Caillat Gives Rumours Analysis, Track by Track

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by On Ice

I think in all likelihood, "listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise, run in the shadows... was written by Stevie..."damn your love damn your lies" I'm going with either Lindsey or Christine. "and if you don't love me now" is Lindsey for sure. I think the song is actually a brilliant splicing of several different songs, hence the shared writing credits. And John McVie's baseline is hands down the best bass line ever recorded in rock history.

I know lyrically Stevie said that Lindsey did the "running in the shadows" part and, if you listened to her, not much else. It does make me giggle when I look at the Mirage video and she's just staring at him for the "running, yes I'm running in the shadows." Her expression (or non-expression) tickles me to death.

Michele

[CADreaming]

I can't find it right now but I thought I remembered Stevie saying "all Lindsey had was listen to the wind blow". And alluding to how long it was taking him to finish the song. That may have been on the Classic album doc. On the work tape they started out singing "write me a love song, take away the sadness that you gave me" as the opening line. Later Lindsey sings, "listen to the wind blow watch the sun rise" and says "something like that" and Christine says "yeah that's some really nice phrasing" and they keep hammering out the harmonies.

Here are some other quotes I found:

Lindsey: I think it was a really an interesting collaboration of forces. It started off as a song of Christine’s called ‘Keep Me There’ [Butter Cookie] and much of that did not end up being the song. We had the tag ending to the song.

Mick: Lindsey ran with whatever Chris had formulated and then basically ended up hitting a brick wall. And it felt like the whole thing was just never gonna work. They all got this revelation, and suddenly it just made sense, like a jigsaw puzzle.

Lindsey: I came in one day, and said why don’t we just remove the verses? And we can do some sort of measurement of what the tape is, and do a reverse count back from there to create a metronome to play to, and once we have the blank tape in we can figure out what we want to put in there! Mick or I laid down the kick drum that gave us a start point. Eventually I started fooling with the dobro and that became the foundation for what was written over that. The 3 part harmony of listen to the wind blow was a collaboration of the three writers.

Christine: I remember Stevie, Lindsey and myself sitting in my den and doing the 3 parts. Lindsey with his guitar and trying to figure out the chords things to go underneath the vocals.

Stevie: I had written another song. The whole ‘running in the shadows’ thing. And Lindsey said can we use this? So of course I said yes…so it was funny that I had that melody and those words or it never would’ve happened.

Mick: Lindsey is more prone to see different pieces of things. Not only in his own songwriting, but in the girls’ songwriting and picking parts out.

Lindsey: We were able to think of tape as a very plastic, cinematic and abstract way. Just to come up with pieces of music we could treat as pieces of film, and we came up with something that was truly a communal effort.

Stevie: I remember that great solo of John’s (hums the bass solo)…and it was like the monsters are coming! And we all loved that.

John: That was an Olympic fretless bass on a stainless fretboard with a pick. And I was just messin about in the studio and I just played the riff. Chris said ‘Oh! I like that!’ So we kept it in. If I had my way, I would’ve brought the band in a little earlier on the ending…it tends to stand out and look a little lonely out there, but it seems to work.

Mick: You can’t change it now John, you’d break too many people’s hearts! (laughs)

Christine: I guess we must’ve just loved that bass part so much to do something with it. And Lindsey raved and put that guitar solo on it.

Mick: It’s one of the best examples of how things can work from a different point of view. The collaboration of the band brought it back to the shape it’s now in. It’s one of those songs that could’ve ended up in the dust bin, and it didn’t.

Source: http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/album.../thechain.html

***
Mick Fleetwood: "'The Chain' basically came out of a jam. That song was put together as distinct from someone literally sitting down and writing a song. It was very much collectively a band composition... Originally we had no words to it. And it really only became a song when Stevie wrote some. She walked in one day and said, 'I've written some words that might be good for that thing you were doing in the studio the other day.' So it was put together. Lindsey arranged and made a song out of all the bits and pieces that we were putting down onto tape."
(Courtesy: lucky98fm.com. Thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England.)

***

"That started off as---jogging the memory here---it was really Stevie’s and mine to begin with in the verse: [sings] "Listen to the wind blow . . ." And my ever-present pseudo-blues riffs in there. And at some point I think Christine fashioned the feel of the chorus, and the chorus was certainly Stevie’s lyrics." Lindsey Buckingham 1993

***

Originally Posted by michelej1

“Once Stevie and Lindsey figured the song out, we had some tempo and groove problems. Things felt fine, but they had to be perfect - the rhythm had to be rock solid. Mick Fleetwood is a great drummer, one of the best, but he’d shift his parts and dynamics around - every drummer does.

“We made an eight-bar loop of Mick's playing, which created this fantastic, deep hypnotic effect. It’s funny, but when people talk about the classic rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and they point to this one song, I’m always amused that they’re talking about a drum loop.”

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Excellent read!

Love the part about Mick's looped drum track getting the credit for the renowned rhythm section.

Ugh...I'm probably the only one that thinks this way but i actually cringed when i read that and almost stopped reading the rest. When i used to listen to Dreams, for example, i could picture mick playing throughout the song if i wanted to. Now, this knowledge kinda kills that mental image/fantasy thing.

