays as sparsely as ever in this tune... exactly what the song needs, and very little else.



For the Peter Green fans among us, I'm pretty sure that's who Mick is referring to in this song.



Band personnel on this album were, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Billy Burnette, Bekka Bramlett, and Dave Mason. (yeah, *that* Dave Mason)
 
#164
Playing my fretless last night while listening to Pandora, two FM songs came on, both Christine McVie songs.

I noticed the "You Make Lovin' Fun" is tuned a bit sharp. Quite handy to have been playing fretless at the time, I was able to adjust immediately. I went to YouTube and compared a live version - not sharp.

"Say You Love Me" also came on, and that's not sharp.

So I wonder what the deal is w/ the first one? Perhaps the sped the tape up a bit at mix time, wanting to increase the tempo just a bit?

As for the bass playing, lots of fun. Never paid much attention to him or FM as they were just "always there" in my youth and a bit "soft" for my tastes at the time.

He keeps things really simple during the verses, then seems to like to mix it up a bit during the chorus and outro. Cool. Great tone too.
 
#165
JMacBass65 said:
Playing my fretless last night while listening to Pandora, two FM songs came on, both Christine McVie songs.

I noticed the "You Make Lovin' Fun" is tuned a bit sharp. Quite handy to have been playing fretless at the time, I was able to adjust immediately. I went to YouTube and compared a live version - not sharp.

"Say You Love Me" also came on, and that's not sharp.

So I wonder what the deal is w/ the first one? Perhaps the sped the tape up a bit at mix time, wanting to increase the tempo just a bit?
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Some bands like the Beatles did this intentionally. They would play back a backing track at a slower speed and lay down vocals in a lower key then play it back at normal speed. They liked how it changed their voices.

Other times the recording is sped up during mastering - usually by mistake, such as original pressings of Billy Joel's debut album. I had a mid-80s pressing of Who's Next that played way too fast.
 
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#167
McVie_Godin.jpg
McVie_Godin2.jpg
Caught these pictures of McVie from Australian media. Judging by the reviews, their tour seems well received in the Land Down Under.

@BAG - looks like John has a trans-white Godin Shifter too, with a tort pickguard! :thumbsup: :woot:
 
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#169
I love Fleetwood Mac. I was just becoming really aware of music when Rumors came out. Pretty much hit after hit off that thing. It wasn't till the mid eighties that I learned more about FM and their history only to shockingly, at the time, discover they had started out as a blues band (not blues rock as someone earlier said)! I went out and grabbed several of the earliest albums at used record shop and after I got over the shock of how great this cat named Peter Green that I'd never heard of was, I got really intrigued by McVie's bass playing. Kind of dove into it all the way from early to the later radio stuff that I grew up on.

Fleetwood Mac is all about evoloution. Blues band to ethereal stuff with Bob Welch to one of the most successful pop/rock bands of all time. All seemingly driven by their horrendous luck with guitarists! Quite a thing if you think about it.
 
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#170
EdwardofHuncote said:
View attachment 723228 View attachment 723229 Caught these pictures of McVie from Australian media. Judging by the reviews, their tour seems well received in the Land Down Under.

@BAG - looks like John has a trans-white Godin Shifter too, with a tort pickguard! :thumbsup: :woot:
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Thanks for that Ed. Haven't seen these before. Haven't seen a white shifter before either.
I would love to have gone to one of their shows but the prices are just stupid expensive. Would have cost me over $200 for a basic ticket and then i'm looking at 5 hours travel each way, accommodation etc. I had a look at tickets the other day and the cheapest left was over $400 :eek:

I was spoiled as a youngster. I worked as a roadie for some of the top Aussie acts in the late 80's and early 90's and if I wanted to go to a gig a could nearly always scam free tickets. I just can't pay stupid money for a gig. Heck, my favorite band possibly of all time, Counting Crows, was playing in Sydney this year. The wife was more than happy for me to go but even with a reasonably priced ticket the weekend would have cost me well in excess of $500. Then there's the possibility of the gig not being as good as you would hope. That happened when I saw Alice Cooper years ago. It wasn't the bands fault, but the sound was crap. At least that gig didn't cost me anything.

Minor rant over.:D
 
#171
Oh I get it BAG, and I'm with you on the prices. If it had been that much here in the U.S. I'd have just watched the YouTube vids. It was only a 2 hour trip for me, and I had awesome seat on eye level with the stage for less than $100. And honestly if it had been anyone other than Fleetwood Mac, I'd have flinched at that rate. I saw James Taylor in the same arena for $60, *and* got to meet up and hang out with Jimmy "Flim" Johnson before the show. (Flim and Mac... probably my two biggest heroes) :)

That said, they did not disappoint... I was totally psyched all the way home that night.
 
#172
Yeah...... rub it in further Ed and add a bit of salt next time. :laugh:

I got to see James Taylor back in '89 as a freebie. The storms in Sydney that night were so bad the radio stations were saying "don't be on the roads unless it is absolutely necessary". I call free tickets to JT a bloody good reason to drive through storms and floods. :D
 
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#173
Gravedigger Dav said:
That is no surprise. Clapton is the king of play the notes you need and leave the rest out.
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I've heard people say that the way he played was why he was known as "Slow Hand". In an interview he said that he got that nickname as it was short for "Slow Hand Clap(ton)". Basically, it was his mates taking the piss that he was so boring that he deserved a slow hand clap from the audience.
 
#174
Once I started playing (in the 2000's) I sort of snobbishly dismissed them as a pop band from when I was a kid in the 70's. Then recently I looked up a youtube video of him playing that classic bassline at the end of The Chain. Since then I have watched that clip 5-10 times. He's really amazing in the 70's live clip but the sound quality is horrendous in the video. In the 90's tour he's still got pretty amazing chops. I also enjoyed watching Lindsay Buckingham go crazy on the strange looking guitar of his. Almost looks like a Uke but sounds like an electric guitar. I read somewhere that he played a fretless with an aluminum (or was it stainless steel) fingerboard. He joked about it having one fret.
 
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#177
JMacBass65 said:
Nice find. What's with the bridge? No ability to adjust intonation per string, as far as I can tell.
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I guess intonation is all in the left hand in that case. IIRC, they called it a "bar bridge"... that's common to all fretless Alembics of that time. Also note, it's fastened to a block of brass embedded in the top for extra sustain.
 
#178
BAG said:
I've heard people say that the way he played was why he was known as "Slow Hand". In an interview he said that he got that nickname as it was short for "Slow Hand Clap(ton)". Basically, it was his mates taking the piss that he was so boring that he deserved a slow hand clap from the audience.
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I read somewhere it was because of how he changes his own strings (slowly) when one breaks.
 

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