Friday, June 08, 2012

Bye Bob

Bob Welch has died of a self-inflicted wound.  He was a singer, songwriter and guitarist in Fleetwood Mac's earlier (but not earliest) days who left just before they achieved super-success.  Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac is definitely worth checking out, and a fair number of his songs from then are still fondly remembered.



Though he missed out on superstardom by not sticking around, he did manage a few hits on his own.  The biggest was "Sentimental Lady," which he'd originally done with Fleetwood Mac.  Though years later he'd sue them over royalties (and they'd keep him away from their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), he was still close enough that Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie worked with him on his his first solo album, his biggest.



I think the follow-up single, which he wrote with Rick James and Stevie Wonder, is even better:

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is it with chest shots?

4:00 AM, June 08, 2012  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you mean the suicide wound or the decolletage in the videos?

5:50 AM, June 08, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

He's a virtual unknown these days, sadly. "The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac", a recent two-CD compilation, contains no tracks from before the five-piece lineup that made them superstars.

I think "Sentimental Lady" is his best song, and a serious candidate for the archetypical mid-1970s soft rock song.

7:47 PM, June 09, 2012  
Blogger LAGuy said...

If they'd known how big they'd become it almost would have been better if they renamed the band, since afterward when you referred to Fleetwood Mac it would mean to most people only one thing.

11:51 PM, June 09, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

That makes sense -- especially since Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the band's namesakes, were the two least important members during their superstardom. (Still, if you turn up the volume, you can sometimes hear Mick play some interesting drum parts that aren't usually part of conventional pop or soft rock.)

9:27 AM, June 10, 2012  

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