Fleetwood Mac - Tango In The Night 3CD/1DVD/1LP set coming March

[Wdm6789]

I just listened to the "At The Fair" demo on YouTube, I actually kinda like it. If it had been worked on more and cleaned and polished, it could have been better than Stevie's other songs on Tango. When I See You Again is just awful, what were they thinking with that song?

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

I just listened to the "At The Fair" demo on YouTube, I actually kinda like it. If it had been worked on more and cleaned and polished, it could have been better than Stevie's other songs on Tango. When I See You Again is just awful, what were they thinking with that song?

I agree with you. Stevie's Tango songs are sub-par to say the least. Stevie was still writing good songs then but the timing of things blew her chances of having any good songs on Tango. She was on tour when Tango started. She sent them some demos and When I see you again was one of them. Then Stevie went to rehab. I have read that the initial report in Mick's first book that Stevie spent no more than 3 weeks in the studio was overly gracious and that it was no more than 1-2 weeks at the most. Mick says the group passed on What has rock n roll ever done for you. I can see Lindsey rolling his eyes on that song because it is a bit arrogant. When Stevie got out of rehab she had a fresh song with Welcome to the room Sara but it was fresh but not good. I see Stevie and the group worrying similarly to the RAL effort where the album was almost done and Stevie's songs were so bad there was no single for release. I see Seven Wonders written by Sandy Stewart as the "Talk to Me" of Tango. It was written by someone else to quickly get some sort of "single" on the album.
If Stevie was there in the studio with the band for all of its creation, I would bet maybe none of her Tango songs may have made the cut.
There are just so many reasons I don't like Tango in the night and this is one of them. I love Isnt it midnight and is one of the band's best songs and Tango in the night is a good song. But the rest of the album I don't care for many reasons. If you like simple synth pop songs with 80's sound then Tango is for you. I would like to have seen Tango with Running through the Garden, Ooh My Love, or another song. BTW I cant wait to hear the Ooh my love Tango demo. That is so exciting to me.

[peer_gynt10]

I'm a little confused about the timeline and wonder if anyone could clarify. To my understanding, Stevie recorded her vocals for 'Seven Wonders' before checking into the Betty Ford clinic, thus before there would have been any potential panic about future single releases. 'Welcome... Sara' was one of the first songs she wrote after her stint at the clinic. But when was 'Joan of Arc' demoed and is it a solo or a FM demo?

[ryan4136]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

When I See You Again is just awful, what were they thinking with that song?

Its fair to point out this is a below average effort from Stevie, but I think the second half of the song is pretty strong. Good transitions, and instrumental work, and the LB vocal part is strong. (He did what he could with that from an arrangement point of view)

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by peer_gynt10

I'm a little confused about the timeline and wonder if anyone could clarify. To my understanding, Stevie recorded her vocals for 'Seven Wonders' before checking into the Betty Ford clinic, thus before there would have been any potential panic about future single releases. 'Welcome... Sara' was one of the first songs she wrote after her stint at the clinic. But when was 'Joan of Arc' demoed and is it a solo or a FM demo?

The oldest demo of Joan of Arc we know of is from the Rock a Little era.

[peer_gynt10]

Originally Posted by SisterNightroad

The oldest demo of Joan of Arc we know of is from the Rock a Little era.

Wow, I never realized that. Judging by the vocals, I knew that it was pre-rehab, but I always thought it was a song she brought for potential inclusion on the new FM album. Thanks.

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by peer_gynt10

Wow, I never realized that. Judging by the vocals, I knew that it was pre-rehab, but I always thought it was a song she brought for potential inclusion on the new FM album. Thanks.

I explained badly, the demo is from the RAL era not sessions, if I remember well early 1986 when she was on the tour. I think the lines about Joe Walsh are pretty obvious.

[BaronVonBielski]

Originally Posted by paleshadow

So then isn't it just kind of redundant to put the same audio tracks from the CD onto the DVD if they aren't in 5.1?

I love my Rumours DVD Audio, and the SYW was excellent also, but the TUSK audio DVD was plagued with distortion and a static noise on a lot of the tracks (some worse than others). I had the same issue with some of the DVD audio on Mirage, but not to the same extent.

Just got my Rumours DVD-A and I'm through GYOW and I must say that it's spectacular. So different. All the different sounds that I never heard. It's amazing. This is what I want for Tango and this is why it's such a let down. One can only hope to be surprised.

