Thursday, December 30, 2010
I'm the fool paying the dues.
(Inspired, at least somewhat, by Clicks and Pops' post about Lindsey Buckingham's tossed-off "Holiday Road."
I've spent a fair amount of time this year rubbishing Christine McVie for what I perceive as a certain bloodlessness in her music.
Much of her oeuvre seems the same to me -- a long string of mid-tempo love/relationship songs, not too soft but certainly not too loud.
I said at one point that no one had ever written more love songs but invested them with less actual passion than Christine McVie.
(Passion. No ordinary word, that.)
I've also been somewhat cynical about Lindsey Buckingham's reputation as a pop genius, which I think is almost undone as much by "Tusk" as it is bolstered by "Rumours."
Recording vocal tracks on your hands and knees in the bathroom, or hiring the USC marching band to record a rhythm track at Dodger Stadium, doesn't make you a Brian Wilson-style savant.
It might just mean that you're doing too much cocaine.
There is, however, one song on which the two of them bring out the absolute best in each other -- a pop song with a perfect arrangement and a simmering, complex romantic soul.
And it's been in the back of my head, here and there, ever since it went Top Five in the late summer of 1982.
"Hold Me" is a McVie co-write with outside songwriter Robbie Patton.
Not being deep into Mac lore, I don't know who first suggested making it a duet between Lindsey and Christine, rather than having Christine sing it alone.
Whoever it was deserves their weight in fine, uncut Turkish hashish.
Their voices mirror each other marvelously in the verses, and build gorgeous clouds of harmony on the chorus.
I love the frustrated growl that leads into the line, "I'm just around the corner if you got a minute to spare."
And then the next line, they come back with a quieter, subtly gentler phrasing that suggests higher hopes:
"I'll be waiting for ya, if you ever want to be there."
They may be pissed off, but when the other one gets their act together, all will be forgiven.
After all, "you and me got plenty of time."
(While we're breaking down the lyrics, I also love the imagery of "slip your hand inside of my glove," which I interpret as a metaphor meaning "give of yourself unguardedly, even though I might not do the same."
And because they're both singing the line, it's like they're both being just a little bit duplicitous to each other.
Which is delicious.)
Ironically, I think Buckingham and C. McVie may have been one of the only Fleetwood Mac romantic pairings that didn't happen ... and yet, they work so marvelously as cat-and-mouse lovers on record.
Once again, though, I'm not up on my Mac lore, so maybe they did hook up some sun-kissed California day in 1979 and just never bothered to tell me about it.
The instrumental arrangement is just about perfect, too. Just to cite a few of the highlights:
* The rhythm section keeps it simple as usual; it sounds like Mick Fleetwood is just using his snare and kick-drum 95 percent of the time.
* Dig the chiming 12-string acoustic guitar that pops up in the first chorus; shows up again partway through Buckingham's guitar solo; and helps carry the quiet interlude immediately after.
* Love those flurries of -- what are they, 64th-notes? -- Buckingham fires off right before the fade. A little instrumental flash is permissible in the service of perfect pop.
Stevie Nicks, as best I can tell, is completely left out of the equation, unless she's adding her voice to the "Hold me"'s.
Sorry, Stevie; the others get along pretty nicely without you on this one.
This song was kept from Number One in the States by "Eye of the Tiger" and "Abracadabra," a pair of songs that, in my humble estimation, are not equipped to carry its jock.
Somehow it didn't chart at all in the UK, which I am powerless to explain.
Fewer than 25 hours left in this year, and here I am, listening again and again to the cool vocal interplay, the simple pulse, and Buckingham putting on a clinic on how to deploy guitars on a catchy pop single.
Did I say something about all being forgiven?
http://kinkypaprika.blogspot.com/201...ying-dues.html