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  #1  
Old 08-11-2002, 07:03 PM
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Exclamation Bare Trees...

Here is my "review" of Bare Trees after listening to it for only the 2nd time...LOL

Child of Mine - The guitar is AWESOME in this song!! It's a long song too...no wonder there are only 4 songs on side 1! LOL

The Ghost - I like the flute, if that is a real flute. LOL It's an ok song.

Homeward Bound - I really don't care for this song much. Christine's vocals on it are eh, but the piano KICKS!!

Sunny Side of Heaven - GORGEOUS instrumental...Love it!!

Bare Trees - Dang, is that chorus catchy or what..."I was alone, in the cold, of a winter's day..." Cool song!

Sentimental Lady - I LOVE this song!!

Danny's Chant - Interesting...LOL

Spare Me a Little of Your Love - I don't really care for this song either. Christine's MTM songs are a TON better!!!

Dust - Pretty melody, I like this song.

Thoughts on a Grey Day - What the? She sounds like her dentures are about to fall out. LOL

I don't have an insert for this one either, I only have a gray insert with an album offer for 2 bucks on it. No lyrics or pictures, dangit!!
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Old 08-11-2002, 09:25 PM
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  #2  
Old 08-12-2002, 03:33 AM
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Heart Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound made me sad when I heard it for the first time, and I didn't even understand the lyrics (I was too young to figure out English words by listening only). But I knew it was about pain and anger.
And now, knowing her reasons for retirement, the song is even more saddening.
Anna
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  #3  
Old 08-12-2002, 05:59 AM
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I really enjoy Bare Trees. It's my second favorite Bob Welch era Mac album, after Mystery To Me. I love Spare Me A Little, Sentimental Lady & Dust. I do wish that there had been a song at the end instead of that poem.

I agree with Anna about Homeward Bound. It's sad that Chris felt the same way 30 years ago that she feels today. She apparently spent 25 years touring on the road and was not very happy.
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Old 12-09-2004, 01:23 PM
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I was going to start a new thread asking y'all what your favorite Bare Trees track is, but I found this and figured it wasn't necessary to start new thread. And I have to say that I agree with you, Christy, about Christine's vocals on "Homeward Bound." I don't think they're anything to get excited about, and I'm surprised, because I've NEVER had a complaint about Christine's vocals. I do agree that Christine's songs on MTM are better than on this album, and I think the same can be said for Bob. Like you, I really do like the music on "Homeward Bound," though.

So what is everyone's favorite track? I think mine is "Child of Mine."

Hillary
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  #5  
Old 12-09-2004, 01:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GateandGarden
I was going to start a new thread asking y'all what your favorite Bare Trees track is, but I found this and figured it wasn't necessary to start new thread. And I have to say that I agree with you, Christy, about Christine's vocals on "Homeward Bound." I don't think they're anything to get excited about, and I'm surprised, because I've NEVER had a complaint about Christine's vocals. I do agree that Christine's songs on MTM are better than on this album, and I think the same can be said for Bob. Like you, I really do like the music on "Homeward Bound," though.

So what is everyone's favorite track? I think mine is "Child of Mine."

Hillary
I think Child of Mine and Homeward Bound are tied for my favorites. And Sunny Side of Heaven is just beautiful as well.

FWIW Chris has always said she didn't think her voice was too great years ago, and that she improved as the years went by, with practice. She had a quote from her 1984 documentary that was along the lines of-- "I just didn't start singing overnight and sound great....John'll tell you cause he's heard some of my early records, boy.... (chuckles)..my moral support."

IMO her voice aged really well, like a fine wine. it totally got better as time passed.

-Lis
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Old 12-09-2004, 02:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePenguin
I think Child of Mine and Homeward Bound are tied for my favorites. And Sunny Side of Heaven is just beautiful as well.

FWIW Chris has always said she didn't think her voice was too great years ago, and that she improved as the years went by, with practice. She had a quote from her 1984 documentary that was along the lines of-- "I just didn't start singing overnight and sound great....John'll tell you cause he's heard some of my early records, boy.... (chuckles)..my moral support."

IMO her voice aged really well, like a fine wine. it totally got better as time passed.