I've had this thing lately where the curiousity is definately there but i find that when i learn all the behind-the-scenes stories it takes something away. The mystery is gone. Don't get me wrong, there's so much that i've discovered over the past 30 years of following this band and what else is there about Rumours that I need to know - but, apparently there's still stuff I don't know and not sure if i want to know any more.

i don't know, maybe someone can enlighten me...

and, not knocking Ken at all for writing the book...

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by joe

Ugh...I'm probably the only one that thinks this way but i actually cringed when i read that and almost stopped reading the rest. When i used to listen to Dreams, for example, i could picture mick playing throughout the song if i wanted to. Now, this knowledge kinda kills that mental image/fantasy thing.

I've had this thing lately where the curiousity is definately there but i find that when i learn all the behind-the-scenes stories it takes something away. The mystery is gone. Don't get me wrong, there's so much that i've discovered over the past 30 years of following this band and what else is there about Rumours that I need to know - but, apparently there's still stuff I don't know and not sure if i want to know any more.

i don't know, maybe someone can enlighten me...

and, not knocking Ken at all for writing the book...

I can understand where you are coming from. It does take away from the "magic" a little. I get into all the technical stuff but a friend of mine hates anything behind the scenes, how it's made, stories behind songs, etc. She says music is personal to her and her experience and knowing anything about how it really happened ruins it for her...

[michelej1]

I also remember for the Chain lyrics that Stevie said for once in his life, Lindsey just stepped up to the mic and sang the song just the way she had written it, which astounded her.

Michele

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

I can understand where you are coming from. It does take away from the "magic" a little. I get into all the technical stuff but a friend of mine hates anything behind the scenes, how it's made, stories behind songs, etc. She says music is personal to her and her experience and knowing anything about how it really happened ruins it for her...

"Video killed the radio star"
It's true. Back before MTV, and the ensuing technological explosion of the past 20 years, music was far more magical, when there was so many details, left unknown. An artist could be butt ugly, and it didn't matter, because there was only radio. And like Ken said, "Rumours" would never happen, now. The indulgent time taken recording, making it the perfect album. Music(major label anyway) is ONLY a business now.

I too, feel different about Dreams now, knowing that Mick wasn't sitting there, playing the whole song.

[michelej1]

I like Stevie's comments on her valiance re The Chain. Lindsey and Christine crawling to her after nine months of helplessness:

"They only had from that part out and Christine and Lindsey were really writing it and finally after about nine months they said can you help us with this because we need this rock and roll song on this record and so I valiantly said alright."

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Thanks for posting the snippet! It does look like a fun read; however, I can't help but think much of the backstory was already covered in the Classic Albums DVD. Still, I find it interesting that all of the songs were written from the ground-up using only snippets of musical ideas. Hence, the absence of bootleg demos for Rumours tracks! I do find it interesting that Christine couldn't control her own "wah." I would have assumed it would not be unlike using the sustain pedals on a piano. Or better yet, Christine could have controlled the "wah" with one of those straw contraptions in her mouth ala Peter Frampton.

I was disappointed about the pedal too....

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I also remember for the Chain lyrics that Stevie said for once in his life, Lindsey just stepped up to the mic and sang the song just the way she had written it, which astounded her.

Michele

Originally Posted by michelej1

I like Stevie's comments on her valiance re The Chain. Lindsey and Christine crawling to her after nine months of helplessness:

Oh, that girl!

[Artemis]

This is the second time I've heard about broken glass in Gold Dust Woman (the first being Carol Anne's book) and I just... can't hear it at all =/

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by Artemis

This is the second time I've heard about broken glass in Gold Dust Woman (the first being Carol Anne's book) and I just... can't hear it at all =/

Really? I have just that sound as a track.

[jbrownsjr]

In reference to NGBA.......How can you record all day in the wrong key without knowing??? I suppose if you're really really high... lolol

[elle]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

In reference to NGBA.......How can you record all day in the wrong key without knowing??? I suppose if you're really really high... lolol

guess he didn't try whether he can sing it in that key

Caillat told the same anecdote about "Brushes" - with a just a bit of a different detail - when they were presenting Les Paul Award to Lindsey last year:



Caillat comes on at 1:49.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by elle

guess he didn't try whether he can sing it in that key

Caillat told the same anecdote about "Brushes" - with a just a bit of a different detail - when they were presenting Les Paul Award to Lindsey last year:



Caillat comes on at 1:49.

Thanks!! I like that version of the story better.. which sort of says... yeah I knew what key we were in, but I don't like it after sleeping on it..

[APerfectLie]

Originally Posted by Artemis

This is the second time I've heard about broken glass in Gold Dust Woman (the first being Carol Anne's book) and I just... can't hear it at all =/

Except I strangely remember CAH saying it was Lindsey who was breaking the glass, not Mick, and this showed her how much of a GENIUS Linds was because the breaking glass just completely changed the whole song into a masterpiece! ;]

Originally Posted by madeline

I thought I had heard Stevie claim many times that they took the chorus for The Chain out of one of her songs that she had written. Now Ken is saying it was a Christine song. And that Lindsey rewrote the chorus. What is the actual truth on that? Does anyone else remember Stevie saying that?

Yeah, I am pretty sure Stevie was the main and possibly sole lyricist for The Chain.

"Lindsey wanted to finish the song himself so he didn't let me or anybody else help him and finally it just wasn't getting written so I had another song that I had written out of the BuckinghamNicks era that went with it perfect so I pretty much just gave them the song!"