Can I get some love for "I'm So Afraid" studio version?

[joe]

I posted some FB pics of snowy, icy mountain stream pics and I immediately was thinking of "Crystal" ("drove me to the mountains" etc )which led me to the white album and then to "I'm So Afraid" and, I swear, in my 30 years of listening to this, I have never heard such brilliance. So dark and brilliant and perfect.

Umm...So, can we talk about that gong in the second chorus that occasionally blends and overtakes Stevie's "how I feel" and "so afraid"???

[joe]

uhh...so, noone likes the studio versiom of this song?

I find that incredibly hard to believe...

[holidayroad]

I love the studio version!! I just wasn't awake at 2 o'clock in the morning to tell you! :)

[vivfox]

I love the studio version!! I just wasn't awake at 2 o'clock in the morning to tell you! :)


I was asleep too. Anyhoo, I love I'm So Afraid, the studio version. This past Summer when I started walking long distances for exercise, sometimes I would walk on the grounds of my Junior High School. I hadn't been on that field since 1975-1978 so there I was strolling down memory lane and what song do you think sprung to mind?

You guessed it! ISA Slip and I fall and I die. That's how I feel, days when the rain and the sun are gone.

I hated that School. I was bullied endlessly there. Many bad memories,very few good ones.

When I saw Lindsey perform this on Unleashed, I closed my eyes softly and became that part of the wind that we all long for sometimes and in my mind I relived the good parts of 1975.

[Peestie]

I love it as well. I think a lot of people don't dig the falsetto vocals but I think they work well with the mood of the track. Live it's a different beast but I still really enjoy the studio work.

[Regina]

I'm So Afraid is such a weird song, to me.
Not the song itself but the experience of listening to it. I can't stand (and skip) the studio version. I can't stand listening to recordings of it live. But, I really do enjoy seeing Lindsey perform it live--at the moment he's doing it. He's a maniac. In a good way. Still, if I were to cut one song from the set list (for him), it would be this one.

Same thing, really, for Come (although I was kind of sick of it live, too, toward the end of SYW).

[MissLadyLoki]

It's funny how I can't stand the studio version mainly for the falsetto, and I always thought it kicked major ass live (especially this one bootleg I heard from Nashville 1977, where Mick plays a cowbell in the beginning). I think the reason why i enjoy it live so much is that it's not just a song, it's a whole experience, where Lindsey and his guitar take you into his dark world.

As for the studio version, I do hate the vocals, but now that I think about it, the sound of the guitar (yes, I'm a weirdo that tends to like how a guitar sounds in a song) does fit the mood quite well.

Oh yeah, and another random thought. We all know that Bucky wrote it when he had mono, but to me, the lyrics seem almost like a hint at the future, as if it described his feelings after her left the Mac in 1987. I wonder how it would've been interpreted if it had been written then and put on either Out of the Cradle or 25 Years The Chain box set as a new song...

EDIT: The same could even be said for Rose Garden if Stevie had written it when she was making Street Angel

[RickRobert]

Love the soft vocals, very "haunting" and I can actually believe what he's singing. The outro solo is a lot better live as far as playing goes though I prefer the guitar tone and atmosphere of the studio version. I definitely think that atmosphere was a big influence on Pink Floyd when they wrote Comfortably Numb.

[bluefox4000]

If you just heard the live version and then heard the studio...wow big letdown I think. However they are two different beasts here. Both have their strong points. The studio has a dark air which I love. Live is just.......Lindsey just mauls you. Studio is more quietly disturbing. I love both.:nod:

Mick

[PenguinHead]

I love the studio version, as well as the live renditions. They each have various qualities. I aways appreciated that Fleetwood Mac in the studio is much different than Fleetwood Mac in a live setting.

[David]

The only thing that really interests me about the studio recording is the two-part harmony of the electric guitars. It's interesting. It creates a weirdly baroque atmosphere, like the electric guitar harmonies that Brian May wrote for Queen songs like "Killer Queen."

[mylittledemon]

I remember my father, who didn't care for post-1977 Fleetwood Mac said he liked "I'm So Afraid" because it was much darker than any of the later stuff the Buckingham/Nicks era did

[shackin'up]

It's a gem. Live AND studio. It's special and it shows that Lindsey had a experimental side all the way. Also BEFORE Rumours. I think it's hauntingly beautiful.

[BaronVonBielski]

I posted some FB pics of snowy, icy mountain stream pics and I immediately was thinking of "Crystal" ("drove me to the mountains" etc )which led me to the white album and then to "I'm So Afraid" and, I swear, in my 30 years of listening to this, I have never heard such brilliance. So dark and brilliant and perfect.

Umm...So, can we talk about that gong in the second chorus that occasionally blends and overtakes Stevie's "how I feel" and "so afraid"???

I think the studio version is excellent. I only wish he didn't use the soft voice the entire time. Still, great song to end that album with.

[Sahara]

Not from me, unfortunately :( I find the studio versions of this and many songs from the White Album and Rumours to be a bit on the dead side.
JMO.

[joe]

wow...so interesting to find that so many people dislike the studio version. I like all the versions but the studio version is just so dark and haunting to me. As David pointed out, the 2 part guitar harmonizing is really what makes the song. Plus, I love the 2nd chorus with Stevie's faint harmonies. And there's that gong that comes in a few times during that chorus as well.

There's just something about it that I adore.

To each his own, though.

[RickRobert]

Plus, I love the 2nd chorus with Stevie's faint harmonies.

Ah, how could I forget those! Love the contrast of Lindsey's soft vocals and Stevie belting that harmony. The faintness just adds to the really dark and haunting atmosphere. Great stuff!

As far as harmony guitars go, am I right in thinking Lindsey was one of the first people to layer them like that? He was doing it on Frozen Love, before Thin Lizzy started doing it I think, and around the same time as Wishbone Ash.

[Peestie]

As far as harmony guitars go, am I right in thinking Lindsey was one of the first people to layer them like that? He was doing it on Frozen Love, before Thin Lizzy started doing it I think, and around the same time as Wishbone Ash.
Weren't Fleetwood Mac doing it earlier than even Lindsey? There are layers/harmonies in Oh Well. I'm sure loads of bands had done it. Judas Priest were touring since '68 and they've always done guitar harmonies even though their first album wasn't out until '74.