Songs From The Vault: Sorcerer

[desertangel]

I got to thinking about this today as I was listening to Sorcerer on the Soundstage CD today and thought I should post -


Have any of your favorite songs made it from the demo vault onto an album? If so, tell it....


I have...
I got my first home computer and dial up internet connection in April 1998. The following year when Napster was introduced, I was downloading Mac and Nicks demos and outtakes like a mad person. The day I found Sorcerer I was so knocked out, I called a few of my friends over to listen. I couldn't help but sing along and dance around the room. They thought I'd gone completely mad. I posted info about it everywhere I could think of; the alt.stevie.nicks newsgroup, the Enchanted mail list and Rumours Rocks the Net. The day Sorcerer was released on TISL was a dream come true for me. Over the years, it has only gotten better. The version of Sorcerer on the Soundstage album is the best I've heard so far.

[Remy]

That's a great thread idea! Ihaven't got one myself, but I'm looking forward to others' stories.

[David]

My friends & I got our vinyl copies of "Almanac" way back when they were new & plentiful. You could walk in to Rockaway Records in Glendale just about any Saturday or Sunday & pick up a new copy.

Of course, we were amazed over all the tracks, but "Nomad" became our favorite. It was so plaintive & mournful, with the sort of nostalgic historical quality that "Crystal" had on the white album (these songs give you the impression of pulling out an old photo album & looking over the memories & feeling both happy & sad).

So many decades later, that one finally got rerecorded & produced for the 2001 album. I listened to that once & went right back to the old "Almanac" version.

[desertangel]

I remember Napstering the original version of Nomad. Have to agree with you.

[Bella Figura]

well, this is not really from the vault but back in the late 70's/early 80's, the only time I ever heard Landslide played was on late night radio...it was like a demo to me since I rarely heard it played....

though I enjoyed the Dance version, it was pretty exciting that the Dixie Chicks version got so much airplay and Landslide became a Top Ten hit...

after that I finally purchased Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac...

[wildheart048]

Nice topic for a thread! ...

I've been loving those old demos for what seems like centuries...I remember back in the old days I bought a cassette from someone advertising in Goldmine Magazine that had a slew of unreleased demos on it (paid a DAMN pretty penny for a stupid cassette, too....more than I've ever paid for any collection of music in any format...and it was a cassette for crimeny's sake! :o ah, but it was worth it!) Anyway...one of the songs on there was "No Light" ...which, of course became "Planets Of The Universe." The Tower was also on that Cassette (eventually released as "Goodbye Baby") ...

Going back a little further to the Uncirculated Rumours albums...there was Sorcerer and If You Ever Did Believe (at least I think that's where I originally had those...maybe not, though? But I did have them on something ... plus I loved the Louise Goffin and Marilyn Martin versions ...) so when they were released I was thrilled...oh and All The Kings Horses was sort of incorporated into 'Fall From Grace'...so that kind of counts...and of course Nomad/Candlebright

and Smile At You has long been a favorite of mine (definately from the UR days) but alas, that one was a bit of a disappointment when it was finally released...

Now if only we could get She Loves Him Still, Forest Of The Black Roses & Are You Mine ... and Goldfish & The Lady Bug! that would be awesome...I believe the first unreleased Stevie song I ever got was Cathouse Blues...so I'd love that one too!!!

[Hawkeye]

I started to download demos shortly after TISL came out, so when I heard No Light, Nomad and Sorcerer I had already known them as their finished products first. So the first and only song that I knew and loved before it was officially released was Smile At You. I never downloaded the demo of Running Through the Garden or The Tower, and I heard Thrown Down a couple times but though it was so boring I quickly deleted it.

But Smile At You was just hands down one of my favorite Stevie songs not just demos it compared to her released stuff for me. So it was one of the most thrilling things ever to learn that Smile At You was going to be on Say You Will. And one of the most dissapointing things ever when I heard the finished product. But I came to love it, and I've gone back and forth how I feel. I think I'm glad now Lindsey took the song in such radical new direction, because i'll always have the demos to listen to anyways, and now I also have something thats like a whole extra song to listen to. The last minute of the song especially is great, and of course John's bass is the highlight of the rest of the song.

[UndoingTheLaces]

wildheart048, you just gave me a wild blast from the past! I used to love Goldmine Magazine!!! And I still have 2 of the 3 UR albums and a bunch of old cassettes I'd get from record fairs and the dark hidden corners of used record stores.

I remember hearing No Light on a bootleg cassette and while I didn't really love it when I first heard it, it did stick in my mind because it just seemed really unusual for someone, even Stevie, to be singing about planets. Not to mention starting a verse, and especially an entire song, with the word "And". So one night, many years later, listening to my little one speaker clock radio just before drifting off to sleep, the announcer said he would be playing the new Stevie Nicks song, and when the chorus came on I thought to myself, "Am I having deja vu, or have I heard this somewhere before?" Then it hit me and I jumped out of bed and started digging through boxes and boxes of old cassettes that I have stored in boxes in my closet. I found the cassette, popped it into my player and was overjoyed that she had adapted it into a new song. I thought for a while she had just used parts of it but when I heard the full extended cut I realized that it's really all there. Since then I've come to love No Light.

Looking back there is something about these bootleg tapes I find amusing. Some of them did not come with a list of songs, so I had made a track listing myself, making up names of songs that I didn't know. And without knowing the name of No Light my cassette has it listed as "Planets of the Universe" and there is another song which I figured the name to be "Smile At You".

And one little tangent to this discussion, there are some songs that I have had as bootlegs in the most horrible condition for so long that when I was able to find really clear master tape mp3's of them it was like getting a studio recording. Blue Water is one of those. The UR version was sooooo horrid but I just adored the melody, and when I got a good mp3 of it I almost cried. Same goes with Three Birds and the, IMHO, best version of the Gypsy demo with Tom Petty's crew that recently popped up on YouTube, I'm in piggy heaven here now having those on my iPod.

My two absolute dreams would be a crystal clear version of the Castaway that's on UR, with the drum machine and keyboard, and the live version of Sara from Melborne 1980. But after all these years I think if better copies of those existed they would have surfaced by now. But I can still hope. :)