Holiday Road

[marc402]

Thanx for all the feedback you guys and i think i have to get shadow of the west out again (didn't know about that chris vocal on it.

[FuzzyPlum]

All these years of listening to this song- I never really considered the female vocal. When I was young I assumed it to be Stevie. Later in life I assumed it to be some unknown singer or even a girlfriend.
Never in a million years did I ever consider it was Lindsey himself.
After listening to it today though, I decided to look up who it was and couldn't find anything.
I feel silly asking this, but can somebody confirm it really was Lindsey after all? Considering what he did on TITN its clear he was able to pull off just about any sonic trickery he wanted. Even so, for 1983 that's just so convincing.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

All these years of listening to this song- I never really considered the female vocal. When I was young I assumed it to be Stevie. Later in life I assumed it to be some unknown singer or even a girlfriend.
Never in a million years did I ever consider it was Lindsey himself.
After listening to it today though, I decided to look up who it was and couldn't find anything.
I feel silly asking this, but can somebody confirm it really was Lindsey after all? Considering what he did on TITN its clear he was able to pull off just about any sonic trickery he wanted. Even so, for 1983 that's just so convincing.

When Big Love came out many speculated the grunting sounds were Stevie even though they sounded nothing like her. It was Lindsey's voice. I hope he does write a book and talk at length what he did with Tango.
I was shocked, floored and could not believe that the Family Man bridge was not Stevie. It sounds like her but when I heard it was not her, I could hear it was Lindsey and it blew my mind.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

When Big Love came out many speculated the grunting sounds were Stevie even though they sounded nothing like her. It was Lindsey's voice.

Yes, it was Lindsey's voice sampled through a variable-speed oscillator.

Though Mick appeared en Lindsey's Law and Order, and Lindsey appeared in Christine's 1984 album, I don't think Lindsey would collaborate in any of Stevie solo works. And of course viceversa. Twisted is one of the clues that The Dance was coming soon. But that was 1996.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Yes, it was Lindsey's voice sampled through a variable-speed oscillator.

Though Mick appeared en Lindsey's Law and Order, and Lindsey appeared in Christine's 1984 album, I don't think Lindsey would collaborate in any of Stevie solo works. And of course viceversa. Twisted is one of the clues that The Dance was coming soon. But that was 1996.

Soldier’s Angel.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Yes, it was Lindsey's voice sampled through a variable-speed oscillator.

Though Mick appeared en Lindsey's Law and Order, and Lindsey appeared in Christine's 1984 album, I don't think Lindsey would collaborate in any of Stevie solo works. And of course viceversa. Twisted is one of the clues that The Dance was coming soon. But that was 1996.

I take your point, but don’t forget Soundstage.

[Villavic]

I should specify more. My point was about the 80s. Soldier's Angel and Soundstage are from the before The Dance era. That's why I mentioned Twisted. That was the clue that things started to change.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I should specify more. My point was about the 80s. Soldier's Angel and Soundstage are from the before The Dance era. That's why I mentioned Twisted. That was the clue that things started to change.

I was talking about Lindsey’s Soundstage. That came after The Dance.

[David]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

I feel silly asking this, but can somebody confirm it really was Lindsey after all?

Doesn’t he give all the production credits on that song on his Solo Anthology? I would look it up for you but I don’t have it, and Spotify is sketchy with credits.

Even more importantly, DOO WOP. We don’t talk about it much — we usually just all decide that Lindsey is trying to simulate Stevie Nicks’s voice with a VSO on his own tracks — but Lindsey is steeped in the doo-wop tradition of pop recording, and that tradition is filled with male singers who use falsetto and their upper registers to give what can only be called a female energy to their recordings, from Gary Paxton (Skip and Flip, who wrote “It Was I”) to Del Shannon to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”) to the Five Satins to Dion to the Platters to Gene Chandler, and on and on. Lindsey cut his teeth on the early era of rock and roll — you can hear it everywhere in his music, from his backup vocal arrangements (even the scat lyrics they used in the old recordings wind up on Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac tracks) to the pop-savvy instrumentation (drum roll intros, frequent rhythm breaks, rolls, turnarounds, and so on). I really don’t think it’s ever been his artistic motive to simulate Stevie Nicks on his own tracks as much as to recall earlier traditions of doo-wop.

