Mirage Article

[soul_drifter333]

https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/fleetwood-mac-mirage-story-behind-the-album

[Villavic]

I do believe in her words about Tusk, but I’m not convinced about Mirage with the And I don’t think there were any great romantic melodramas. Everyone was getting on great.”. I remember the stories I’ve read in The Ledge about Stevie’s coming from her big Bella Donna Success, Jimmy Iovine in France, Mick being the only member who wanted a long tour, everybody got a different manager (entered Azoff)… I don’t see the ideal context for getting on great. Maybe the alcohol blurred her memory.

Funny that the article mentions a character from a currently playing film. I'm not sure if Lindsey should be considered the Heathcliff of Hollywood.

[Macfan4life]

That was an awesome article. So much Chris from the Mirage re-release of a few years ago. What the theme of the article and what Chris says is true. Mirage was a #1 album with huge MTV videos yet its almost a forgotten Mac album. She speculates that maybe they were not organically writing like on Rumours and Tusk. Chris was a bit inconsistent here due to memory. She had previously stated that she quit cocaine after the Mirage tour and right before her solo album started. But in this interview she said she was off drugs for Mirage. I love this era of the band maybe because it is sort of forgotten and was really fast and furious time in their lives. It also was the end of an era for the band. Mick wrote about him and Stevie riding horseback in the French countryside in his book. It was a magical time. Some people say Silver Springs should have made Rumours. I say Smile At You should of made Mirage. Although with Bella Donna still riding high on the charts no way they were going to give Stevie 4 songs. But I think some rearranging the album could have made it stand out more.

[Villavic]

I love this era of the band maybe because it is sort of forgotten and was really fast and furious time in their lives.

I feel the end of the era was the last day of the Tusk tour. The golden age of that lineup, despite not being peaceful. But I agree Mirage was magical and shone on his own. It's a shame there aren't any documentaries deeply dedicated to Mirage, like the Tusk doc or all those where 80% is about Rumours. Even about Tango!

The fact that there are no videos of the France recording sessions (for a doc or at least for tv reports from that time) also makes me doubt what Christine says about everybody getting on great. Obviously, cameras weren't welcome at Tango either. So both moments can be similar.

[David]

Stevie saw a bit of romance to it. I remember her galloping in on horseback one day, in a velvet gown – I can’t remember why.

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

[HomerMcvie]

I LOVE Mirage. I'm not sure I can rank them, but Mirage is in my top three, alongside Rumours and Tusk. White is in fourth place, and Tango fifth(or 70th place!)

[soul_drifter333]

I think part of her riding the horse was included in the original Stand Back video that got nicked because they thought she looked fat in that dress. At one point the horse is taking off like it's about to throw her. Good times :lol:

I love that version of the Beauty and the Beast film. Criterion has a great restoration of it.


Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

[Macfan4life]

It's a shame Ray Lindsey's book did not tell juicy stories. I read reviews and they are mostly all positive but the core Mac fans say nothing new is revealed and its what they already know :(
He probably does not want to embarrass anyone and keep good graces.

[Villavic]

And Mick thought about getting everyone away from their values and into a bubble, like we did in Sausalito when we made Rumours, to see if we could do something a little more Rumours-y, and not quite so left-of-centre as Tusk was.

Well, emulating the Sausalito situation to artistically return to the Rumouris mood wasn't Mick's only reason for keeping them away from LA... and the US. He wrote:

I had asked the band to record outside the United States, so that as a citizen of Monte Carlo I wouldn't be liable for American taxes. I was beginning to get into dire straits with money, having taken bank loans out at some of the highest interest rates in living memory to pay for real estate. I had to prove this new album was recorded out of the country. I was still thinking of emigrating to Australia and giving up my American green card to live as Lord of the Manor at Wendsley Dale, but at the same time, Lord of the Manor was getting more nervous every day. In the back of my mind, I knew I couldn't operate out of the United States. If I stayed away too long, Fleetwood Mac might drift apart, and I was obsessed with keeping this band together and working no matter what.

I didn't remember about that Monaco citizenship. Checking his book, this happened around or after the Tusk tour.

. I had purchased a cubbyhole apartment in Monte Carlo and technically became a legal resident of Monaco, thus hoping to avoid American taxes. I figured to commute between Australia and L.A., and my mum could use the Monaco place for holidays.

[HomerMcvie]

I was beginning to get into dire straits with money, having taken bank loans out at some of the highest interest rates in living memory to pay for real estate.j

He's such a dumb ass. I know many artists that have zero common sense, but Mick really takes it to a new level.

[jbrownsjr]

I love Mirage! It's not my go to...

