Episode 900: In Memory of Bob Welch

Today is our 900th post of “Reading Between the Grooves.” We are in the home stretch because when our one-thousandth post is made on September 26 – our third anniversary, I am retiring this blog. It will be a fitting time to close the annals on this work. The fat lady has not sung yet, so we still have a 100 more posts to go. We’ll look at the blog in retrospect in a few paragraphs, but for now more important info comes with today’s blog post.

On Saturday, I learned of the tragic end of Bob Welch. Three months ago, he had spinal surgery and was apparently told that he would not recover and would be an invalid. He apparently told friends that he did not want his wife of 27 years, Wendy, to bear the burden of caring for him. He was found dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the chest on Thursday, June 7. Welch was 66 and was survived only by his wife.

Bob Welch laid the groundwork for Fleetwood Mac’s rise to pop stardom via his replacements and friends Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham; however, his many contributions as a member of Fleetwood Mac for four years have largely been ignored. When the band was inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Welch was not invited to the ceremonies. Others who served in the pre-Buckingham/Nicks' version of the band, however, were inducted.

It is thought that a lawsuit for back royalties several years previous was the catalyst for Welch to be snubbed by his former band mates. During his tenure, Welch contributed to five Fleetwood Mac albums: “Future Games,” “Bare Trees,” “Penguin,” “Mystery to Me,” and “Heroes are Hard to Find.” Welch inspired the titles of two of those albums, “Future Games” – as he penned the title cut, and “Mystery to Me” that was named after a line found in his song “Emerald Eyes.”

I have already featured his two best known songs with Mac, “Sentimental Lady” from “Bare Trees” and “Hypnotized” from “Mystery to Me.” For the purpose of extending your understanding of Bob’s contributions to Mac, here’s a classic from 1971 “Future Games.” His distinct guitar rhythm technique and octave runs are recognizable on this cut.

When Welch left the band, he went on to form the band Paris which recorded two albums. His next album, “French Kiss” was originally slated to be “Paris 3”; however, it became his first solo album and produced three hits “Sentimental Lady,” “Ebony Eyes,” and “Hot Love, Cold World.” While Welch released twelve albums (including compilations), he only had one other Top 40 Hit, “Precious Love” in 1979.

Mainstream Americans are probably more familiar with Welch’s solo material, but I wanted to feature one of his Fleetwood Mac contributions to emphasize his pivotal role in the band. The world mourns Bob’s passing.

RBTG’s 900th Post Retrospect

Like I had reported with every other 100th post anniversary, I took a look backward on how we are doing visitor wise. I began this blog on September 26, 2009, but did not start monitoring the visits until October 16, 2009. Currently, we have 51 declared followers of the blog – up from 41 in February 2012. There are many others who have visited frequently without declaring themselves as followers. The statistics are listed below:

Variable	Statistic
Unique Visitors	65,975
Times Visited	73,349
Number of Pages Viewed	92,533
People Visiting 200+ Times	1,198
People Visiting 101-200 Times	483
People Visiting 51-100 Times	288
People Visiting 26-50 Times	255
Number of Visitor Countries Represented	155
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Search Engines	65.25%
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Other Sites	25.47%
Percentage of Visitors via Direct Access	9.30%

The Top Ten Charts

As one would find in music trade magazines, I have prepared some Top Ten Charts for "Reading between the Grooves."

The Top Ten Visitor Countries

The rankings remain static when compared to the previous 800th Anniversary. New countries and territories added include the following: Åland Islands, Bahamas, Cameroon, French Guiana, and Madagascar.

Rank	Country	Visits
1	United States	36,488
2	United Kingdom	6,238
3	Canada	4,082
4	Germany	2,943
5	France	1,949
6	Italy	1,735
7	Australia	1,647
8	Brazil	1,590
9	Netherlands	1,195
10	Spain	1,103

The Top Ten Pages via Direct Access

While most people (4,392) have visited the home page for “Reading Between the Grooves,” others enter distinct pages through page specific links and via search engine returns. Two new pages joined the list –Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Up Above My Head.” This particular chart is slow moving as it is cumulative – newer features on this site will have to be really popular to catch up to the total direct access of these ten songs.

Rank	Artist: Song	Visits
1	Deep Purple before “Smoke on the Water”	3,393
2	Mungo Jerry: “In the Summertime”	3,090
3	The Art Reynolds Singers: “Jesus Is Just Alright”	1,144
4	Fleetwood Mac: Landslide	1,049
5	Derek & The Dominoes: “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs”	1,028
6	Fairport Convention: “Matty Groves”	1,020
7	Kittyhawk and the Chapman Stick®	891
8	Pink Floyd “Cymbaline”	613
9	Sister Rosetta Tharpe: “Up Above My Head”	743
10	Walter Egan: “Magnet & Steel”	691

The Top Days by Total Visits

This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits and the content that was featured on those particular days. Only two of the selections came from the last 100 posts and two days since February that had no associated content placed in the top ten.
The #1 and #4 days are anomalies as they represent two days that had intensive viewing of the entire blog by two new visitors. These two individuals spent a great deal of time on the blog and looked at hundreds of pages during one single weekend.

Rank	Day	Date	Associated Content	Visits
1	SAT	16 JUL 2011	Nektar – Let it Grow	625
2	MON	30 APR 2012	No Post Made	281
3	TUE	05 JUN 2012	Michael Hedges – Aerial Boudaries	274
4	SUN	17 JUL 2011	Liberty ‘N Justice & Robert Fleischman – The Lord’s Prayer	271
5	FRI	20 APR 2012	Levon Helm’s Last Waltz	270
6	SAT	28 JAN 2012	Steely Dan: My Old School	267
7	WED	26 OCT 2011	John Zacherle: Dinner With Drac	264
8	MON	23 JAN 2012	Outkast vs Queen: Hey...We Will Rock you...Ya	262
9	THU	09 FEB 2012	The Brother’s Johnson – Strawberry Letter 23	259
10	SAT	04 MAR 2012	No Post Made	281

The Top Days by New Visitors

This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits by first time visitors and the content that was featured on those particular days. All but two of these songs are new to this chart and eight are not older than 100 posts.

Rank	Day	Date	Associated Content	New Visitors
1	MON	30 APR 2012	No Post	203
2	SAT	11 FEB 2011	Johnny Guitar Watson – Real Mother for Ya	198
3	TUE	13 MAR 2012	Jeff Beck & The Jan Hammer Group – Freeway Jam	181
4	TUE	04 JUN 2012	Lisa Loeb – I Do	181
5	TUE	05 JUN 2012	Michael Hedges – Aerial Boundaries	174
6	SAT	09 JAN 2012	The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter	173
7	THU	07 JUN 2012	Journey – Anyway You Want It	171
8	MON	27 FEB 2012	Dramatics – In the Rain	170
9	FRI	09 MAR 2012	Creedence Clearwater Revival – Who’ll Stop the Rain	168
10	TUE	17 APR 2012	Return to Forever – No Mystery	168

As always, I want to take this time to thank all of you for your support of this site and the encouragement to keep going forward. Thanks again for Reading between the Grooves and remember, this blog will be wrapping up with our 1,000th post on September 26, 2012. The countdown begins.