All these years later and Fleetwood Mac's still indulging king titty baby Lindsey Buckingham. The eccentric cry baby is a good guitar player, he's just a so-so singer and a lousy songwriter.
Yet again, the band elected to pretend otherwise Saturday as MUSE held a benefit in their honor.
First up?
Cover versions of the group's hits -- or 'hits' since artists relied on Linsdey's droppings.
From ROLLING STONE:
"Big Love" (Imagine Dragons)
"Say You Love Me" (Brandi Carlile)
" So Afraid" (Portugal. The Man)
"Hold Me" (Juanes)
"Songbird" (Alison Krauss)
"Gypsy" (Haim)
"Second Hand News" (Keith Urban)
"Silver Springs" (Lorde)
"Everywhere" (OneRepublic)
"Dreams" (Little Big Town)
"Never Going Back Again" (Jared Leto)
"Landslide" (Miley Cyrus)
"Don't Stop" (Zac Brown Band)
Lindsey's "Big Love," "I'm So Afraid," "Second Hand News" and "Never Going Back Again."
13 songs covered -- four were Lindsey tunes. Only one of which was a single ("Big Love").
"Don't Stop" was written by Christine McVie despite so many wrongly thinking Lindsey wrote it.
She also co-wrote "Hold Me" (with Robbie Patton). Her other hits covered were "Say You Love Me" and "Everywhere." Though not a single, "Songbird" was an AOR staple.
Stevie Nicks, the star of the group, is covered with the hits "Gypsy," "Silver Springs," "Landslide" and "Dream" ("Dreams" is the band's only number one single) -- all of which she wrote. Four songs.
Four songs.
She wrote countless hits for the band and she only gets four songs. The same number as Lindsey who remains one of rock's worst songwriters -- he's never met a stale bromide he couldn't try to twist into a lyric.
It only got worse when the band itself performed:
"The Chain" (Feat. Harry Styles)
"Little Lies"
"Tusk"
"Gold Dust Woman"
"Go Your Own Way"
Five songs.
"The Chain" was a group songwriting effort.
That left four more songs.
Yet again, Fleetwood Mac fans were stuck with Lindsey damage: "Tusk" and "Go Your Own Way" while Christine got one ("Little Lies") and Stevie got one ("Gold Dust Woman").
Including six songs by Lindsey meant overlooking hits like Stevie's "Rhiannon" (number 11 on the pop charts), Christine's "Say You Love Me" (number 11 on the pop charts as well), Stevie's "Sara" (top ten), Christine's "Over My Head" (top twenty), Christine's "You Make Loving Fun" (top ten), Stevie's "Fireflies" (top sixty), Christine's "Think About Me" (top twenty), Chrstine's "Love In Store" (top thirty), Stevie's "Seven Wonders" (top twenty -- Stevie sings lead and added additional lyrics to this song written by her friend Sandy Stewart), Christine's "Save Me" (top thirty)
Since 1992, they've charted five times on the Adult Contemporary charts. Four times were songs by Stevie ("Paper Doll," "Say You Will," a live version of "Landslide" and a live version of "Silver Springs") and one was by Lindsey ("Peacekeeper").
18 songs were performed.
"The Chain" was written by the entire band.
That left 17 songs.
Six performed were written by Lindsey.
Which only left five spots for Stevie and Christine's work to be spotlighted with.
Lindsey is responsible for damn little beyond playing the guitar.
His fussbudget production, it can be argued, has helped tank Fleetwood Mac and ensure that they have eradicated from rock radio. All those tinkles and dings and quirks may describe his state of mind but they do not make for music.
It's really past time that the band stopped being so sexist and stopped tip-toeing around Lindsay's fragile ego. His work is not worth highlighting and the fans spoke on this long ago.