Does Lindsey realize just what OOTC means to people?
 

In the recent AOL sessions there's a lady caller who at one point thanks Linds for doing OOTC.. and his reaction... is of general surprise. I guess he dosn't realize that OOTC is a very inspiring CD, certainly for me anyway, it's been a real friend during some rough moments... and "Don't look down" in particular has really kept me going. Has it done the same for any other fellow Ledgies? C'mon, don't be shy, tell him, what you really think and maybe he'll finally get it! :)

Oh, yeah
 

When I mentally rehearse my imagined meeting with Lindsey Buckingham, lol, I always tell him how much OOTC means to me. :)

Here's my story:

I didn't get into Fleetwood Mac until 1997/1998, and didn't buy OOTC until late 1999. I was graduating with a M.A. in English in May of 2000. I had gone straight from living at home to undergraduate to graduate, and in May, for the first time, I was entering the "real world" and life on my own (I didnt know then that I would re-enter academia for a PhD two years later! lol).

So, May 15 finally arrived. I'd walked across the stage, received my degree, packed up everything and stuck it in the U-Haul. All my friends who'd helped me pack had said their goodbyes and left. My roomate had already gone home for the summer. I stood there in my empty place and just started crying.

I was so scared and depressed! What if I were one of those people who thrived in academia, but failed miserably in the "real world"? And I'd had so many good times and a student, made so many good friends. What if things were never that good again?

Basically, I was 'fraid of changing. lol To make a long story short (too late), I got in my car and got on the highway and then, almost randomly, stuck in OOTC in my CD player. I was on Highway 6 literally leaving College Station, Texas when Soul Drifter came on..."I'm a soul drifter, and I'm out of this town..."

But the line that really made me pause was "Now the ground has opened all around me." And after that I just listened to that song and really took it to heart. As you guys know, most of the album revolves around that theme of changing for the good. And it really put things in perspective for me....like this wasn't the end of something, it was the beginning of something. And just maybe the best was yet to come. And I stopped crying and started smiling. :)

So, it didn't prevent me from committing suicide or give meaning to my life or anything, lol, but I'll never forget how that album touched me that day, how it lifted my spirits and encouraged me. Even know, when I listen to "Soul Drifter," I get a little catch in my throat and a big smile on my face.

And there you have it. What OOTC means to me.

Yeah OOTC in particular is like therapy to me when I listen to it. I popped it in today and it really made me smile and feel better.

Sit back and relax folks...LOL
 

He has NO IDEA how much this album means to people because of the idiots who didn't play it on the radio AND the fact that so many people go "Who's she?" when I say I love Lindsey Buckingham. :rolleyes: That's worse than LindsAy!!! Anyways...

This album means the UNIVERSE to me!!!! It's the album that got me HOOKED on Lindsey. I heard Surrender the Rain and Souldrifter and forget it, I was obsessed from that day forward. The fact that my parents split up (and eventually divorced) within that past two years KILLED ME, and OOTC was my shelter in the storm. Lindsey's music is so powerful and makes my soul sing. I have decided that I want Souldrifter played at my funeral. It fits PERFECTLY. From the first note of the intro to DLD to the last part of SWMA, it's PERFECTION!! There's not a bad song, bad note, bad anything....he pours out every inch of his soul in this album and watching him play Street of Dreams all alone on the stage during the PBS Center Stage show...is BREATHTAKING, it gives me chills and makes me cry. I suggested the album to a fellow Justin fan and she loves it!! I don't think anyone that listens to this album doesn't like it, what's NOT to like anyways?!?!?! :confused: IMVHO, it's THE best pop album of ALL time....FULL STOP!! (hehe) I was SO excited to hear that lady tell Lindsey what OOTC meant to her...he NEEDS to hear that, ALOT!!! I pray that one day I will get the opportunity to tell him in person how much his music means to me as well.

BRAVO LINDSEY!!!!!

My LOVE of OOTC...
 

Lindsey's album OOTC... are gorgeous, lovely
songs from a man who has suffered!!! My own
suffering is alleviated by meaningful music that
speaks to my heart! I find Comfort in His Music!

