[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
Not defending Mick here, but Mick explained his position... initially he was gung-ho about doing a double album, but as the reality of that began to sink in, he started to have doubts. I don't think he was trying to deceive Lindsey... he merely began having a change of heart. Which happens.

Lindsey mentioned that apparently he found out about Mick's change of heart through some indirect channel. Or did I misunderstand that? This was during the footage with Lindsey in the car. I'll have to review it, but it seemed that something less-than-straightforward happened there.

Stevie, for her part, was concerned that the album-buying public was not going to want to spend a lot of money to buy a double disc set from artists in their late-50s... but when the record company came back to them and said that they could keep the cost down, Stevie was then comfortable with the idea.

Admit it, even you must have gotten a giggle or two from her rather naive 10-27-year-old-buyer comment. It was goofy and charming all at once. I mean, come on Stevie, teenagers aren't going to rush out and buy FM's new album. The Dance was different because a lot of kids had heard those songs in their parents' record collections and they were therefore pre-disposed to like the stuff. Frankly, I don't know too many 10-year-olds who rush to the stores for any albums.

Even from a business perspective, 30- and 40-somethings are the ones who would buy the album, and this group being more value-savvy than teenagers, would have loved to get a double disc. Besides, as it later became clear, the second disc would have cost pennies per copy to put out. It really was a non-issue and I'm still a little baffled as to why ultimately the idea was scrapped. It seems that fear, more than reality, drove this decision. I also was curious about Lindsey's comment that Stevie might drop out after doing 40 dates on the tour and it would therefore not be cost effective. Puzzling words, which seemed somewhat out of context. Had she threatened to do that?

Just because Lindsey wants something, it doesn't mean the rest of the band should just nod their heads like mindless automatons. They are allowed to have opinions contrary to Lindsey's, without having to be painted as "the bad guys."

I agree with this, and I don't think anyone was arguing otherwise. At least, not I.

And for what it's worth, Lindsey seems to have gotten just about everything he wanted... Mark Needham mixed the album, and his "gutsier" material dominates the track-listing for the first half of the disc.

Well, they went with Needham because Stevie didn't like Chris' mixes. Lindsey seemed to instinctively know who would do the mixes that would best serve the songs. And he was afraid Chris would do an assembly-line approach that Lindsey simply didn't want, and rightly. Here is another example in which Stevie was pushing for commercial and Lindsey was pushing for what would best serve the songs.