Seven Wonders (Early Version)

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by MikeInNV

So something you hear a lot is that Stevie only spent two weeks in the studio for TITN. I've also heard that 7W is her last pre-Betty Ford vocal. Then there's WTTRS, which is about the Betty Ford experience. Is two weeks an approximate cumulative total for off-and-on work in the studio during 1986 and early 1987? Do we have any idea what was recorded when?

That's a good question. I would bet all the vocals were post Betty Ford. Stevie really only joined them in the studio after her RAL tour and Betty Ford stint. She sent them demos while on the road but I don't believe she ever went to the studio during her tour.
This Seven Wonders "unreleased" version really sheds light on how basic her time was in the studio. I think everyone was expecting a different version of the song or a demo of some sort. This track is the main track that was recorded and then worked with later to create the final product. It just demonstrates (to me) how little time she spent on her songs. It would have been cool to have heard a different vocal or different variation of the song. It appears the keyboard tracks were just added on to this basic track and they called it a day
On the bright side, the song has Mick drumming and real percussion which both are pretty rare on Tango

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

That's a good question. I would bet all the vocals were post Betty Ford. Stevie really only joined them in the studio after her RAL tour and Betty Ford stint. She sent them demos while on the road but I don't believe she ever went to the studio during her tour.
This Seven Wonders "unreleased" version really sheds light on how basic her time was in the studio. I think everyone was expecting a different version of the song or a demo of some sort. This track is the main track that was recorded and then worked with later to create the final product. It just demonstrates (to me) how little time she spent on her songs. It would have been cool to have heard a different vocal or different variation of the song. It appears the keyboard tracks were just added on to this basic track and they called it a day
On the bright side, the song has Mick drumming and real percussion which both are pretty rare on Tango

The Seven Wonders vocal is pre Betty Ford by a matter of days .She recorded it over Halloween weekend 1986 and went into Betty Ford the following month. It is the final recorded vocal of her "coke and brandy" years. Maybe that it is why it is so raw .loose and passionate compared to say her vocals on TOSOTM.

[DauphineMarie]

Originally Posted by MikeInNV

So something you hear a lot is that Stevie only spent two weeks in the studio for TITN. I've also heard that 7W is her last pre-Betty Ford vocal. Then there's WTTRS, which is about the Betty Ford experience. Is two weeks an approximate cumulative total for off-and-on work in the studio during 1986 and early 1987? Do we have any idea what was recorded when?

Well, When I See You Again was recorded pre-Betty Ford. I have a bootleg from the RAL Tour that says she just finished recording that song with Fleetwood Mac... that was 21 June 1986.. She also brought her studio people on the tour as well, hence the earliest recordings of What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You, and Whole Lotta Trouble, and Juliet (all of these were considered for Tango) plus I'm sure a lot of the RAL demos we have assuming they're from 84/85 are actually from the tour.

However, there exists a demo version of WTTRS (apparently) from 1986... So I have no idea.

[svnwndrs]

Thank you Spynote for the Soundcloud link!

Also, isn't there a master reel with Joan Of Arc that is dated 3/9/1986? I could have sworn I saw that on a FM bootleg trade webpage years and years ago. I could be wrong, especially since I always used to think that was written about Betty Ford. But if I am recalling correctly, then that would mean that it's very likely Stevie spent atleast a few days with the group in March 1986, after her time in Australia with Petty and Dylan, and before her RAL tour began in April...

[secondhandchain]

Her vocals during the era are so atrocious. Over the top, warbling. She became a caricature of herself at this point. Awful.

[rockalilcutie25]

Originally Posted by secondhandchain

Her vocals during the era are so atrocious. Over the top, warbling. She became a caricature of herself at this point. Awful.

Her singing at this time is my most favorite now! When I first heard some of the RAL shows, not my fav either. But now, it was a rough time, singing from the heart my girl I love it. Earlier comments some of these vocals have to b pre-Betty Ford becuz there RAL shows where she talks about it. One of my favs come to mind Alpine Valley 5/31/86 she says Fleetwood Mac is doing a record and it's a wonderful record.

[Macfan4life]

This is just my opinion and a thought so please don't everyone flame me
I think when Stevie says she just finished recording When I see you again, she was talking about the demo she sent to the Mac while on tour. There is an interview with Stevie backstage during the RAL tour. She is asked about recording and touring with the Mac. She says she just "sent" them a song that is a Landslide type of song and they really liked it. I think she was stretching it to say she recorded it "with" the Mac.. Her RAL tour was extremely busy (more so than any of her tours). In June 1986 she was on the east coast and I don't see how she had time to get the CA to record anything with the Mac. The Halloween 1986 recording of Seven Wonders makes sense because its after her tour and when she is back from Australia. Since Welcome to the Room Sara is written about the Betty Ford experience then of course its post rehab.
You know its totally possible (based on this just released track of Seven Wonders) that Lindsey took the vocal from her demo and made the song with the vocal. Could you imagine that one? Maybe that is why he added his vocals to the end since she was not there to finish the song.
I just wish someone would ask Lindsey direct questions about this era promoting the Tango re-release. I hate it when these music "reporters" ask the same questions over and over for 30 years. All those questions about the break ups during the Rumours era. I would love to ask Lindsey the following questions.

