One of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs (and a song that has always occupied a special place in my heart) does not feature either Stevie Nicks or Lindsey Buckingham. Seriously.
If you ever listened to classic rock radio back in the day, you’d recognize it (I’d like to think some stations still play it, but I have my doubts).
The song, “Hypnotized”, from their ’73 album Mystery to Me, features Bob Welch, perhaps the most controversial member of a band that has had more line-up changes than Spinal Tap. Short and sweet: after mercurial, troubled genius Peter Green departed, Welch came in and, according to none other than Mick Fleetwood, helped keep the band together during an extended “transitional” period that featured decent albums but middling sales. It wasn’t, of course, until Nicks and Buckingham came on board that the band got slightly more popular. The rest is history.
It had to be incredibly difficult, and painful, to watch the band he co-led for several years go on to make some of the best-selling records of all time. Hopefully he understood that this had a great deal to do with what Nicks and Buckingham collectively brought to the table (it’s not like the band happened to hit it big after he left; the sound of the subsequent albums was all but unrecognizable compared to the previous ones). He left pretty much of his own accord, and even managed to have some solo success. (In between, he was part of the semi- super group Paris, which included former Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick.) Still, it was –and remains– more than a little appalling that the powers that be (within Mac, within the industry) refused him entry to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (further delineating what a laughable institution it is). It would have been nice, and certainly would have meant a great deal to Welch, if they insisted that a man who was crucial for a time get his rightful props. It’s too late now. Welch, who had been struggling with health issues, took his own life last week. A decent obit discussing his career can be found here.
Anyway, no matter how one assesses his career and impact in –and outside of– Fleetwood Mac, he was the obvious ringleader for a string of well-regarded albums and, for my money, he penned, sang and played brilliant guitar on one of the seminal tracks of the decade. “Hypnotized”, however out-there the lyrics, is pretty close to perfect: you can’t fake or hope for that feeling; the mood that is conjured up so successfully. It manages to be mellow, urgent and melancholy, all at once. There are, obviously, musicians who are much better known and made a lot more money than Welch, but the list of people capable of pulling off a song this indelible is not long.
It wasn’t over for him after Fleetwood Mac; in fact he had some serious success with a song that just oozes late ’70s soft rock. I mean that in as many good ways as it’s possible to apply to “late ’70s soft rock”. You know this song even if you had no idea about the title or who sang it.
Welch couldn’t keep it going, which is a shame. Hard to say if he had more great music inside that he was unable to get out, or how much we lost when he lost his way.
