What would I change in some songs?
 

What change would you make in a Fleetwood Mac song?
Just little (or not so little) adjustments that you may wish in some songs. I mean,

For example, I would like to extend Sara enough seconds so that the phrases "All I ever wanted.. was to know..." would be heard louder and complete.

And though Crystal has never been a favorite of mine, I'm uneasy at the thought of confirming that, if it was sung by Christine, I'd like it more.

This is an impossible thread. I would just say I wish we heard Lindsey play out and longer in many songs like Tango In The Night, Only Over You, Isn't It Midnight, Sisters. Its almost a Fleetwood Mac staple that Lindsey plays out. I think Steve pointed out that Lindsey is always the last back up vocalist heard on many songs. I would just like to hear Lindsey get a good closer once.
I would love an extended play out on Oh Daddy. Chris's keyboard is haunting and its over too quick.

Wish You Were Here from Mirage. The alt version gave us a little more but that could have turned into one heck of a jam at the end of the track.

I wish WISYA and WTTRS were entirely different songs.

Seriously, on Tango, I wish the vocal mix for Midnight resembled what the band did for the ensuing live shows. Less processing on Christine’s lead vocal and the presence of Stevie.

I wish Game of Pretend from BuckVie was just Christine and her piano. Drop the creepy, breathy backing vocals.

I wish all three singers were present on Eyes of the World.

…..

I wish a Hammond B3 was used to play the horn riffs on the title track to HEROES.

I wish Come a Little Bit Closer was just Christine and her piano.

I wish the early version of Morning Rain was used on FUTURE GAMES, the one called “Start Again.”

I wish Trinity was included on Bare Trees.

I wish the band recorded I’m on My Way using the arrangement they did for the 1970 tour.

Extend Crystal's keyboard solo 30 seconds longer...
Extend ISA solo on the White album.
Make an alt version of Feel About You on piano and ac guitar.

I’d love an extended outro on Christine’s Moog part (actually two Moog lines) on “Crystal” on the white album. Stevie once said that she and the band went to Hawaii in 1975 on vacation and spent hours listening to that little bit.

Interesting, AND, I can see why. It's so beautiful and a bit like the sea rolling in and out. However, I did not know Stevie said that. :xoxo:


... to the sea...

Just curious... are you on a mission, to pass Distension, as the all time record poster here? Because you've been on a tear, the past couple of weeks. Asking for a friend...:woohoo:

After the verse where Billy and Christine trade lines in When It Comes To Love, the vocals should have been dropped and the song should have gone out with the instruments with an additional 15-20 seconds added. Then the listener could really focus their ear on John's epic bass line.

Hi Villavic, Yes, I agree with your preference for "All I ever wanted...was to know..." , from the live video version, to be louder and more complete, comments.:angel:

I would shoot the Peacekeeper bird, and burn the masters of Silver Girl, before it ever made it to cd manufacturing. Same with the entire OSOTM.

Thanks! This is so much fun

Christine had mesmerizing down

That's beautiful. :xoxo:

I would ask Buckingham to redo his first two lines for "Sleeping on the Corner" and fix the glitch in the shaker.

The intros for "Red Sun" and "Lay Down For Free" are too similar (and very compressed), so I would tone down the compression and have Buckingham's guitar and John McVie's bass come in immediately with the drums on "Lay Down For Free" before the vocals come in. Maybe add some castanet flourishes a la "Trouble". Buckingham's saccharine wall of backing vocals on "Game of Pretend" would also be removed to make the chorus more subdued.

I just retired this year. I've got too much time on my hands these weeks, until my next trip (still deciding my next destiny).

Congrats on your retirement!

Holy cow!!! Yes to all of this and every last word.

Keep them coming! I love your posts as of late!! Lots of fun.

Absolutely! I thought so, too. The song would work perfectly with just Christine singing.

There's no stopping him.

The bass part on "Family Man" is essentially the same two notes looped over and over again. I'm not even sure if John McVie played on the song, but if he did, it's among his least inspired performances.

"In My World" could have benefited from more variation in the acoustic guitar. That was the very first song introduced from the album and I was disappointed with the lack of variation in that guitar part. The tone was also very thin and very digital, a problem that has existed since Say You Will and possibly even Out of the Cradle (this is very noticeable on songs like "Countdown", particularly the opening).

Everybody seems to like Eyes of the World. I can’t stand it.
The bit I don’t like is the repetitive over and over bit on the guitar solo. You know the bit I mean? It makes it sound frickin Scottish (no offence to Scot’s). If that small part changed, I’d probably love the song.

That sucker is literally two chords back and forth. (Even “Dreams” modulates more.) But I suppose the bass line could have had a little more movement with leading tones and such. I guess Lindsey was going for that droning effect behind his flamenco acoustic soloing.

Christine’s Tusk songs needed to be more poppy. That was her strength, the poppy catchy songs. They needed to pop up her Tusk songs more.

I wish "Why" would have been re-recorded in the studio for The White Album (1975) with Lindsey and Stevie on background harmony vocals.

I'm picturing "Never Make Me Cry" as a sparkly, up-tempo disco hit renamed "Always Make Me Smile."

Ooh I like this one.

They could pare back the intro a bit and really extend the chorus at the end like in the live versions. A real showcase for the three-way harmonies. The 1973 album version ends just as it starts getting good.

Gosh no. "Why" mess with perfection. Granted the live versions with Stevie and Lindsey are good with those harmonies. But the song is not about harmonies. The song is way too deep for that. 30 years ago, I loved the Stevie/Lindsey version. But the studio version has such depth and power with Chris being so somber and heartbroken that is missing from those versions with Stevie. Those live versions dont have the strings which gives the song such power. While I would love that other songs by been re-recorded by the Buck/Nicks team, this would be the only one that I say "hands off." I have always said that Come A Little Bit Closer should have been re-recorded with Stevie and Lindsey. Those harmonies would have taken the song to another level.
Adding Stevie and Lindsey vocals on Why would be like adding them on Songbird. While it may sound nice, it sort of ruins the impact of the song. Why is a blues based song. Those types of songs are highlighted by the singer and not fabulous harmonized backing vocals.

I could agree but there seems to be a certain "feel" to the album that songs almost are slower, less peppy and more folksy. Granted, Think About Me, The Ledge, and Angel are faster tempo. However does not the album seem to all merge as a certain sameness in beat? I wonder if she picked the songs to fit with those standards. The album's opener Over and Over seems to set the standard for the rest of the album in mood , substance, groove and slower beat.

John's bass line walking up to Mick's cymbal crash mimicking a crashing wave, and how that cycle repeats all through the end, is perfect mimicking of the sea. I'm guessing the whole sea theme is what attracted John to the song so much that he wanted it on the album.

Agree the Elmer Fudd vocal on Sleeping Around the Corner is cringey.

The creepy vocals ruin Game of Pretend for me.

Remove the ridiculous intro to In the Back of My Mind. It’s a good song but that intro completely ruins the flow of the album. Open with that song as it is by all means…..but don’t shove it in as the third track; just as you’re getting into it, the record stalls.
It reminds me of the even longer intro on Breaking into Heaven by the Stone Roses on their comeback album, The Second Coming. In fact, it’s very similar in style. It worked on that album as people waited a long time for the album to come out and the long intro to the first song served as an in-joke…..you’ve waited a long time and now you need to wait just a bit longer.
Who wants to sit and listen to all that silly sh!t at the start of ITBOMM? Stoopid!

By the way, whose voice is it at the intro (what you really like... I know...) ? Doesn't sound like Billy. I always thought it's Mick

I’d have thought it was mick. That said, it sounds like the same voice that did the additional ‘family man’ on TITN. I always assumed that was mick, but didn’t that turn out to just be Lindsey’s processed voice????
So on ITBOMM….who knows, could be either mick or billy with a bit of processing.

This is what I found on Billy's Q & A with The Penguin.

I've read everything to date (3/28) and not one person has asked what the hell Mick is saying at the beginning of "Back of My Mind." Do you realize how maddening that is for a fan not to know something about one of their all time favorite songs? Can you remember what he's saying? (Tim Bucci, Springfield, Illinois, USA)

Billy: Mick is asking each band member beginning with me "What's it like, Billy?" and so on.

So Mick Fleetwood is the man behind the curtain. The man behind the mask.

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/fwm/inde...104&Itemid=121

Thanks for posting that. Billy states that Chris never used outside musicians for Time and that another guitarist was only brought in as "experimental." Granted this was from 2000 but has that consensus not changed over the years?

In the Q&A, Billy stated that "Michael's [Michael Thompson's] work was just added to our parts." Granted, Billy only joined the Time sessions later on, but this quote seems to be the best information we have at the moment. Billy never mentioned anything about Thompson in his 2022 interview with Rolling Stone. I know that Billy came out with a book in the 2010s, so it's possible that he goes into greater detail about the Time album there, but I have yet to purchase it.

The intro doesn't bother me. What I really hate is the official video made with scenes of different past videos, shows, trying to make us believe they are playing (and singing!!!) the title song.

But I must ask if the girl at the beginning is Mick's daughter. I don't know why I think she is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUGdS1HCe7s

Yes, I think that's Amy.

--Lis

I know almost everyone hates that video, but I have a soft spot for it. It’s really kitch, but it’s quite, sort of……fun. Kinda.