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I agree with you. Stevie's Tango songs are sub-par to say the least. Stevie was still writing good songs then but the timing of things blew her chances of having any good songs on Tango. She was on tour when Tango started. She sent them some demos and When I see you again was one of them. Then Stevie went to rehab. I have read that the initial report in Mick's first book that Stevie spent no more than 3 weeks in the studio was overly gracious and that it was no more than 1-2 weeks at the most. Mick says the group passed on What has rock n roll ever done for you. I can see Lindsey rolling his eyes on that song because it is a bit arrogant. When Stevie got out of rehab she had a fresh song with Welcome to the room Sara but it was fresh but not good. I see Stevie and the group worrying similarly to the RAL effort where the album was almost done and Stevie's songs were so bad there was no single for release. I see Seven Wonders written by Sandy Stewart as the "Talk to Me" of Tango. It was written by someone else to quickly get some sort of "single" on the album.
If Stevie was there in the studio with the band for all of its creation, I would bet maybe none of her Tango songs may have made the cut.
There are just so many reasons I don't like Tango in the night and this is one of them. I love Isnt it midnight and is one of the band's best songs and Tango in the night is a good song. But the rest of the album I don't care for many reasons. If you like simple synth pop songs with 80's sound then Tango is for you. I would like to have seen Tango with Running through the Garden, Ooh My Love, or another song. BTW I cant wait to hear the Ooh my love Tango demo. That is so exciting to me.

I love Lindsey and Christine's songs on Tango. It's a shame that Stevie's left so much to be desired because on the four previous albums, Stevie always had the most consistently high quality songs. Lindsey and Christine both had a few misses, but Stevie's were always really good. This could be because Stevie never got more than three songs on an album, so it gave Lindsey and Christine more room for a few just okay songs instead of fewer awesome songs like Stevie provided.

[SisterNightroad]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

I love Lindsey and Christine's songs on Tango. It's a shame that Stevie's left so much to be desired because on the four previous albums, Stevie always had the most consistently high quality songs. Lindsey and Christine both had a few misses, but Stevie's were always really good. This could be because Stevie never got more than three songs on an album, so it gave Lindsey and Christine more room for a few just okay songs instead of fewer awesome songs like Stevie provided.

We also have to keep in mind that at that point probably all three of them preferred to keep part of their best material for their solo careers. For Stevie this may have been particularly true since it was the beginning of the klonopin era and she was starting to write considerably less songs than before.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

I love Lindsey and Christine's songs on Tango. It's a shame that Stevie's left so much to be desired because on the four previous albums, Stevie always had the most consistently high quality songs. Lindsey and Christine both had a few misses, but Stevie's were always really good. This could be because Stevie never got more than three songs on an album, so it gave Lindsey and Christine more room for a few just okay songs instead of fewer awesome songs like Stevie provided.

After Wild Heart it went down hill. I do like OSOTM and RAL but her consistency started to waver. And then her voice became so nasal after The Dance it became intolerable for me.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

After Wild Heart it went down hill. I do like OSOTM and RAL but her consistency started to waver. And then her voice became so nasal after The Dance it became intolerable for me.

well she always promoted herself as a prolific songwriter, always writing.....ok, but always writing doesn't mean everything that's coming out of you is great stuff or even good. She wrote/writes a lot of partial material...look at the demo of Planets....it's not a fully structured song. I love the demo, but it's clear that in that form it was not viable yet as a song that could go on a record. It wasn't fleshed out enough. I love Joan of Arc but on the demo she sings the exact same lyrics to the first and second verse and then it kind of wanders of... intriguing for sure, but not releasable material. Lindsey did what he could to try and restructure it on later versions. I feel the same way about Starshine...it's the EXACT SAME VERSE three times...... with a little twist that she leaves you hanging but finally throws in the "wrong!" on the third one.

Eventually that is going to catch up with you when you are on the hook for writing everything for entire albums. Yeah at 3 songs a whack she had a backlog from FM, but once she started needing 11-12 songs per album with back-to-back albums.....the backlog drains down. And there's a reason many of those songs never made it to an album.... Many of them are great *seeds* for a song, but never blossomed into a proper song.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

After Wild Heart it went down hill. I do like OSOTM and RAL but her consistency started to waver. And then her voice became so nasal after The Dance it became intolerable for me.

RAL was the last (barely) acceptable album for me. OSOTM made me jump off the cliff.

The cult of personality only takes you so far, when you run out of ideas, and more importantly, run out of lovers with good ideas...

