Tango : something that has always puzzled me
 

If Stevie was only in studio for 2 weeks , AFTER Betty Ford, why is Lindsey stating that the studio experience was so miserable? Were the other 3 still party mongers? Or was that an excuse for pulling out? Does anyone have any insight into this?

Its important to remember that there is always drama for every Fleetwood Mac album. You should read Mick's latest book. Mick used to wait in Lindsey's driveway for drug dealers after the studio time at his house. I bet Lindsey knew this. Stevie came into the studio with attitude. I think she felt "odd man out." Stevie said recently that Lindsey grew frustrated with her because she would show up at his studio late. She blamed it on early use of the tranquilizer Klonopin.
In Mick's first book, he writes that Christine freaked out on Stevie too. Christine had a couple of glasses of wine in her when Stevie showed up (probably late) and began to bitch and complain about the album. Stevie thought she should be on the album more. She went as far to threaten and almost blackmail the group by threatening to go to Rolling Stone magazine to tell them she had nothing to do with the album. Christine fired back....."You should have been here... I wanted you to sing back up on Everywhere but you were not here." Christine had none of it according to Mick.

Note: This part is my opinion. I see where the group layered Stevie over the album to make it sound like she was part of the group effort. Her part on Family Man is so out of left field and does not really belong IMHO. I also believe this is why Stevie's Tango songs suck so bad. Some of the demos were mailed to the group when she was on tour and then she went to rehab after the tour. I don't see Lindsey wanting to help Stevie's songs that much. I believe her demo of Welcome to the Room Sara is very similar to the album track. It shows Lindsey did not put much creative energy into the demo. Its strange because the demo actually sounds better. I think its obvious that Stevie had no single on the album. Clearly Welcome to the room Sara and When I see you again are not singles. IMHO, Seven Wonders was brought to Stevie as a contribution to the band. Stevie complained that the Mac never gave her room for songs and she could not even write 3 songs for the album. I wish the group would have considered "What has rock n roll ever done for you" as Mick mentioned in his first book. I can see Lindsey passing on the song purely because of the arrogance of the song i.e. drinking French champagne. I can see Lindsey like "Oh please, you don't need to sing about your indulgent lifestyle."

I think there was tremendous pressure on Lindsey for Tango. He interrupted his solo album and really felt the pressure to make it successful. The entire sound of the album is a Lindsey solo album with Stevie and Christine making appearances. I hear only small group Mac sound. Its appropriate that Lindsey picked one of his favorite paintings for the album cover. I am sure he felt this was his effort.
Its strange because it seems only Christine's songs had staying power from this album. Big Love was a huge hit at #5 but you never or rarely hear it ever on the radio. I listen to 80's radio and it is a very rare song to be heard. You don't hear Seven Wonders either. Those songs are not even played on classic rock stations who rotate the Mac every hour. I think that demonstrates the empty pop feel the album had. Empty pop songs are easily forgotten no matter how big they charted.
I hear Little Lies and Everywhere every week.

This timeline always puzzled me too. She went to rehab at the end of the year. Then went into recording with Fleetwood Mac. In the videos, she looks great. So when did the Klonopin use start. I think it started when they were getting ready to tour with Rick and Billy. Going out on the road was going to be a challenge with drugs around and those around her suggested she seek help. But I always hear conflicting reports of when she actually started taking it.

Well, I've heard that the effects of the Klonopin were slow to take effect on Stevie, so who knows when it really started hitting her big time. As you said, she does look terrific in the Tango photo shoots. Remarkably clear-eyed.

I agree with everything you said. If I may add something I think at some point also Stevie was trying to save her best work for her solo albums. With rehab and overindulging lifestyle that probably wasn't her most prolific period for her as a songwriter, after seeing how things were going with the Mac album I think she may have thought it was best for her to act in favor of her solo career.

Yes, from what Mick himself has said, he was a bit out of control during that time. And I gather Lindsey was indulging in drugs and alcohol less than he had 5 years earlier. Mick said that Lindsey was afraid he'd pull Lindsey back into the deep end, not to mention the residual relationship problems.

Michele

It's a miracle the album came out as well as it did. Despite what Mick said, I don't really think Lindsey layered in that much of Stevie's vocals into the mix of the songs. Her harmonies aren't on anything besides her songs and a little bit of Little Lies. And the studio effect on her part in Family Man doesn't really count. :laugh: I don't blame him, though. She wasn't sounding all that great at that time.

I hear Stevie's voice on Eveywhere and Mystified.

Nope, sorry, I don't hear it on either of those songs.

Neither do I. I just hear Lindsey's altered vocals behind Chris.

Mystified, I hear LB altered Stevie voice. Everywhere, I'm going to have to listen again. According to Mick's first book, they put her on Everywhere.