I usually go to White, Rumours, Heroes, MTM Tango, Tusk, and Christine Solos.

Those have been my jams lately. Recently listened to the dual FM/Christine Perfect album on streaming. Different versions of her CP tunes.

[anusha]

He's such a dumb ass. I know many artists that have zero common sense, but Mick really takes it to a new level.

He is not a business genius, but anyone who bought real estate in the early 80s would have had historically high interest rates, and not everyone thought they would go back down to where they ended up 10-15 years later. And there was a risk they could get higher.

[HomerMcvie]

He is not a business genius, but anyone who bought real estate in the early 80s would have had historically high interest rates, and not everyone thought they would go back down to where they ended up 10-15 years later. And there was a risk they could get higher.

He NEVER learned(or wanted) to live within his means.

[aleuzzi]

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album ex was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

Hilburn’s commentary is clever but perhaps a bit disingenuous, in my opinion. The album doesn’t so much disappear as one listens but one’s expectations are certainly reoriented—possibly deflated but then oddly reconstructed to suit the album’s almost stubborn attachment to giddy pleasures on a minor scale. Mirage charms; its does not haunt or beguile the way certain songs on the previous three albums do. It also doesn’t seem to spring from the earth. It’s sprinkled with fairy dust.

But I’ve been listening to it lately and believe it could have been quite different had the core trio fought Buckingham a bit more on his “music box” touches. Outtakes and rehearsals from the period show Christine’s piano is chunkier and more aggressive than one might expect, and the drum-bass combo has a real kick to it. “Put a Candle in the Window” suggests the pre-arranged material may have had some muscle…

The “alternate” (really a version before overdubs) of “Only Over You” has this hypnotic groove that I could listen to for hours. That groove is muted or subdued in the mix that ends up on the record. Why?

“That’s Alright” is a killer tune. So good. Stevie at her most lyrically engaging.

[Villavic]

The album doesn’t so much disappear as one listens but one’s expectations are certainly reoriented—possibly deflated but then oddly reconstructed to suit the album’s almost stubborn attachment to giddy pleasures on a minor scale.

Frankly, I don't know if my limited english skills prevented me from understanding what this means. Anyway, my confusion led me to analyze whether the album is a sum of all possible classical and non-classical trajectories between the initial and final states. That is, of course, assuming the songs were written to offer us a diploid, rather than a haploid, experience. Of course, whenever the lyrics consciousness does not cause a physical collapse of the wavefunction.

[Mr Scarrott]

. Mirage charms; its does not haunt or beguile the way certain songs on the previous three albums do. It also doesn’t seem to spring from the earth. It’s sprinkled with fairy dust.



I enjoyed reading this post, but it's hard to say that Gypsy does not haunt or beguile. It's almost too good: a soaring mountain surrounded by some occasionally interesting and attractive hills make for an odd soundscape.

[Villavic]

I enjoyed reading this post, but it's hard to say that Gypsy does not haunt or beguile. .


Gypsy was the spark that ignited my fanaticism for Fleetwood Mac. Before Mirage I knew and liked a lot some Mac songs I've heard, but when I heard and watched Gypsy, I started to ask What is this group about? And Mirage was the first album I entirely listened. That's why it was magical to me. Not to compare it to their 70s albums; it was a matter of experience at that time. Then I got inmersed into the Mac universe, and the rest is history.

[aleuzzi]

I enjoyed reading this post, but it's hard to say that Gypsy does not haunt or beguile. It's almost too good: a soaring mountain surrounded by some occasionally interesting and attractive hills make for an odd soundscape.

Hey, I get it. I love “Gypsy”—it’s a pop masterpiece. But I don’t walk away from it the way I do “The Chain” or “Gold Dust Woman,” or even “How Still My Love” and “Bella Donna.” I feel joy when I hear “Gypsy.” It’s joyous, nostalgic, warm, even exciting. But that haunted feeling I get when I hear those harmonies on “Rhiannon,” for instance—none of that with Gypsy.

[aleuzzi]

That is, of course, assuming the songs were written to offer us a diploid, rather than a haploid, experience. Of course, whenever the lyrics consciousness does not cause a physical collapse of the wavefunction.

Now it’s my turn to be confused. I admit my ignorance. No idea what you’re saying.

[jbrownsjr]

Villa, you sound like you're trying to write Juliet from the book of science and miracles. :lol:

[Villavic]

Villa, you sound like you're trying to write Juliet from the book of science and miracles. :lol:

Actually these days I was reading Hawking's A Brief History of Time. I think that trying to understand more than half of the book (which I did manage to grasp) burned more neurons than when I was experimenting in the 80s. :cool:

Anyway I was checking Mick words about Lindsey during Mirage.

