The Time Appreciation Thread
 

Ok so what are everyone's thoughts on the album Time. I think it is one of the most underrated Mac albums ever.... I very much enjoy it.

Much Love,
Ethan

It's my favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Love it from start to finish, even "These Strange Times."

LOVE Billy Burnette. Love Bekka Bramlett. Not crazy about Dave Mason, but still like his contributions and I think Christine's songs are some of her best.

(Michael, if you make any skidmark comments, I will book a flight to New Zealand and personally kick your ass. ;) )

LOVE. THIS. ALBUM!!
It has gone from the bottom of the stack to the top for sure. I originally got it for the Christine songs. I eventually came to totally lurve the Bekka and Billy tunes...
and even like Dave's, too! :nod:

Bekka TOTALLY rocks... in my book! Not only is her singing and writing amazing but she is one very cool chick. :cool:
Would have been something to see where this line-up would have gone... but I would have hated for Bekka to be forever destined to singing "Gold Dust Woman". ;)

I totally agree that it is incredibly underrated. I suppose it will forever earmarked as "that one without Stevie & Lindsey" (altho Lindsey does make a bgv appearance). Folks gotta get past what/who is not there and appreciate the collection for what it is.... a collaboration of incredible talents! :wavey:

Time IS a very good album. I like it MUCH better than BTM.Yeah, but you know who(the id**ts) won't let that happen.

Well, I don't HATE time. It's pretty good. But as far as it goes as a Mac album. NO WAY! It's so bland. If i heard a song released from that album on the radio I wouldn't think "oh, thats a fleetwood mac song" I'd think "who's this? it's not bad" I just don't class it is a Fleetwood Mac lineup. All the other lineups have had very much there own sound and this one just DOESN'T!! Sorry, but I hardly EVER play ANY songs from this album. It's so unmemorable and bland - no flare. No power. NO STEVIE!! :mad:

I think that's WHY it stands apart. Don't get me wrong... I love me some Stevie but I don't believe she IS Fleetwood Mac. "Time" is more reminiscent (IMHO) of what FM was pre-B/N. Would have been interesting to hear Bekka with the BTM line-up instead of Stevie. ....along with way better overall production of that cd.

As you can see, I'm incredibly Bekka-biased... and proud of it! :wavey:
Bekka & Billy are both so incredibly talented and awesome people on and off-stage.
They just so happen to follow the incredibly strong Buckingham/Nicks and will forever be known in the Mac-universe as "those two that replaced.... blah, blah, blah....". :distress:

Amen sister!

'Course, I'm even more Billy-biased than I am Bekka-biased, but when it comes to the ladies of Fleetwood Mac, Bekka is #1 in my book. :nod:

You rock, Miss V!!
.... and have incredible taste in music. ;)

I know. :D

See, I don't see how you could like anything PRE B/N then, either.

Face it, you ONLY like FM when old what's her name's in it. Doesn't that make you a Stevie fan, and not really a FM fan?
C'mon- no Stevie, no FM- as far as you're concerned. Admit it.

:laugh:

You know my opinions have toned down about "Time" since then. I actually really enjoy it. Christine's songs are some of her best, and Bekka's songs "Nothing Without You" and "Winds of Change" are great. I also love Dave's "I Wonder Why" - but overall, this is probably my least favourite Mac album. Not a bad effort by any stretch - I just don't see what the point was :shrug:

A solid 2/5

:laugh: Good joke ;)

I have explained this before. I LOVE Fleetwood Mac Rumours lineup and Behind the Mask lineup but I have, am and always will, primarilly be a Stevie Nicks fan. However, I love Lindsey's mac stuff and Christine's mac stuff from around the same time and I like some of Christine's solo stuff too. I just don't like the album "Time". No I am not a pre B/N fan but I'm not a blues fan.

I appreciate the admission of guilt.:D


The Bob Welch years aren't blues, BTW.
These albums aren't blues.
Mystery To Me
Future Games
Bare Trees
Heroes Are Hard To Find
Penguin

Yes, it's time for a Time appreciation thread, or as Van Dyke Parks would say "Time was a magazine..." ;)

For me, these songs are the hits (all in order of appearance):
-Talkin' To My Heart
-Hollywood (SOKOT)
-I Do
-Nothing Without You
-I Got it In For You
-These Strange Times

These are still good to me:
-Winds Of Change (btw is that a cover version?)
-Blow By Blow
-Nights In Estoril

I don't care much about the following
-Dreaming the Dream
-I Wonder Why (they put that on the album)
and those that I haven't mentioned because I don't really remember them.

Having gotten into Fleetwood Mac by ways of Rick and Billy's guest appearances on Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl album, which was one of my first CDs, Time was only the 5th FM related disc that I got, and to be honest, I don't care much about the old FM stuff. To further describe my background, these are the FM related discs that I got prior to time (in chronological order of purchase):
-Out Of the Cradle
-Coming Home
-Behind the Mask
-Street Angel
Having heard Bekka before I got the disc in that duet with Joe Cocker, I didn't really recognize her on Winds Of Change, because she's holding back quite a bit.
Today, Time seems to me more as a predecessor of Bekka&Billy than as a successor of Behind the Mask. The record company should have definitely not messed as much with the BTM-era FM as they have: First, they release a Greatest Hits album and promote it with 2 new members in the band who then had to cover Lindsey. It's hard to step out of anybody's shadow that way. Then came the 'debut' for the new band. And instead of a sophomore effort for the 'new band', a box set chronicling the whole band's career on from the 1960s comes out. No chance of shining on your own. That must have really ruined the BTM-era band's own career. And then, the next chapter opened with Time, and another two old members gone and replaced with new ones.
Still, I prefer Michael Thompson's guitar parts (great solo on Hollywood) over Dave Mason's. And it's good to hear Mick do a song of his own on a FM release, too.