[MikeInNV]

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainme...ckingham-mcvie

Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham describes the making of Tango in the Night as the “worst recording experience of my life”.
Singer Stevie Nicks was addicted to the tranquilliser*Klonopin and spent just two weeks in the studio, drummer Mick Fleetwood had declared bankruptcy a few years prior and was still very much loving his drugs (Buckingham: “half the time Mick was falling asleep”)*while none of them could truly claim they weren’t indulging their vices.
“Everyone was at their worst, including myself.” said Buckingham.*“We’d made the progression from what could be seen as an acceptable or excusable amount of drug use to a situation where we had all hit the wall. I think of it as our darkest period.”
Ask any serious Mac head and they’ll all agree: Rumours was Fleetwood Mac’s greatest work. And no one can really argue that that collection of songs, from three songwriters firing on all cylinders – and usually firing those cylinders directly at each other – isn’t a complete masterpiece.

But yet, for me, Tango in the Night – remarkably, the last album made by the ‘classic’ lineup – will always be the pinnacle of the band’s output. As it celebrates its 30th birthday this year, receiving a luxurious reissue from Warners, it’s time to give this often-neglected record the attention it truly deserves.
I say neglected –*the thing’s*sold over 15 million copies and is the band’s second best-selling album after Rumours, housing*a host of hit singles –*but it’s always felt to me that it’s never been truly respected for what it is: one of the greatest pop records ever made.
Perhaps prevailing*anti-pop snobbery is what’s done for it; the record didn’t have the intense, inter-band quarreling and soap opera tendencies of Rumours while, sonically, Tango in the Night was more processed and produced than its ‘earthy’-sounding*rival, which usually gets critics’ backs up. Even at the time, Rolling Stone confidently declared that “Tango*may not be a world-beating 1980s LP”, while subsequent documentaries seem to gloss over the album’s making in favour of an*elongated Rumours section. This article perhaps sums it up best, when it describes*“critics dismissing it as the final demise of the band into a mushy-adult-contempo-soft-boiled-soft-rock-commercial-radio-mess”. But they are so wrong.

No, the beauty of Tango in the Night is that it is just a no-holds barred collection of utterly banging pop songs. One after the other, like a hammer to the head. It’s the sound of Lindsey Buckingham achieving exactly the right level of production experimentation, Christine McVie providing a barrage of super-sweet melodic hooks (she wrote or co-wrote five of the album’s 12 tracks) and when Stevie turns up, she does what Stevie does brilliantly. Meanwhile, as it’s so commonplace that we’ve all just taken it for granted, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie lay down some of the best rhythm playing you will ever hear in your life.*As a side note, with Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham releasing their debut album as a double act later this year, this is as close as they got to it before, so do we dare to dream that they can repeat the magic?
Despite the always-fascinating stories behind the making of the album, and the particular stage of the Fleetwood Mac soap opera that the members were living through at the time, it’s an album that simply speaks straight to the listener. You don’t really need any context to realise that this is an unbelievably brilliant collection of songs –*in my opinion, their best.
And, one-by-one, this is exactly why.

Big Love

These days it’s Lindsey Buckingham’s party piece live, as he somehow manages to become a ludicrous one-man band and play twenty five guitar parts at once, but the original should not be overlooked. Rhythmic guitar parts tickle both of your ears on the far sides of the mix, Mick and John lay down the groove, while Lindsey alternates between hushed psychopath in the verses and full tilt in the choruses. There are about five different guitar hooks and –*this won’t be the last time we say this – there is absolutely no cocking about: the chorus is in by 30 seconds and it’s all done in*3:38. Fun fact: the oohs and aahs (another crucial hook in the song) are all performed by Lindsay –*the high ones being his voice pitch-shifted up. Second fun fact: the video reportedly cost $500,000 ($1.1m by today’s standards). This from a band whose drummer had recently declared bankruptcy. Respect. Oh, and they spent*$500,000 and nobody can be arsed to upload the actual master to YouTube. Brilliant.