All My Sorrows~~is a meaningful old slave tune!
My love is gone...left me behind...all my sorrows
soon forgotten!!! True love that will never die!!!

Turn It On~is profound! Now someone has left
you alone ...somehow you will carry on!!! Now...
someone is dead and gone...the hurt that you
feel makes you strong! Go Out and Turn It ON!

Say We'll Meet Again~~~ Please say we'll meet
again! That was a time... that was a dream but
nothing lasts forever!Just say we'll meet again!

THANKS LINDSEY for Sharing your Heart and Soul!

Re: Sit back and relax folks...LOL
 

Imagine how I felt standing right in front of the stage just to the left of Lindsey at the Paradise in Boston in 1993. What a great show.

Funny thing about Soul Drifter, Sodascouts, is when I moved to New York from Massachusetts, I was playing that record when I was driving out and the song came on and it just made so much sense at the time. <-- Hemingway would be proud of that sentence, nyet?

"Out of the Cradle" has given me so much listening pleasure that it would be too hard to describe just what it's meant to me. So I won't. I'm just going to keep enjoying it.

Its hard to believe the guy that made this record is the same guy who fronted a major rock band in the '70's and '80's-its a completely different listening experience. Granted, the dynamics change when you're in a band as opposed to doing it on your own, but this is a very personal and intimate album. Not like his 2 previous solo albums. There is something very soothing and therapeutic about OOTC. Not easily explainable. Better lyrics (the best he's done up till that point) certainly add to the overall feel of the record.

Don't apologise for all your stories about how OOTC has touched you. Reading them is great - we need a 'Chicken Soup for the Lindsey Fan' ;)

My dog died in '92. OK, call me a puss, but he was a Shar-pei and was so intelligent and loving, it was like having a child. He died a very untimely death from cancer.

I listend to 'Don't Look Down' (as well as all of OOTC) endlessly as it seemed to be the perfect metaphor - dealing with pain, loss, hardship and overcoming it.

Some mention has been made lately of LB's growth lyrically. His new tendency to speak metaphorically as in 'Peacekeeper' is really making me look at him as if OOTC was really a "new" beginning point for him. He's drawing parallels between themes in his life and broader themes in the world. Rather than just writing about love and loss of love, he's really broadening the spectrum for us all. I'm really anticipating the SYW album as I know we'll be in for a real work of art.

Jeff

OOTC Lyrics!!!
 

:cool: Yes...Lindsey writes from his Integrity and Truth
as he knows it...he has grown in his lyrics...and is
an expert at writing metaphorically in his tunes! :nod:

Because of many family deaths I hear songs of
mourning and sorrow... while other ppl will hear
a different meaning! This is Lindsey's true genius!
He keeps his personal life hidden in OOTC!!! Sky:)

ps "Shadow of The West" from L&O makes me cry!

Jeff...
 

Aww...I'm sorry to hear about your dog. :( Hey, it hurts to lose a pet too. Good to know that Lindsey's music can help people through all KINDS of loss. :nod:

I agree that his growth in the lyric department is AWESOME! I have listened to Peacekeeper AND Red Rover over and over again, and although the meaning really does escape me over these two particular songs, it doesn't make them ANY LESS powerful! Red Rover brings me to tears like ISA does...but in a different way. Lindsey said in that radio interview that some ambiguity in lyrics is a good thing. (I agree because we all interpret them for our own lives.) One reason why music is the UNIVERSAL language!!

When music touches your soul, there is no greater feeling in the world!!

OOTC is my favourite album, no question. I can relate to a lot of the songs on the album perhaps more than anything any other artist has ever written.

I don't see this album as the normal "Lindsey" stuff. It transcends it and I certainly think it's on another level entirely.

Soul Drifter, Street Of Dreams, Countdown, Wrong, Don't Look Down are all of immense importance in my life, a whole range of emotions in those songs.


It'll take an amazing album to knock this one off my number 1 spot.



