Vinyl Addict – The Past Dispatch

Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘Behind the Mask’

July 3, 2025April 1, 2025 by Bonnie Waters

This flimsy batch, 15 studio sets on, surely rests outside anyone’s list of the best Fleetwood Mac albums. It’s inarguably unmemorable, albeit less forgettable than what came next from this perpetually morphing and disintegrating group.

But having finally given Behind the Mask more than scant attention for the first time since it was new 35 years ago — when it epitomized all that was numbingly dull about rock at the dawn of the ‘90s, shortly before Nirvana-et-al. upended everything — I’m here to report that it doesn’t entirely suck. Depending on your need for seemingly fresh Mac nostalgia, you might actually like it.

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Billy Burnette’s ‘Try Me’

July 3, 2025April 24, 2024 by Bonnie Waters

We encountered this well-coiffured scion earlier in my fathoms-deep dive into the discography of the late great Christine McVie.

Billy Burnette — son of Dorsey, nephew of Johnny, heir to their rockabilly bona fides since he was a child star touring with Brenda Lee — first entered the Macverse back in ’83 as a creature in Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo. For the oft-overlooked detour ‘I’m Not Me’ (see previous post) he provided plenty of fretwork and sang four numbers: the title track, a Beach Boys obscurity, his dad’s ditty ‘Tear It Up’ and his own tune, ‘Gimme You.’

Christine McVie Deep Dive: ‘The Many Faces Of Fleetwood Mac’

July 3, 2025March 27, 2024 by Bonnie Waters

This is an absurdly arranged bootleg compilation from 2019 that would require at least two more LPs to do justice to its misleading title. Yet it’s an almost essential addition if someone (like me) is attempting to acquire on vinyl every recording involving Christine McVie.

The problem is that most of the Many Faces presented in the set’s first half are relatively inconsequential when it comes to Fleetwood Mac’s lengthy list of lineups.

Christine McVie Deep Dive: The Beach Boys’ ‘L.A. (Light Album)’

July 3, 2025December 4, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

If anyone was entitled to craft New Age-y yacht-rock with a dash of disco by the dawn of 1979, it was the Beach Boys. Except that’s giving them way too much credit, as if they’d planned to do exactly that — when in fact L.A. (Light Album), perhaps the group’s most forgettable collection, is nothing but a hodgepodge of solo material patched together to keep CBS Records from suing them for breach of contract, lest they turn in zero music two years after signing to that label.

A&M Records Highlights: Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ‘66

August 5, 2025November 21, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

We’re still inching our way toward the ‘70s, a stylistically packed decade that will see A&M Records (the focus of this #TuesdaysWithJerry offshoot of #VinylTwosDays) swing from soft pop to hard rock to new wave by the time that era’s glittering New Year’s Eve ball dropped into 1980.

Christine McVie Deep Dive: The Alternate ‘Live’

July 3, 2025November 10, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

First off: Could they have picked a more distant, boring, pointless photo for this thing?

The frenetically blurry pic adorning the original Live back in December ‘80 said everything. This poorly framed glimpse taken from Loge 57 Row Z says absolutely nothing beyond ‘these are the five people in this band.’ The shot of them embracing inside the gatefold would have made a much better cover.

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Live’

July 3, 2025November 9, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

I did warn you there would be more of this stuff. Nearly a quarter of the way through this century we have easy access to the cream of Fleetwood Mac’s concert crop from three-quarters of the way through the previous century — and at this point that almost seems by design.

Mick Fleetwood was keen to put out a live set not long after ‘Rumours’ arose but the rest of the band shot the idea down. Didn’t stop them from recording an estimated 400 shows between ’75 and ’80 during increasingly in-demand tours that built this particular Mac’s reputation almost as much as their multiplatinum monoliths.

A&M Records Highlights: Baja Marimba Band

August 5, 2025November 7, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

This wasn’t the pairing I planned to present today for the 10th installment of my #TuesdaysWithJerry series, an ongoing look at the history of A&M Records (cofounded by the late Jerry Moss) that I’ve hitched to ye olde #VinylTwosDays wagon, captained each week by @vinyl_is_life.

Christine McVie Deep Dive: Fleetwood Mac ‘In Concert’

July 3, 2025October 25, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

That’s right, Mac watchers, you’ve guessed correctly: It’s time now to resurrect a trove of Tusk-an tour mementos. Buckle up, kids, because there are two more live sets right behind this one — literally seven LPs & 14 sides of performances to get through before we take a fresh look at 1982’s Mirage.

A&M Records Highlights: Best Of…

August 5, 2025October 24, 2023 by Bonnie Waters

We’re technically jumping into the ‘70s with these compilations when there’s still plenty left in the ‘60s worth mentioning. The Procol Harum assortment with the inexplicably celestial cover is from ’73, Spooky Tooth’s set with peeking tiger from ’76.