Behind The Mask turns 28

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Very cool, McLamb. I've always found the track listing of BTM rather fascinating. I thought In the Back of My Mind would have been an interesting way to start the album, but Skies the Limit was probably appropriate because it's a Christine song, and they wanted to begin with a known quantity, so to speak.

I also find it interesting that Christine practically disappears after track 8, which is Behind the Mask. Her songs should have been more spread out. It would have been nice to have 2 of her songs on side one and 2 on side two. Seems weird she only had 4 songs on the album, but with 4 songwriters in the band, I guess it makes sense.

I remember an interview in 1990 and Skies the Limit was a last minute addition to the album. After the album was complete the band was worried the album sounded too dark for a Fleetwood Mac album. Christine's title track was not her usual peppy love song. Christine wrote Skies the limit rather fast and they recorded the track and slapped it right up front to dwarf the dark sound.

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I remember an interview in 1990 and Skies the Limit was a last minute addition to the album. After the album was complete the band was worried the album sounded too dark for a Fleetwood Mac album. Christine's title track was not her usual peppy love song. Christine wrote Skies the limit rather fast and they recorded the track and slapped it right up front to dwarf the dark sound.

Thanks for the info, Macfan4life! You always have the coolest trivia and I appreciate it. If Christine and Eddy could whip up a song like Skies the Limit that fast, they were even a better songwriting team than I'd thought! But did they replace another Christine song with Skies? I can't believe she originally had only 3 songs on the album- and one was a duet, even!

[TrueFaith77]

Imagine if the album had had Love Shines and Heaet of Stone!

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Thanks for the info, Macfan4life! You always have the coolest trivia and I appreciate it. If Christine and Eddy could whip up a song like Skies the Limit that fast, they were even a better songwriting team than I'd thought! But did they replace another Christine song with Skies? I can't believe she originally had only 3 songs on the album- and one was a duet, even!

That piece of trivia came from Dick Clark's countdown show in 1990. He used to host this adult contemporary radio top 30 countdown. I was in college in a far away place where this was on the radio. I was not even aware there was a second single after Save Me because I never heard Skies the Limit on the radio ever except on this show. Apparently the song charted on Adult contemporary charts in late 1990. So I would listen every Sunday and hear these tid bits every week. I don't believe the song replaced another but there were no usual Christine peppy love songs on BTM. Even Save Me is not really a love song in the typical Christine fashion. Usually she is singing how wonderful she is in love. Save me she is not in love and just begging to be given that chance. So in a panic Skies the limit was written quickly and put on the album track one. Problem solved.

[BLY]

I love Skies the Limit but can you imagine if it was a Buckingham produced track?

[SteveMacD]

Skies The Limit
Victim of Love
Intuition
Freedom
Save Me
In The Back of My Mind
-
Behind the Mask
Got No Home
Affairs of the Heart
Do You Know
When the Sun Goes Down
Love Is Dangerous
Game of Love

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Skies The Limit
Victim of Love
Intuition
Freedom
Save Me
In The Back of My Mind
-
Behind the Mask
Got No Home
Affairs of the Heart
Do You Know
When the Sun Goes Down
Love Is Dangerous
Game of Love

Is this your preferred track list for BTM, SteveMacD? I love Game of Love and can't believe it didn't make the cut- one of my favorites and so underrated and catchy! And Intuition is my favorite Rick Vito song and would have been great on BTM.

Please please please let there be a Deluxe Edition of Behind the Mask! I know, wishful thinking...

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Is this your preferred track list for BTM, SteveMacD? I love Game of Love and can't believe it didn't make the cut- one of my favorites and so underrated and catchy! And Intuition is my favorite Rick Vito song and would have been great on BTM.

Please please please let there be a Deluxe Edition of Behind the Mask! I know, wishful thinking...

It is.

I really hope they do a Deluxe on this one. They won’t, because of it wasn’t a hit by FM standards, and because people will wonder WTF the band was thinking with the final track listing. They made a great album, they just didn’t release it.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Is this your preferred track list for BTM, SteveMacD? I love Game of Love and can't believe it didn't make the cut- one of my favorites and so underrated and catchy! And Intuition is my favorite Rick Vito song and would have been great on BTM.