Pop bangingness: 9
Best bit: The opening two seconds. Groove in, guitar hook in. Let’s get this going

Seven Wonders

Just like Big Love, from second one, you know this is going to be good, with that synth sound swiftly followed by a nonchalantly epoch-defining*keyboard hook. In comes big Mick and John to lay down the groove once more, there’s some lovely conga action in your left ear and Stevie gets to work howling away. It’s chorus time at just 40 seconds (you’re slacking guys) and –*oh look, it’s an amazing one -*as Christine’s vocal sweetens up the sound, while John takes a break from default mode to do*some absolutely gorgeous bass runs. Not content with just that epoch-defining keyboard hook in the following instrumental section, Lindsey decides to add a response hook on his guitar. Verse two, chorus two, loads of that keyboard/guitar hook bit, verse three, chorus three. Done by 3:32: NO COCKING ABOUT.
Pop bangingness: 9
Best bit: “you’llneverlivetoseethe beauty, that*beauty, that same same beauty again”

Everywhere

The opening sixty eight seconds of this song is, without any question, better than the entire recorded output of Bob Dylan. One of the most iconic opening sections of all time with that keyboard riff, straight into one of the greatest verses of all time (it’s arguably as good as the chorus), followed by the pure ear sugar that is the*chorus. It is a joke how good this song is. And it was the fourth single from the album. Just for a change, Mick and John lay down the groove throughout while Lindsey does that percussive guitar thing again –*it’s so restrained, it’s so understated, which just makes the chorus such a release of pure joy as the vocals come together. It’s bizarre: Everywhere is*a song that has just become more and more popular as time gets on; we can only assume it’s because the human race is evolving and becoming smarter (let’s ignore current world events for the purpose of this theory).

Pop bangingness: 10
Best bit: that extra skip and jump snare*and crash pattern from Mick Fleetwood in the second half of verse two. Obviously that’s a ludicrous thing to say when you have the myriad other amazing bits of the song to choose from, but it’s just pure drumming genius to bother putting that in when he clearly didn’t need to

Caroline

Even if Tango in the Night were only those first three songs followed by 50 minutes of a high-powered drill going through concrete*it would be one of the greatest albums ever made, but on we go to track four: Caroline. The clearest indication on the record that Tango in the Night started life as a Lindsey Buckingham solo album, this has all the hallmarks of his more angular work, being not a million miles away from the feel of Tusk -*yet it’s still very much a pop song. Opening up with some big Mick drums, we’re still amazed that Warren G and Nate Dogg never got round to sampling the bit before the vocals come in. The lyrics are a bit rubbish, but who cares when you can holler along to the singalong-ready chorus. Throughout, Mick and John lay down the groove.

Pop bangingness: 6
Best bit: the weird middle 8 bit and the outro with the quasi-Eastern female vocals*is a lovely change of mood

Tango in the Night

Effectively another Lindsey solo track, again this showcases just what a genius of a performer and producer he is. A mystical verse, all soft and processed vocals, with synth-harps and soft percussion giving way to a big, angry chorus where Mick and John lay down the groove. A favourite trick of Buckingham though; while the song still possesses a banging chorus, it’s really all a set up for the end section where he finally lets rip and shows us what he can do with that old gee-tah.
Pop bangingness: 5
Best bit: the first note of the guitar solo –*he’s been waiting three and a half songs to break out a solo and it shows. However, he still has the restraint as producer to limit it so the song still clocks in at a respectable 4:03

Mystified

After that mid album interlude to allow Lindsey a bit of rock experimentalism, it’s back to pop business, and this is one of the most underrated songs in the Mac canon. Naturally, there is (again) no cocking about, opening up literally immediately with an utterly gorgeous, haunting chorus. There’s an equally gorgeous*verse, with a sort of twinkling harpsichord thing going on before it’s back into that chorus again, followed by another piece of restrained playing by Buckingham. Extra marks for the cracking conga work all the way through the song, which plays on top of Mick and John laying down the groove.

Pop bangingness: 8
Best bit: that first, luxurious ‘you’ve got me mystified’, just 12 seconds in

Little Lies

Oh you want a fourth unbelievable song that will still be played, written about, and loved in fifty years’ time on the same album? Fine, fine, here you go. Yet again there’s a truly brilliant keyboard opening, yet again Mick and John lay down the groove, yet again Christine McVie delivers a stunningly simple, yet truly affecting melody in the chorus, yet again Lindsey adds those lovely percussive guitar touches, yet again the haunting reverby vocals whisper to you on either side. And that’s before you’ve even got to the chorus. Which, of course, is utterly brilliant. There are hooks all over the shop. In fact they could open up a shop selling hooks, purely stocking hooks from this song and they’d have a viable and sustainable business model. The video is on a farm for some reason. It could have featured them massacring a load of animals, just for fun, and it would still have been a hit, the song is that good.
Pop bangingness: 9
Best bit: that little growl sound before the chorus kicks in