[John Run]

This does not speak directly to Holiday Road, but the below is from a 2017 article in Pitchfork about the 30th anniversary and re-release of Tango in the Night and speaks to Lindsey's approach to constructing layered vocal parts. It may offer you some clues.

"Most of the vocal parts were recorded track by track,” he told the New York Times in 1987. “The voices used in the textured vocal choruses were mostly mine. I used a Fairlight synthesizer that samples real sounds and blends them orchestrally.” Out of these newly available materials, he could practically build an entire band, which was useful at the time. Mick Fleetwood was almost entirely consumed by his cocaine habit, and the band had been experiencing an internal drift for years. “Constructing such elaborate layering is a lot like painting a canvas and is best done in solitude,” Buckingham added.

[FuzzyPlum]

Looked up the credits on LB Anthology. All instrumentation & vocals by Lindsey Buckingham except* ( a small list of contributions to various songs- but not many). Nothing about any other vocalist for HR.
My mind is officially blown on this one. For more than 30 years I thought it was a female singer.

re: Doo Wop- I guess there are actually elements of Doo-Wop style elsewhere in the make up of this particular song.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by David

Doesn’t he give all the production credits on that song on his Solo Anthology? I would look it up for you but I don’t have it, and Spotify is sketchy with credits.

Even more importantly, DOO WOP. We don’t talk about it much — we usually just all decide that Lindsey is trying to simulate Stevie Nicks’s voice with a VSO on his own tracks — but Lindsey is steeped in the doo-wop tradition of pop recording, and that tradition is filled with male singers who use falsetto and their upper registers to give what can only be called a female energy to their recordings, from Gary Paxton (Skip and Flip, who wrote “It Was I”) to Del Shannon to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”) to the Five Satins to Dion to the Platters to Gene Chandler, and on and on. Lindsey cut his teeth on the early era of rock and roll — you can hear it everywhere in his music, from his backup vocal arrangements (even the scat lyrics they used in the old recordings wind up on Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac tracks) to the pop-savvy instrumentation (drum roll intros, frequent rhythm breaks, rolls, turnarounds, and so on). I really don’t think it’s ever been his artistic motive to simulate Stevie Nicks on his own tracks as much as to recall earlier traditions of doo-wop.

True. If he happens to sound like Stevie, it’s just their similarities, not that he wants to sound like her. Stevie herself says speed it up or slow down they sound like each other and it’s really creepy. It’s not something that they have to go out of their way to do. For instance, on Big Love I don’t think he’s trying to sound like Stevie.

Now, Stevie mentioned him sounding like Christine on SYW. She said she had to ask him was it him or Christine. He may have been trying to sound like Christine at that time.

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by michelej1

True. If he happens to sound like Stevie, it’s just their similarities, not that he wants to sound like her. Stevie herself says speed it up or slow down they sound like each other and it’s really creepy. It’s not something that they have to go out of their way to do. For instance, on Big Love I don’t think he’s trying to sound like Stevie.

Now, Stevie mentioned him sounding like Christine on SYW. She said she had to ask him was it him or Christine. He may have been trying to sound like Christine at that time.

I think he likes to create the Fleetwood Mac sound, whether there are 4 of them or 5. Pretty sure he deliberately created a Stevie sound on parts of Buckingham McVie...certainly no accident there imo.

[BLY]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

I think he likes to create the Fleetwood Mac sound, whether there are 4 of them or 5. Pretty sure he deliberately created a Stevie sound on parts of Buckingham McVie...certainly no accident there imo.

Red Sun and on Game of Pretend for sure.

[Storms123]

Originally Posted by BLY

Red Sun and on Game of Pretend for sure.

Red Sun would have been great released as FM. It sounds like them
OWTS as well.