Tango is the only Fleetwood Mac album on my 'desert isle' list. I can do without all the others, but Tango In The Night and Stevie's Rock A Little would be the two albums from this crew that I couldn't do without.
It is said you never really stop loving your first love, and Tango was my first Fleetwood Mac album. I was 14 years old. I've probably listened to it front to back over a thousand times; maybe more than three thousand times. Those first years, 87-91, I played Tango nearly daily. Some days, I listened to it five or six times. I wore that cassette out! I know every note and syllable and inflection. It never gets old, and I never, ever tire of those songs. If I had any talent for music, I could play all of these songs from my mind alone. In the past week alone, I've had it on the iPod upstairs, or spun the vinyl downstairs...where the big old house is mine.
One of the biggest critiques I see and hear of the album in this thread is that it sounds like the 80s. Well, most of what came out in the 80s sounds like the 80s - how else would a pop album from 1987 sound?
Of the b-sides, Lindsey's are best - You and I Part 1, Down Endless Street - these are
great songs. I'd love to hear a version of Book of Miracles with vocals - I'm sure one exists. Ricky is not a favorite, but I still play it frequently enough to have it memorized.
Digging into the outtakes, I *love* the early version of You And I Part 2 commonly called "Eyes Wide Shut" with Christine singing alone. I do wonder what else might be siting in those Warner vaults...
I do wish Stevie had been in a better place for this album. I cannot place blame on anyone but her (it's common with chiffonheads to assume some conspiracy against her on the part of Lindsey). We know things were tense between her and Lindsey, and I'm sure it was hard, and - obviously - things had reached a boiling point as evidenced by him leaving after the album was finished. She couldn't commit to this record - and notice I said couldn't - not wouldn't - because drug addicts aren't themselves, and while I'm sure in *her* mind at the time she felt she was doing what she needed to do, it's woefully evident that she was half-assing her contributions. I'm not talking about her writing, but moreso about her overall presence and work ethic.
Regarding her songs, I adore When I See You Again - it's very touching song, and quite apropos for the moment and the circumstances that came afterwards. Welcome to the Room...Sara is, on the other hand, a big mess that perfectly represents everything that is wrong with Stevie's output from 87-93. It's a rambling rant with obscure lyrics that just isn't relatable unless you know the story. Frontline baby. Whatever.
I'm shocked the rest of the band agreed to put it on the album, but maybe there simply was nothing better to choose from. Maybe that Book of Miracles with vocals was just not done right, or maybe Stevie held it back herself, because, you know, it "didn't sound like her demo".
The best part of Tango for me is Seven Wonders. Who cares who wrote it? Who cares what the lyrics are? I don't - what I care about is that it's one of the best vocal performances of Stevie's entire career. She really felt those lyrics, even if she didn't write them herself, and she sang them like she meant them. It is an anthem for me, the one song of her entire catalog I'd pick to be my song, to tell my story. When the deluxe Tango box comes out I very much hope that the Fresno show is cherry picked for some live performances, because that performance of Seven Wonders is my favorite, aside from the LP version, and I'd love to hear it cleaned up and free of the fuzzy sounds that always plague bootlegs from the cassette era.