Interesting observation, Chili. Now I will listen to those songs and see if that is what I subconsciously detected.

I figured you would certainly appreciate my clarification. :laugh:

Good point! "Morning Rain" is a great example of that way of singing. Perhaps for that very same reason, and although featuring fantastic lyrics, "Homeward Bound" must be her worst recorded vocal... even though it's kind of attractive because of that too!

You can easily notice the difference between those songs, and, say "Remember Me" from Penguin. I had never thought that it was just a register problem. I would, like Carne, have given credit to the production. But you made a great observation.


Song of the moment - The Ledge

Re: 25 Years of Fan-tastic Musical Karma!!!
 

Hmm... I don't think Stevie in any way "manipulates" Lindsey, Mick & John, to get her way.
That line of thinking isn't at all fair to "the boys," who definitely have minds of their own.

And is there really anything wrong with listening to the "powers that be," and then doing your own thing anyway?
After all, Lindsey's been doing that very thing for decades.

Both Lindsey & Stevie are very strong personalities, and they're both extremely individualistic... and that's one of the most fascinating qualities about them as people. :)

(By the way, that particular comment was actually made by Stevie in regards to how she handles her solo career, not about Fleetwood Mac.)

I still say that, despite some of the songs being recorded six years apart, 'Say You Will' is remarkably cohesive, and covers several styles and approaches very ably and skillfully.
To me, it sounds like the culmination of all of the albums that preceded it. :)

As much as I love the album version of "Why," I have to say that I was pretty blown away the first time I ever heard a live recording of the band doing it after Lindsey & Stevie joined.

It was a minor change... extending the coda as a showcase for their three-part harmonies... but, for me at least, it made all the difference in the world.

If there were one pre-1975 Mac song that I would have wanted them to re-record with Lindsey & Stevie, it would easily be "Why."

Oh yes, agreed. Cause it's the best thing she's ever written...imo

Oh i don't care for her contributions to tango! except isnt it midnight.

But- talking about tusk- she adds so much atmosphere and warmth to the album. I think it is great that she was not going for another dont stop or say you love me. these songs have more spirituality to them and are a great contrast to lindsey's songs. The darkness of the album was definately anchored by her, too.

For me, there are no weak points in tusk. maybe some weaker songs, but they have function towards the songs before and after. This is an album and not only a collection of songs, more than on any other popalbum.

I had an old piano demo of "Sara" where the melody, chord structure, etc. are exactly the same. The same for "Storms." So, I think yes, the structure of the songs and the words are all from Stevie. I think where LB shines is the final majesty of Sara, which for me is in the subtle rolling guitar at the end right before the "all I ever wanted was to know . . . . " line. So, that song to me is a prime example of Stevie giving LB something great and he then turns it into a masterpeice. Interestingly, I think he runied SOTM - the piano demo was haunting and clever. IMO his, and we assume it is his, rocking version leaves me flat on the record. Live however is another beast altogether :laugh:

I think that in the case of both Christine & Stevie, it's more than a simple case of bringing in a song:

• Stevie also contributes her lead & harmony vocal style (a single "ooh" or "aah" from her goes further in creating a mood or igniting excitement than whole stanzas sung by most other singers.
  
• Christine also contributes her savvy little rhythmic piano parts (try listening to "Brown Eyes" without the Fender Rhodes, or "Angel" without the CP30).
  
• Mick & John contribute their "feel" style of rhythm ("What Makes You Think You're the One" would be a lot less intense & singular without Mick's unique pounding attack).

All these Fleetwood Mac tracks would sound different (less interesting, to my ears) without these contributions to the sonic overall, regardless of which producer or band member was engineering & establishing track direction & tone.

Are you sure that Mick is playing on "WMYTYTO"?? I always thought that was Lindsey's banging away on tincans or kleenex boxes or something. The sound is just TOO "un-Mick".

I think I've read somewhere else that Lindsey spoke about this song in terms of being 'just him and Mick' in the studio... him playing the piano and singing and Mick playing the drums. Quite simple, and that the drumming was 'one of those great moments in music' and that it reminded him somehow of the "Instant Karma (We All Shine On)" Lennon track.

Of course now I'm not able to find the exact quote... :rolleyes: .



Song of the moment - Trouble

You knw that is so true. Look at her harmony on Gypsy, Little Lies, etc. Interestingly, when her voice lowered, these harmonies became porhaps a little more "forced" for want of a better word. IMO her probouinced and solo "ahhhhhhh's" in "Behind the Mask" (a great song) are flat. But, the rest of her in that song just make it better. Same for her harmonies is "Sky is the Limit." I have always said La Nicks was just born to sing harmony, which is far more difficult than singing lead.

