Has anyone here NEVER heard the demo of Smile At You? - Page 3

SortaSavageLike · #31 10-20-2009, 07:57 PM

I've never understood the conceit, held by some, that every Mac tune needs to be so lushly produced that it sounds like it's emerging from the mists of Shangri-La... or something like that. There's nothing objectively wrong with them being sloppy, rough, or hard-edged every now and then, even if it means deviating from expectations (oooh, scary!

).

TrueFaith77 · #32 10-20-2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black_Moon

I know what you mean, she should have said --

'You love someone else,
You shouldn't be here'

You couldn't say that to Bob Dylan!

TrueFaith77 · #33 10-20-2009, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SortaSavageLike

I've never understood the conceit, held by some, that every Mac tune needs to be so lushly produced that it sounds like it's emerging from the mists of Shangri-La... or something like that. There's nothing objectively wrong with them being sloppy, rough, or hard-edged every now and then, even if it means deviating from expectations (oooh, scary!

).

I don't disagree with you. I just think that people expressing disappointment that they didn't do it this one time is kinda like... what did you expect?

To get to your point. Lindsey made Under the Skin because he wanted to make an album in the style of The Dance versions Big Love and Go Insane because of the incredible response they get from audiences. AND UNDER THE SKIN is what he came up with?!?! (The closest studio song to those two songs would be Bel Air Rain.) This is what they do. It just is. That's why I wish they had more Live albums -- or would even do an Unplugged session. Not in place of their perfectionist studio productions, but as complimentary performances.

michelej1 · #34 10-21-2009, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markolas

Except that it doesn't make sense within the context of the next two lines:

You love someone else
I shouldn't be here

Well, what if it was the key to a motel that you rent by the hour?

Or, what if they rented themselves a secret little love shack on the bad side of town where they could meet for their rendezvous. In that case, maybe neither of them should be there. He should leave the key, so she can end the lease and trot back to her own home.

As for turned and ran -- there's no way out of that

!

Michele

LukeA · #35 10-21-2009, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

To get to your point. Lindsey made Under the Skin because he wanted to make an album in the style of The Dance versions Big Love and Go Insane because of the incredible response they get from audiences. AND UNDER THE SKIN is what he came up with?!?! (The closest studio song to those two songs would be Bel Air Rain.)

"Time Precious Time"?!?!?!

Peestie · #36 10-21-2009, 01:21 PM

I knew the SYW version before I heard the demo version and I don't see the point in listening to the demo ever again. It's fine but it just isn't as interesting as the SYW version. The SYW version has that excellent guitar work at the end and, as Chilli mentioned, the fantastic bass line.

TrueFaith77 · #37 10-21-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LukeA

"Time Precious Time"?!?!?!

Oh, that is clearly in that vein as well, so we're on the same page... but I meant "closest" in terms of being within that vein and similarly enjoyable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peestie

I knew the SYW version before I heard the demo version and I don't see the point in listening to the demo ever again. It's fine but it just isn't as interesting as the SYW version. The SYW version has that excellent guitar work at the end and, as Chilli mentioned, the fantastic bass line.

I just listened to it. And I totally agree. ... Now, if she wanted to do a LIVE version of it where she got looser on the vocals on top of Lindsey and John's tender playing... then that'd be cool by me.

BellaDonna · #38 10-21-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BellaDonna93

I totally agree with you, Danni!!! The Smile At You "Angry" demo is one of the best demos she's ever done, I mean, just listen to the feeling in her voice and in the lyrics

It's, as you said, pure magic...

I totally agree with you both! Love love love it!!!

steviefan59 · #39 10-21-2009, 06:27 PM

hi guys...well i'm in agreement with the majority and love love love the angry smile at u demo...it's one of my fav demos that stevie has made...as to not caring about the demos that stevie has out there i feel so sorry that u've missed so many bc there are a lot of wonderful early demos of the angel voiced stevie from the early 80's and they send chills down my spine...i could listen to them for decades and never get tired but i still have time for new music as well...that's the joys of itunes and mp3s...u can mix and match all ur favs...i do think syw is very monotoned and i think a lot of that is a result of lindseys influence in the production...don't get me wrong...he's a genious and has done an excellent job of interpreting stevies music over the years for the mac but i don't feel he has the same interest in doing it now...and i love stevie's bob dylan line...an artist is an artist and stevie has def proved she is one...they don't like to take direction or criticism in the wording of a song and with stevie having made a solid solo career she would def take exception to that...hugs pat

APerfectLie · #40 10-21-2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markolas

Except that it doesn't make sense within the context of the next two lines:

You love someone else
I shouldn't be here

Oh, I just listened to the SYW version and remembered what irked the hell out of me about this song (besides the above). It's the lyrics "I should have turned away and ran as fast as I can." I should have been an English teacher, I think.

