Behind The Mask turns 28

**jbrownsjr** · #1 05-10-2018, 07:18 AM

I enjoy this album. It's such a departure from Tango and sounds like a band album. There are some clunkers of course. I remember being in college and it got played on college radio quite a bit.

As Long As You Follow is also a great tune. Christine was on fire and even stole the show in Cleveland for the concert. *Richfield to be exact.

StevieandChris · #2 05-10-2018, 09:42 AM

I am in the minority but I like three of Stevie's four songs on this album. That said, I do often forget about them. Love is Dangerous, Freedom and Affairs of the Heart are really fun when I do listen to them, particularly the first two. I dislike The Second Time. I think they are stronger songs than her Tango in the Night Songs.

Behind the Mask is a great song.

SteveMacD · #3 05-10-2018, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevieandChris

I think they are stronger songs than her Tango in the Night Songs.

I totally agree!

“Freedom” could have been a great song, but the cheesy over-production ruined it. I almost want them redo that now that Mike is in the band. Just turn it into a straight up, no BS rocker.

bwboy · #4 05-10-2018, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevieandChris

I am in the minority but I like three of Stevie's four songs on this album. That said, I do often forget about them. Love is Dangerous, Freedom and Affairs of the Heart are really fun when I do listen to them, particularly the first two. I dislike The Second Time. I think they are stronger songs than her Tango in the Night Songs.

Behind the Mask is a great song.

I think Stevie's songs on BTM are fine, but not stellar. None of her BTM songs are as good as Seven Wonders, but they're all much much better than Welcome to the Room or When I See You Again.

I also love that we can hear Stevie on Skies the Limit, Save Me, In the Back of My Mind, etc.

Macfan4life · #5 05-10-2018, 04:42 PM

I hate Affairs of the Heart. Its one of the few Stevie songs you can hear the klonopin in her voice

Its a very basic song and the back up vocals drive me to drink (never have love, never have love, oh but its better not to lose) blah blah blah

Having said that, most of the album is very good IMHO.

TheWILDheart · #6 05-31-2018, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwboy

None of her BTM songs are as good as Seven Wonders, but they're all much much better than Welcome to the Room or When I See You Again.

She didn't even write Seven Wonders

I really love BTM and always have. All of Christine & Stevie's songs I play regularly. I know Stevie's voice wasn't in the greatest shape and she was klonopin'd up to her eyeballs, but at least she was very present and contributing to the band on this record, unlike Tango where she literally waltzed in, sang her songs and left. BTM always feels like much more of a team effort, which is something I really love about Fleetwood Mac.

Macfan4life · #7 05-31-2018, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

She didn't even write Seven Wonders

I really love BTM and always have. All of Christine & Stevie's songs I play regularly. I know Stevie's voice wasn't in the greatest shape and she was klonopin'd up to her eyeballs, but at least she was very present and contributing to the band on this record, unlike Tango where she literally waltzed in, sang her songs and left. BTM always feels like much more of a team effort, which is something I really love about Fleetwood Mac.

Exactly
Even the small parts Stevie sings like during When the sun goes down you know its really Stevie singing instead of being "layered in" like on Tango

BTM really holds up.

StevieandChris · #8 05-10-2018, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

I enjoy this album. It's such a departure from Tango and sounds like a band album. There are some clunkers of course. I remember being in college and it got played on college radio quite a bit.

As Long As You Follow is also a great tune. Christine was on fire and even stole the show in Cleveland for the concert. *Richfield to be exact.

As Long As You Follow may be my favorite Christine song. Did she ever perform this live? It's on my wish list for this upcoming concert....really want to hear it.

bwboy · #9 05-10-2018, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevieandChris

As Long As You Follow may be my favorite Christine song. Did she ever perform this live? It's on my wish list for this upcoming concert....really want to hear it.

She's never performed it live, but if she did this upcoming tour, I would completely freak out! That song is such a beautiful tribute to the fans, I think, and since it's on their greatest hits album, even the most casual fan is familiar with it. I know it's unlikely, but I'm hoping against hope FM will perform it this year, maybe in place of Think About Me.

bwboy · #11 05-13-2018, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLamb

Behind The Mask is my second favourite Fleetwood Mac album, right behind Bare Trees.

When Behind The Mask came out, it seemed odd that Side One (at 31 minutes) was much longer than Side Two (at 25 minutes). Way back then, I took a 60-minute cassette tape, and rearranged the track-listing so that it came out to 28 minutes per side:

Side One
1. When The Sun Goes Down
2. When It Comes To Love
3. Save Me
4. Affairs Of The Heart
5. Behind The Mask
6. Do You Know
7. The Second Time

Side Two
1. In The Back Of My Mind
2. Freedom
3. Stand On The Rock
4. Hard Feelings
5. Love Is Dangerous
6. Skies The Limit

I've kept this running order in my i-Tunes playlist, as that's what I'm become accustomed to. A big plus is that Christine's voice is the last one heard on this arrangement!

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.

Macfan4life · #12 05-13-2018, 05:07 PM

Quote:

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 · #13 05-13-2018, 06:20 PM

Quote:

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 · #14 05-13-2018, 06:35 PM

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

Macfan4life · #15 05-13-2018, 07:33 PM

Quote:

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.