Appreciation of "Everybody Finds Out..."
 

Hi Everyone,
It has just recently struck me how brilliant this song is !! Up until now my favourite song from SYW was always "Thrown Down" but i was driving the other night and the lyrics really just kicked in. It also seems to be doing quite well on the Stevie Rocker thread so I was wondering what everyone else thinks of it...? I love from 3 mins onwards and how she literally just spits out the lyrics "when everybody finds out !!" and the strings raise up!

Were there ever any previous demo's of this?

Also any speculation on who this about? - (Could be wrong and we probably wont know until the autobiography - due the 12th of never!!) To me it has to be about Lindsey; but that's maybe only because I like to think him and Stevie had a little "thing" probably in and around or shortly after the Dance tour etc. and this could be in response!? But then again if there were any demo's or lyrics from it years ago this blows that theory out of the water! lol

Ps for anyone who also really likes Thrown Down which one wins for you ? Hence the poll - I can't decide yet so try convincing me !!!!

Love EFO. Isn't it true that those "strings" are actually just guitar(s)?

No idea who it is about...but for the poll, I had to vote for Thrown Down. It's my favorite song on SYW. Thrown Down is a classic Mac sounding tune with amazing lyrics.

That climax with the strings is purely epic! For me it evokes a woman running from the truth, the frantic chase and the moment just before it catches up with her -- when "everybody finds out", if you will :p

I'm a massive fan of Thrown Down and I think they're quite similar in many ways. They both tell a story and I think Lindsey's backing vocals have an enormous impact on both. Don't make me choose!

Both songs are two of my faves- classic! But EFO totally melts face!!

Assuming we are going by album versions for this, I'm going with 'Everybody Finds Out'. I love 'Thrown Down' but I love the "single mix" and this one demo I have of it (not sure which one it is that I have, I know there a few floating around) a bit more.

Is it just me, or does it seem like all of our polls these days are ending in ties, or are EXTREMELY close?! I love it, but I feel like it's closer than it's ever been!

It's a tough call.... but I go with "Thrown Down" simply because I think it's just short of perfect. I wish they'd incorporated the guitar riff from the "wall of sound" version, but other than that it's simply awesome. The lyrics, the fantastic production, Stevie's voice... it's all there and it's all beautiful.

EFO by a landslide. I really never understood what the fusswas about Thrown Down. It's an average song to me at best and I don't like hearing Stevie sing about barricades. Always makes me picture orange cones on the side of the road to block traffic. Back to EFO - probably my favorite Stevie song on SYW. A true rocker and the symphony break down at the end is killer! This song is top notch in my book! And how do any lyrics in Thrown Down compare to "When love starts out in the darkness, it doesn't do well in the light. Affairs of the heart that start out in the dark usually stay with the night"? That's Stevie Nicks poetry in motion right there and can't be beat.

Hmmm. I like EFO, but I have some problems with it. It's energetic, and Stevie delivers a powerhouse vocal. But some of the lyrics make me cringe: "She gets on a midnight plane, she's done it a thousand times" and "You can't love him, you can't have him, I do have him most of time." It reminds me of a playground spat: "Nah nah nah nah nah nah."

So my vote goes to "Thrown Down." I especially love the WOS version.

As to what it is about, I believe the song was originally called "Monica". Stevie even refers to it as Monica in Destiny Rules. So it may have just been inspired by the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. However, there was this interesting interpretation on BuckinghamNicks that made me think:

"ANNA speculates:

I think I know what Stevie is referring to in this song. Stevie is singing about a woman's decline. This woman gets on a midnight plane, she has done it a thousand times,and she is tired. I think this woman is Christine McVie. Stevie says when love starts out in the darkness, it usually doesn't do well in the light. Affairs of the heart that start out in the dark usually stay in the night. The affair she is speaking of is the affair between Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham.

This affair is something that has been kept under wraps forever. Not a lot of light has been shed on it. It's been there for years. And in Thrown Down, Stevie says it threw a barricade on the group. I guess like Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put him back together again. She has sung about this metaphor before in songs of hers. So, this whole thing is not recent. It's historical. Think of the songs Hold Me and Think About Me and Bleed To Love Her. I believe these songs were centered around Lindsey and Christine. And it's so perfectly natural for these two to have a relationship because they do have so much history together, it's just
that it does for sure hurt Stevie, and that is what she sings about in this song.

