the thread where we talk about John McVie

a lot of times I'm listening to something cool and who's playing bass?

It's John McVie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3o5Fv5oB-4

like on this danny kirwan tune, which I love so much, mcvie is just bonkers and so much extra but it works, and then he pulls back to halftime for the first half of the verse, and then switches to double for the turnaround with the vocal and it's just *chefskiss*

he and the others kicked danny to the curb when he obviously was in need of some mental health assistance. par for the course in the early 70s but in the docs much later John is seen being extremely cavalier about danny and his post-fm prospects. love all lineups of the group but the inner circle were extremely mercenary and i think him and mick were from a certain point completely cruel/uncaring so the cocaine funnel could keep going. tbf if the roles were reversed i'm sure danny would have been just as shitty

i think mcvie is cool btw, top tier sideman

oh definitely agree regarding the money machine/talent grinder that is fleetwood mac, many stories from decades ago up to the recent bekka bramlett interview where they saddle her with a record and year+long tour as new stevie before dropping her like hot shit for stevie again right after bekka bought a house (she lost the house)

have no idea what these people are actually like, I gather from several biographies that pretty much everyone involved was either shitty or insane, aside from christine perfect

yeah sorry didnt mean to shit up your thread, was in a foul mood last night and also *drinky drinky* fm is such a rich history and multiple guitarists imploding because of mental health/self medicating/ acid casualty esp in early years is so sad

yes very sad I like a lot of solo Kirwan, would have been awesome to see what he might have gotten up to with a better living situation/headspace/support

no worries though certainly this is where I go to talk about fleetwood mac when I'm in my cups

Cool thread. Seem to recall an interview with Mike Mills of R.E.M. saying whenever he doesn’t know what to play he thinks to himself “what would John McVie do?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxeNgkTqrFU

According to the recent book about Tusk, John McVie was the only member of the band who liked to work in the morning, and usually did so alone with the engineers, and most of his basslines were recorded after the basic tracks for each song had been put down.

this tracks for me in my head canon of john mcvie as "fuck you I was a bluesbreaker" guy

want to reference interviews with him about being pissed off at buckingham trying to tell him what to do and other things, that I want to say were produced/hosted by a fansite called the penguin? back to the things I can't find on the internet thread!

I think Buckingham wanted to play some bass lines on Tusk himself.