Did you know Mick was buying drugs in your driveway?
Was Stevie in the studio singing with the band or was her voice taken from the demos and played with a track the band made?
What about the songs that never made it to Tango?
What are your favorite songs from Tango and why?
You say recording Tango was the worst experience in your life. Tell us why.
Do you care to give your versions of events the night you left at Christine's house?

[SisterNightroad]

Yesterday when searching for something else I stumbled upon this Tango interview in which Stevie and Lindsey talk about recording the album:

Where Was Stevie Nicks?

Although not quite missing from Tango In the Night, Stevie Nicks isn’t exactly all over the thing. To be precise, she contributed two songs of her own ("Welcome to the Room…Sara" and "When I See You Again") and a third song by her friend and collaborator, Sandy Stewart ("Seven Wonders").
"In the beginning part (of making Tango) she was touring," Lindsey explains. "She was having her own problems. Without being judgmental about her reasons, she made herself very hard to get ahold of. When her own tour was done she went off to Australia for some reason - felt she had to do that. So it was hard to pin her down.
"Once she settled down" - a small laugh here - "she was fine. She came in towards the end-it really was towards the end of the project that she made herself available, constructively. And so we had to work with a limited amount from her."
Christine McVie, who contributed quite a bit to the album ("My favorite group of her songs on any album," says Lindsey), offers this: "The studio junkies, if you like, are pretty much me and Lindsey and Mick. John spends a lesser amount of time in the studio; he doesn’t like to hang around doing nothing. Neither does Stevie, because she doesn’t actually play any instruments in the band - that drives her crazy when there’s nothing for her to actually do."

Stevie Nicks Speaking

"I was there at the very beginning," she says, "but you plan an album on a cycle kind of thing. What happened is everything took a little longer, so I ended up being on the second single from my album and getting ready to go on the road when Fleetwood Mac really got started on it.
"Lindsey was doing another solo album, too. If he hadn’t been Lindsey - if he’d have been me - then he could’ve gone ahead and done his at the same time Fleetwood Mac was doing theirs. But Lindsey, having to be the boss - and pretty much the head of this particular tribe at this particular moment - he couldn’t do both. I could, because there wasn’t all that much for me to do, in the technical sense, at the beginning of the record. I didn’t feel weird about it because I didn’t have any choice."
Later on, when asked if she doesn’t feel a bit short-changed by the way Tango turned out, she adds: "I could feel short-changed if I wanted to look at it that way. I would prefer to look at it that I had my own thing going, and if I had been there more I would be on it more.
"If I want to blame everyone else for it, I suffer. If I want to blame myself, then I can deal with it."


The entire piece is here: http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=785&c=18

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by SisterNightroad

Yesterday when searching for something else I stumbled upon this Tango interview in which Stevie and Lindsey talk about recording the album:

Where Was Stevie Nicks?

Although not quite missing from Tango In the Night, Stevie Nicks isn’t exactly all over the thing. To be precise, she contributed two songs of her own ("Welcome to the Room…Sara" and "When I See You Again") and a third song by her friend and collaborator, Sandy Stewart ("Seven Wonders").
"In the beginning part (of making Tango) she was touring," Lindsey explains. "She was having her own problems. Without being judgmental about her reasons, she made herself very hard to get ahold of. When her own tour was done she went off to Australia for some reason - felt she had to do that. So it was hard to pin her down.
"Once she settled down" - a small laugh here - "she was fine. She came in towards the end-it really was towards the end of the project that she made herself available, constructively. And so we had to work with a limited amount from her."
Christine McVie, who contributed quite a bit to the album ("My favorite group of her songs on any album," says Lindsey), offers this: "The studio junkies, if you like, are pretty much me and Lindsey and Mick. John spends a lesser amount of time in the studio; he doesn’t like to hang around doing nothing. Neither does Stevie, because she doesn’t actually play any instruments in the band - that drives her crazy when there’s nothing for her to actually do."

Stevie Nicks Speaking

"I was there at the very beginning," she says, "but you plan an album on a cycle kind of thing. What happened is everything took a little longer, so I ended up being on the second single from my album and getting ready to go on the road when Fleetwood Mac really got started on it.
"Lindsey was doing another solo album, too. If he hadn’t been Lindsey - if he’d have been me - then he could’ve gone ahead and done his at the same time Fleetwood Mac was doing theirs. But Lindsey, having to be the boss - and pretty much the head of this particular tribe at this particular moment - he couldn’t do both. I could, because there wasn’t all that much for me to do, in the technical sense, at the beginning of the record. I didn’t feel weird about it because I didn’t have any choice."
Later on, when asked if she doesn’t feel a bit short-changed by the way Tango turned out, she adds: "I could feel short-changed if I wanted to look at it that way. I would prefer to look at it that I had my own thing going, and if I had been there more I would be on it more.
"If I want to blame everyone else for it, I suffer. If I want to blame myself, then I can deal with it."