:wavey:

Absolutely the best album of all time. I never get tired of listening to it. It, too, has seen me through some rougher periods of my life. Bravo Lindsey

I've never heard anything like the music on this album, and I don't think I ever will. I think the word "theraputic" is definitely a good adjective to use when describing the songs. Other than that, I would describe them as amazing, fantastic, awesome, incredibe!:nod:

I think Lindsey was slightly shocked to hear the caller describe the album as "therapy" because, to answer your question, I don't think that Lindsey knows just what OOTC means to people. He made an album in his studio, with no deadlines and total freedom both from the label and from the "musical laws" of Fleetwood Mac, and it resulted in "Out Of The Cradle". It all comes down to his famous quote which I've repeated so many times on The Ledge for so many different reasons: "Music is a means of expression that rings truer and is more connected to things inside than speech". His emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, sorrow, fear, hope and many many others have all been conveyed perfectly by this group of songs. We feel the same emotions, and so we've connected perfectly with him and his music. What does it take to create such a phenomenon? A musical genius. Nothing Less.

Bravo indeed, Lindsey.:cool:

Fav. lyrics from the album:

That was a dream, that was a time
But nothing lasts forever
Sooner or later we all must go blind
But we can dream these dreams together

:wavey: :wavey: :wavey:

OOTC is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. When you listen to it, it's as if you are actually listening to Lindsey's thoughts as they pour out. It's incredible. Soul Drifter is probably my favorite off of it, the lyrics just speak volumes to me. I think it's one of the most telling and personal albums to have ever been released by ANYONE and I feel proud to have it in my library! Lindsey has never gotten the recognition he deserves and this album proves it. A genius. Hey, at least Leno and Letterman had the sense to have him on to perform songs from it back in the day! :nod:

It's the perfect album for finding inspiration to face challenges, isn't it?

As a kid you think that you'll know everything by the time you're an adult. By the time you're an adult, you realize how little you know and how scary life can sometimes be. You can let the fear take you over, and sometimes it does, but you can also beat it back and you can take responsibility for yourself and go forward with some hope. This album is really perfect for making me feel like my fears are understood and appreciated and that acknowledgement is a comfort and an ecouragement to go forward with hope to whatever awaits...because I'll deal with it.

It means a great deal to me and always will. Plus, killer guitar solo on Countdown, no? ;)

I think that OOTC was an awesome album that goes beyond anything done prior to it's release. I have listened to it since I got it in 99 and have even used the first track for scholarship auditions...although, I can't play it note for note...he sped up the tape he recorded it on...

I agree that he doesn't realize how much the album meant to people...and part of that is when it came out (92, wasn't it?) the emerging popular genre was punk, grunge, and hip-hop. Classic rock and rock-pop was in a temporary slump, and OOTC was one of THE defining albums of rock-pop.

I'm trying to locate an article I read on some guitar player (If I could remember who it was, I could find it and transcribe it here for you guys) back in 01 that said that OOTC was what inspired him to record his debut album...though Mark Knopfler's (Dire Straights) first solo album was the other...but that's besides the point. I think it was Countdown that sold him, but like I said, I can't remember who it was or what magazine or e-zine I read it on...

Doing What I Can has got me through the last couple of weeks as I try to figure out how to tell my girlfriends parents that I want to propose...any other songs from any LB or Mac album that would help as well?

Mike..I think it's great OOTC is helping you through a happy time(ie your'e thinking of getting married!). Seems like the rest of us have been through various stages of loss and unhappiness..isn't it cool, that an album can mean different things to different folks:D
I'm sure Linds would be very pleased to know he's helped so many of us:)

Interesting choices
 

Isn't that weird? :laugh: :laugh:

Out Of The Cradle (1992) by Lindsey Buckingham and Golden Heart (1996) by Mark Knopfler are absolutely my favorite two albums ever.

I wouldn't have bet anybody else would pick those two, guess I was wrong!

Hey, the man just got it wrong. :laugh: :laugh: :D

:wavey:

One man's guilt ridden angst is another man's kick in the rear to do what he knows is the right thing to do and when to do it. Sides, sometimes a sorrowfull message is in memory of the past...sort of a catharsis. It just told me that no matter what I do, things are going to happen. I just gotta do what I can, and let go of the fear and the past heartaches.

