Fleetwood Mac Songs That Have Grown on You
 

For a large portion of Fleetwood Mac songs, I enjoyed them immediately on the first listen. These tended to be the Lindsey Buckingham songs, although I also gravitated towards the other songwriters as well. Even with a band as great as Fleetwood Mac, there are some songs that I occasionally skip, although on occasion, I attempt to give these songs another chance to redeem themselves. There are times where my initial thoughts hold true and the song is not worth the listen, but more often than not, I find a greater level of appreciation for some of these neglected songs.

Here are a handful of songs that I wasn't completely fond of on the first listen but later grew to appreciate.

Songbird
Silver Springs
Over and Over
What Makes You Think You're the One
Storms
Not That Funny
Never Make Me Cry
Walk a Thin Line
Wish You Were Here
Mystified
Welcome to the Room...Sara
You and I Part II
As Long as You Follow
Hard Feelings
All Over Again
Running Through the Garden
Smile at You
Steal Your Heart Away

This is an interesting topic. In my case I enjoyed immediately a large portion of songs too, but more based on albums, not singers necessarily. So if I have to pick songs that have grown on me, I realize there are several from Tusk.

Save Me a Place
Not That Funny
Brown Eyes
I Know I'm Not Wrong
Honey Hi
Straight Back
Oh Daddy
Thrown Down
Say Goodbye

That's All For Everyone
That's All Right
Eyes of The World
Beautiful Child
Honey Hi
Family Man
Caroline

It hasn’t grown all that much on me, but “Smile at You” on the 2003 album has grown somewhat. I used to think it was a misfire and a mess (my view had nothing to do with the earlier demos), but now I kind of get it. It has something, though I know not what.

Mystified
Only Over Ewe.

hahahahaha!!!:lol:

All of these songs I totally had the same reaction. As a kid, I just couldn’t appreciate the beautifulness of Songbird and Storms, the heartbreak of Hard Feelings and Never Make Me Cry, or the lyrical intensity of Silver Springs and Welcome to the Room Sara. With some life experience, I came to really like these songs.

For me, it was the interplay of Lindsey’s percussive guitar playing with John’s incredibly melodic bass playing. It was maybe John’s finest hour.

I Know I'm Not Wrong
What Makes You Think You're the One

Sheer brilliance! The live versions pack an even better punch. As stated by an earlier post, these songs require age and life experience to appreciate. As a 7-year-old kid in 1977, I was obsessed with Rumours - I wore out the record. However, "Tusk" left the 9-year-old me scratching my head. I had no schema, no frame of reference to grow into it.

Unpopular Opinion: The 53-year-old me is convinced that "Tusk" is a better album than "Rumours" - probably the best album in the Fleetwood Mac catalog.

I Know I'm Not Wrong is a masterpiece. On stage - it's a beautiful monster.

What Makes You Think You're The One has always been my favorite Lindsey Tusk song.

And I'm the same. Rumours defined who I became in life. I loved Tusk, but it sure wasn't the radio friendly gold that Rumours was. But it's their greatest album.

Oddly, I listen to Mirage more than anything these days. It's the original BuckVie...pop happiness.

I like them all but there are definitely some that have grown on me.

I Know I'm Not Wrong really grew on me after OWTS. It was one of the highlights of the show for me. I love it now.

Only Over You - when I first bought Mirage in 1983 it was my least favorite on the album. About 20 years ago, it became one of my favorites.

On More Lonely Night - when I first bought the live album in 1983, it was meh. I liked the song but I wanted more concert songs. Years later I appreciate what a great song it is.

Storms - I never liked this song. It was such a downer on Tusk and I would skip it. Plus my Tusk album had such surface scratches on this song that sort of ruined the vibe. During Stevie's Behind The Music segment they played a little of this song which sort of reintroduced me to it. When I really paid attention to the lyrics, I fell in love with it and felt the heartbreak of the song. Lindsey did it justice because the solemn and basic music does the lyrics justice. Its pretty much a poem IMHO.