Please please please let there be a Deluxe Edition of Behind the Mask! I know, wishful thinking...

How were those tracks made available?

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by BLY

I love Skies the Limit but can you imagine if it was a Buckingham produced track?

Hmmm... I love Skies the Limit pretty much as is, and certainly a lot more than Mystified or You and I. I think Lindsey did a great job with most of Christine's songs, but Save Me, Love Shines, As Long As You Follow, and Behind the Mask are as good and in some cases better than her earlier songs like Oh Daddy, Say You Love Me, Only Over You, or Love in Store. And don't get me wrong, I like some of those songs, too, but they're pretty lightweight. I have a feeling Save Me by Lindsey would have been less guitar driven, for example. Just my opinion, of course.

Btw, I've read posts where people said the album BTM sounded muddled or wasn't produced well. I would love to know what they mean, specifically. I know little about how music is produced, I guess, and so it can be hard for me to understand those kind of comments. For example, how can one tell if the fault is in the production or in the performance itself? If the sound is 'muddled,' isn't that more an engineering issue? I'd really love feedback about this sort of technical question.

The only FM example I can really think of as sounding muddled is Goodbye Baby from Say You Will, especially the beginning. It sounds like a demo or outtake, rather than a finished song. I figured if I noticed the poor sound quality, it must be pretty obvious LOL!

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Hmmm... I love Skies the Limit pretty much as is, and certainly a lot more than Mystified or You and I. I think Lindsey did a great job with most of Christine's songs, but Save Me, Love Shines, As Long As You Follow, and Behind the Mask are as good and in some cases better than her earlier songs like Oh Daddy, Say You Love Me, Only Over You, or Love in Store. And don't get me wrong, I like some of those songs, too, but they're pretty lightweight. I have a feeling Save Me by Lindsey would have been less guitar driven, for example. Just my opinion, of course.

Btw, I've read posts where people said the album BTM sounded muddled or wasn't produced well. I would love to know what they mean, specifically. I know little about how music is produced, I guess, and so it can be hard for me to understand those kind of comments. For example, how can one tell if the fault is in the production or in the performance itself? If the sound is 'muddled,' isn't that more an engineering issue? I'd really love feedback about this sort of technical question.

The only FM example I can really think of as sounding muddled is Goodbye Baby from Say You Will, especially the beginning. It sounds like a demo or outtake, rather than a finished song. I figured if I noticed the poor sound quality, it must be pretty obvious LOL!

Skies the Limit is pure pop greatness from Christine. While no longer cranking out to 40 hits since the music industry was changing, the song still proved she still had the formula. She can make simple phrases like You make loving fun into gooey love songs. Skies the limit uses the same formula. I particularly love the keyboard beginning because its classic Christine the way she plays. All 4 singers harmonizing sounds pretty good too. The video was excellent too. If my memory is correct it was filmed in Red Rocks, Colorado. I had to look this up but the song peaked at #10 on adult contemporary charts. Always loved the crack of the drum right before the vocals start. Save me barely cracked the top 40 but had a great video. Fleetwood Mac's first album with no Stevie Nicks single or hit. Times were a changing

[Netter75]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Skies the Limit is pure pop greatness from Christine. While no longer cranking out to 40 hits since the music industry was changing, the song still proved she still had the formula. She can make simple phrases like You make loving fun into gooey love songs. Skies the limit uses the same formula. I particularly love the keyboard beginning because its classic Christine the way she plays. All 4 singers harmonizing sounds pretty good too. The video was excellent too. If my memory is correct it was filmed in Red Rocks, Colorado. I had to look this up but the song peaked at #10 on adult contemporary charts. Always loved the crack of the drum right before the vocals start. Save me barely cracked the top 40 but had a great video. Fleetwood Mac's first album with no Stevie Nicks single or hit. Times were a changing

Funny how different someone's opinions can be! Skies the Limit took me FOREVER to get into because of that damn keyboard intro. It's sooooo cheesy and over-the-top bright and happy. After many (MANY) listens of the song I've started to appreciate it more. It's quite catchy and the blend of voices on it is excellent. Imo it serves it's purpose as a forgettable opener that showcases each singer.