Family Man

A strange, yet great song that, again, showcases Buckingham’s production flair with things flying at you on either side of the mix, along with a brilliantly over-the-top flamenco guitar bit between verses. There’s weird pitch-shifted vocal stuff, it’s all quite strange, and yet Mick and John’s groove-laying holds the entire thing together. In fact, so committed is John to the groove-laying industry, that he only plays 3 notes for the entire song, although he has a sudden rush of blood to the head at 3:07 when he lingers on the lowest*note of the three for a tiny bit longer than he does in the rest of the song. Phew John, don’t go too crazy mate.

Pop bangingness: 7
Best bit: the triangle tap on beat 4

Welcome to the Room... Sara

Proof that a drug-addled, part-time Stevie Nicks is still worth about ten of most other artists, this is another brilliant track. Gorgeous production that follows much of the themes of the rest of the record –*percussion all over the shop, Mick and John being really free and loose with their playing*laying down the groove, sparkly keyboard hooks*everywhere and that unbeatable trio of Nicks, McVie and Buckingham’s vocals in the chorus. Like most of Nicks’ greatest compositions, this just grooves along at a leisurely pace while Stevie weaves*her quasi-mystical lyrics in and out of the track. Fun fact: the track was inspired by her stay at the Betty Ford Center in October the previous year, where she attempted to overcome her cocaine addiction –*her pseudonym at the facility was ‘Sara Anderson’. OK, probably not that fun for Stevie but never mind.
Pop bangingness: 7
Best bit: the opening few bars. A glorious sparkling entrance to a magical song

Isn’t It Midnight

The undisputed hidden banger of an album that has so many very-much-unhidden bangers on it that somehow a track that most other bands would give their career for is buried down at track 10. Opening with a big booming tom hit, followed by –*yes, don’t worry guys –*Mick and John laying down the groove, with Lindsay whacking out some power-chords-with-intent. In comes Christine; her honeyed vocals carrying a little bit more bite than normal, then -*boom -*in comes yet another absolutely killer keyboard hook, another killer chorus and that shift in tone, with*Buckingham’s monotone 'face of a pretty girl’ laced with just the right amount of threat. After banging through another verse and chorus, rarely can a song have begged for a face-melting guitar solo more: Buckingham duly provides, taking a breather for another chorus (no one’s going to complain about that) before really letting rip on the outro. We’re fairly certain that somewhere out there exists the unfaded master tapes with Buckingham continuing for at least another 45 minutes. And count us in for*hearing that master tape someday.

Pop bangingness: 9
Best bit: that first chorus keyboard line. If the hairs on the back of your neck aren’t upstanding for that then you’re dead inside

When I See You Again

Continuing in the rich vein of sad-but-beautiful Buckingham/Nicks compositions (cf. Landslide), this is simply gorgeous. Buckingham keeps it simple on nylon-stringed guitar, and on production, with Christine adding just small flashes of keyboard, a few little percussive touches here and there and, of course, a few lovely backing vocals. Not much else to say about this, other than it’s just beautiful.
Pop bangingness: 7
Best bit: strangely, it’s probably the outro when Lindsey’s vocal –*exposed and fragile -*responds to Stevie’s lines earlier in the song: “If I see you again, will it be over? If I see you again, will it be the same?” Heartbreaking.

You And I, Part II

Let’s be honest here, this is a truly bizarre song. It’s basically like a kids’ TV show theme tune. And yet, somehow, it works. Another Buckingham/McVie co-write, this has all the hallmarks of Christine’s melodic genius, while Lindsey is given free reign on the stereoed-to-the-max production. Appropriately, for an album which was truly unafraid to be completely pop, this is as about as pop as you can get. It should have been a Christmas song, that’s our only criticism. A few sleigh bells and you’d have been there guys.

Pop bangingness: 6
Best bit: Lindsey’s delivery of ‘eyes shut tight’, like he’s trying to soothe a baby off to sleep with a lullaby

[James Kirk]

Originally Posted by MikeInNV

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainme...ckingham-mcvie

Thank you for posting this article Mike. I enjoyed it, hyperbole aside (Dylan bit)

Tango does, in a strange way tend to get looked over at times. Hopefully the new deluxe release will give it a fresh listen, regardless of not having a 5.1 mix (which still vexes me)
Thanks again.