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Originally posted by CarneVaca
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.
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It's apparent that we didn't quite get the full story there, but I agree that from the looks of it, Mick could have handled his change of heart in a better fashion.
We didn't get to hear that phone call though, so we have no idea how Mick might have explained it to Lindsey.
For all we know, Mick might have explained it to him exactly the way he explained it to the cameras, but Lindsey might have still felt that Mick was going back on his word.
But who knows?
Quote:
Originally posted by CarneVaca
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?
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I did get a chuckle out of Stevie discussing who's most likely to buy an album these days, but she's not entirely wrong either. My 11 year old cousin and my 14 year old cousin buy far more CDs than I do, and I'm "only" 31.
However, we're talking about
Fleetwood Mac here, and their audience is always going to be somewhat more older-skewing.
Mind you, I would have LOVED to have had a double album in my greedy little hands, but Stevie made very good points about the men in the band... who have families they need to support... taking a hit if a double-album didn't sell well.
And, again, once Warner Bros. came back to them and said they could keep the price down, Stevie was on board with the idea.
As for Lindsey's comment about the tour... I didn't get the sense that Stevie said anything about pulling out. I took it to be Lindsey re-thinking the scenarios that he had planned out in order for this to work for him financially, and realizing that if just one thing goes wrong... Stevie wanting to stop touring after 40 dates, for instance... and the tour doesn't run for as long as he needed it to, then he'd be up a creek.
Plus, we know Stevie was having health problems throughout the beginning of this tour, and I'm sure Lindsey was very aware of that, and the problems it could cause.
Quote:
Originally posted by CarneVaca
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.
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Stevie has worked with Chris Lord-Alge on MANY occasions, so she's probably a lot more comfortable telling him what she expects and wants... which is why she seemed more critical of
his mix, as opposed to the mix done by the guy she wasn't familiar with.
If she had her druthers, I still bet she would have went with Lord-Alge, rather than Needham. I have a feeling the "Chris is really busy, so we should go with Mark" thing was just an excuse to smooth things over.
But that's just my perception of it.
You know, I have to wonder if Lindsey really did do what best served the songs... I mean, even you have criticized the mix on this album as being uneven and sloppy in places.
Did he really do what was best for the songs, or is it that Lindsey had his heart settled on Needham, and refused to see anyone else as a possibility?
"Destiny Rules" (the only track Lord-Alge mixed) is one of the best sounding songs on the album, sonically, and Lord-Alge's radio mix for "Say You Will" blows Needham's mix out of the water.
Stevie explained her qualms about Needham's mixes, not as them lacking commercial appeal, but rather that they left her feeling cold. She said that she wants to feel as warm about the songs as she did when she was first sitting at the piano writing them. Her desire to use Lord-Alge seemed to have nothing to do with making the album sound more commercial, and everything to do with making the album sound as best it could.
And I don't think that Stevie has less integrity than Lindsey, just because she wants to sell a decent amount of albums.
Lindsey must want that too, in his heart of hearts, or he would have just released 'Gift of Screws' as it was, and let those 300,000 people buy it.
We can't have our cake and eat it too. If one wants to do everything their way, and never compromise their "artistic integrity," then they can go do that... but they better not expect to make a lot of money.
If, however, one wants to make a lot of money, so they can live beyond comfortably, and have an expensive car, and buy beautiful things for their wife, then they have to be willing to make some business-minded compromises.