RIP Bob Welch

[Denis]

I hate to hear this. That old Fleetwood Mac stuff was just fantastic. RIP, Bob.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/06/bob-welch-dies-former-fleetwood-mac-guitarist-ebony-eyes-singer--1.html

[uwe]

I'd be surprised if that was a gun accident. Is Ronnie Montrose's exit setting an example for aging guitarists? Better not. RIP

[nofi]

suicide because of health issues? suicide would be the ultimate 'health issue'. too bad.

[rahock]

Early days of Fleetwood Mac were something special. They were one of the best shows out there. Mick Fleetwood always had a helluva band. He did have a lot of guitar players with serious issues and it seemed like they just came one after the other, but every one of them sure could play.
RIP Bob Welch
Rick

[gweimer]

I'd be surprised if that was a gun accident. Is Ronnie Montrose's exit setting an example for aging guitarists? Better not. RIP

You know, that thought actually crossed my mind. Music is an incredibly uplifting endeavor, and an incredibly destructive business and lifestyle.  For every Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne, there are thousands of has-beens and never-weres that gave up or lost even basic financial security somewhere along the way.  I'm sure we all know someone who has been down that path.  I know guys today that are pushing 60, still looking for that first big break, and have almost nothing to show for their lives.  When you lose the ability to do something you love, or something you can make money at, you'd better have a plan. Depression, illness and poverty (if that's the case) do not make good bedfellows.

[gearHed289]

You know, that thought actually crossed my mind. Music is an incredibly uplifting endeavor, and an incredibly destructive business and lifestyle.  For every Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne, there are thousands of has-beens and never-weres that gave up or lost even basic financial security somewhere along the way.  I'm sure we all know someone who has been down that path.  I know guys today that are pushing 60, still looking for that first big break, and have almost nothing to show for their lives.  When you lose the ability to do something you love, or something you can make money at, you'd better have a plan. Depression, illness and poverty (if that's the case) do not make good bedfellows.

Yeah man. It's a big bummer. I can understand the heartbreak of having to *GASP* get a day job or something after having had some degree of success in the music biz. But there is no excuse for taking your own life.

14 joys and a will to be merry... Damn. 

[chromium]

Sad news. 

[uwe]

Talk about a busy bass!!! Who's that other guitarist playing those Allman licks? 

[TBird1958]

RIP Bob,

Thanks for being part of a wonderful teenage weekend.

I got to see him play as a solo artist just after "Sentimental Gentleman" came out - Myself and some High School boy and girlfriends loaded up into a couple of cars (including my '74 Firebird) for a roadtrip to Vancouver, B.C. I always really enjoyed the bass playing and tone on that album and was quite interested to seewhat bass would be used and how it would sound live. Of all all things - One of those single pickup Rickenbackers shaped like a 4001! The guy playing it just killed too, it was a good show and my local faves Heart were the headliners ( when Ann was skinny and Fossen, Deroiser etc were still in the band )     

[Highlander]

... Who's that other guitarist playing those Allman licks? 

I think that's Bob Weston - played with them for a year or so and was on the third and fourth LP Bob Welch recorded with Mac... he also died earlier this year...

RIP all three FM "Bob's" that have passed in the last twelve months... curiously little known fact is that the 1st bassist was a guy called Bob Brunning (one track on the 1st Lp afaik) who died last year...

This was probably my own personal favourite line-up - I still have my 70's vinyl for "Will The Real Fleetwood Mac Please Stand Up" studio/live session - it's legally available these days and freely listenable or cheaply downloadable from Wolfgang's... not with Bob Weston iirc, both after he moved on and they were a four-piece, plus a guest keys player... this is Bob Welch taking the lead guitar role on a Mac standard from the better of the two sessions...

[uwe]

This thread lured me into buying his "Greatest Hits and More" CD featuring rerecorded versions of the hits in his career starting with a fetching version of Oh Well Parts One and Two. Frankly, I had never ever heard any of his work either with Fleetwood Mac, Paris or solo before, I just knew of him, but his short-lived solo success was very much a US phenomenon and in Germany Fleetwood Mac is often reduced to two line ups - the Peter Green Brit Blues Boom and the Buckingham/Nicks mega-stardom one.

Now that I have heard a good body of his work I must say that I really like his guitar playing and that I hear a decidedly Peter Green influence, I don't think he got the job as a Fleetwood Mac guitarist out of coincidence. I also hear a touch of Santana in phrasing and such, pleasantly surprising. The stuff towards the end of his career is of course lightweight, but still pleasing to the ear.

Uwe 

[nofi]

while FM always sells well paris made nary a dent over here. just like slade, wishbone ash and status quo.

[uwe]

Paris, je croix, made pas de dente nowhere, cher Nofi, even I don't know them (but have ordered a CD in my over-analytical quest nontheless)!  

Probably because there was just one American in Paris.



Welch says in the liner notes that he formed Paris to sound like Led Zeppelin because Led Zep - did I ever mention how they are overrated? - "was at that time the hottest band in the US". Listening to this, he made an earnest effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4Tq5K4SXs&feature=related


Hunt Sales, of course, went on to other things, but then - before Nofi interjects - these guys never dented the US either.



I actually saw Tin Machine at the time, they were brilliant, but the audience was 80% David Bowie fans "Let's Dance"' era, it went completely over their heads and the band - never have I witnessed a rhythm section as incongruously gelling as the Sales brothers - sunk like a stone. But a valiant musical attempt.

[nofi]

i quite liked tin machine. fans, ish...too bad you need them.

[Highlander]

Uwe... find the recordings that became known as "Will The Real Fleetwood Mac Please Stand Up" and hear how good he was "live" - then progress on to the Mac studio material he was on - I'd be sooooo surprised if you did not enjoy them, thoroughly...