Two songs I used to think were "meh" but have since become favorites are:

Never Make Me Cry
Only Over You (thanks to the alternate version on Mirage Deluxe)

Songs I used to think were "meh" that I now like a lot:

The Ghost
Silver Heels
Born Enchanter
Big Love
Tango In the Night

Songs I still can't warm to (though you didn't ask):

Blood on the Floor
Straight Back
Oh Diane
Welcome to the Room, Sara
When I See You Again
No Questions Asked
Skies the Limit (and most of BTM)
Paper Doll
Smile at You
Silver Girl
Come
Goodbye Baby

Looks like the ballads or slower numbers were rejected by folks here. I have always been the opposite, and some of the songs which had to grow on you guys were my instant favourites. In fact, my classic FM playlist will always be mostly the beautiful moving emotional slow ones.

For me it's "Over and Over" and "Family Man". I have grown to love these two songs

The main one for me is the song Tusk. I remember being baffled when I ran out and got the single before the album was released. Even more baffling was the B-side Never Make Me Cry. I think that Tusk has been played on every tour, both group and solo, and I have become a big fan of the song due to the live performances. A couple of honorable mentions is the live version with the marching band on The Dance, the demos on the box set, and the version from the 3rd disc of the Live box set.

Still don't care for Never Make Me Cry, although the alternate version on the box set is an improvement. I pretty much loved every Stevie song up until 1990 because they were the most commercial and I was such a fan.

Without a doubt….Sara.
I always thought it was a bit too boring. Now I appreciate its sheer brilliance and beauty. In fact it’s my favourite song.
I’d also throw in The Ledge. I thought it was completely embarrassing dross. Now I get it.

Silver Girl

It's a vibe. (A vibe a younger me didn't need.)
And the mastering (?) and vocal is not as grating as on some of the other Stevie tracks on SYW.

Not to be debated, Silver Girl is GARBAGE. :woohoo:

One thing it has is that lovely acoustic picking at the end.....

The Ledge DEFINES Tusk. It's the perfect F*CK YOU to the Rumours audience.

And Law and Order is my favorite Lindsey solo album.

LINDSEY AND HIS WEIRD TENDENCIES ARE WHAT MADE THEM STAND OUT. They'd have just been another socal band without that freak. Even as part of the big machine, he always dared to be different.

F*cking freak. :woohoo:

You cannot see my soul.

Well actually Warm Ways, Over & Over and One More Night are songs I loved immediately. These last 2 from the Live Album, cause it was the first FM album I got. Yes, many songs I discovered, it was the live versions I heard the first time.

And the first time I heard Warm Ways was driving from NJ to DC, at my second trip to the US, 1988. Weird that a slow song is associated to driving on a highway, but that's the story.

The Ledge is a song usually absent in my playlists.

The album Say you Will…it took me a couple of years to really enjoy this album.
Now I like almost all of it, there’s a couple of tracks I really love, and a couple I’m not so keen on….
But most were growers. And I like Albums that stretch over the years.

That album has grown on me too, but not enough. Not "meh", just like some songs but not enough to be close to my favorite songs. I enjoy far more BuckVie. And it has nothing to do with Stevie being in one and not being in the other. It's the sound, arrangements, songs, the sum of everything I guess.

I hate to say this..and I know I may be shot down but I am not that keen on BuckVie I don’t dislike it but I don’t love it..
And I don’t know why…..Wish I did.

It's because BuckVie is a FUN album(like Mirage). SYW is dark. Too dark. Gee, what was missing from SYW? SUNSHINE.

I think it needs one or two hard-rock tracks to prevent it from being “adult contemporary.”

But the biggest issue I have with it is Lindsey’s decision to do ALL his vocals in that grating, self-conscious, atonal, breathy style he’s been overrelying on for many years. I wish the guy would just SING normally and stop trying to sound so fey and precious and whispery on every song. Do it sparingly.

Well said, Sue.

Tusk and Say You Will are albums I choose to play when I want to be taken on a journey, with peaks and valleys, storms and sunshine (if not quite rainbows), and surprises with every twist in the road. The terrain can be rough but rewarding.

In less poetic terms, Tusk has long been an album I play when I do a big house clean, and Say You Will is a go-to for road trips.

That was my issue with it. His backup vocals on the verses of "Carnival Begin" are a bit creepy. And I HATED what he contributed to Christine's otherwise lovely and warm "Game of Pretend"--it ruined the song.

On his own songs, he refuses to belt. "On With the Show" is so good because you can hear the old Lindsey on it.

Still, I do love BuckVie. I only wish there were two more songs on it. 10 seems thin...

