Ranking SEEDS WE SOW tracks
 

The rankings for In Your Dreams was so fun. I figure it's time to track people's initial reactions to SWS. You can always update as time goes by...

I'm going to work on my rankings...

I - KNOCKING at THE DOOR of THE PANTHEON
End of Time

II - SUBLIME
Seeds We Sow (Electric)
When She Comes Down

III - GREAT
Stars Are Crazy
That's The Way Love Goes

IV - VERY PRETTY
Rock Away Blind
Gone Too Far
In Our Own Time

V - FUN
Sleeping Around the Corner - I don't get the story of the song, but it's very catchy and a lot of fun. Also one of the better (fullest) produced tracks on the album.
Illumination - The live version was so grooovy. It was the grooviest song I'd ever heard from Lindsey. Now, it's very bare-bones.

VI - DISAPPOINTMENTS - I have ISSUES
One Take - It sounds great (kinda like Great Day) but I can't get over that last line. Stevie's political songs (Illume, Soldier's Angel) are more sophisticated than Lindsey's. I feel like he's a politician--always worried about the "middle class." I guess his audience is the same as Obama's constituency. But the Middle Class are doing just fine. Without the middle class to buy their crap (and for the working class to strive to emulate), there'd be no upper class (the destination of the song's villain). I'm going to send Linds a copy of Barthes' Mythologies. In FACT, I'm going to bring it to the NYC concert!
Seeds We Sow - It's pretty and folksy, but the sublime electric version just proves, stands as concrete fact that (as One Take suggests), Linds fights his best instincts to appeal to the bourgeois. It's like the difference between Ordinary People and Dressed to Kill. Another reason for him to read Barthes.
She Smiled Sweetly - As with the above, maybe if I didn't know about the earlier mix, I'd accept it for the quaint pretty thing it is. But compared to the glrorious GOS version, again, I'm worried that Linds succumbs to the worst tendencies of his taste. If he had switched out this version with the GOS-sessions version, closed the album with SWS Electric, I'd be proclaiming this his best ever solo album.

i'll rank in order of how much i enjoy listening to each song, and not necessarily of what i think is the song quality. just 11, otherwise SWS electric jumps right up somewhere in the first 3 :lol:.

my current ranking (it changed several times already in the last few days):

1. IOOT
2. GTF
3. TTWLG
4. OT
5. RAB
6. SSS
7. I
8. SWS
9. EOT
10. WSCD
11. SAC

i have to add that i love 1-7, little less 8-10 and am usually unpleasantly surprised when SAC comes on. the order in each of 3 groups keep changing, but the songs in these 3 groupings stayed the same.

1-Gone Too Far
2-Stars are Crazy
3-When She Comes Down
4-End of Time (acoustic)

(Those four make the album for me)

5-End of Time (regular)
6-In Our Own Time
7-Illumination
8-Seeds We Sow (electric, techno pop whatever)
9-Sleeping Round the Corner
10-One Take
11-Seeds We Sow (regular)
12-That's The Way Love Goes
13-Rock Away Blind
14-She Smiles Sweetly

(I've rearranged the "bottom" list about 9 times now. Tomorrow, I'll look at it and wonder where my mind was).

:D
1. That's the Way Love Goes
2. Rock Away Blind
3. She Smiled Sweetly

:)
4. Stars Are Crazy
5. In Our Own Time
6. Seeds We Sow
7. Gone Too Far
8. Illumination
9. End of Time

:(
10. When She Comes Down
11. One Take

Just my top five (for now) -

Rock Away Blind (this one really does it for me)
In Our Own Time
That's the Way That Love Goes
Seeds We Sow
End of Time

:laugh: i like your class demarcation much better than mine!

Love
1. Rock Away Blind
2. In Our Own Time
3. Seeds We Sow

Like a lot
4. End of Time
5. That's the Way That Love GOes
6. Illumination

Like enough
7. One Take
8. Gone Too Far

Don't really like at all
9. Stars are Crazy (I just like it live so much more)
10. When She Comes Down
11. She Smiled Sweetly

Just my initial reactions..

Seeds we Sow is the crowning jewel of Buckingham's superb later solo catalogue. Although Out of the Cradle is his masterpiece, this one is the best of the trilogy.

I'm getting One Take and Illumination, although I see these aren't on everyone's list, I'm digging these. Rock Away Blind is beautiful, as close to perfection as anything he's done. End of Time takes me back to the Cradle and will be a lasting classic. Seeds we Sew and In Our Time are a nice start to the album and fit nicely together. When she comes down makes me think of the group going on a journey and meeting Christine, the image is haunting. Nice to hear She Smiled Sweetly, a great rendition.