Hello, fellow OOTC fanatics.

I, too, continue to find OOTC just an unbelievable work of art. I've had it for about 5 or 6 years, and I break it out about every 3 months, when nobody's home, and play it at ear-splitting levels. Although the album is, for me, an uplifting experience in and of itself, from beginning to end, I must say that it kicks into highest gear for me when those piercing, opening notes on "Countdown" ring out so clear and so welcoming. That part literally grabs my body and soul and draws me right into the album; I actually get a bit of a chill, and a tear or two tends to well up. It's not that the album makes me want to cry; it's that I have such a strong visceral reaction to it for so many reasons. One, I suspect, is that I'm always desperately clinging to the brilliance of Mr. Lindsey B., and always saddened there isn't more. I'm so excited about this new album, I'm beside myself, and I'm further thrilled to the bone that he wants to begin another Mac album in a year, "from the ground up." That was the best musical news I've read in years!

Almost immediately after I purchased the album, I was so enamored of it that I wrote an overly long post shortly thereafter--I think it was about 4 or 5 years ago, unbelievably--in which I tried to convey what the album meant to me. As long as the post was/is, it doesn't capture all the emotion I feel when it plays--nothing I could ever write could capture it--but if you're like me, and you love the album from start to finish, and if it takes you to some other place musically and bodily, then you might want to read what I wrote. I don't mention this as some egocentric advertisement for my simple words--as we can all attest, I'm sure, it's somewhat uncomfortable to have others read and judge your words, plus I know there are typos in the original--but I just think that when you like or love something, it's comforting to read others' praise of that thing. It confirms our excellent taste, I suppose.

Anyway, if you care to access my heaping praise (and typos, and melodramatic style), go to the News & Archives, then the Blue Letter Archives, and scrolling all the way down (in the right frame) where Marty generously stored a few of my hyperventilations. But I meant every word, and since I suspect most, if not all, of you don't know me from Adam, the words--and thus the shared enthusiasm--will be new. For anybody still on this board who read them before, well, please ignore this entire post . . .

Cheers.

Joe

OOTC was purchased by me on June 18,1992 which I remember because it was also my mom's birthday. We were in Strawberries and she was looking for something new to listen to and I knew LB had his album coming out. Seeing that oblong box ( no longer being done that way :( ...) and seeing his picture lit up the room for me. I went home and listened to it over and over again until I had it memorized. It stayed in my CD carousel for a long time. It really helped me through some not so great times as I like to refer to the late 80's early 90's as my wastelands. Lindsey had written songs with great meaning and sang & played with such soul. OOTC is a classic album that critics raved about, loyal fans love but never hit as big as it should have.
It holds a special place in my heart. And the solo tour that followed was also a surprise and a treat!:nod:

Hi there!!
 

Welcome to the Ledge, Joe!! :D

Unfortunately, the Ledge seems to be having problems and I wrote this LONG post earlier, but lost the entire thing. :( Basically, I wrote OOTC and Lindsey has changed my life. I'm a different person than I was just a couple of years ago when I found Lindsey and FM.

I read your posts on OOTC as well as your Twisted review and WOW!!!!! You write from the heart just like Lindsey and reading those made me cry. When you talked about the line "I know, you know, watching you go is like dyin'...like dyin.."...I started getting tears because of the way you were talking about it. I just listened to that song many times the other day, but NOW I have to listen to it again and really LISTEN to it....with headphones. I wanna go break out OOTC again thanks to your post!

I'm so glad that there are others who love and admire Lindsey and his music as much as me....and I'm forever grateful for the friends I've made here and around the net who love music to the INTENSITY that I do. :nod:

Aw, Joe, is it really you? Welcome back!

Hi, Les!

Thanks for your nice greeting. I suppose I've never "left," in the sense that I've: a) been strung along, for the last 6 years, by Lindsey ("I'd been working on a new album . . . still am, actually"), the Mac ("We'll be back!"), Mick ("I'll be going on tour with the boys"), their record company (*insert nothing here*), and my own silly little hope that this day would come, and b) my occasional visits to the board, to see if anything was cooking. Well, in the words of some commercial mom from my childhood, "It's soup!"

I'm sorry the old boy isn't going to do a solo album, and from the looks of it, will probably never do one, but I'm thrilled that his too-small small body of work is about to expand significantly. (Of course, I look at every Mac piece as a bit of Lindsey, being the "sonic architect"--was that the term?--of the group.) I can't believe the new album is 18 songs. How great is that?!

By the way, Les, I downloaded a different kind of artistic masterpiece, your Lindsey newsletter ("Eyes of the World," maybe?), a year or so ago. It was really, REALLY well done (not that I'd expect any different from you, of course). I recall being exhausted at the thought of how long it must've taken you to put it together. Nice job! Now you've gotta sell some subscriptions . . .

Anyway, I hope to post a little now and then, considering what's happening. I feel like being a part of it again, as we all do in our little ways, eh? I'm really knocked out by the progress that Marty and Lisa have made on this site; it's truly amazing, and puts the other "official" (*cough* *barf*) site to absolute shame.

See ya soon.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Yes, I've got such mixed feelings about the fate of the solo career. I might suspect that fatherhood has changed his outlook on just how much time he feels he should dedicate himself to the long, hard path to solo albums. I want for him that option because I love that side of him, but at the same time, he's ready to be in the Mac again and I'm so happy about that. Eighteen songs indeed!

Aw, thanks. I feel a little sheepish because I did mean to do more of those, but a few other priorities in life took over for a while. They were great fun to do. I've been working on a Lindsey website lately, which will perhaps replace that newsletter noodling I was doing. ;-)

Yes, yes! I guess another "new unveiling" of the "official site" is due on the 15th, but I'm not quite giddy with anticipation. Hehe. The Penguin is a hard act to follow.

It'll be wonderful to see you around again!

Re: Hi there!!
 

Hi Joe: Your words have been sorely missed - good to see you. I too remember being so moved by your Twisted review and think it's one of the best duets Stevie and Lindsey have ever done. It would be nice to hear them do it live, wouldn't it? Glad you're back to join the fun.

Barbara :nod:

Les, Barbara,

Thanks very much.

AMAZING how time flies . . .

Joe, it's great to see you back!!We've missed you!:)


There’s a shadow on my daddy’s stone, where he was laid, laid to rest.
I ask him is this just a dream, or is it just another test?
I turn my back against the cold, I turn my face into the wind
And I wonder will I ever, ever make it home again?
Shadow on daddy’s stone, ten years gone, it seems
I ask him will I ever stop, ever stop dreaming dreams?!
He said never, never, never


This has to be the most hauntingly beautiful song Lindsey ever wrote -except maybe DWSuite.

This is the song that hooked me on the album because, like Lindsey, I lost my father in my 20's. It expresses so well what it feels like to lose a parent when you are young.

I bought OOTC because the Rolling Stone gave it 5 stars. At the time I didn't realize that Lindsey was the man behind FM's "sound". Once I heard "Don't Look Down" I knew who made that beautiful music. I've been a Lindsey fanatic ever since=:-)

Hi, Vianna.

Thanks for saying "hi."

As I read about that great album, and think about it, I realize that people who really love it could probably go on about it for days, weeks, months, years. I suppose we merely confirm the importance and relevance of art in our life, and history: we look at it, feel it, interpret it, and continue to do so, ad infinitum, and it continues to touch us, sometimes in new and exciting ways, but just as often in the old and comforting ways.

I just bought the 2-CD "Say You Will." I've been so desperate for new music from these folks that I shelled out an additional eight bucks for a couple of other songs and the two live versions. I'm waiting until nobody's home—which will be next Tuesday—and then I'm going to turn the volume WAY up and take the Nestea plunge.

Can't wait. Until then, I'm not listening to or reading anything about it. I want to experience every note with untainted ears.

Talk to you soon.

Joe

My dad got OOTC when it came out in the summer of '92. Since then I always saw it pop up when I looked through his CD collection, and I would play it sometimes. I would blast the album when no one was around, especially "Countdown." Then, just last year I finally stole it from him, lol.