Behind the Mask is similar in an opposite sort of way. The intro to that song is fantastic and totally draws me in, the build up is alright but it amounts to nothing . The blend of harmonies on the chorus sound awful to me ears, like an indistinguishable blob of bored, breathy vocals that reappear on bits of "Freedom", "Affairs of the Heart", "Stand on the Rock", and "Love is Dangerous". That cool intro never really builds to anything musically either.

Originally Posted by bwboy

I've read posts where people said the album BTM sounded muddled or wasn't produced well. I would love to know what they mean, specifically. I know little about how music is produced, I guess, and so it can be hard for me to understand those kind of comments. For example, how can one tell if the fault is in the production or in the performance itself? If the sound is 'muddled,' isn't that more an engineering issue? I'd really love feedback about this sort of technical question.

Save Me and Freedom are great songs that would have been greater if done differently. These two suffer hard from the muddled production bwboy was inquiring about. I don't know what the term "muddled" means to other people, but I can explain my take on it. The actual mixing of these songs leaves much to be desires. The instruments don't sound like they have any life, there doesn't seem to be a lot of space in the mix to hear what they're doing. It all sort of blends together into this uninteresting mass, which is a shame because many of the songs are good at their core. There are also random guitar licks and keyboard stamps that are thrown in with little rhythm, further distracting from the vocals and actually decent main instrumentation. Affairs of the Heart is similar, making an already mediocre song forgettable because none of the music on it is at all distinct.

I have no idea if I'm explaining this correctly, but for a concrete example listen to Rick Vito's solo version of "Love is Dangerous" and compare it to the BTM version. The instrumentation isn't necessarily better but those instruments and vocals are far more distinct sounding. There also aren't layers of nonsense licks and flourishes to distract from the riff. I guarantee you that if you separated Stevie's vocals from the BTM version they would sound much more passionate and arresting simply by separating them from that production style. For further comparison listen to any of good songs from SYW and decide which ones have more memorable instrumentation. That album may not be a masterpiece but you can't say it's boring to listen to, unlike a good portion of this album (unfortunately).

When the Sun Goes Down is actually a good song and doesn't suffer nearly as much from these production issues but it's sooooo out of place on this album. Next to songs like When It Comes to Love and Skies the Limit it feels like it was spliced from an entirely different album. It does have some nice guitar work and harmonies though.

Stand on the Rock, The Second Time, When It Comes to Love, and Hard Feelings are all garbage from the ground-up as far as I'm concerned. Got No Home, Intuition, any of the three new songs from "The Chain" boxset, Game of Love, and maybe a reworked It Ain't Over (Billy-Christine duet from a solo album) or "Are You Mine" (unreleased Billy-Stevie Duet) would have improved the album greatly. Also if the Mac worked on Desiree it would have absolutely kicked "Love is Dangerous"'s ass and added a true rocker to the album.

That turned into kind of a long rant didn't it hope that gave some kind of a perspective on the issues people have with the production of the album bwboy! Can't speak for everyone but those are definitely my raw opinions of it.

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Skies the Limit is pure pop greatness from Christine. All 4 singers harmonizing sounds pretty good too. The video was excellent too. If my memory is correct it was filmed in Red Rocks, Colorado. I had to look this up but the song peaked at #10 on adult contemporary charts. Always loved the crack of the drum right before the vocals start. Save me barely cracked the top 40 but had a great video. Fleetwood Mac's first album with no Stevie Nicks single or hit. Times were a changing

When you mentioned "the crack of the drum right before the vocals start," that totally hit home for me because that is something I've always loved about the song, too. The video WAS shot at Red Rocks, and someone, I can't remember who, posted they were at that concert and that they filmed the video after the concert was over. I've always hoped that the entire concert might have been filmed and would love to see it released on audio or video, but that ain't gonna happen

As far as Stevie's songs, I remember hearing no Questions Asked exactly one time on the radio, and that was it. I really like that song, actually, but no way was it going to be a hit... EVER. Same thing with Paper Doll, which was actually supposed to be on the Greatest Hits album with As Long As You Follow, but Mick replaced it with No Questions Asked.