Two best things about Tango:
1.Cover artwork - I love this painting
2.Best of all, it led to Billy and Rick joining the band AND GOING ON THE ROAD for the first time in years with- IMO -the best setlist they've ever had.
I can still remember hearing Big Love on the radio for the first time and thinking...WTF? To this day, Tango just doesn't FEEL like Fleetwood Mac.

I think this would be a good question for the Richard Dashut Q&A.

It's Stevie on both tracks I'm sure of it. I remember how I was a bit disappointed with the lack of Stevie on other tracks when Tango was released. Mirage wasn't any better with her involvement on Lindsey and Christine tracks.

Although it was probably easier without her being there, you can image if you worked (on anything) for a year and the other person who is almost receiving as much credit as you worked a couple days you would be pretty pissed too. Even Christine spelled it out for her. The resentment was probably building during the whole time they were recording. Put yourself is their place. And let's not forget the animosity that was already deeply instilled in their relationship at this point.

I sometimes think that Stevie can be heard on the title track. It's probably more fake Stevie concocted by Lindsey, though- listen from 0:56 to 1:12, for example.

I do love that tiny bit of Christine you can hear at 2:25 to 2:41 just before the guitar solo kicks in. She sounds like a lost soul about to be carried away in the night.

I've tried so many times to hear Stevie on Eveywhere.If she's there, her voice has been synthesized almost out of existence

I've tried so many times to hear Stevie on Eveywhere.If she's there, her voice has been synthesized almost out of existence[/QUOTE]



That's exactly what was done as did with Mystified. She could easily been mixed in the same way on some of Lindsey's tunes. I guess we will have to wait for the Tango box set to get all the skinny.

I think there a strong chance it could be Lindsey's voice in both of these cases- as Sisternightroad says, perhaps Richard D could clarify.

I think Stevie's voice is there but you would have to strip down the song to hear it. She also sings back up on Go Your Own Way and Dont Stop. You surely dont hear her on those songs. I think there is a trace of Stevie on these songs if you would strip them down. Mick did say Stevie's voice was added later on Everywhere after Stevie threw a hissy fit.

I was not aware Klonopin was an issue this early. It was not until an interview I saw with Stevie a few years ago that she admitted she would show up late to Tango sessions because of tranquilizers and there was tension between her and Lindsey. Maybe it was an excuse from her.
But even if she started taking Klonopin at this time, its not going to be visible in album photos or even on stage. Like any drug it takes time for obvious changes to take place. In addition her doctor would up her dose year after year. Again like any drug, the body builds up a tolerance and you need more and more to achieve the same effect. Towards the end everyone could see how zonked out Stevie was. It was in her eyes, in her speech and even her behavior. 1987 and 1988 were good years. The lights went out during the 1989 tour and it was worse in 1990 and so on.

Listening back, I can hear what you mean, around 0:54 in TITN, there's a faint backing vocal which sounds like Stevie's voice around the time.

On Go Your Own Way, I think she just sings backup to the tune in the chorus, and so Lindsey drowns her out. You can hear her though at 2:38 when Lindsey cuts out the melody. I can't hear at all on Don't Stop.

This is why we need a remaster of Tango!

She's very prominent in the concert version from the Tango tour. I always liked her in the chorus. I always loved her harmonies in the alternate version of You Make Loving Fun as well.

She looks amazing early on in the tour too. I don't think the huge hair did her any favours.

Check this out - fresh off the plane and she looks incredible. This could've been 10 years earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM81_qkp3KI

Thanks for that video, she does look good there, big hair and all. Anyway, 1987-'88 was the height of big Aqua Net hair in the '80s; she was just following a trend.
I don't quite think she looks as good as a decade before, but in that video (and in these pictures below), she looks surprisingly fantastic.

Hot:
http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp...ugio1_1280.jpg

White hot:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...6b3720bdc6.jpg

Sipping napalm, smoking dynamite facing a thermonuclear sunrise on Mercury in July hot:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...3423ef4c1a.jpg

So sad to know it was only a matter of time until the big evil K would pull her under. So amazing then, to see her rise again like a Phoenix a decade later. I mean, look at Stevie in this photo with the band in 1998 at the Brit awards:
http://i68.tinypic.com/2lvohhc.jpg

She looks like she aged about 20 seconds in the ensuing 10 years since Tango, and she was more popular, influential and beloved than ever before.

I've also thought she looked INCREDIBLE when they did that press conference, must have been before the tour, she looks even better IMO:

http://67.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6...ugio1_1280.jpg

She looks fantastic!! And she was quite enduring, back then.

That's what I hear too. Lindsey experimented a lot with the voice oscillator on Tango. But I agree with SisterNightroad, it would be a good question for Richard D.

she was certainly endearing.

