Break Down of Bare Trees

[sjpdg]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

We somehow skipped this one. But no problem we'll do it now

AMAZING: Homeward Bound, Bare Trees, Spare Me a Little of Your Love

Great: Sunny Side of Heaven, Sentimental Lady, Dust

REALLY Good: Child of Mine and The Ghost

Good: Danny's Chant

HMMMM: Thoughts on a Grey Day

Agreed on all counts!!

[michelej1]

By Tim Cain for The Herald Review, January 10, 2014

http://herald-review.com/blogs/tim_c...a4bcf887a.html

Fleetwood Mac's Bare Trees

(Blame this and future posts like it on "The Year of Tim." There's no reason for me to write about this, other than that I've been listening to it and thinking about it for a week or so.)

Fleetwood Mac could have been a completely different band when they made their breakthrough to the mainstream.

In this alternate universe, if we've heard of Lindsey Buckingham or Stevie Nicks at all, it's for entirely different reasons.

The 1972 Fleetwood Mac release "Bare Trees" seemed to set them up for a huge mid-1970s breakthrough. They would have at least been some version of Foghat or Blue Oyster Cult or even Aerosmith, a tough little band that rocked its way through package tours especially of the Midwest and rode to extended success with the assistance of hip FM radio stations, and maybe once in a while got some play on an adventurous AM station.

The Fleetwood Mac that made "Bare Trees" had two guitar-playing songwriters, the rocking blues afficiando Danny Kirwan and the complex melodicist Bob Welch. And both were at the height of their game.

If you need further proof, this is the original source of Welch's 1977 hit single "Sentimental Lady." His re-working of it later was merely a shade more polished. It was a great track, but wasn't the standout track on "Bare Trees."

The standout tracks were written and sung by Kirwan. Each side kicks off with a great rocking blues-based piece sung and written by Kirwan, "Child of Mine" and the title track. He also contibuted the beautiful instumental "Sunny Side of Heaven," which caps off the album's powerful first side.

Christine McVie is known to those who came to Fleetwood Mac through their Buckingham-Nicks breakthrough as the woman who wrote the love songs ("Over My Head," "Don't Stop," "You Make Loving Fun," "Little Lies"). Some of those are brilliant - personal favorites are "Say You Love Me," "Hold Me" and "Everywhere." But on "Bare Trees," McVie contributed the rockin "Homeward Bound," arguably the album's best song.

Had she continued in that songwriting direction, and had Kirwan and Welch been able to get along and keep it together, Fleetwood Mac would have had a whole other profile.

That's not to condemn the Buckingham-Nicks version, or to say Kirwan-Welch would have been "better." Kirwan had his share of personality problems with the entirety of the band, and also battled substance abuse. The pressure of being the sole American-based constant during a stunningly traumatic period of the band's history took its toll on Welch, who resigned and was ultimately replaced by Buckingham-Nicks.

And the rest, of course, is history.

But "Bare Trees," in retrospect, holds up as a superb album. It's of its time and above, and right down to the odd little poem read by "Mrs. Scarrott" to conclude the album. It's a terrifically eccentric British touch to an album that was a must when I was in high school and fortunately remains a key touchpoint now.

[SteveMacD]

Odd that "Spare Me A Little..." wasn't mentioned. It nicely fits all of her Big Mac songs.

[moon]

I have no words to describe how much I love these songs: The Ghost, Sunny Side of Heaven (simply a piece of art), Sentimental Lady, Spare Me a Little

I really LOVE these songs: Child of Mine, Homeward Bound (Sorry Mr. Tim, but you are wrong, really), Bare Trees

I like them!!: Danny's Chant, Dust

The WTF of the album: Yes, you know...sorry Mrs Scarrott, it's interesting what you say, but...

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by moon

I have no words to describe how much I love these songs: The Ghost, Sunny Side of Heaven (simply a piece of art), Sentimental Lady, Spare Me a Little

I really LOVE these songs: Child of Mine, Homeward Bound (Sorry Mr. Tim, but you are wrong, really), Bare Trees

I like them!!: Danny's Chant, Dust

The WTF of the album: Yes, you know...sorry Mrs Scarrott, it's interesting what you say, but...