Also, in the chorus of Dreams, Stevie sings the lead and the harmony with LB and CM singing with her on the lead and that song has some of her best oohhs and ahhhs ever :cool:

Cristian, you are correct. That was something Lindsey said in one of the recent interviews. That is Mick on What Makes You Think You're the One. It sounds like Lindsey had to get Mick to "unlearn" what he knew about drumming to get that sound. Of course, there were similar experiences with Tusk and, I believe, Go Your Own Way.

David, you are quite right that Stevie and Christine didn't just drop songs and the magic happened in spite of them. To be sure, Stevie contributes some of her best stuff ever to this album and Christine's songs, though not terribly exciting to me, have a wonderful charm about them.

Since I am feeling generous today, I will even say this: I can take Beautiful Child when I'm in the right mood, but usually I skip it. Actually, Tusk is the only Fleetwood Mac album these days that I can play beginning to end without skipping songs. I can't even do that on Out of the Cradle as I tend to skip Doing What I Can.

AAAHHH!!!
 

I'll quote Strand and Chilid..."HERETIC!!"

:lol::lol:

Kidding. I friggin LOVE that song to death!!

Re: AAAHHH!!!
 

That's actually one of my favorite songs, too, Christy... so you're definitely not alone. :)

"When the darkness comes, you've got to fly into the light... and what will be, will be."

As long as this band keeps on repeating itself on stage then fans should have the right to repeat themselves, no matter how redundantly. It's all direct influence! ;)

Gaius, we don't repeat ourselves around here.
Not sure where you go that.

Now, as far as why I think "When I See You Again" is so brilliant, let me just say that....
;) :laugh: :laugh:

Insteresting...the first couple of years after I bought Tusk I thought that, too. But on the other hand: the drumtrack is so frickin'brilliant that I also thought: this MUST be Mick, because lindsey can't do this! Okay, he can pound away on everything that is in his room at the moment, but he does not have ability of giving every hit " feel". And Mick was a master at that. (WAS, on say you will I only hear it on Come...Okay and on miranda, when you peel all layers off.....).

And, Chili, now you know it, maybe you should listen to it again and, with that perception in mind, maybe you hear it the same way as I do: very MICKISH!

I was listening to What Makes You Think You're the One this morning and it struck me that the guitar tracks were too low. I want to hear more guitar.

On Tusk, I skip Tusk! I like the song, but I played it to death when I was hooked on the Greatest Hits cd, so I never listen to it now. Maybe when the reissues come out, I'll go back to it.

On OOTC, I skip Turn It On. Something about that one...the way he pronounces the words just doesn't do anything for me.

That's partially the guilt of the transformation to CD. I'm expecting a lot here on the remaster......but I agree, it's a bit pulled back...

It’s just me I’m talking about; I’m repeating myself like Lindsey is recycling “Big Love”. And since it’s so long it’s a double sin. :)

You know what?
 

I don't believe I've ever mentioned that Lindsey rules and my favorite song is I'm So Afraid.

Just thought I'd let ya'll know that. ;)

:laugh:

O.K. I`ll be the bad guy to disagree concerning Christine :laugh: Although TUSK is my favourite FM album I skip a lot of songs. A contradiction? Yes and no. I simply can`t stand Christines contributions and always felt that they were misplaced on the album. Of course I have to admit that she is not my favourite band member. But I still like a lot of her songs from the 80's and from the pre Rumours era so it`s not a general point. But the "Yawners" are clearly on her side imo. I only used TABM for my private copy because I think it`s a fine example for a good LB/Christine collaboration. Now after a long long time, I listened to her tracks again because of the discussions we had during the last weeks. I can tolerate "Never forget" as an O.K. song. But Brown eyes, Honey Hi, and Never make me cry makes me either shiver or fall asleep at once. For me Tusk is a great balance between Lindseys strange tunes and Stevies epics. Christines songs don`t fit in the concept of the album- I don't see a connection between say WMYTYTO or NTF and Honey hi... And interestingly some friends who discoverd FM and Tusk at the same time I did, felt the same way. I suppose people who love her tracks first, are not too fond of the strangies from LB vice versa...?
As for Beautiful child, I`m not that euphoric about the song as some of the others here but I do like it. No Stevie song on Tusk is weak- I just like Storms, SOTM and Sara better. At the moment I would pick Storms as my fav from Stevie Tusk but that may change on a regular basis :laugh: Dito with LB`s songs.

Yeah, what kind of accent is he trying to copy there? "you can reach for the skooy" "You can live you can doooy" "you don`t even know whoooy" Arictocrat-like or what? :laugh:
But musically I like it a lot-it`s one of my favs, probably because english is not my first language and the music comes first.
Another one is "Toooime, this it the tooooim" :laugh:

BWAH!!!!
 