And has proven after all this time to be enduring.

Stevie sang on Little Lies, obviously, but she also sang on Everywhere. I can clearly hear her on the chorus, particularly the last line of it. She doesn't really sing on any other Tango tunes except her own. She may or may not be that weird voice on Family Man--I think it's her.

In response to someone else's observation that Stevie doesn't really sing much or at all on Lindsey and Christine's Mirage tunes, I would say Love in Store is a notable exception. Her harmonies on that really give that song an added glow.

Of course she sings the chorus on Go Your Own Way, but she does not sing at all on the studio version of Don't Stop.

I concur with all of this.

[QUOTE=aleuzzi;1185743]Stevie sang on Little Lies, obviously, but she also sang on Everywhere. I can clearly hear her on the chorus, particularly the last line of it. She doesn't really sing on any other Tango tunes except her own. She may or may not be that weird voice on Family Man--I think it's her.

In response to someone else's observation that Stevie doesn't really sing much or at all on Lindsey and Christine's Mirage tunes, I would say Love in Store is a notable exception. Her harmonies on that really give that song an added glow


I know she sang on Love in Store .I was referring to all the other Buckingham/McVie tracks on Mirage. It's going to be very interesting to hear the early versions of the Mirage tracks. If Stevie is prominent on these I definetly
see a pattern. Oh Daddy, You Me Loving Fun, I Know I'm not Wrong.....

Stevie is clearly heard on "Everywhere." They layered her in toward the end of sessions.

I love her in the chorus too! In fact, there is a demo of Everywhere with her singing the chorus like she did in the Tango tour, so I believe it may have originally been recorded that way until they took her off.

Re: demo of Everywhere with Stevie in chorus
I would love to hear that! After hearing the live version with that part it sounds "right".

Mick was bombed out of his butt at Lindsey's house, the story goes. There's even some polaroids floating around of Mick looking like hell. I think the level of craziness and lack of commitment to a group project were really bothering Lindsey. He said once that going on the road is an amplification of any of the problems you encounter in the studio, which seems to be true and to have affected Lindsey's desire to tour that year.

This thread has made me listen to Tango a few times over the past month or so. One interesting part that is a glimpse into history is Stevie's swipe at her former management company Frontline. Today Mick and Stevie tell the story of how Stevie did a successful stint at Betty Ford and everything turned out fine. Wrong! If you were paying attention in 1986 you remember that Stevie's management pressured her big time to check into rehab. She did it reluctantly even though she talks today that she was her own hero in this process. Stevie also left Betty Ford before she was supposed to and called the place "really dumb." She was there for 28 days. Who ever heard of a 28 day rehab? I would think the minimum would be months or even 30 days LMAO. Her quick addiction to tranquilizers shows her escaping after 28 days was not that successful. Her writing in Doing the best that I can is also called "Escape from Berlin" for a reason. She was so miserable and drama queen that she had no problem saying she "escaped." In the song "Welcome to the room Sara" she sings .."of course it was a problem....Frontline" After "escaping" rehab Stevie immediately fired Frontline management and put this song and lyrics on Tango.
She blamed others for making her go to miserable rehab and took revenge on them. This is why I take her statements about friends concerned about her and why she took Klonopin with a grain of salt. Addicts frequently love to replace one drug with another.
I just hate the re-writing of history ;)

well Stevie does like to spin her yarns to her advantage and to fit the image of herself she's worked hard to create.

One small nit, though. Though it's hard to tell because of where she breaks the vocal, it really should be read as:
"Frontline, baby, well you held her prisoner, after all these years and as well as you knew her"
...because she totally resented them trying to tell her what to do (as she so often says about herself) and felt they were holding her prisoner and disrespecting her even though she'd know Irving for a long time (he managed the Eagles). She fired them after this. "In the never-forgotten words of another one of your friends, baby when you hang up that phone, you cease to exist".
I believe the 'when you hang up that phone you cease to exist' line she attributed once to Joe, who said that during one of their spats. And in the song she's turning around and saying it to Frontline.

This is how Mick described Lindsey's feelings about Tango. As you can see, his bitterness was not only about Stevie.

Stevie finally showed up in January 1987; we'd been working six months, and it was the only time the whole band was in the studio together. We had been sending copies of our working tapes to Stevie's home in Arizona. On her part, she was dreading that Lindsey, in his producing capacity, would be sarcastic toward her, but he made an effort not to be as much of a martinet as he was with the rest of us. He was under some strain with this project, and lost his patience occasionally, but with Stevie we wanted him to be more objective and professional. He tried to make her feel great in the studio, and they got on well. (The love-hate saga between those two will never end.)

I thought Tango was released January 1st, 1987.

It was released on April 13, 1987 (according to Wikipedia).