Analyzing album covers: Mirage
 

Let's continue commenting an album cover. What you like, what you dislike, what you think about this, how a member looks, etc. This time, MIRAGE

Probably it's better to show the whole Mirage photo, I mean back an front, cause it's seems to be one unique long photograph.

Mick and John looks too formal dressed, accoding to the typical Fleetwood Mac look. However it may coincide with a phrase from Mick Fleetwood's book: "Gypsy" is one of Fleetwood Mac's greatest works of art; for me it really crystallises that whole period of the early 1980s, when we were in our mid-thirties and beginning to look back on our lost youth.


I never knew why they called it Mirage until I read the theory about the hidden old woman face in the handshake. Still not sure if that's the reason.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_x0_O69sf5U.../fleetwood.JPG

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps7828b61b.jpg

Its kind of creepy. I think that's too dark of a photo for Fleetwood Mac.

See, I really like the Mirage album cover... until I stare at it too long. Then the god-awful alteration job they did on Stevie's neck freaks me out. Not to mention the creepy old lady face in their hands.

I've always seen this album as the forgotten Fleetwood Mac album. Whenever I watch a documentary on FM, the Mirage album is hardly ever mentioned. I happen to think that it's one of their best albums. I would even go as far as saying that it's as good as Rumours. I know some people may not agree, but that's just my opinion.

At first glance, it's a really cool cover but then you see Stevie's neck and long skeleton arm and you're like "what were they thinking?" but it's alright.

Yes the conspiracy between Lindsey and Christine is a focal point. All 5 of the Macsters look good on the cover as well. It's my favorite.

As for the title, I would think it has something to do with the band and some sort of conversation they had and not the old lady puzzle.

I like the way that title is played out in the Hold Me video with the desert. For me, the idea is not only that things are not what they seem, but that you want something that really doesn't exist. You've deluded yourself into thinking it's within grasp and it's not. Like water in the Mohabi. You want it, need it, but it's inaccessible. The thing is, it doesn't seem hopeless, it only seems elusive and you feel if you just tried hard enough it could be yours. That's the cruelest of all, because it can't be.

Michele

beginning to look back on our lost youth.

Always thought the above was a very poignant phrase. Or statement for that matter.

I never knew why they called it Mirage until I read the theory about the hidden old woman face in the handshake

Can anyone elaborate on this? I don't recall that theory..

Edited: nevermind the "face" in the joined hands..got it!

I've always wondered if the title, and perhaps even the Hold Me video was inspired by the subject matter of Cool Water. I know it was just a B-Side, but the song is about struggling through the desert & not giving in to mirages.. just a thought.
Does anyone know if Lindsey, or anyone else in the band had anything to do with the concept of the Hold Me vid? Or was it purely the director's call?

I love it. It's Stevie's last waltz with Lindsey and Christine is looking at them like a voyeur. One's passionate, one is an observer and Lindsey is the major player.

I like this cover a lot.

I don't see the old-lady face. It's been pointed out many times - I just don't see it. I don't know what was done to Stevie's neck, but to me it looks graceful.

I recall a review of the album (musically) at the time commenting on the "music box" feel... referring to all the tinkly sorts of sounds sprinkled throughout the songs that made the reviewer think of the sound of a music box playing. It also mentioned the wistfulness of the lyrics and loss and regret themes "can't go back" "back to the gypsy that I was" "she was just a wish" "he remembers a melody" "She remembers how good it can be" just for a few examples. I'd have to go back and listen to the album all the way through but after that I always thought the term "Mirage" had to do with that sort of theme--- you see it but you can't ever have it / get to it ... whatever "it" is-- your youth, a lost relationship, etc.

Totally agree! I like the darkness/drama/romance feel of the whole thing. Very much like many of their songs. Love this cover :nod:

Darkness and Drama is what it is :)

I don't see the face either.:shrug:

Well, you aren't missing much, so don't worry about it, but it's like the old lady is lying on Lindsey's shoulder. His fingers are her bangs and eyes and Stevie's hand against the base of Lindsey's hand form a nose and mouth, like this >


Perhaps he and Christine are plotting to steal Stevie's youth and turn her into a crone and the old lady image is a vision of what she will become.

Michele

Well, I think Diane falls into that category, harkening back to a music era that has passed. Music that inspired a young Buckingham.

Thinking of the album, how come we never discuss Book of Love? That song never comes up in anything. Maybe they should sing that on this tour, just because it's completely forgotten.

Michele

Thanks, I kinda see it now. LMAO at the old crone theory. :lol:

OMG, that's so funny. Completely Forgotten Songs would make a great thread, although I'm not sure what else would qualify. Maybe "Mystified" from Tango?