Ya'll are crackin' me up!! I agree, when I first heard Turn It On, I was :confused: because of his accent. It just seemed weird and out of place compared to the rest of the album.

I've always thought he was lying about being from California, he sometimes sounds more from Texas or at least, the South. :laugh:

Screwball. LOL

Question for you:
 

I heard that Peter Green plays on some of the Tusk songs. Anyone know which ones?

Disagree. I believe the songs fit because of the mix of musical styles present in this album. Even Lindsey's contributions, from song to song, don't quite go together stylistically. I mean, what does That's All for Everyone have to do with Tusk the song, for instance? Or Save Me a Place and The Ledge.

But there is an organic feel to just about all the tunes, probably owing to Lindsey's half-finished illusion and Christine's folk forays, that somehow glues them all together. Even where you find more evidently elaborate production, as in Sara and Not That Funny, there is a raw edge to the songs. In Not That Funny, the thing that's always appealed to me, besides the halting beat, is the three lead guitars at the end. It's a beautiful mess.

Misplaced? No, I'm not with you at all on that one! This album is sort of a collage, I always see it as a collection of pictures or something. And in that context, of course Christine's contributions can be called "yawners" or "sleepers" because they tend to keep the tempo and the feel of the album a little laid back, a little slowed down, but I believe it's necessary.

When you get the brainstorm of Lindsey tracks like "Not That Funny" or "What Makes You Think You're The One" and the extremely dark references and hard-to-handle-at-first Stevie lyrics, this album is simply not a 'light' thing to listen to. Then you get Christine to sort of ballance it all, to give you a calmer view on things and put sort of a rest into the whole thing. Like a hard moment in life... you always need that rest. Christine provides that, in my humble opinion, and those much needed 'breaks' a-la "Honey Hi" or "Never Make Me Cry" are the one and only reason why I don't skip tracks on this album.

That, and the fact that I think that "Brown Eyes" has to be the best track on it.



Song of the moment - Fire Burning

TADAAA!!!!

Thank you for saving me type-work.

word for word, syllable by syllable. It's scary. I'm almost glad that I disagree with you on the perception of beautiful child.:laugh:

Now THAT's why I totally love the studioversion. It's on so many fans' bottomlisters that it feels really good that yr' with me ( and SOME others ) on this one...

gerald

Re: You know what?
 

Oh, shocking!:eek:

Gerald.

ps: I'd like you all to know that I think that Tusk is The Best Album Ever Recorded By Anyone.

I never skip, and have never skipped a song...for 25 years in october. I only disagree on your favorite track but hey peanuts...

Yes Tusk is an organic whole: about going nuts: lindsey (Neurotic schizotype), searching for meaning: stevie (depressed hysterical type) and searching for peace: christine. (the monitor, searching for balance).

Ooh, there's the home, garden and kitchen-psychologist again.....

*Note to self: ask help* :laugh:

Re: BWAH!!!!
 

I still love Turn it on a lot. I like the play with the accent. I only wish he'd recorded it with a rockin' rythmsession. Oh I'd Love to scream that one into a mic. If I could only sing....:D

Re: Question for you:
 

Just one. "Brown Eyes"...even then only the guitar solo right as the song fades out.

Oh no, no, no... I hope you didn't misunderstand what I was saying in my post!

I was being tongue-in-cheek... that's why I brought up "When I See You Again"... since, as you know, it seems I'm always defending that song! Repeating myself, and all.

I hope you didn't misunderstand, Gaius. :)

I love that song, but I do agree with you about his misguided choice of pronunciation.

Of all of Lindsey's idiosyncrasies, that's really about the only one that I can't find an appreciation for.
Thankfully he doesn't do it too often... and "Turn It On" is probably the worst offender.

I skip a LOT of songs on Tusk...only because I have it programmed in my player as basically a single album length album.

My running order:

Honey Hi
Angel
What Makes You Think You're The One
Think About Me
Save Me A Place
Sara
Never Forget
I Know I'm Not Wrong
Brown Eyes
Sisters Of The Moon
Tusk
Over & Over

Occasionally, I'll swap "Walk A Thin Line" for "Save Me A Place" and/or "Storms" for "Sara".

With Out Of The Cradle, I usually will get through the whole thing...but, if I DO skip something, its "Street Of Dreams".

:nod: :nod: :nod:

Sorry, Christy! *ducks*

LOL!
 

Don't apologize, we all skip something, right?

I know WHY Chilid skips SOD...we had a discussion on the LB forum.

I don't skip FM songs that much, and even my bottom listers get listened to. The only song I NEVER EVER listen to...Sugar Daddy. I just CANNOT do it. I've tried many times. :shrug:

Re: LOL!
 

:nod: :laugh:
I'm so glad it's not on Tusk. Otherwise I had to skip a song. :)