See, I think Christine is saying to Stevie in this song "I know he loves me, every day he calls me, he says he adores me, what can I say?" And Stevie responds to Christine, "You can't have him, you can't love him, I do have him, most of the time." What Stevie means here is that she and Lindsey have this thing. They have a connection. They were meant to follow a path together. And this is something Chris will never have. So she tells Chris, You Can't. Stevie is quite furious in this song because it hurts her to see Lindsey and Chris steal away together anytime they can, whenever they can "get away." It's devastating to her. And that's why--the honest to God's truth--Christine had to leave the band. Sure!

I believe Chris was sick of the traveling, and the going here, there, and everywhere. I believe she wanted to go home to England. We read she has other businesses, like cooking, and art. But I also, THINK, that she had to leave because of the ongoing affair she had with Lindsey. All of this brings me back to when Stevie and Mick had their affair. They knew it would break up Fleetwood Mac. They stopped it. They ended it. Done. Over. FM survived. I am not a Christine basher. I miss her a lot. I wish she could have stayed. She was like a balm to Fleetwood Mac, she was a healer. But when Stevie says she spends every day waiting for the day....she rarely goes out...waiting for the day... when everybody finds out...don't you know? don't you know? I mean this is heavy stuff here. But I guess she figures who the hell cares, it's all over now, probably no one will figure it out, and I am tired of keeping it all inside. I WISH SHE'D WRITE HER BOOK. But anyway, that's my opinion of EFO. It's daring to post, but I believe it's the truth."

EFO definitely. What a kick butt song.

That lyric is exactly what kills me about EFO - I love the whole song - but I have repeated that line so many times I can't keep count - love it!!!!!!!

EFO, Thrown Down and Miranda were my favorite songs on the album. I had to force myself not to play them to the exclusion of all else.

It's sort of a retro song. Dance, disco, unexpected for FM.

I like it because the lyrics give us two points of view, the (other) woman's and the narrator's, who knows the woman is fooling herself, to the point of decline and insanity. She has this attitude and air of false bravado, yet she is dying inside, pitiable.

I like the denial, the slipping mask. Even a line like, "You can't have him. I do have him. Most of the time." Well, that word most tells the whole story of loss and insecurity.

I love Lindsey's background vocals. Anywhere we can baby. Everytime he can -- get away. I love the tough interjection of "baby" there.

I also like the phrase "get away." Because it means two things: (1) everytime we can escape, (2) back off -- get away, lady.

Love it. I also like the way Stevie says "what can I say?" The playful boasting, kind of reminds me of Enchanted (it's a shame that you wanted me, you didn't try). I like the teasing.

Of course, I think Thrown Down is more of a triumph as a song, but I love EFO.

Michele

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That's the sort of barricade that I imagine when she sings it in Thrown Down.

I love both of these songs, and can't decide which one I prefer. I only really "got" Everybody Finds Out recently, but it's become a favourite from SYW. The viciousness of "You can't love him, You can't have him, I do have him, most of the time, Anywhere we can" is so surprising coming from Stevie. Even on Rumours, she was never that cruel. She's taunting the person, and the fact that Lindsey is singing with her makes it worse. Despite this cruelty, there's a fragility in the song. She sings "I KNOW he loves me," like she's trying to convince herself that he does love her, like she's worried that she's losing him.

Aw man this was a tough choice! I had to go with Thrown Down though because I just think it's such a brilliant track with a genuinely clever and interesting lyric. Stevie is writing from a different perspective than usual and I like that. Having said that, I LOVE Everybody Finds Out The lyric is so brutal and those strings... Hell YEAH!

Yes! :nod:

I was going to start my own thread but found this one. I was listening to Say You Will on Friday night and boy does it hold up. Its so good! I remember when this came out I did not have an I-pod and would run down the beach with my portable CD player and headphones.
Everybody Finds Out is the best song on the album. I love it when the Mac rocks. But this song really is perfect.
Lyrics - one of the better Stevie written songs ....and that says a lot
Music - its just so good and builds and builds and then explodes
Production - perfect. It just shows how good Lindsey is
Vocals - wonderful


Songs like this really get me exciting thinking about the new album. The bass and drums are so good on this song. But Lindsey adds so many layers that work. Its the perfect workout song! I wish this was the first single from SYW.

