Illume - is this the best?

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
THEN, when you realize her smelling it then (when she wrote the song) perhaps the smell of it then took her back to 9/11 when she had to use it to cover the smell of burnt people and carnage, it is just chilling to me. Sort of the opposite of when you hear a song you haven't heard since a big event it is associated with for you (like a prom) and you hearing it again after a long time suddenly and without hesitation reminds you in that flas of a moment all of the things surrounding that event and you smile. THAT is why I think she is just so great.

See, this is my problem with the song. And I don't dislike it. I think musically it's quite interesting, though I wish Lindsey had used a different tone on the recurring acoustic riff. It's a little harsh, when it should have been warmer. I like the bongos, and think they are appropriate. What I have trouble with is the words. I lived through this experience and the song does not speak to me at all. I said before that it comes acros as rather self-indulgent: "I was so scared. Wasn't it terrible?" Anyone in the island of Manhattan who didn't feel fear that day wasn't awake. So why tell us that? I wanted more substance. I remember reading a story about Stevie going to the street and serving firefighters coffee or something. She probably could have written an epic just from taking a quick look at a firefighter's face that day.

Mind you, as critical as I am of this song, I will confess this is a terribly tough subject. I've tried to write a song about that day and have never been able to. So I give Stevie credit for tackling the subject. I just think she took the wrong approach. For me. But obviously the song strikes a chord some of you, so that's cool.

[DownOnRodeo]

Originally posted by CarneVaca
But obviously the song strikes a chord some of you, so that's cool.

It sure does, Carne. And it strikes the same chord over and over again!

But seriously, that is actually what makes it for me ... the trance-like repitition of the guitar riff (not discounting the moving melodicism of John's bass line) lulls you through different stages of 'dealing'. Starts off dreamy, like falling into sleep, gets melancholy and then sinister, like falling into a nightmare, and then she finds her voice and strength, and fights her way through the pain/nightmare. Note the dark water in the lyric booklet. (This will later be 'waking up' into dawn when she repeats that verse in Destiny Rules, but for this song it's about troubled dreams, and being haunted by scary images/memories when there is no daylight.)

I think this song is about the nightmares she was having/going to be having rather than the nightmare of that day itself. I actually think I'm *glad* she didn't write anything too literal or directly pertinent to the events of that day ... the song's more about the 'dealing' process. When I first heard Illume on that SYW full-album stream, by the final powerful chorus I was so emotional, as the song indirectly reimaginated all the pain I had felt.

Because 9-11 made me sympathise on an unprecdneted level whether I wanted to or not. It was just so close to home. Hell, it was home for many of you. And so this song is not about the pain felt by the victims of that day ... that pain speaks for itself. This is a song about sympathy and all the bystanders who were shattered with it.

[SmthngOfADreamr]

Everyone's 9-11 experience was so unique, yet at the same time, we all suffered the same universal feelings of fear and anger. In that light, I think illume is brilliant. Illume touches on both the "I" and the "we." It is impossible to write a song that can summarize the day in one respect or another for every single person who expereinced it. That is just a ludicrous concept. But writing a song describing your own feelings and relating them somehow to how other people felt makes for a much better song. That's why I like Stevie's writing-- you can take her "I" and make it your own.

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by SmthngOfADreamr
It is impossible to write a song that can summarize the day in one respect or another for every single person who expereinced it. That is just a ludicrous concept.

Nor was I suggesting that. Let's put it this way: Any time you have to use the word "trauma" to refer to "trauma," you haven't worked very hard.

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by CarneVaca
Nor was I suggesting that. Let's put it this way: Any time you have to use the word "trauma" to refer to "trauma," you haven't worked very hard.

Well, La Nicks had to rhyme something with champra after all!!! - at least she remained in the same tense

I also agree with what you were saying about perhaps adding a verse or two about the firefighters or Stevie lending her tour bus to the Backstreet Boys road crew that lost family in this horrible event. That somehow would have given the song the hope she says she always tries to put into songs.

But all in all, I like the song very much - I just, as apparently always, want more lyrics and less repetition. A friend of mine always tells me I just like "word soup"

[dissention]

Next to Say Goodbye, Illume is my favorite track on the album. It's one of the most unique songs I've ever heard and stands out as the most emotionally moving song on the album.

However, I wholeheartedly agree with Carne that it is totally self-indulgent. I know that Stevie writes about herself all the time, but gosh, to write a song that centers around you and 9/11? It's a bit of bad taste. At the same time though, I think that what she was feeling was the general way everyone else was feeling on that day, but she should've expanded more on the emotions of everyone involved (like the country), not just herself. It's kind of off-putting at first. With that said, I've never heard a Mac song that is so moving (other than Storms).

I really love the way the song starts slow, picks up pace, then explodes after the computrized voice, only to slowly go out with the la-la's. It's very stream-of-consciousness and that's what I love about it. The repetition works amazingly well, IMO. It drives home the fact that this was such a terrible thing. People were so afraid that all they could do was think of their fear over and over and over again. And the lines "I will not take you for granted/I will not trade you for jade/Not for diamonds/Not for anything/Not for a minute" are just beautiful and stunning. Perhaps some of the best lyrics Stevie's ever written.

When Stevie wrote it, she was "alone with her thoughts." That's why I just view the music itself as secondary. It's just theme music to go with her state of mind and mood at the time the song was written. Dark, dense, and intense.

I also don't think Lindsey really put his stamp on it. I'll bet money that if we ever hear the demo, it'll be ramarkably similar to the album version. I don't think that much was changed due to the fact that it was such a dear song to Stevie. And she's said that when he heard the demo, he put his hand on her knee and asked "How do you do this?" and shed some tears!

[celestenadia]

I like "Illume". It is "aging" well to me. I'm a New Yorker, and the
song does "speak" to me...
What really still does amuse me though with regard to this song
is, what IS the real deal with the "Illumay" and the "nag champra"?
Should I go to the nicksfix and go to "Ask Stevie"?

[SmthngOfADreamr]

Originally posted by celestenadia

What really still does amuse me though with regard to this song
is, what IS the real deal with the "Illumay" and the "nag champra"?
Should I go to the nicksfix and go to "Ask Stevie"?

I think whoever guessed that it was probably related to copyright issues was onto something. Illume (pronounced in two syllables) is definately a brand name of candles... not sure if Nag Champa is a brand name, but it probably is.

[sulamith]

I have a friend here who owns a New Age store, and she sells Illume candles and Nag Champa incense.

I happened to have asked her both of these questions, and she said Nag Champa is the name of the scent, and that most people sell the kind in the red,white, & blue box like you see everywhere that is imported from the east. On the candle pronounciation, all she could say was, "Well, 'Ill-loo-may' is the French pronounciation, so maybe Stevie was feeling a bit cosmopolitan that day, (and she laughed)...... no seriously, maybe she just thought it sounded prettier that way."

I think it does have a prettier, more musical sound when pronouced that way.

-Sharon

[dissention]

Illume is the name of a candle brand and is, in fact, pronounced Ill-oo-may. However, the French word illume, to illuminate, is pronounced ill-oom. No may in it at all.

Personally, I think that the song would have been more powerful if she used the French word instead of the candle name. That way, instead of the candle's label, the lyrics would read as if the candle was actually telling her to illuminate, to light up. That's just my opinion though!

[dontlookdown]

Cliffdwelling from the old school aside,
this is by far one of Fleetwood Mac's strongest studio efforts.
For the first time in ages, instrumentally, Illume shows how fantastic John, Mick and Lindsey play together.
I also think it's one of the best examples from a studio track as to how this band can sound on stage - if they want too.

Listening to Illume really makes me long for the days when the band was just the band without all the extra musicians on stage. There was a moment on the '97 tour during Not That Funny when they managed to do this.

On the current tour I was annoyed by the muddled sound of the extra drummers and players. Too much for such a great simple band.

Anyway - I think Illume is certainly one of Stevie's strongest tracks on the album. Along with Thrown Down and Smile At You, it really makes you believe in Stevie as a writer.

Having said all that, I think Say You Will is a little bloated and I realized if they left off Silver Girl, Running Through The Garden, and Goodbye Baby, it would have been a much stronger album.

[sulamith]

dissention, I'm not trying to be argumentative, just bringing up a point, but I saw a piece on the House Beautiful show on A&E a couple of years ago that featured the owner and founder of the Illume candle company. She talked about how she started making them in her basement, etc.... Rags to riches, blah, blah.

She didn't pronounce it Ill-loo-may. She said Ill-loom. It's her company, so I figure she should know.

As far the French pronounciation, my friend is not French is probably very wrong!
lol!

-Sharon

[strandinthewind]

How timely of Tracey at www.burnish.net to post this article

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08012...day/friday.asp

in which Stevie discusses Illume and what was going on when she wrote it.

Thanks Tracey!!!!

[dissention]

Originally posted by sulamith
dissention, I'm not trying to be argumentative, just bringing up a point, but I saw a piece on the House Beautiful show on A&E a couple of years ago that featured the owner and founder of the Illume candle company. She talked about how she started making them in her basement, etc.... Rags to riches, blah, blah.

She didn't pronounce it Ill-loo-may. She said Ill-loom. It's her company, so I figure she should know.

As far the French pronounciation, my friend is not French is probably very wrong!
lol!

-Sharon

I saw a show on the Style network and they toured the shop and pronounced it as Ill-oo-may. LOL Who knows? But I don't know how she claims it was rags to riches! The shop is on West Third in LA and is quite stunning. You'd have to already have some riches to open a shop in that area. The candles are amaaaaaaazing, though!

In either case, then, Stevie took some liberty with the pronunciation. Just as she did with Nag Champra!

[ericktul]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
Illume on the radio?

The only song from the new album I have heard on the radio so far is Thrown Down, and that was during the after concert frenzy on KRXO in OKC. The whole idea was to echo the set list, but Thrown Down wasn't in the set list. Strange.