As for the members of the Time era:
-a new solo album in the blues/pop/soul direction by Bekka would be much appreciated
-just as a new album by Billy would be that's not rockabilly, but pop. He's such a great songwriter.
-a new album from Christine would be a real treat, albeit this time with more piano and less funk guitar
-Dave Mason has retired, hasn't he?

No, I saw in Pro Sound Magazine, last week, where he played a show in Largo, FL.

Pet peeve time: Why is it that people have this ill-conceived (and totally WRONG) notion that Fleetwood Mac was a "blues band" right up until the two spoiled California brats joined? :shrug: They weren't even a blues band when Peter Green left in 1970, much less during Bob Welch's tenure.

You ain't kiddin'!
She's got a ton of stuff and her live performances are awesome... lots of that blues/pop/soul stuff you mentioned.
Her work with Sam Moore is amazing.
Randy Jackson needs to work on an entire cd with Bekka now! :wavey:

"Time"

I've become very ambiguious towards this album. Not because of who's on it or who's not on it, but because of the disjointed nature of the album.

The pros: It goes without saying that Mick and John were as solid as ever. I think Bekka Bramlett and Billy Burnette had a certain chemistry that had been lacking in the BTM version of the band, and they sound amazing together. I honestly can't criticize anything on their part. In fact, "Talkin' To My Heart" is perhaps my favorite post-Tusk Fleetwood Mac song. Christine's music was perhaps her most reflective. While I can't say that I loved all of her songs, I think there were a few that are among her best ("I Do" is catchy as hell). I really liked Mick's song. His guitar playing reminded me a bit of David Gilmour, and the song had a Pink Floyd vibe. I think the production value of this album is more in line with the standards of Fleetwood Mac, thanks to one Richard Dashut. Sonically, it sounds more like a Fleetwood Mac album than either BTM or SYW, which tells me that Richard was more responsible for the "Fleetwood Mac Sound" than a certain guitarist.

Cons: Dave's songs left me high and dry. I liked the version of "Blow By Blow" that I have on my websight, but the version that appears on the album is horrid. In general, I find that Dave's lyrics have gotten painfully trite over the years (I have all of his solo and Traffic albums, so I feel qualified to make that statement). Dave is a guy who's biggest hit was an AOR masterpiece, yet he acts like the fact he was pals with Jimi Hendrix makes him a hard rocker, and it just doesn't work. Especially in the context of the AOR royal family of Fleetwood Mac. You know Mick was thinking "Alone Together" and "We Just Disagree" when he asked Dave in the band, and these songs are pretty far removed from that. Another big grip is Steve Thoma and Michael Thompson are totally unnecessary (though it's understandable why Thoma, who was the band's keyboardist on tour, was on the record). This album generally feels like three or four different bands. It lacks focus or purpose, which can also be said of "Penguin" and SYW.

I guess the one thing I was most disappointed in, though, was the lack of a Christine-Billy song. Those two sound great together. Why they chose not to do a duet is a bit of a surprise.

So, while I love the album, I think this group of people could have made a much better, more cohesive album than what "Time" shows. The what could have been is greater than what actually was. They played it a bit too safe at times, and let band politics get in the way, which made the album suffer.

I don't disagree, but I still find Time more cohesive than Tango.

It's less bland than either "Mirage" or BTM.

When I first heard "I Do" on the radio at a doctor's office, prior to the album's release, I knew immediately that it was Fleetwood Mac. Christine's voice is pretty hard to miss, and John's bass line is almost impossible to miss.

Well, somebody obviously hasn't heard "Penguin" before.

That last point, in 1995, was actually a selling point for a lot of fans who had to suffer (and that's the only word for it) through countless hours of "Behind The Mask" bootlegs. Stevie, to be blunt, had become stale. She really didn't have anything to offer Fleetwood Mac, other than her name, and considering the sales of "Street Angel" and tickets for said tour, even that wasn't much. It's not like she was doing anything memorable, that wasn't bland, that had a lot of flare, and a lot of power. Even if she had been in the group, it would have been a bland album, and I use her contributions to "Tango In The Night," "No Questions Asked," and "Behind The Mask" as evidence.

In hindsight, I think that statement could be made about every album since "Tusk," if we're being honest.

I sort of agree. Although an album does not have to be cohesive to be good. I wouldn't call 'Tusk' that cohesive - in fact, that was the whole point...

The songs themselves weren't all that cohesive, but there was a spirit within all of the songs, the way they were produced, that creates a cohesive album. I've always looked at "Tusk" the way one looks at a painting. I always admire the various "colors" and "textures" througout the album, and the way they come together.

Totally agree with this!
That was one of the few truly savable things from "BtM" was Christine and Billy's performing together.
I also find it odd that as much as I love "Time".... Billy makes a great intro to the album then pretty much disappears until the end. What's up with that?
Also it's kinda odd how they cram all of Bekka's tunes together in the middle. :wavey: