Has anyone here NEVER heard the demo of Smile At You?
 

Since you've never heard any of the demos for Smile At You, what is your opinion of the song on the Say You Will album? I'm curious because everyone who has heard any of its demos always like the demo better than the released track.

I feel so sorry for the poor souls who have never heard that demo. It is pure magic.

Well I agree. But I'd like to hear someone's opinion of the song because they don't know any better. Do they think it's a great song, mediocre, pretty good or dog poo?

I've heard it and have it on my iTunes. I love both, actually, because I can appreciate their different arrangements. I like the one on SYW just fine because it fits with the sound of that album quite a bit, but her demo is great because you can really heat the vengefulness in her voice, or maybe I do. Anyway, SAY is actually one of my fave SN songs on that album. I think it's one of her strongest songs...

But I do feel the demo is a little more powerful vocally, just like I prefer Lindsey's slowed down Say Goodbye.

The "demo" (I don't really think it's a demo) is cool because it's just the Macsters jamming live, & everybody sounds fiery. The track on the album is, I think, a complete mess. It's worse than the worst filler on the worst Jefferson Starship or Supertramp album.

Well, so your vote is that it's FM playing. I think it's them, but it's a point of conflict.

Michele

I think it is too, I always was shocked when people said it was session players.

Demo is unnecessarily abrasive all-around.. instrumentation is cliche at best, and Stevie's vocals never deviate from the replication of the sound of a car trying to start in a snowstorm. UNLISTENABLE.

WOW! we must have extremely different ears... Cause all i hear is pure unadulterated stevie on fire- as is fleetwood mac.

Sure it's abrasive, i'm so sorry that fleetwood mac doesn't polish up their demo's to perfection just for your ears...

:eek:


I loooove this demo.

Well, there are a few versions available I believe. The one we all are reffering to is also know as the 'angry version'.

Of course in the heydays of tapetrading tapes were copied and copied and copied and copied, so quality went downhill fast...but I think there are several threads on the Ledge were good versions of this one and others are available....

I don't want to hear the demo. And I love the album (obviously) and I think Smile At You is beautiful on the album. It's one of the tracks that constantly yield surprises for me.

So, is the "demo" just a scratch take from the SYW sessions?

No I've never heard the demo, really can't be bothered with them generally. There is plenty of legally released FM related stuff that I never get time to listen to as it is.

While the rest of you are listening to Stevie demos I'm listening to Brunning Sunflower Blues Band, Danny Kirwan, Savoy Brown or Billy Burnette (to name a few) ;)

As for the SYW version of Smile at You, I really like the song, it is one of the better songs on SYW (though to be honest I can only fault the last two tracks on the album anyway).

No, it's much much older and Í always considered it a song as itself. You cannot compare (besides the lyrics) to the song on SYW.

t

Sounds like Lindsey & Mick on their respective instruments. Mick occasionally made recordings with Stevie's musician friends, but I don't think Lindsey did. As for the piano, it's exactly the same part played on the run-through a few years earlier. It isn't necessarily Christine-esque, but it isn't necessarily not, either. It's a repeating motive, hands close together part, which can be considered a Chris McVie practice.

I say it's FM. FM themselves say they tried tracking it during the Mirage sessions, but decided it was too "bitter" (or some such) for inclusion. You remember that.

What's kind of odd is that Ken Caillat says FM never tried it -- yet he knew about it. How would he have known about it if he hadn't heard FM try it? I think he was just mistaken.

We're at the point now (& I think we've been there for several years) where we can't completely trust the memories of anyone involved in FM work from those old years. Human beings are human beings, & they all get old & dotty. If you were to grab Hernan Rojas for a Q&A, he'd probably be fumbling around trying to remember things as they happened, too.

Yes. Stevie said it in 1982.

Michele

The demo kicks it..the version on SYW totally loses its passion....

I totally agree with you, Danni!!! The Smile At You "Angry" demo is one of the best demos she's ever done, I mean, just listen to the feeling in her voice and in the lyrics :thumbsup: :angel: It's, as you said, pure magic...:)

the demo I've heard, dubbed the "angry version" is possibly one of Stevie's greatest vocals ever. I love it when she's pissed and you can just hear the anger in every single note.

Well, God-Damned, Luke! You & I acutally agree on this point!

Pfftt! I have NO hope for those who think "the angry version" is anything more than an out of control MESS of a vocal track. So WHAT if she was pissed off, it doesn't make a good vocal track in ANY stretch of the imagination...OR reality. The only thing "magical" about it is how it has gotten so many people think it's so wonderful. Pass the barf bag, PLEASE!!

AND, none of the "demos" that I've heard have that John McVie bass line that absolutely just MAKES the SAY YOU WILL version so superb.

The "angry" demo is a fiery performance for sure, but I honestly don't think the song itself is that great. I mean, I can't help but laugh every time I hear Stevie sing about her "flaming walls." :lol:

I need to listen to this album again - I haven't heard it in forever, but apparently there is a whole group of new Ledgies who were in kindergarten when it came out, and there's more conversation on here about it now than in 2003.

I'd have to agree that the song itself, any version, is not really exceptional in my book. I mean, I think I like the idea of it, but nothing about the actual song itself ever floored me. I like it well enough though. It just wouldn't make a list of favorites.

Michele

So true.

I think John's presence can really be felt on a lot of Stevie's tracks on this album -- to their benefit.

Also, as I recall, chili, you usually rank "Smile At You" as the album's best track.

