Lindsey Buckingham - Behind the Music

Freebird

Just watched this, not too bad.. plenty of conflict (no surprises there!) and a few interesting tidbits.

AlexC

And - as I read on the hugely reliable BBC site today - it was Stevie Nicks that got him chucked out of Fleetwood Mac. Apparently he was ‘smirking’ as some awards event while she was making a speech. 
The baggage between those two is immense.

Winny_Pooh

AlexC said:

And - as I read on the hugely reliable BBC site today - it was Stevie Nicks that got him chucked out of Fleetwood Mac. Apparently he was ‘smirking’ as some awards event while she was making a speech. 
The baggage between those two is immense.

He's a difficult guy in some respects. I watched the Say you will making of doc and he was a control freak who fought (unreasonably IMO) for a double album and made things more difficult and whiny than need be at times. So I was surprised when Christine made an album with him thereafter. Seems an ok guy buy maybe being around Stevie (who is pretty much the opposite, a joy to work with) brings out his worst.

He'll always have an A+ in my book for making that John Stewart album though. 

Freebird

His competative streak may have come from his swimming days, when he had to live in the shadow of his brother.

Jez6345789

He is certainly a difficult person and probably to a degree the Mac success has not helped that. 
A lot of my more gifted guitar player friends always tell me he is a shit player but to me he may not be the most technical player but his talent is more than just being the lead guitarist he is a great writer, producer and I find his playing very appropriate to the song.

The history between him and Stevie even today seems completely toxic and unresolved and I think unless you are in that world completely impossible to describe.

All that said have enjoyed his work a lot over the years.

Jalapeno

Oh FFS https://jambands.com/news/2018/10/11/lindsey-buckingham-sues-fleetwood-mac-over-firing/

"Not a single band member talks to me" - no shit ?

ICBM

If he’s a shit player, how come no-one can play like him? When he leaves Fleetwood Mac he gets replaced by at least two guitarists, who still can’t copy his parts... and I’ve never heard anyone else do either.

I would say the exact opposite. He’s certainly very idiosyncratic which makes him hard to impersonate, but also very good.

He doesn’t exactly come across well as someone you’d really want in your band though, creative genius and great guitarist or not...

Funkfingers

Winny_Pooh said:

He'll always have an A+ in my book for making that John Stewart album though. 

This will need explaining for the benefit of younger readers. 

kennedydream1980

It would appear he's now suing the band over his sacking!!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lindsey-buckingham-sues-fleetwood-mac-over-dismissal-from-band-736063/

Jalapeno

kennedydream1980 said:

It would appear he's now suing the band over his sacking!!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lindsey-buckingham-sues-fleetwood-mac-over-dismissal-from-band-736063/

There's an echo in here !

ICBM

They should probably all just call it a day, to be honest.

kennedydream1980

Jalapeno said:

kennedydream1980 said:

It would appear he's now suing the band over his sacking!!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lindsey-buckingham-sues-fleetwood-mac-over-dismissal-from-band-736063/

There's an echo in here !

Whoops!!

Gassage

Lindsey is a phenomenal player and totally unique.

part of this is due to the fact he learned bluegrass banjo before guitar.

his use of tunings, alternate pickings and so on are almost without parallel in pop music. As is his use of repicking a note to mimic sustain.

people who say he can’t play are normally shred types who simply don’t get how you play the music and write with a guitar.

if you named the 5 greatest guitar based songwriters of all time Lindsey in in there. He’s a genius, but a total cunt of a bloke, on all accts.

Freebird

Gassage said:

Lindsey is a phenomenal player and totally unique.

part of this is due to the fact he learned bluegrass banjo before guitar.

his use of tunings, alternate pickings and so on are almost without parallel in pop music. As is his use of repicking a note to mimic sustain.

people who say he can’t play are normally shred types who simply don’t get how you play the music and write with a guitar.

if you named the 5 greatest guitar based songwriters of all time Lindsey in in there. He’s a genius, but a total cunt of a bloke, on all accts.

Isn't he a Travis picker?

Gassage

@Freebird

He uses loads of different techniques. There's a show where he shows the real way to play Go Your Own Way on the acoustic bit, and it's nothing like you'd guess in terms of chord positions.

Also, soloing- when he solos he uses the pad of his middle finger to pluck the note, and when he bends (with tape wound strings) he keeps stroking the note to get this huge faux sustain (viz: The Chain solo).

As I say, unique. The world needs more innovators like him.

In terms of writing a song around the guitar licks, I'd put him alongside Finn, Harrison and Marr in terms of my idols.

Freebird

Gassage said:

Also, soloing- when he solos he uses the pad of his middle finger to pluck the note, and when he bends (with tape wound strings) he keeps stroking the note to get this huge faux sustain.

It sounds like a very erotic technique  

Gassage

Freebird said:

Gassage said:

Also, soloing- when he solos he uses the pad of his middle finger to pluck the note, and when he bends (with tape wound strings) he keeps stroking the note to get this huge faux sustain.

It sounds like a very erotic technique  

Why d'ya think Stevie still goes weak at the knees when they do Landslide?!

not_the_dj

Gassage said:

Why d'ya think Stevie still goes weak at the knees when they do Landslide?!

I still go weak at the knees when they do Landslide ;-)

Stevie's right though, they're a heritage act that should just tour and rake in the cash playing the hits. A new FM album won't set the charts on fire, and any new songs in the set would be overshadowed by the old stuff.

Of course that's not in Lindsey's mentality, he still wants to create. I'm sure I read something a few tours back about him only carrying on with FM as it helps to bring his solo stuff back into the limelight on the back of it.

Wouldn't be Fleetwood Mac without a load of personal drama going on behind the scenes!

Freebird

Gassage said:

@Freebird

He uses loads of different techniques. There's a show where he shows the real way to play Go Your Own Way on the acoustic bit, and it's nothing like you'd guess in terms of chord positions.

Gassage

@freebird - what a voice he had when young. Utterly amazing.

not_the_dj

Rick Beato did a great "what makes this song great" on Go Your Own Way, it was taken off youtube but is still available here:

https://flatfiv.com/blogs/rick-beato/what-makes-this-song-great-ep-12-fleetwood-mac