Stevie's vocal is a bit strained, but I like the song otherwise. Except for the fact that I can't help thinking she's singing about a UTI.

Somebody said something about them maybe being in a hotel and that Stevie is saying for him to leave his key there and that she shouldn't be there to begin with, which I think makes a lot of sense. Also, knowing how Stevie likes to change person I think she could be saying the "Go on save yourself, leave the key here" to herself and then the "you love someone else, I shouldn't be here" to whoever she was talking to. I think stevie is pissed that he is cheating, but deep down she doesn't want it to end so she is having to tell herself to "save yourself" and "leave the key there" before she gets hurt even more.

And about "I should have turned away and ran as fast as I can" it isn't grammatically correct, but for some reason I always thought it was "fast as I CAME" instead of "fast as I CAN" but I am pretty sure it says "can" in the lyrics, so I don't know.

I think the demo is great for us Stevie fans and I really love it, but I think the SYW version is just as good, and much better as a song. It has unique music and you can still hear some anger in Stevie's voice at some parts. However, the SYW version doesn't have some of the lyrics the demo has, which is something I don't like about it. But I like them both so I can't say really which one I personally prefer, it just depends on my mood.

David · #41 10-21-2009, 07:51 PM

Does anyone else get as great a joy as I get out of the playing on the demo? I don't care about anger issues in the singers, but I sure love that playing: that walloping Mick Fleetwood drumming & that jagged Lindsey Buckingham electric guitar, slashing across the song like a machete.

They're a band here. They're fierce and funky.

On the 2003 track, there's no there there. It's ****. It's elevator music.

David · #42 10-21-2009, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peestie

I knew the SYW version before I heard the demo version and I don't see the point in listening to the demo ever again.

Then I'm not your friend any longer.

CADreaming · #43 10-21-2009, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

Does anyone else get as great a joy as I get out of the playing on the demo? I don't care about anger issues in the singers, but I sure love that playing: that walloping Mick Fleetwood drumming & that jagged Lindsey Buckingham electric guitar, slashing across the song like a machete.

They're a band here. They're fierce and funky.

On the 2003 track, there's no there there. It's ****. It's elevator music.

So, you're saying that Fleetwood Mac as a band has gotten progressively worse?

David · #44 10-21-2009, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CADreaming

So, you're saying that Fleetwood Mac as a band has gotten progressively worse?

Yes! They haven't demonstrated the evolution that we saw in Shakespeare or Michelangelo. Or consider the advances Beethoven himself made in his final five years. Practically no major composer of the next 100 years escaped the profound influence of his final symphony, his final mass, his final piano sonatas, or his final string quartets. For Mendelssohn, the grandeur of the Ninth Symphony gave rise to the Hymn of Praise in his own Second Symphony. For Wagner, the addition of voices in the finale of the Ninth confirmed his view of the supremacy of vocal music. For Brahms, Bruckner, & others, Beethoven's final works were a model of pure instrumental music at its apogee, while Mahler took the cosmic breadth of the Ninth & the Missa Solemnis as a starting point for his own symphonies. Schumann actually quoted a theme from Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte in his C major Fantasy. Webern was attracted to the compression & concentration of the late bagatelles.

Beethoven was the titan who effected a revolution in music every bit as fundamental as the French Revolution in politics. He was in some senses very much a man of his age, expanding the forms & genres he inherited & infusing them with personal vision & the spirit of the age, but he is also a man for every age. His music influences the course of composition to this day. Its enormous intellectual strength & ingenuity are almost unfathomable, as scholars examining his manuscripts have recently shown. Beethoven embodies every human state of emotion: from triumph to despair, from joy to darkness.

Fleetwood Mac has not lived up to the Beethovenian model, the Beethovenian ideal.

What are your thoughts?

Oh, I wish strand were still here!

daniellaaarisen · #45 10-21-2009, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

What are your thoughts?

I think that, at times, the band (read: Lindsey) focuses more on Fleetwood Mac's experimental "new direction" more than the artistry of the music. It worked with Tusk because everyone was younger, at their creative primes and fresh off of a formula that was pretty much guaranteed to work. They strayed from Rumours, sure, but not that much. They still sounded like a band, not three different creative voices under one disjointed name. Even Christine and Stevie's songs were influenced by Lindsey's "new direction" but the diversity was still there.... yet the band was the band-- a union of five that was so sweetly distinctive in both the individuals and as a whole.

I think the potential is there. Do I think anyone is going to see the light anytime soon and change the dynamic? No. The unity needs to come back before the phenomenal music can.... and it needs to be consistent.