Wish you were here? Only over you?

I outlined her... is this the old lady? :laugh:

http://i.imgur.com/vMjEvTO.jpg

I like this cover for the fact that Lindsey and Christine finally got to appear on cover, and it always said something to me that the songwriters are all on the front involved in the more dramatic romantic poses while Mick and John are just solidly standing by on the back. But as nice and moody as everyone looks this is their most forgettable cover for me, I guess I wish it was a little more artful. Pretty to look at, but not as intriguing.

Yep, you have found her!

Michele

"And now ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to perform a selection of songs that no one liked enough to request or hated enough to criticize."

Not that I'd put Mystified in that category. I love it. But sometimes I want to sing, "you've got me hypnotized," instead of mystified.

For some reason, mystified doesn't seem to go there. That's like Thrown Down. My tongue wants to say "like a hurricane," rather than "like a barricade."

Michele

This is probably my second favorite cover. It's down to earth, elegant, and hints at the darkness and the nostalgic theme present in most of the songs. It looks dated now, but in a classic way.

Doesn't It say somewhere on the album that Lindsey's mom (or some other female Buckingham) came up with the "Mirage" title? Or did I read this somewhere else?

No, you're right. Nancy Buckingham is credited in the liner notes with the title. I think I read she was an aunt, but I'm not sure. Was she Lindsey's art teacher? Seems I read something like that.

Michele

Yes, though I always pictured her wearing a headscarf.

There is no alteration. The secret is revealed!! Stevie Nicks is a man!!

Yep, hammer to nail head, you hit it. Obviously, Hold Me (video) was inspired by the title or vice versa. Also inspired by the lost love, or something you can't touch. Even if Nancy Buckingham inspired the title, I think that the feel of the album is very much Old Hollywood. think Debbie Reynolds/Liz Taylor. Even if the band didn't know exactly what they were doing (image wise) the photographer/videographer translated the album perfectly.

Mick wrote in his book: Tired of being typecast as the archetypalno rthern California hippie, Lindsey had now veered from his New Wave sound into a 1955 Eddie Cochrane rock and roll feel.

And about Hold me song, and the videos: Chris's songs, especially "Hold Me," reflected her bittersweet reflections on her relationship with Dennis Wilson, which had almost resulted in marriage but had ended instead the previous December, when Dennis had moved out of Chris's house and her life...
..... It didn't hurt that Rolling Stone had crowned Stevie "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll," and that a new cable television channel called MTV was broadcasting our new videos ("Hold Me" set in desert dunes, "Gypsy" in a Stevie fantasy world) to the American suburbs twenty-four hours a day. Mirage went to number one, and it felt great to be back on top for a while.

I want to see the original unairbrushed version of this photo. I am SURE that Stevie can not unhinge her skull from her vertebrae and sling it back like a Pez dispenser like that. And what the heck is up here with her neck? She looks like if she sat up tall her neck would be twice the length of a normal one.

Not sure if there are any more from this photoshoot, but I've always loved this one:

http://i46.tinypic.com/350o1v7.jpg

yes! wasn't there also one where Christine and Stevie changed positions?

Ooh, well, like a willow, well, she can be-e-end...

The thing that always struck me about Fleetwood Mac is that they were always unabashedly adult. In a way, they seemed to intentionally flout anything trendy, hip or youth culture-oriented. They never spoke or wrote slang phrases/words in their interviews or lyrics. They never dressed like their audience or attempted to come across as humble, down-to-earth, or "of the people." They always fancied themselves as being a cut above, and I admire people who can proudly, shamelessly own their elevated stations in life.

It's hard to imagine that the band on the cover of Mirage, wearing chiffon, silk, waistcoats and dinner jackets, was only in their early-late thirties. They kinda looked like your parents going out for a night at the Copa Cabana. Very sophisticated, but oh so very unhip.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8...augio1_500.jpg

What struck me initially about the cover is that it reminded me of a Rembrandt painting- the somber brown tones, the faint lighting, the suggestion of movement and drama, etc. But, of course, it's all but a dark mirage, because the album itself is chock full of the most sunniest, tinkling-est, sparkly California pop music released since the early Beach Boys. Don't judge a book or an album by its cover!

I love these photos, thx for posting.

Like Hejira said, they were so unhip with their fashion/style they were cool!

Yeah, I guess you are right that it is airbrushed. I always thought this cover was odd, b/c in some late 80's interview Stevie said she felt in a past life that she was beheaded. That is why she can't bend her neck back.

I wish I had a link to the clip, but it I haven't seen it in years, and of course this was probably during her Klon years, go figure.