I'm still in shock over the news that Bob Welch killed himself Thursday. It seems like every week we start out losing another musician that was a part of my listening experience over the years but with Welch it seemed more personal. Never got meet him but I was connected to him after buying his forgotten 2006 album Fleetwood Mac Years And Beyond 2 which came out on Reality and you could only get at the local FYE Store, back when FYE had twice more stores than they do now. So I revisited that album once again and even though Welch was using some dated drum machines and keyboards, his honesty and belief in the songs still shown through. Especially Never Say Never to which Bob maybe should have heeded the lyrics better. In some ways it reminded me of a old friend Tim Ackley who when I was down and out suggested that Don't Worry Things Will Only Get Better to quote a Howard Jones song, and then a year and half later he'd hang himself. To which another Howard Jones song I recall was No One Is To Blame. Unless it's done by your own hand.
Bob Welch has always been the happy go lucky dude you would want to party with, even after leaving Fleetwood Mac before they got BIG he was always a party dude who could talk to you for hours about music or UFO or how the record industry fucks you over. Leaving the Mac for a upstart band called Paris, he formed with The Hunt Brothers and former Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick, I never heard their first album but Big Town 2061 was pretty damn close to heavy metal with the title track and New Orleans getting some FM airplay but it didn't sell, the Hunt Brothers went over to Iggy Pop's band for Lust For Life and Welch made French Kiss a album that sold more than most of the Fleetwood Mac albums Welch was associated with. TAD was right by saying it was kinda boring but the best songs made it to 45's Sentimental Lady made top ten the B side was Hot Love Cold World which also garnered airplay but I enjoyed the followup Ebony Eyes more, I think it was Welch's finest solo hour, produced by the late John Carter and the B side Outskirts. The album also showed Welch's oddball side with three different versions of Lose My Heart. Three Hearts was a bit better and Precious Love and the title track becoming top forty hits as well but The Other One bombed big time despite having a cool version of Future Games. And then Man Overboard sold even less and Welch made two more albums for RCA (both slated for reissue via Wounded Bird Records) but by then he was a distant memory although radio continued to play Sentimental Lady and Ebony Eyes to this day. The Fleetwood Mac Years & More Volume 1, originally on One Way was retitled Greatest Hits And More on Airline Records, I'm guessing are like the Fleetwood Mac Years 2, Welch was very faithful to the versions on the AAO release and even covered Rhianon and World Turning to which are on the Fleetwood Mac album but at that time Welch moved on. Rhino cherry picked Welch's Paris period as well as key tracks from the Capitol and RCA albums and as a overview is a bit exhaustive. A paired down version Bob Welch Greatest Hits came out on Curb back when Curb was still going through EMI for distribution and is for fans who only want the big four hits from Bob.
Even though Bob had some contact and production help from The Mac, I don't believe he ever got over the snub that Fleetwood Mac did to him when they were inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1998. Which is a damn shame for Bob Welch's era Mac is considered to be the bridge from the blues of Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer to the Cal Pop of Buckingham Nicks although Welch played a bigger role in getting that California Rock sound in the first place and can be heard on Future Games to which Welch wrote the 8 minute epic title track. Welch replaced Jeremy Spencer when Spencer became a Child Of God and dropped out of the band (Spencer would appear later in a different band that made the ultra snooze Flee album for Atlantic in 1979 but more recently returned to a blues based sound the last decade). Fleetwood Mac was more of a cult band at that time, when they joined Reprise Records they made the moody Then Play On and then the rockabilly Kiln House. Most of the songs were done by either Welch or Danny Kirwan (Christine Perfect/McVie would later figure more into the songwriting but Danny and Bob wrote the bulk of songs). Kirwan dominates on Bare Trees but the better known songs Welch wrote, the early Sentimental Lady and The Ghost. When Kirwan got booted from the band, Welch begin to take over songwriting, especially on Mystery To Me which is the best album of the Welch Mac era, Bob writing seven of the 12 numbers. Penguin is a bit more scattershot and more of a group effort (Dave Walker from Savoy Brown joined up as well as the ill fated Bob Weston). The last Welch effort Heroes Are Hard To Find was unbelievably boring, nothing really stands out (blame the muddy sound of the record I guess) and I don't remember much of that album except for the beautiful sounding Coming Home. It probably wasn't the best way to end the Welch era Mac but perhaps Bob thought it was the right time to move on. And he did and the Mac did with a couple unknowns under the banner of Buckingham/Nicks. And the rest became history.
Reading all the kudos and tributes to Bob from various trade websites and the appreciate folk makes it even harder to understand why Bob Welch took the way out that he did. Even Mick Fleewood admitted in a reaction that Welch was part of the Mac era lineup that was largely forgotten which I find that somewhat hard to believe as with there's many Fleetwood Mac fans that believe that Bob Welch's albums were just as good as Rumours or The S/T album. Certainly Bob Welch should have joined the Mac when they got inducted into the HOF.
And now he's dead. But his music still lives on. And if not for any other readon The Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond 2 should be at least brought simply of Welch's insightful liner notes. The man was one of a kind as they say. And will be missed.
The Bob Welch Fleetwood Mac Years Discography:
Future Games (Reprise 1971) B+
Bare Trees (Reprise 1972) A-
Penguin (Reprise 1973) B
Mystery To Me (Reprise 1973) A-
Heroes Are Hard To Find (Reprise 1974) B-
UPDATE:
Bob Welch, who passed away last Thursday, took his own life after
an unsuccessful spinal operation that was going to leave him an
invalid.
The 66-year old guitarist was found by his wife Wendy in their Nashville
home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He left a
suicide note.
It has been revealed that Welch had a spinal operation three months ago
and it had become apparent that he was never going to recover.
Friends of Welch say he had lived through watching his mother care for
his invalid father for years and in his note wrote Wendy “I’m not going
to do this to you”.
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