This is a great album that I'm glad he made and glad I have it to listen to.

Entirely agree about Rock Away Blind. It made me emotional when I first listened. That sort of impact.

All this could change very quickly - a bit like the UTS album - went from not really into it to liking it in a short space of time. :laugh:

Cant rank top 4 tracks - too hard so they are in no order!

1. The Way Love Goes
2. End Of Time
3. In our own time
4. Illumination


5. Rock away Blind
6. Seeds We Sow
7. When She comes Down (too much repetition :P)
8. Stars Are Crazy (like the lyrics even though they arent strictly his)

9. Gone Too Far (not a stand out track for me)

10. She Smiled Sweetly (not a bad rendition but not original song)
11. One Take (didnt fit with the vein of the other tracks - it does get stuck in your head but cant get into it :distress:)

I - KNOCKING at THE DOOR of THE PANTHEON
Rock Away Blind
Illumination

II - GREAT
Seeds We Sow
When She Comes Down
End of Time

III - VERY GOOD
Gone Too Far
In Our Own Time
She Smiled Sweetly

IV - FUN - Not so much a fave
The Way Love Goes

V - DISAPPOINTMENTS
One Take
Star Are Crazy

^^^Thanks for following my ranking system. I made a slight change worth noting, if not following.

AMAZING

Gone Too Far
One Take
Stars are Crazy (but prefer live)
In Our Own Time

GREAT

Rock Away Blind
Seeds We Sow (electric)
Illumination
The Way Love Goes
End of Time
When She Comes Down

GOOD

End of Time (acoustic)
Sleeping Around the Corner
Seeds We Sow

DISAPPOINTED

She Smiled Sweetly

I can't pick. My preferences change by the hour. I've been playing the whole cd in order repeatedly for days. I like the running order. I like the cd as an entire work. If the Stones cover was left off I wouldn't object. End of Time really should be the closer.

What he did to She Smiled Sweetly makes me hope that Blue Turns to Grey is never revisited.

I agree with you. I would be happy to have it omitted. I'll put it in the same place I put Stevie's last song, Cheaper Than Free. Michele

Let's make this analysis official:
The ChiliD Challenge: The Derivations of SWS Tracks
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=48648

Stars Are Crazy and When She Comes Down:
Easily up there with the greatest songs of his almost 40 year career.

I'm a huge Under The Skin fan. Gift of Screws didn't really sink in or stick with me for very long. Not sure where Seeds We Sow fits in, but I agree - it's one of his best solo albums.

Re: politics - "The middle class is doing just fine..." huh? What rock have you been hiding under?

Rankings
 

Well, I've not had as much listening time as I would prefer before doing this, but I'll play along anyway and I retain the right to change this...which I'm sure I will, later. ;)

LOVE:
Stars Are Crazy (MAN, I wish he had written this completely because I adore it.)
Seeds We Sow (I sing this to myself quite a bit during the day. :) )
Rock Away Blind
In Our Own Time
Illumination

LIKE:

The Way Love Goes (wish the chorus wasn't so distorted. LOVE the verses though!)
Gone Too Far
One Take
End of Time (both versions)
When She Comes Down
She Smiled Sweetly

MEH:

Sleeping Around the Corner
Seeds We Sow (Electric)

Like X, I'm more worried about people who can't eat or who don't have access to health care and for whom the education system is closer to incarceration and who live in dangerous neighborhoods with unresponsive police.

The middle class (like me) is doing just fine.

I know no one is sitting around waiting for my list, but I intend to post one very soon. I'm just very transfixed by the album and, as a whole, I think it's stunning. I can listen to it all the way through without skipping a track, which is a HUGE telling point for me as to adoring something. I normally skip songs on even albums I love dearly. Anyway, give me some time to think about this...

All I can really say is that the ones that wouldn't be my favourite are

When She Comes Down
Seeds We Sow (electric)

That's not to say that I don't like them. I won't skip WSCD but I just think it's a bit less interesting than the others. SWS(electric) is really fun but I just feel that the words don't fit it and the singing should have been done a bit more with a smile and wink than so erm... dramatic. It's a nice b-side but IMO it doesn't belong anywhere near the album.

I'd actually quite like a whole album in the style of Sleeping Around the Corner and SWS(electric). It's chunky, fun and something he hasn't done really since GI. I adore his acoustic and electric playing but when he meshed it with synths on GI it was really quirky and he captures some of that fun on the two bonus tracks for this one.