The Second Time

[mitzo]

It amazes me that this song inspire s hate. I love its sad and sweet little story, told in a remote corner of a small album. Stevie's hoarse whispery vocal is heart-rending and the spare instrumentation makes it seem like a Storms-style half-articulated set of memories and feelings. Why do you hate it? To me it is Stevie at her best.

[Dex]

I too love the vocal, the melody, and the lyrics. Obviously many do not feel the same. It's really startled me how near-unanimous the dislike for this song is, but I don't really think it's going to be something that's possible to justify or debate much. I personally can't deal with Affairs of the Heart, yet many consider that to be a high point on BTM, so how can I talk? Musical taste is, like, mysterious and stuff, innit? ;)

[MacShadowsBall]

Least Favorite Post-Rumours songs
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=1438

Least Favorite Stevie song
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=48207

Least Favorite Song Semi-Finals
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=1444

So, yeah the Second Time ain't exactly a favorite around us Ledgies!

For me its about the awful vocal Stevie gave for it. :sorry:

[Dex]

People always refer to this awful vocal that Stevie performs on this song... I'm almost wondering if I have a special, magical addition of BTM where she sounds pretty fantastic, because I just have no idea what ya'll are on about. ;) Fair enough though.

[MacShadowsBall]

I don't know, Dex, you might have one with extra chiffon and sparkles and moon necklaces on it!

Stevie's voice during the late 80's/early 90's was just awful, IMO. About the only Post-Rumours era Stevie song that gets good remarks is Freedom. :cool:

[mitzo]

*sigh* I cannot help but love the song as I always have, and pity those who cannot hear it.

[MacShadowsBall]

So I spent some time listening to The Second Time. I will say that the music/instrumentation is very nice and kinda sad in a nostalgic way. :cool:

[chriskisn]

People always refer to this awful vocal that Stevie performs on this song... I'm almost wondering if I have a special, magical addition of BTM where she sounds pretty fantastic, because I just have no idea what ya'll are on about. ;) Fair enough though.

Yes I do believe some of us got those limited edition albums! :)

[mitzo]

So I spent some time listening to The Second Time. I will say that the music/instrumentation is very nice and kinda sad in a nostalgic way. :cool:

The vocal matches - it is melancholy and worn. All in all, beautiful in a weird way. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but really in the tradition of Stevie's sad and slow work like Storms, Sara, WISYA.

[wheart]

It amazes me that this song inspire s hate. I love its sad and sweet little story, told in a remote corner of a small album. Stevie's hoarse whispery vocal is heart-rending and the spare instrumentation makes it seem like a Storms-style half-articulated set of memories and feelings. Why do you hate it? To me it is Stevie at her best.

The Second Time is actually one of my favorite Stevie songs. The lyrics and the melody have a simplistic beauty, just as powerful and earnest as Landslide and Storms. The vocal is the only thing I don't like about this recording but it does, as you've mentioned, fit the subject matter in some form. I would love Stevie to re-record this song today. I also think it would make a beautiful concert closer. She could sing the crap out of it and I know people would love it and wonder where it's been hiding all these years.

[mitzo]

The Second Time is actually one of my favorite Stevie songs. The lyrics and the melody have a simplistic beauty, just as powerful and earnest as Landslide and Storms. The vocal is the only thing I don't like about this recording but it does, as you've mentioned, fit the subject matter in some form. I would love Stevie to re-record this song today. I also think it would make a beautiful concert closer. She could sing the crap out of it and I know people would love it and wonder where it's been hiding all these years.

YES! I guess it is like Love Is .... which people found abhorrent (they often trash her slow melancholy ballads) and then they got all wow when she sang it in concert. The Second Time is full of similar sad beauty and would be a prime candidate for a dusting off and re-presentation some day. In her current voice it would be amazing.

[chiliD]

Are your listening devices covered in "lace & paper flowers"?? :shrug:

It's as "bottom of the barrel" as a Fleetwood Mac song can be. It is sonic ipecac. :nod:

[RickRobert]

People always refer to this awful vocal that Stevie performs on this song... I'm almost wondering if I have a special, magical addition of BTM where she sounds pretty fantastic, because I just have no idea what ya'll are on about. ;) Fair enough though.