The opening couplet --

Go on, save yourself
Leave the key here

-- is the best two lines Nicks ever wrote, by light years. You & I could spend hours analyzing it stylistically & thematically, but that would be boring. Suffice it to say that it's the most devastatingly succinct expression Nicks ever put into words. It's so unlike her. In fact, I'm inclined to believe she stole it from something or other.

The twiddly orchestration of this work on the Fleetwood Mac album is grotesque. It's nux vomica. It probably spreads swine flu, too. The lead vocal is worse than anything on the Mirror album, as well.

Except that it doesn't make sense within the context of the next two lines:

You love someone else
I shouldn't be here

Oh, I just listened to the SYW version and remembered what irked the hell out of me about this song (besides the above). It's the lyrics "I should have turned away and ran as fast as I can." I should have been an English teacher, I think.

Stevie's vocal is a bit strained, but I like the song otherwise. Except for the fact that I can't help thinking she's singing about a UTI. :laugh:

I know what you mean, she should have said --

'You love someone else,
You shouldn't be here'

Who are we to question Stevie's warped logic though?

The more I listen to the album, that "best track" changes upon just about each listen, but it's always in the Top 3 or 4....but, 7 times out of 10 it's #1.

I definitely think her good songs are really good...but, her bad songs are REALLY bad and Lindsey's "bad" songs are still pretty decent.

If you have not heard this demo, I pray for you. Because you have not lived.



Please, the play button is calling you.

I love the 'angry' version also of Smile At You.....but I've always thought it was a Mirage 'outtake' more than a demo. We do tend to use the word demo too much. There are also alternate versions/Masters of course/outtakes ....many many outtakes of various songs/than there is the unpolished demos/extended versions....I guess the list can go on & on really? Of course there is a shorter Tusk SAY as well but I prefer the Mirage version.....not a fan of the SYW version.....esp the lyric changes ugh.....anyway....thats IMO........:shrug::nod:

I've never understood the conceit, held by some, that every Mac tune needs to be so lushly produced that it sounds like it's emerging from the mists of Shangri-La... or something like that. There's nothing objectively wrong with them being sloppy, rough, or hard-edged every now and then, even if it means deviating from expectations (oooh, scary!:rolleyes:).

You couldn't say that to Bob Dylan! :wavey:

I don't disagree with you. I just think that people expressing disappointment that they didn't do it this one time is kinda like... what did you expect?

To get to your point. Lindsey made Under the Skin because he wanted to make an album in the style of The Dance versions Big Love and Go Insane because of the incredible response they get from audiences. AND UNDER THE SKIN is what he came up with?!?! (The closest studio song to those two songs would be Bel Air Rain.) This is what they do. It just is. That's why I wish they had more Live albums -- or would even do an Unplugged session. Not in place of their perfectionist studio productions, but as complimentary performances.

Well, what if it was the key to a motel that you rent by the hour?

Or, what if they rented themselves a secret little love shack on the bad side of town where they could meet for their rendezvous. In that case, maybe neither of them should be there. He should leave the key, so she can end the lease and trot back to her own home.

As for turned and ran -- there's no way out of that:laugh:!

Michele

"Time Precious Time"?!?!?!

I knew the SYW version before I heard the demo version and I don't see the point in listening to the demo ever again. It's fine but it just isn't as interesting as the SYW version. The SYW version has that excellent guitar work at the end and, as Chilli mentioned, the fantastic bass line.

Oh, that is clearly in that vein as well, so we're on the same page... but I meant "closest" in terms of being within that vein and similarly enjoyable. :lol:

I just listened to it. And I totally agree. ... Now, if she wanted to do a LIVE version of it where she got looser on the vocals on top of Lindsey and John's tender playing... then that'd be cool by me.

I totally agree with you both! Love love love it!!! :nod:

smile at you
 

hi guys...well i'm in agreement with the majority and love love love the angry smile at u demo...it's one of my fav demos that stevie has made...as to not caring about the demos that stevie has out there i feel so sorry that u've missed so many bc there are a lot of wonderful early demos of the angel voiced stevie from the early 80's and they send chills down my spine...i could listen to them for decades and never get tired but i still have time for new music as well...that's the joys of itunes and mp3s...u can mix and match all ur favs...i do think syw is very monotoned and i think a lot of that is a result of lindseys influence in the production...don't get me wrong...he's a genious and has done an excellent job of interpreting stevies music over the years for the mac but i don't feel he has the same interest in doing it now...and i love stevie's bob dylan line...an artist is an artist and stevie has def proved she is one...they don't like to take direction or criticism in the wording of a song and with stevie having made a solid solo career she would def take exception to that...hugs pat

Somebody said something about them maybe being in a hotel and that Stevie is saying for him to leave his key there and that she shouldn't be there to begin with, which I think makes a lot of sense. Also, knowing how Stevie likes to change person I think she could be saying the "Go on save yourself, leave the key here" to herself and then the "you love someone else, I shouldn't be here" to whoever she was talking to. I think stevie is pissed that he is cheating, but deep down she doesn't want it to end so she is having to tell herself to "save yourself" and "leave the key there" before she gets hurt even more.

And about "I should have turned away and ran as fast as I can" it isn't grammatically correct, but for some reason I always thought it was "fast as I CAME" instead of "fast as I CAN" but I am pretty sure it says "can" in the lyrics, so I don't know.

I think the demo is great for us Stevie fans and I really love it, but I think the SYW version is just as good, and much better as a song. It has unique music and you can still hear some anger in Stevie's voice at some parts. However, the SYW version doesn't have some of the lyrics the demo has, which is something I don't like about it. But I like them both so I can't say really which one I personally prefer, it just depends on my mood.