Smile At You- awesome!
 

Is this song great of what? I love Stevie's vocals on it- so different then anything she has ever done before. And the lyrics are awesome, especially the line "what you did not need was a woman who was stronger, you needed someone to depend on you, i could not be her, i did not want to, my first mistake was to smile at you". I really love the way John's bass and Stevie's guitar fade out so slow at the end. No one ever seems to talk about this song, so I thought I'd bring it up. Anyone else in love with Smile at You?

*ahem* Lindsey's guitar. ;)

Personally, I love the song and find it to be 100 times better than the old, cloying demo. Her voice is top notch and so is everything else.

I loved this song from the first listen. It's my favorite of Stevie's on SYW and one of my all-time favorite Fleetwood Mac songs. Her vocals are phenomenal and I love the bass in it. It also features some of Lindsey's finest production. It doesn't get nearly enough recognition.

-Kate

Right, duh! Lindsey's guitar. I've never heard Stevie play guitar and don't know if I want to.

Smile At You = Great Song
 

Yes, verily so. A wonderful angry song from our favorite angry songstress. Whenever I listen to it now, however, I feel it's all about the bass. John proves his quality once again. :nod: My favorite version is probably the "Angry" one, but the new spin of it from SYW did not dissapoint me like it did many others (I assume partly because it was the first one I heard).

Shamus

I, too, adore this song and wished, oh wished, they woulda done it at my show. Perfect new Stevie, shown to her best advantage. (and of course, the rest o' the band).
AMber

I can't even grasp the idea of Smile At You being bland. If you ask me, it is one of the more experimental songs on Say You Will.

Oh, what was the original chorus anyway? I've never heard the demo before.

That always confused me. It was as if everyone wanted the album version to be the exact same thing as the old demo. What's the point of that, I ask. If you like the angry version, listen to the damn thing. But don't you want something a little different once an almost thirty year old song makes it onto a record, or do you want the same old thing that's been available for all these years?

When I first heard the album version, I was KNOCKED OUT. It was like a totally different song and I really dug it. Still do. In all my years of being a Mac fan, it was the one moment where I was genuinely surprised. :nod:

I absolutely LOVE this song - it's my favorite on SYW for sure....and I think it sounds even more amazing right after Come...something about those two together....I like it...

I enjoy the "angry" version, and the less-discussed "softer" version... but the album version blew me away.

The "angry" version, while great, was somewhat standard in its arrangement. A great song, but not an AMAZING song.
The new direction Lindsey took it for 'Say You Will,' propelled it to that "amazing" category.

Everything about it is aces. Stevie's voice and lyrics... Lindsey's production, guitars and Middle-Eastern touches... John's throbbing bassline... Mick's subtle drumming on the choruses... Perfection.

Total agreement here. :nod:

It's why I also love the album versions of "Planets Of The Universe" and "Goodbye Baby"... they're fresh approaches to songs we've known for years.

The demos are great, and I still listen to them... but the album versions provide something new for me to sink my teeth into. :)

I love every version of this song I have, but the one on SYW is my favourite. The production, the vocals, the intensity: a touch of perfection.

Romy

I love the song, especially the end..

However, I also love the "angry" smile at you.

Vianna

Illume was the one I was VERY disappointed in. What were they thinking with that voice in the middle of it? If ever there was a lapse in judgement by Lindsey and Stevie, that was it. It started off VERY promising with that acoustic guitar, then got very cool and funky with the bongos and the bass, but then it just droned on for what seemed like ages. Then that voice hits you and you're shaking your head in embarassment, glad you weren't listening to it in public. :laugh:

It's grown on me a lot, but my word, on first listen I was ready to gnaw on my wrist.

Strange...
 

I posted at the same time with Johnny Stew and our messages say almost the same... it's definitely a day full of coincidences for me :nod:

About Illume, it still amazes me every time I listen to it, they took a big risk with such a complex song and something incredible came out, IMO.

Romy

I love the SYW version. At first, I was a bit disappointed because of how different it is from the angry demo, but it's really grown on me. I think it's beautiful.

Isn't that Stevie playing the guitar on the Twisted demo from the Enchanted box set? I really think she's pretty good at it. After all, she had a great teacher. :nod:

Dissention- I love those electronic voices! That is the best part of the song in my opinion. I really love the dark pop sound of the whole album actually. This just adds flavor to the song.

Well, if that is the case then I take that back.

Smile At You is by far my favorite song on SYW. Everything about it is amazing. And the thing wit Smile at You is I'm always dicovering new things about the song to thios day. Like in the chourus, You can hear Stevie sing so hauntingly "I Should Have" especially the last time they do the chourus. And How can we not talk about John's juyst incredible Bass, proabably some of his very best EVER. And my favorite part of the song is the last minute when It's just Lindsey on guitar and Stevie singing all sexy. It's Stevie's most haunting song in ages. They really should've done this live> the chourus would've been real hard to do (How Stevie is doing those AHHHH's in the studio version is a mystery but good for her) But they coukld'vefigured something out for this amazing song.