Pure poetry

"We see no change in sight
watching her decline
She gets on a midnight plane
She's done it a thousand times"

"When love starts out in the darkness
it doesn't do well in the light
Affairs of the heart that start out in the dark
Usually stay with the night"

I agree with all of the above. The only thing I would add is that the jam at the end was exteneded

You will appreciate the song even more if you listen with headphones ;)

This song is just one example of the remarkable job they did with Stevie's songs on SYW. There is not a dog among the nine of them. Silver Girl included.

Absolutely! Lindsey worked overtime on this album and it shows. Just so excited for the new album.
There are so many creative layers on the songs on SYW.

Amen to that! Can't wait for the new album.

I need a new Stevie interview.

I love this song! I only "got" it recently as well, but I'm so glad I did!:nod: Such a rocker, and I love how it builds to a climax.

I always interpreted the song regarding Stevie's relationship with Mick. The affair that was kept secret, doomed from the start, but eventually Stevie didn't actually have him anymore when he fell in love with her best friend. Also, she has said this affair was in part the product of copious drugs and alcohol so that could explain the "watching her decline" part. :shrug:

I hadn't heard the Monica twist... That's a really cool interpretation! I really love the insight into Stevie's mind when she puts herself in little stories like that.

I just don't think his song belongs on a Fletwood Mac album.

I think it's just a straightforward telling of one of Stevie's (many) clandestine affairs with a married/engaged/or otherwise already involved man. "She gets on a midnight plane" makes me think of Don Henley, who always used to send a Lear jet to pick her (or whoever was his paramour at the time) up and fly her to him. Stevie herself has described the romance of him sending that "little cranberry colored jet". Tom Petty also arranged for her (and her posse) to have their own private jet when she was touring around with him because, you know, "no girls on the Heartbreakers' jet" (or bus or whatever). She seems to have no trouble getting men to send jets for her. I thought I heard once that Prince had sent one for her too but that might have just been an unfounded rumour.

I find the lines "you can't have him/I do have him/most of the time" sort of interesting because she always used to insist in interviews that she would "never compete for a man" and yet clearly in all her relationships with entangled men she was, in some way, competing for them. ("don't give that to her/baby give that to me". different song, I know).


"you always know when something's wrong, my friend" always made me think of Tom ,more than Mick or Don or whoever else we know about-- but could be any one of the many, many men we don't know about.

"waiting for the day/when everybody finds out" does fit nicely with Mick, but again, with married/committed men, it could be anybody.

I just like that it gives a little window into not-so-innocent not-so-nice Stevie. She knows what she's doing when she gets involved with these type of guys and I think a lot of the time she just doesn't care that they have other entanglements. The rules don't apply to her, she's a "rock stah" baby. "When I want something/I get it".

This song is her at her catty best and though it would probably suck in real life, it makes for a fun song.

Stevie was into affairs with married guys as a theme round the time of TISL and SYW. In Destiny Rules she sneaks away with a guy for some weeks secretly to a foreign country. In Love Is she gets dumped unceremoniously by someone who cannot stay and she knows it. In EFO she is in decline as she sneaks away at midnight to meet him when he can get away. What fun! Makes for great songs!

I think the "midnight plane" could just be getting on a plane to the next city after a show. Like a remark on the loneliness of her lifestyle.

It could!

But, to me, coupled with all the other references-- "when love starts out in the darkness/it doesn't do well in the light" and the whole "you can't have him/I do have him" and waiting for everybody to find out... there's just something more clandestine, a little more fraught with risk than just getting on the plane after a show. That's routine.

And earlier!

But when her songs are released often has no relation to when they were actually written/who they are about.

The six weeks in a foreign country from DR refers to her 6 weeks with Hernan Rojas in Chile after completing Tusk.
And of course a bunch of songs on 24k are about her affair with Mick-- which was decades before when the album came out.

And Beautiful Child came out in 1979 and was about a married man, and her fling with Mick was prior to that so her attraction to married men goes way back before TISL or SYW!

And I like the bravado:

Anywhere we can baby, every time we can ... get away.

As I've said before, I think the "get away" has two meanings:

1) We do it every chance we get; and

2) GO AWAY

It tickles me. It's a fun, taunting disco song.

Michele

yeah it's a fairly raunchy song for her... there's nothing especially "couched" about the references to sex in this one and there's no real heartbreak...yet. You get the sense she knows the whole thing is doomed eventually, especially when their cover is blown, but until then, well, she's gonna enjoy the naughtiness of it and have a good shag!