-Lis
Christine really is the opposite of 99% of singers. Most go steadily downhill after about age 35-40. She just keeps getting better.
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  #7  
Old 12-09-2004, 02:41 PM
GateandGarden GateandGarden is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePenguin

IMO her voice aged really well, like a fine wine. it totally got better as time passed.

-Lis
I couldn't agree more!

Hillary
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  #8  
Old 12-09-2004, 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by HomerMcvie
Christine really is the opposite of 99% of singers. Most go steadily downhill after about age 35-40. She just keeps getting better.
I completely agree. Early on, she was singing in her lower register. I think she started using her upper register a bit on the Penguin album & thereafter even more so. You can't even begin to compare her singing during the early days with her singing on In The Meantime. I think she's one of the best singers alive now.

By the way, my favorite songs on Bare Trees are "Spare Me A Little Of Your Love" & "Sentimental Lady" with "Dust" close behind.
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  #9  
Old 12-09-2004, 10:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HomerMcvie
Christine really is the opposite of 99% of singers. Most go steadily downhill after about age 35-40. She just keeps getting better.
Absolutely, Homer! Christine is a real treasure.

As for my favorite Bare Trees track...Oh, God...That's near impossible. Bare Trees is my favorite album ever (even though my favorite Fleetwood Mac album is Tusk, because it is much more "Fleetwood Mac sounding). If I post just one I'm certain that I will end up "flip flopping" . How about a top five, all on an equal level of perfection?
...
-Bare Trees
-Sentimental Lady
-Dust
-Sunny Side of Heaven
-Child of Mine
...
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  #10  
Old 12-11-2004, 04:02 PM
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I love Bare Trees so much. My favorite song is Homeward Bound followed closely by Spare Me a Little of Your Love, Bare Trees, and Child of Mine.
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  #11  
Old 03-26-2017, 10:35 AM
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Ultimate Classic Rock

45 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Bare Trees’ Showcases Danny Kirwan Just Before Split
By Nick DeRiso March 26, 2017 9:29 AM

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleet...ac-bare-trees/


Bare Trees was Fleetwood Mac‘s most consistent album to date, and remains today their first platinum release. Much of that attention arrived years later, however, after a retooled lineup hurtled the band to the top of the pop charts. When Bare Trees arrived in March 1972, Fleetwood Mac were still searching for that now-familiar identity, with a lineup that included three future Rumours-era members – Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie – along with the sharply underrated Bob Welch and the soon-to-depart Danny Kirwan.

Kirwan, who’d joined Fleetwood Mac as an 18-year-old in 1968, was the link back to their galloping blues days with the now-departed Peter Green – but a penchant for more thoughtful songwriting eventually meant that he played a key role in their evolution toward stardom, too. “Danny was a quantum leap ahead of us creatively,” Fleetwood told Music Aficionado. “He was a hugely important part of the band.” Unfortunately, he also had gnawing personal issues which eventually led to an issue with alcohol. “Looking back, Danny was not suited to this business,” Fleetwood added. “It was too much pressure. He and Peter were both highly sensitive people, not suited to take the blows.”

Kirwan was summarily fired on the tour in support of Bare Trees, and later fell on very hard times. But not before quietly framing this entire project with five songs, to go with two apiece from the late Welch and Christine McVie. “Danny wasn’t a very lighthearted person, to say the least,” Welch said in a 2003 Q&A for Penguin. “He probably shouldn’t have been drinking as much as he did, even at his young age. … He was always very intense about his work, as I was, but he didn’t seem to ever be able to distance himself from it – and laugh about it. Danny was the definition of ‘deadly serious.'”

You heard it in the music. Kirwan’s weary, compact “Dust” counts – with Welch’s “Hypnotized” from 1973’s Mystery to Me – as one of the top moments in this transitional period. “Child of Mine” begins things with a tough declaration of intent, before Kirwan leads the group though “Sunny Side of Heaven,” a introspective, musically rich instrumental. The title track boasts a muscled groove, while the wah-driven, rhythmically involving “Danny’s Chant” sets an early template for “Tusk.” “Trinity,” another Kirwan song from this prolific final period, later appeared on the 1992 box set 25 Years: The Chain.

