Mirage nit picks
 

Don't get me wrong, I love all their music, they're amazing artists, but I'm enjoying these discussions.


Mirage:

1. Love in Store could be a little longer and rearranged a little bit. Put the chorus after the first verse instead of going right into the second verse. So it would be: verse one, chorus, verse two, chorus, instrumental break, chorus, instrumental outro. The keyboards should be slightly more prominent also. What can I say? I like pianos.

2. Can't Go Back is good but it's too light. I liked the darkness of Lindsey's songs on Tusk. His songs on Mirage are pretty light and poppy. I like that he was trying to get back to traditional Fleetwood Mac for Mirage but his songs on this album need more of an edge. Can't Go Back is also too short. I don't like when songs are less than three minutes.

3. That's Alright could be longer as well. It should have an instrumental between the two verses and they should sing the chorus twice after the second verse. That's Alright is really underrated, in my opinion. It's a great song. It's an epitome of a Rumours era Fleetwood Mac song. I wish they performed it on the Mirage tour. It would have sounded so good live in 1982.

4. Book of Love, it just needs some Stevie and Christine on it.

5. It would have been awesome if the five and a half minute version of Gypsy was on the album. I also think Lindsey and Christine should sing "lightening strikes maybe once maybe twice" and "she was just a wish." It sounds like only Lindsey singing those lines. They just made it look like they were both singing in the music video.

6. I love Only Over You. I just don't like the line "angel please don't go." I think "baby please don't go" would sound better. We all know Dennis Wilson was no angel. This song would have also sounded awesome live in 1982.

7. I also love Empire State. It just needs to be a little longer, it could also use some Stevie and Christine on backup vocals. A music video for this song would have been cool. They needed a music video for one of Lindsey's songs from Mirage. I guess they kinda killed two birds with the Hold Me video because it's both Lindsey and Christine. A music video with the band wandering around New York City or something for Empire State. I'm sure they could have made a cool video. The Gypsy and Hold Me videos were awesome.

8. Hold Me is my favorite song of all time, but there are some change I would make. I love Christine and Lindsey singing in unison, but Christine's voice should be a little bit more prominent than Lindsey's. Secondly, they should have used better grammar. "You and me have plenty of time" instead of "you and me got plenty of time" and "I don't want any damage" instead of "I don't want no damage."

9. Oh Diane is filler. It's kinda catchy, but kind of a waste of space. I would have cut it to enhance the other songs on the album.

10. I like the 1982 live version of Eyes of the World better. The album version should be more like that. Except it doesn't need Stevie and Christine sharing most of the vocals with Lindsey, I like that just for the live version

11. Wish You Were Here is a great Christine love song, but it's kinda boring.

What about Straight Back? :)

Kevin

Seems to be a lot of nit picking going on.

I wouldn't make any changes to Straight Back

I am a huge Mirage fan so I really would not change too much. But then again I would not change much on any Mac album. I usually don't agree with critics but some of the critics I agree with on Mirage. There was lots of pressure to be commercial after Tusk. I would love to have had a few harder rock songs on the album. But I still LOVE the pop songs on Mirage. Love in Store is probably the perfect pop song with amazing harmonies. Wish you were here is the perfect way to close the album.
Maybe a little bit of rearranging too. I would like Straight Back to kick off the second side. The songs are such perfect pop songs that I could never change any of them because you can hear how much work went into them. Lots of overdubbing. Maybe they tried too hard for a pop album. But I love it. Stevie's voice is at its peak too. The live version of Eyes of the World is much better than the studio version. So maybe if that song was played like that in the studio that would be my nit pick ;) Also today's standards they could fit 12 songs on an album. I would have loved for Stevie to have had 4 songs and each songwriter get 4 songs. But I know in the days of vinyl this was not possible. In 1982 CD's were not even around.
Not so much a nit pick about the album but my biggest nit pick would have been a longer Mirage tour. Instead of 18 cities maybe at least 25 or 30. That still would have been a short tour ;)

I don't believe nit picking on someone else's nit picks but grammar in a song is a bit extreme. Words have meanings and some words sound better singing phrases or songs. Got plenty of time sounds better singing than Have plenty of time. The got has the strong "ga" sound and the 't has the "t" sound. Its catchy and just sounds better singing. Its not an English lesson. Its a hit song ;)

Smile at you and If you were my love should have been included.
Lindsey's songs apart from Book of love (and even that isn't a masterpiece) should have been casted aside.