He arrived in France with two good songs, "Can't Go Back" and "Eyes of the World. " Three others, "Book of Love," "Empire State," and "Oh Diane," were written with Richard Dashut at the chateau and in the three other studios in L.A. where Mirage was wrapped up over the next seven months. Tired of being typecast as the archetypal northern California hippie, Lindsey had now veered from his New Wave sound into a 1955 Eddie Cochran rock and roll feel. (I remember some semitense conversations on musical direction in this era, as Lindsey still felt that I blamed him for the relatively weak sales of Tusk. I thought we should do what we do best, and insisted on doing this album as a band. This time, the whole band played on almost every track; then Chris, Lindsey, and I spent months in the studio, overdubbing in typical Fleetwood Mac fashion.)

I don't see Lindsey's Mirage songs as very different from his L&O sound, which was a cool album. But I like the ones on Mirage much better. I didn't really like Go Insane; I only listened to it a couple of times years ago and haven't played it again. But his comeback with OOTC was masterful, though unfortunately it came too late.

I guess that "Chris, Lindsey, and I spent months in the studio overdubbing" is what Christine found great.

.

[jbrownsjr]

Actually these days I was reading Hawking's A Brief History of Time. I think that trying to understand more than half of the book (which I did manage to grasp) burned more neurons than when I was experimenting in the 80s. :cool:

Anyway I was checking Mick words about Lindsey during Mirage.

He arrived in France with two good songs, "Can't Go Back" and "Eyes of the World. " Three others, "Book of Love," "Empire State," and "Oh Diane," were written with Richard Dashut at the chateau and in the three other studios in L.A. where Mirage was wrapped up over the next seven months. Tired of being typecast as the archetypal northern California hippie, Lindsey had now veered from his New Wave sound into a 1955 Eddie Cochran rock and roll feel. (I remember some semitense conversations on musical direction in this era, as Lindsey still felt that I blamed him for the relatively weak sales of Tusk. I thought we should do what we do best, and insisted on doing this album as a band. This time, the whole band played on almost every track; then Chris, Lindsey, and I spent months in the studio, overdubbing in typical Fleetwood Mac fashion.)

I don't see Lindsey's Mirage songs as very different from his L&O sound, which was a cool album. But I like the ones on Mirage much better. I didn't really like Go Insane; I only listened to it a couple of times years ago and haven't played it again. But his comeback with OOTC was masterful, though unfortunately it came too late.

I guess that "Chris, Lindsey, and I spent months in the studio overdubbing" is what Christine found great.

.

It's another album where he's so far left of center, and Stevie and Christine are in the pocket.

The album is charming, but it did take me some time to warm up to songs like Empire State, and Can't Go Back.

Oh Diane is just dumb on that album. Give Nicks or Christine another song. Or write something for Fleetwood Mac, and not yourself.

The musical tension was hurting them at this point. I do love me some Book of Love.

[Macfan4life]

It's another album where he's so far left of center, and Stevie and Christine are in the pocket.

The album is charming, but it did take me some time to warm up to songs like Empire State, and Can't Go Back.

Oh Diane is just dumb on that album. Give Nicks or Christine another song. Or write something for Fleetwood Mac, and not yourself.

The musical tension was hurting them at this point. I do love me some Book of Love.
Yeah Oh Diane needed to go. I know the Brits will say it charted over there which is rare for a Lindsey song. Smile At You was a moment in time. Even Chris's plopping piano and Lindsey's guitar sound angry. Stevie's voice was in peak form and could never do the passion on it again in later attempts. It also breaks the "music box" where the song is more raw and organic than the others. As Stevie said the band never liked her rocking songs and preferred her slower safe songs. I also hate that Beauty and The Beast was left off Tusk. Lastly in all these reissues why cannot we get these gems on CD? That is what a reissue should be.....adding the songs that almost made the album. I don't want 11 versions of I know I am not wrong.


talkin about Diane

[Villavic]

I also hate that Beauty and The Beast was left off Tusk. Lastly in all these reissues why cannot we get these gems on CD? That is what a reissue should be.....adding the songs that almost made the album. I don't want 11 versions of I know I am not wrong.


I wasn't crazy about the lot of IKIANW tracks in Tusk Deluxe either. Whenever I see them on the tracklist, and when I recall the giant image of Lindsey's face on the big screen at the 2014 concert, I wonder: Were they trying to hint at who the star of the band is? :lol:

But about the absence of BATB, perhaps it was due to rights issues, since it belongs to a Stevie solo album, and it's another record label, something like that? I remember when Mick was blamed for not allowing Stevie to include Silver Springs in Timespace, some ledgies claimed it actually was Warner Records who didn't allow it. I don't know if that was true, don't know how this business works.