SYW is a bit of a mess, but a mess I enjoy. The middle section sags (for me) but there are at least 8-10 gems on it. And I would rather have a big, baggy, uneven record, than an anemic one. I think even the failures on SYW have substance.

A-Men
SYW is very much like Tusk. It has its quirkiness. People call both albums cold. Both albums are long. Many songs created not for pop radio like Illune and Come. Much of both albums are Lindsey's creations. Many Tusk like elements exist on SYW.

Say You Will is still somewhat cohesive despite it sounding like two solo records mashed together. That could be attributed to the production, where Buckingham has his fingerprint all over the record. Going into the album several years ago and with minimal background information about its development, I expected Say You Will to be a return to the Buckingham Nicks era with a greater sense of collaboration between the two artists. That never happened, as Buckingham already solo album over 90% complete for several years and was anxious to release at least some of those songs in any form. As such, the collaboration between the two simply amounted to Buckingham tacking some of Nicks' backing vocals on a few songs and calling it a day.

In terms of the songs, there is no shortage of great material. "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave" was among my most listened to songs this year and ranks amongst Buckingham's best work in my opinion. The album's most adventurous songs are arguably my favorite ("Murrow", "Red Rover", "Come", "Everybody Finds Out", although I find "Illume" to be rather aimless. Even some of the more conventional songs like "Miranda", "Running Through the Garden", "Steal Your Heart Away", and "Bleed to Love Her" have a lot to offer.

Everybody Finds Out is the Mac's most explosive song IMHO. Much more than the Chain or GYOW or even Isn't It Midnight. I wish they would have made more songs like that. The Mac is known for their rhythm section but sometimes they venture out to do something like Everybody Finds Out. The song has many layers. Mick, John, and Lindsey are on fire. It's an incredible piece of music.
It should have been the single from the album.

SYW is really panned around here but there is undevoted love for Tusk. Many dismiss abrasive songs like Illume and Come as going too far creatively and not making sense from the band. However I see songs like The Ledge on Tusk crafted in the same way. IMHO they are equal in not being commercial, being something totally different from Fleetwood Mac. I bet Lindsey would probably agree. It took 20 years for many to warm up to Tusk. I hope the haters of SYW will also warm up to the album. In some areas SYW is more raw than some Tusk songs. In the end, both albums reflect Lindsey in being a little commercial and lots of creativity aka painting. On both albums the rest of the band was not really happy with the process and protested it during the recording process. If anything Stevie was more upset with SYW than Tusk.

It took 20 years to warm up to Tusk. It’s 20 years since SYW….but not too much warming. Tusk was a creative masterpiece, SYW is still viewed as an underwhelming disappointment. Numerous high points, but overall and collectively a bit of a ‘noise’ and not a really pleasurable listening experience. Listening to Tusk now, I can play it ‘Over and Over’

THIS.



SYW SUCKS. I should burn a BuckVie disc, followed by 7-8 of the tolerable songs on SYW.

Agreed. SYW is poopada.

Not 20 years but something like that. In the early 80s at my fandon beginning a friend of mine had taped just Tusk disc 2, and I always asked to play the Tusk song. When he played the whole cassette I liked Angel too, but I found kind of monotonous that album. And used to ask Did you skip Sara? I didn't learn it was a double album yet.

It was when I got my own Tusk album that I started to like it, but it took a long while. Before Tusk I got Live. Actually Live was the first Fleetwood Mac album I bought. And it was very very interesting and peculiar to hear live versions for the first time, and later the studio version of many songs.

I really agree with you about tusk taking almost 20 years to warm up to, but I have a theory about that as well; we all loved Rumours, but since Rumours was on such a high pedestal, by huge fans and casual fans, eventually overexposure had us pulling out Rumours less often to listen to and turning to other FM albums, and lo and behold, “what about this Tusk album we listened to a couple of times? Hey it’s not as bad as I remembered! Heck, some of these songs are pretty good after all!”

Except for Tusk, Sara, What Makes You Think You’re the One, and That’s All For Everyone, I couldn’t get into Tusk. I remember in 1988 I finally grew to like Storms, Beautiful Child, and Think About Me, but it wasn’t until years after that that I came to love I know I’m Not Wrong, Over and Over, Brown Eyes, Save Me a Place, Never Make Me Cry, and I think it was because I was so hungry for ‘new’ FM material that I turned to the one FM album I rarely listened to to get my fix.