The entire piece is here: http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=785&c=18

Thanks for posting this. I do remember the Australia thing and was like why is Stevie going on tour again with Bob and Tom in Australia while her band is making an album. Stevie went to Australia for her last BIG party before rehab. That part would really irk me. Stevie was on her solo tour so could not make it to the studio, then she went to Australia, then rehab. Its no secret why her songs are the weakest on Tango.
When you are an addict, the drug always comes first. It comes before family, friends, your job, your career, etc. It was more important to party her brains out with Tom in Australia than be concerned about the new Mac album.

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Thanks for posting this. I do remember the Australia thing and was like why is Stevie going on tour again with Bob and Tom in Australia while her band is making an album. Stevie went to Australia for her last BIG party before rehab. That part would really irk me. Stevie was on her solo tour so could not make it to the studio, then she went to Australia, then rehab. Its no secret why her songs are the weakest on Tango.
When you are an addict, the drug always comes first. It comes before family, friends, your job, your career, etc. It was more important to party her brains out with Tom in Australia than be concerned about the new Mac album.

Actually she was very briefly in Australia since she'd been repatriated quite soon because she didn't have a passport or something to that extent.
But yes, RAL was her worst period.
However I'm surprised by the fact that she said that she was there at the very beginning before her second single from her own solo album went out, so it must be that sometime between right before and at the beginning of RAL the band did reunite to work on something, and I didn't know or remember that.

[bwboy]

Just speculation on my part, but I know Stevie has said her management did an intervention with her and basically made her promise to go to rehab after her RAL tour was over. I often wondered if Stevie went to Australia as a way of avoiding rehab, so as not to actually break her promise. You know, like "Look, I know I said I would go to rehab after my tour, but I promised Tom Petty I'd do a few shows in Australia first..."

Tango sounds like a case of bad timing for Stevie, between her tour and rehab. She was much more present for Fleetwood Mac after that

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by SisterNightroad

Actually she was very briefly in Australia since she'd been repatriated quite soon because she didn't have a passport or something to that extent.
But yes, RAL was her worst period.
However I'm surprised by the fact that she said that she was there at the very beginning before her second single from her own solo album went out, so it must be that sometime between right before and at the beginning of RAL the band did reunite to work on something, and I didn't know or remember that.

You are correct. She went to Australia twice. She was in Australia right before her RAL tour kicked off. She deserted her band for RAL tour rehearsals. This was March 1986 just once month before the tour kicked off. A good point of reference was the David Letterman skit about her I Cant Wait Video in which her management company gave Letterman a cease and desist order while she was in Australia. So she abandoned her own band as well as Fleetwood Mac to party down under. If you forgot about this. Here is one of the snippets from Letterman in 1986. These things lasted a few weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwqs1bDCnw

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

You are correct. She went to Australia twice. She was in Australia right before her RAL tour kicked off. She deserted her band for RAL tour rehearsals. This was March 1986 just once month before the tour kicked off. A good point of reference was the David Letterman skit about her I Cant Wait Video in which her management company gave Letterman a cease and desist order while she was in Australia. So she abandoned her own band as well as Fleetwood Mac to party down under. If you forgot about this. Here is one of the snippets from Letterman in 1986. These things lasted a few weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwqs1bDCnw

Now that you mention it, in her commentary for the video of I can't wait Stevie said that David Letterman asked her to be on his show while she was touring with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan and had an argument with her management of which she wasn't aware of and they eventually called her and told her to come back to US because the song had become a hit and she had to solve the situation with Letterman:

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

You are correct. She went to Australia twice. She was in Australia right before her RAL tour kicked off. She deserted her band for RAL tour rehearsals. This was March 1986 just once month before the tour kicked off. A good point of reference was the David Letterman skit about her I Cant Wait Video in which her management company gave Letterman a cease and desist order while she was in Australia. So she abandoned her own band as well as Fleetwood Mac to party down under. If you forgot about this. Here is one of the snippets from Letterman in 1986. These things lasted a few weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwqs1bDCnw

"Deserted her band for RAL tour rehearsals?" Do you really that that's an accurate account, or are you still po'ed that Stevie didn't record with FM for their latest album? Going on tour for an album is a contractual obligation, as I'm sure you're aware of. And rehearsing before a tour is a necessity. Stevie can be criticized for a lot of things, but touring to support her solo album, and rehearsing for it, is not one of them, even if it interfered with recording a FM album.

[dreamsunwind]

Originally Posted by bwboy

"Deserted her band for RAL tour rehearsals?" Do you really that that's an accurate account, or are you still po'ed that Stevie didn't record with FM for their latest album? Going on tour for an album is a contractual obligation, as I'm sure you're aware of. And rehearsing before a tour is a necessity. Stevie can be criticized for a lot of things, but touring to support her solo album, and rehearsing for it, is not one of them, even if it interfered with recording a FM album.

You may have a point about her own RAL tour but she did essentially ditch them to unnecessarily tag along with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. If one of my coworkers did that when we were supposed to be working on something I'd have been reaaaaaally annoyed.