[Macfan4life]

I wasn't crazy about the lot of IKIANW tracks in Tusk Deluxe either. Whenever I see them on the tracklist, and when I recall the giant image of Lindsey's face on the big screen at the 2014 concert, I wonder: Were they trying to hint at who the star of the band is? :lol:

But about the absence of BATB, perhaps it was due to rights issues, since it belongs to a Stevie solo album, and it's another record label, something like that? I remember when Mick was blamed for not allowing Stevie to include Silver Springs in Timespace, some ledgies claimed it actually was Warner Records who didn't allow it. I don't know if that was true, don't know how this business works.
That's probably true. But give us Smile At You on the deluxe Mirage edition. That alone would have been worth it. Now its lost forever except for youtube :(

[Villavic]

That's probably true. But give us Smile At You on the deluxe Mirage edition. That alone would have been worth it. Now its lost forever except for youtube :(

I got an outtake of Smile at You in the Mirade Deluxe I bought through iTunes (not CD). Do you mean there's another version or wasn't included in the CD release?

Funny the songwriters iTunes mentions in the track properties. Or is there something I don't know??? :confused:

[bombaysaffires]

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

oh this is a bummer to hear... I've had his book in my stack of books to read for a little while now and have been waiting for a moment when I can really sink into it......:distress:

Hilburn’s commentary is clever but perhaps a bit disingenuous, in my opinion. The album doesn’t so much disappear as one listens but one’s expectations are certainly reoriented—possibly deflated but then oddly reconstructed to suit the album’s almost stubborn attachment to giddy pleasures on a minor scale. Mirage charms; its does not haunt or beguile the way certain songs on the previous three albums do. It also doesn’t seem to spring from the earth. It’s sprinkled with fairy dust.

But I’ve been listening to it lately and believe it could have been quite different had the core trio fought Buckingham a bit more on his “music box” touches. Outtakes and rehearsals from the period show Christine’s piano is chunkier and more aggressive than one might expect, and the drum-bass combo has a real kick to it. “Put a Candle in the Window” suggests the pre-arranged material may have had some muscle…

The “alternate” (really a version before overdubs) of “Only Over You” has this hypnotic groove that I could listen to for hours. That groove is muted or subdued in the mix that ends up on the record. Why?

“That’s Alright” is a killer tune. So good. Stevie at her most lyrically engaging.

the lyrics are good because she'd written the song a lot earlier in her career. once she got famous, like really famous, she started believing that anything she belched out was great. As someone mentioned earlier, all that 'he said she said' twaddle interspersed with lots of "well"s...:eek:

One of the major reviews did call Mirage a 'music box' album and it certainly has all the twinkles and chimes of one...which isn't inherently a bad thing... I always did wonder about the choice of title though...a reference to them being a coherent band anymore is just a Mirage??

[Villavic]

I always did wonder about the choice of title though...a reference to them being a coherent band anymore is just a Mirage??

I remember I posted here asking why they named it Mirage, but it was long ago and can't remember if anybody knew there was an official answer from the band.

I just posted the question on Google and its AI said:
Fleetwood Mac named their 1982 album Mirage to reflect a,,reflective, almost dreamlike return to form after the experimental and commercially disappointing Tusk. The title symbolized the band's reunion, appearing as a "beautiful blur" of,nostalgia and,familiarity that sought to replicate the,softer, melodic sound of Rumours.

I'm not convinced this comes from a reliable source. It could be a mix of fans opinions.

[Mr Scarrott]

Hey, I get it. I love “Gypsy”—it’s a pop masterpiece. But I don’t walk away from it the way I do “The Chain” or “Gold Dust Woman,” or even “How Still My Love” and “Bella Donna.” I feel joy when I hear “Gypsy.” It’s joyous, nostalgic, warm, even exciting. But that haunted feeling I get when I hear those harmonies on “Rhiannon,” for instance—none of that with Gypsy.

Well put, again. I'm sticking with being beguiled by Gypsy. I take your point re haunting and Rhiannon; it's easier to be haunted by a minor key...from the first time I heard the opening guitar riff I was hooked...

[jbrownsjr]

Well put, again. I'm sticking with being beguiled by Gypsy. I take your point re haunting and Rhiannon; it's easier to be haunted by a minor key...from the first time I heard the opening guitar riff I was hooked...

It has a mystical quality to it. I'll give ya that.