That said, Bare Trees was always most famous for the contributions of others. Elsewhere, both Welch (“Sentimental Lady”) and McVie (“Spare Me a Little of Your Love”) add signature songs to the mix. Fleetwood Mac made “Spare Me” a staple of their ’70s-era set lists, while “Sentimental Lady” was later reworked into a solo Welch hit in 1977 – with notable assists from Fleetwood, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. Holding it all together was a polished, warm new production style that came to define their most famous period.

“Bare Trees is the beginning of the band showing a body of work with all the proper connections made,” Fleetwood told Music Aficionado. “It’s a well-rounded album. Like Lindsey, Danny had the chops with layering techniques, and the ability to know what’s right and wrong in the studio.” Yet, Bare Trees initially went nowhere, peaking at a paltry No. 70. The arrival of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before 1975’s self-titled smash changed Fleetwood Mac’s fortunes, however, and fans belatedly returned to lost gems like this one. In 1976, Bare Trees went gold; by 1988, it had sold more than a million copies.
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Old 03-26-2017, 07:23 PM
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Your review is pretty darn accurate.

BARE TREES is one of those great lost records that could have even been more than it was. There's a curiously muddled sound quality there that isn't apparent on Future Games or Kiln House--and not on Penguin. The silky, silvery spaciness of Future Games gives way to a thicker, harder sound. But there's something not quite right in the mix.

Both of Christine's songs are very good and show her growth as a songwriter. But she doesn't really sing either of them very well. She herself has acknowledged this. (This was an odd time for her, since she sang EXTREMELY well on the live-in-studio version of "Crazy 'Bout You Baby" and the early version of "Morning Rain" called "Start Again.") I think she was having an identity crisis and didn't know if she should be tough or delicate. If the tempo on "Spare Me" were picked up a bit (as it was in the live shows from 1972-76) it might have sounded a lot better. It sounds as if she's straining to reach the register on parts of "Homeward Bound," but instrumentally the piece is flawless. Only months later, on PENGUIN, Christine seems to have figured out how she wanted to present herself.

All of Kirwan's songs are a delight. "Child of Mine" and "Dust are my favorites" but all of them are effective. To think that "Trinity" was also created during this session and not included on the record!

Welch's tunes fit well, but neither of them are a patch on either of the tunes he cut for the previous record. "Sentimental Lady" is a charming tune--and its rendition there is better than on FRENCH KISS. But he still seems unsure of himself and somewhat lost in the mix. I think "Sentimental Lady" would have sounded more in context on FUTURE GAMES.

When you compare the musicianship on this record to other acts producing music at the time, it's no wonder that Fleetwood Mac kept afloat despite its internal turmoil. The band proceed with impeccable taste, never overplaying but always playing effectively and creatively.

Last edited by aleuzzi; 03-26-2017 at 07:25 PM..
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  #13  
Old 03-26-2017, 07:31 PM
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Originally Posted by HomerMcvie View Post
Christine really is the opposite of 99% of singers. Most go steadily downhill after about age 35-40. She just keeps getting better.
That is so true!

She sang beautifully on ITM, and it was clear no or very little studio effects were used on her voice there.

I was also amazed at how she grew as a live singer from 1984 onward. Before this, it was not unusual to hear her struggling to stay on pitch. But on her solo tour, and then especially the Tango tour forward she was really dynamite live. I am in awe of how well "Save Me" sounds in the 1990 live Vegas show. And her "Dance" vocals were impeccable.

I thought she might be a disaster on the most recent tour, given her age, but she was great. With the exception of a handful of shows, her voice was pretty much in tact. And it has lost none of its warmth.
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Old 03-27-2017, 12:29 PM
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Dust

*tears*

I rank Future Games and Bare Trees with the very best of Mac (bested only by, chronologically, White, Rumours, Tusk, Say You Will).
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Old 03-27-2017, 01:26 PM
FuzzyPlum FuzzyPlum is offline
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Dust

*tears*

I rank Future Games and Bare Trees with the very best of Mac (bested only by, chronologically, White, Rumours, Tusk, Say You Will).

Has anyone, ever heard a logical reason why Trinity wasn't included? It might just rank up there as one of my top 10 Fleetwood Mac songs of all eras of the band. Hokey lyrics- yes... but the guitar playing really hits the spot.
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