I love the Say You Will version, but love the master reel more.....The one where she says "Jesus" at the end. It's not "angry"....it's not "soft"....It's perfection. :D


"FLY AWAY....I should have turned around and ran....FLY.....FLY AWAY...GO OUTSIDE!"


-Curt

I think it's embarassing. I think they both sung it and he electronically melded their voices together to get the effect, though.

Same here. It doesn't have anything to do with whether & how far it diverges from the 1981 recording; I wasn't expecting anything that acidulous & reckless, least of all from Stevie. She couldn't sing like that today if they put her under hypnosis or at gunpoint.

I just don't like what Fleetwood Mac did with it for the new album. It reminds me of something Rupert Hine would have done. And I don't like that sound of Stevie's voice -- on that track or on any other track where it's similar. It's the same voice she used on most of the "Trouble in Shangri-La" album. It's that metallic, full-throated thing I really don't dig.

Maybe I just don't like her voice anymore. I suppose I have yet to decide.

Yeah, Stevie "knows how" to play the guitar -- she even used to play some acoustic guitar onstage for Fleetwood Mac shows -- but it would be a stretch to call her good. Same with her piano (Lindsey's actually a better piano player than Stevie is). As an instrumentalist, she's mostly nondescript. She should have learned to play something better all the years she was in the music business. I have no explanation as to why she hasn't been able to progress on any instrument she's been dabbling with for 40 years or more. I would have expected progress to be universal after so many years.

Fleetwood Mac sounds very hip & modern on "Illume." I love it! It has some of the snaky power & sexuality of some of the material on "Ray of Light."

How do you know she hasn't? I don't believe we've heard enough of Stevie playing instruments to accurately judge her progress (or lack thereof) over the past 40+ years. :shrug:

In Stevie's case, I think I have -- certainly for the piano, at least. I have a lot of recordings of Stevie playing the piano & singing from the 1970s & 1980s -- you've probably heard all that stuff, too -- & I have quite a few more recent recordings of Stevie playing from the past ten years, including a bunch of radio shows on which she plays "Rhiannon," "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You," "Silent Night" & others. I really feel I've got a very good grasp of her ability at the keyboard. I hear no advance in her playing from six or eight years ago compared with twenty or twenty-five years ago. All in all, I just don't think it's her strength. I teach piano; I've worked with dozens of kids & some adults over the years, & I've never encountered anyone else who didn't improve -- at least somewhat -- in all that time, except my grand old dad, who has played piano at the Stevie Nicks level for roughly twenty years.

People always remind me that she played piano on "Sara" & electric piano on "Love Changes," but those are beginner-level performances. They match up exactly with the level of ability one hears on Stevie's demos. There's just been no movement toward the intermediate level in Stevie's playing, & it's been a looooooong time.

I love Smile At You
 

Even though I loved the SYW version from the moment I heard it the first time, I still thought that the demo was a little better. Just because how wild, angry and reckless she sang it.

But one day I decided to listened both the SYW version and the demo of this song that I have back to back. What I found out is that I hate the way she sang on the demo :shrug: for that very same reason I used like it then. :eek:

Comparing the demo and the SYW version, even though SN can't hit the high notes anymore, she does a hell of job in it.

I know everyone fell in love with the demo because it IS a great song but even if she had made an album version of it back then it would never be like the demo, IMO.

Isabel

PS: If you haven't listened the SYW version and the demo back to back, I recomend that you guys do so. IMO, you can see why LB had said that Stevie is singing better than before.

:nod: There are a few of the softer ones that are okay, but the angry version is terrible.

Actually, the two versions I was comparing was the Angry Demo Version and the SYW Version. That's why I edited my post. I don't actually remembered if I compared the album version with the other demos but I will check right now.

The fact that I don't remember makes think I didn't but I definately remembered listening the angry version after l had listen the album version and it make me cringe. I was surprised at how much I hated it. :p lol

Isabel

Heard the soft version
 

I just heard the soft version and dissention you are right, it is much better than the Angry version. The thing is that for the most part of the soft version there is not much emotion. Just at the end she sings with anger, with more emotion.

The reason I like the SYW version is that it has a little bit of both demo versions. It's balance between control singing and emotion. Kind of like control anger or something like that. lol

Isabel

Smile at You - I don't love the production; it's too busy for my taste, as are many of Lindsey's latter-day production efforts from TITN on. However, the vocal is among the most committed we've heard from Stevie since the early 1980s. :)

Illume, I love. It's the song I play most on SYW. I agree that the electronic voices are extremely cheesy -- but they're something I've learned to ignore.