I have no words to describe how much I love this song: Dust

I really LOVE these songs: Child of Mine, Sunny Side of Heaven, Sentimental Lady

I like them!!: Spare Me a Little (love the live versions in 74 and 75 so much more), Bare Trees, Danny's Chant

Meh: Homeward Bound (great guitar, muddy rhythm sound, weak vocal), The Ghost

The WTF of the album: Isn't it obvious?

[SteveMacD]

"Bare Tress" would have been better if it didn't have "Danny's Chant" and "Thoughts On A Grey Day" on it, but instead had "Trinity" and been a gatefold, with a picture of the band on one side of the inner sleeve and the "Thoughts On A Grey Day" poem written down on the other side.

ETA: New track listing

1. Child Of Mine
2. The Ghost
3. Spare Me A Little Of Your Love
4. Bare Trees

5. Sunny Side Of Heaven
6. Sentimental Lady
7. Homeward Bound
8. Trinity
9. Dust

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

"Bare Tress" would have been better if it didn't have "Danny's Chant" and "Thoughts On A Grey Day" on it, but instead had "Trinity" and been a gatefold, with a picture of the band on one side of the inner sleeve and the "Thoughts On A Grey Day" poem written down on the other side.

ETA: New track listing

1. Child Of Mine
2. The Ghost
3. Spare Me A Little Of Your Love
4. Bare Trees

5. Sunny Side Of Heaven
6. Sentimental Lady
7. Homeward Bound
8. Trinity
9. Dust

Great format for a re-release. I'll place my order. Clever idea to regulate the spoken poem to paper. I suggest keeping a snippet of Danny's Chant as a secret track that mysteriously fades in and out minutes after Dust ends.

I see the inclusion of Thoughts on a Grey Day as just their quirky way to end the album, and not to be taken to seriously, being that it was plucked out of obscurity and amateurishly recorded. It was just an oddly chosen curio, so it doesn't bother me. It gives the album a small dose of eccentricity.

[TrueFaith77]

Dust for me is the greatest non-SLC track in the history of the mac.


EDIT: OMGosh, paging the Ledgie who organizes all those polls. Greatest Non-SLC track in the history of the mac!

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

Great format for a re-release. I'll place my order. Clever idea to regulate the spoken poem to paper. I suggest keeping a snippet of Danny's Chant as a secret track that mysteriously fades in and out minutes after Dust ends.

The intro on "Danny's Chant" would have been a perfect intro to "Bare Trees."

[MacShadowsBall]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Dust for me is the greatest non-SLC track in the history of the mac.


EDIT: OMGosh, paging the Ledgie who organizes all those polls. Greatest Non-SLC track in the history of the mac!

I guess that would be me?

Interesting idea - Peter, Jeremy, Danny, Welch, Weston, D. Walker, Billy, Rick, Bekka, and D Mason - greatest song.

[nicepace]

I actually like "Danny's Chant." Not my favorite track by any means, but I don't skip it when I listen to the album.

A question for those of you who want to leave it off the album: would you like it better if it had words?

[Murrow]

The whole album is perfect for the kind of winter day depicted on the cover and in Mrs Scarrot's poem.

My personal favourites here are The Ghost and Dust although it's a shame Rupert Brooke didn't get the credit he deserved on the latter.

Spare Me A Little is a good one but for me suffers rather from the Aretha Franklin rip-off element ("just a little").

And believe it or not I actually really like Thoughts On A Grey Day - it makes me want to go and see the part of Hampshire where Mrs Scarrot lived and wonder if she ever published a little volume. I find the dialogue between her and Mick on the fadeout absolutely heartwarming.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by nicepace

I actually like "Danny's Chant." Not my favorite track by any means, but I don't skip it when I listen to the album.

A question for those of you who want to leave it off the album: would you like it better if it had words?

I like how in concert they infused the opening wah-wah guitar part as the intro to "Tell Me All The Things You Do". Actually works better in that realm than as the intro to what follows on the record. Still like it though.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by nicepace

I actually like "Danny's Chant." Not my favorite track by any means, but I don't skip it when I listen to the album.

A question for those of you who want to leave it off the album: would you like it better if it had words?

Probably not as much as Trinity. Trinity was Danny's best song from that era, in my opinion.

[Phil]

This is an undeniably great album. My faves are Spare Me A Little, Dust, Sentimental Lady, Thoughts On A Grey Day and Homeward Bound. I also really dig Bare Trees and the remaining tracks are all fine.