Same here :shrug: It's not a bad performance by any means, I guess since her vocal is really prominent and not washed in 80s production like most of her stuff from that era the weaknesses in her voice are more obvious. But I like it :nod:

[Villavic]

To me it is Stevie at her best.

I just dislike it, not hate it. Impossible to me, to include it within her best. But that's what I love of this world. Different opinions about everything.

I do like Empire State, Family Man, Welcome to the Room... Sara. And I know many ledgies hate these songs.

But I don't like Second Time, and When I see you again.

[chriskisn]

I do like Empire State, Family Man, Welcome to the Room... Sara. And I know many ledgies hate these songs.


Yes, yes and maybe!

[wheart]

I just dislike it, not hate it. Impossible to me, to include it within her best. But that's what I love of this world. Different opinions about everything.

I do like Empire State, Family Man, Welcome to the Room... Sara. And I know many ledgies hate these songs.

But I don't like Second Time, and When I see you again.

Empire State is decent but I feel Family Man is one of Lindsey's worst songs. And I've never liked WTTRS.

[WatchChain]

I haven't listened to "The Second Time" in over 20 years. I think I initially wrote it off because I wasn't very fond of the "Behind The Mask" album. It doesn't represent Stevie or the band's best work. I remember running out to buy it on the day it was released in 1990 (yes, before ITUNES)......I was disappointed the day that I listened to it. Unlike most of my Stevie/Mac albums, it was on rotation in my cd player for only about 3 weeks.......I locked the album away and haven't pulled it out since. This was part of the problem with the post-Rumours lineup. I suppose I was biased because I could never really buy into them. Now, I realize that I was probably simply longing for THE MAC that I had come to know and love. Kind of like trying to watch "Charlie's Angels" with Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts.....just didn't feel right.......OR the time when Coy and Vance Duke replaced Bo and Luke on "The Dukes of Hazzard"........Still, there are some pretty disastrous moments on BTM. "Love is Dangerous" makes me cringe.

That being said, I just went back and listened to "The Second Time" for the first time since 1991. You know, the song is not half bad.......It's growing on me. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it one of Stevie's best songs, it certainly does have a sentimental longing/country feel. I just ran it again, and I'm beginning to like it. Thanks for helping me give "The Second Time" a second chance.

[chriskisn]

The thing with this song is that it is the perfect closing song to the album. It wouldn't fit anywhere else in the tracklisting.

[PenguinHead]

Are your listening devices covered in "lace & paper flowers"?? :shrug:

It's as "bottom of the barrel" as a Fleetwood Mac song can be. It is sonic ipecac. :nod:

:laugh:You said it so lightly! And I agree with you whole-hardheartedly. The song had the potential to be a new classic, and reach the emotional realms of "Landslide." The music was good, but the heavy synthesizer track made it sound dated and somewhat cheesy.

The lyrics were the most egregious thing about it; absolute lack of cohesion among the most banal phrases ever sung Her voice doesn't have the warmth to match the tone of the song.The song was yearning for authentic sentiment, which was it lost in disjointed lines that abruptly shift from first person, second person, or third person.

This is a peculiar aspect of some of Stevie's lyrics. I've come to sort of appreciate it as one of Stevie's unique and odd traits, as it can throw you off so you interpret in your own way. I generally like her off-beat songs, but The Second Time is just too contrived and cloying.

[mitzo]

People often diss Stevie's ballads except for the ones on Tusk. On The Mask I vastly prefer The Second Time to Affairs of the Heart, or Freedom. Talk about egregious, banal lyrics ("one set of doors was the colour of honey?", "poor little fool?") and cheesy production (eg. the "hoedown" lilt in Affairs, or the cornball Bond film theatrics in Freedom.

[PenguinHead]

People often diss Stevie's ballads except for the ones on Tusk. On The Mask I vastly prefer The Second Time to Affairs of the Heart, or Freedom. Talk about egregious, banal lyrics ("one set of doors was the colour of honey?", "poor little fool?") and cheesy production (eg. the "hoedown" lilt in Affairs, or the cornball Bond film theatrics in Freedom.

I can't argue with you about those comments. Yet, with Stevie, even her worst (written or sung) songs tend to grow on me, if only because they are so uniquely odd and off track.