Fireflies - the lost gem!
 

Hi folks,

I am new here, so I'd like to start a new topic by urging you to listen again to one of the greatest hidden treasures in the Mac's back catalog: Fireflies. I really cannot understand why this song has never been performed live so far and yet again has failed to be included on the new Very best of double cd. A missed opportunity, because in my opinion Paper Doll is Stevie's worst Mac song, I can't imagine why they have chosen that song???
:mad:
The driving beat, the haunting lyrics, the so emotive vocals by Stevie combined with the ooh-ooh harmonies of Lindsey and Christine, what a classic song this truly is!

Let's hope it will be revived for the band's next world tour!! :) :)

Greetings,

Marcel.

I love Fireflies!!! But it has been performed live on the Tusk tour. You can hear it on the 1980 live album

Pip

Hi, Pip!

Those 3 songs (Fireflies, One More Night, Farmer's Daughter) weren't really played for a paying audience on that tour. The album is really unclear about that: it just says they were recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (a dinky little place) for crew & friends. If I just guessed, I'd say it was a rehearsal for the last leg of the tour, the month of shows they began in August 1980. In fact, I think that it was dated on one of the lists Marty got from Warner Bros. on a video vault list. I can't remember what it said, but I think it was some point that summer of 1980, which might indicate it was some sort of rehearsal -- maybe a dress rehearsal, if friends of the band were around to applaud. Plus, Stevie's voice sounds late Tusk tour to me (June, July or August 1980).

Thanks David....I didn;t realise it wasn't actually played on the tour

Pip

Are there studio versions of any 3 of those songs?

Fireflies is a great song! I really like it and am suprised it didn't make the new greatest hits package too.

:) Michelle

Well, considering the amount of "sweetening" & additional recording done to the three "new" songs on the Live album, you could almost consider them to be "studio recordings"...only the "basic" tracks were done "live" at the SMCA.

I love Fireflies! It's one of my all time favorites! Even though it was written by Stevie I see it as more of their "anthem" song than any other, even "The Chain." I'm hugely disappointed that it didn't make it onto the new greatest hits package. :(

To be the last to leave....
 

I LOVE Fireflies...great song!! What a great way to put their sitch in a song...love how she put long distance winners in there!! COOLNESS! In the drama of the moment...can it BE any clearer!! LOL

Interesting little tidbit:
They actually performed Fireflies more than once. Probably at the Civic Center as one of a possible many takes, I discovered another version on (the now defunct) AudioGalaxy. There are very subtle differences, but you can definately tell that it's not the album take.
-Brian

The 45 & the album are different mixes of the same track. Some of the vocal parts are mixed a bit different (or mixed OUT altogether), the 45 mix fades out instead of ending, etc.

I have this same version that you're describing but it was labeled as "DEMO." It's not bad but the album version is much better. I also have the actual 45 and it is different mix as well, so I guess all together there are three versions.

There is no demo of "Fireflies" in circulation. All the various versions were recorded at the same time -- Santa Monica Civic, according to the liner notes -- whatever that event actually was (I happen to think it was a rehearsal but we are all welcome to our own little fictions).

I'm listening to a couple of different versions now: the lead vocal on each is as similar to the other as you would expect if Stevie & the band had played it once through & then played it again. One interesting difference I notice is that Christine seemed to be experimenting with instrumentation: on two performances, she's playing only an acoustic piano, while on the album cut & the single mix of the album cut she is playing the B3.

I thought Brian Wilson wrote that song, no?

Stevie wrote Fireflies....Brian wrote Farmers Daughter


Pip