-Stevie DEFINITELY should have gotten 1 more song, 3 songs on a 12 song album? Come on. Her voice was absolutely sublime in this era, at its peak IMO, and she had so many great songs. I would probably vote for If You Were my Love, the Mirage version is my favorite.

-I also agree about more Stevie and Christine backing vocals on Lindsey's songs and basically Stevie should be singing backup on every song. Her voice was GOLDEN, why is it so missing?!

-I also agree with EOTW being more like the like version, so much peppier! The "Stephanie" guitar part gets me totally pumped up, my favorite Lindsey composition, but then the chorus "eyes" chanting kind of kills it.

-I agree that some of Lindsey's songs are filler, and I adore Love In Store but otherwise I find myself most often skipping Christine's songs. They are just "meh" to me. Not her best period IMO.

Song quotas were usually based on album time. Stevies songs always tended to be long and even though she had less songs on the albums she had an equal or greater amount of album time.

You're right to say she was short changed on the Mirage album though. Her three songs for Mirage were each fairly short by her standards totalling 11 minutes and 50 seconds (as opposed to Christine 15.51 and Lindsey 15.33). I agree it would have made for a better album if it had an extra Stevie song.

I dont really like LB's songs on this album at all. Too lightweight and wishywashy. Christines are all solid, though not her best. Though its not universally popular I love 'Only Over You'- its a 40 year old woman singing as if she's a teenager...melts my heart.

The demo for "Love in Store" is actually longer. They added another verse and maybe another chorus if memory serves me right. Not sure why it was cut down for the album.

In Gypsy, you can hear Lindsey and Christine singing the "lightning strikes lines," you have to listen very closely. Yes, should have been the long version on the album.

Mirage has Christine's best group of songs, aside from "Wish You Were Here."

There's an awesome rocking demo of "Oh Diane." Wished it would have been this way on the album. Mirage could use some heavier songs.

Other than that, it's an amazing album.

I could forgive everything else if If You Were My Love made the album. That demo is better than any of the songs that did make the album IMO. :( Who made the choices?!

I like Smile At You as well. I think her rejected Mirage songs are better than her Tango songs, I wish they went back to them.

I also don't think any of Lindsey's songs are really classic tracks on Mirage. Agree that the Live version of Eyes of the World is better.

I prefer the live version of Hold Me too.

Love in Store is perfect though :)

Mirage is so under rated. I love it so much. If you have the album vs the CD, it's so crisp. I remember how it used to punch you in the face with drums and keys and bass...

I hate the low level recording of the CD

This album, once again, demonstrates how adaptable Christine can be and roll with a concept and make her own mark within the Buckingham laden era.

If any album needed another Nicks track, it's Mirage. (she used to know who she was)

Can't Go Back is wonderful, yet somehow incomplete.

Book of Love does have Christine floating over the top of this track, vocal wise. I'm glad Stevie isn't on it. It's perfect.

Love In Store should have another verse or give it a nice quirky bridge.

Hold Me might be one of the best FM songs out there. It's well written and well performed.

Gypsy has a real Fleetwood Mac sound to it. The backing vocals make it everything. Then, it's topped off by that amazing guitar solo.

Oh Diane sounds like a protest to me, or... Law and Order leftover.

Eyes, eyes, eyes, is another great Fleetwood Mac tune.

That's all for now, if That's All Right..


Uh oh Uh oh Uh oh Uh oh
Uh oh Uh oh Uh oh Uh oh
(sang as Pachelbel's Canon in d minor)

Empire State seems to get a lot of hate, but I really like it. I will never understand why Oh Diane was a top 10 hit in the UK, very bizarre. That’s Alright and Gypsy are fantastic, but I don't like Straight Back, I think it's one of Stevie's worst songs. Wish You Were Here is the best Christine song on Mirage, the beginning sounds a bit like Silver Springs.

That's because the intro is virtually the same. I think it's inversions of a major chord just going down the keyboard with a tonic, fourth and third in the bass.

I think Christine just pulled it out of her toolbox to put a live intro on SS.

I'll have to go play it to confirm... just going off memory..

Where do you guys hear all this outtakes from Mirage? Are they on youtube?

They've been floating around for years. Youtube, torrents, bootleg cd's.. etc..