wasn't the reunion supposed to be for MTV unplugged show? those were extremely popular at the time, and done not only by bands popular at the time but also brought back some older acts. the most memorable unplugged shows are probably Nirvana's and Clapton's.

i think the story with FM goes that they were proposed a reunion to do an unplugged show, but once they started rehearsing, they were not happy doing unplugged versions of all songs and that's how we got The Dance.

No it was never an unplugged. It was always a WB produced, Burbank soundstage, 7 camera, full blown reunion show.

interesting. i have no clue how accurate or not the unplugged story was, except that it fits the era and the pattern at the time. quick google search does land some credibility to Unplugged thing, but it may have just been a made up story - https://ultimateclassicrock.com/flee...ance-turns-15/:

Fleetwood Mac was coming off one of their more disappointing eras. That led the band's most well-known lineup to put aside past differences and reunite for The Dance, which arrived in stores Aug. 19, 1997.

The vocal trio of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie all agreeed to one more run that would be highlighted by an MTV Unplugged special. Wanting to take advantage of a rare opportunity when they were all together, Fleetwood Mac also created a number of new tracks that would intermingle with their classic songs.



Read More: How Fleetwood Mac Reunited for 'The Dance' | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/flee...edium=referral

Wear You Down
Come
Try For The Sun
Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind
Miranda
Gotta Get Away
Down On Rodeo
Bleed to Lover Her
Hit & Run
Steal Your Heart Away
My Little Demon
She Smiled Sweetly

Above is a 1999 circulated track list

I think I remember hearing that. Although during the interview they don't mention doing only an acoustic set (and they were not asked about it either).
But that makes sense how quickly they decided to do a recorded show, tour and live album.

What I remember is that a lot of us casually referred to any sort of concert in that MTV or VH1 setting as an "unplugged." We started using it like a brand name, like Kleenex. "Oh, Fleetwood Mac is doing an unplugged, now."

The original idea of the unplugged was, of course, an acoustic rendering of a band's traditional set. But then Springsteen came along, somewhere in the early 1990s, and mixed acoustic with electric (like Dylan?).

I think that "Say You Love Me" and "Big Love" and "Go Insane" were Fleetwood Mac's way of honoring the tradition of "unplugged" in the nineties - except that John wasn't playing an acoustic, upright bass on SYLM. (He should have tried that!)

of course, LB was doing those same "acoustic" versions of Go Insane and Big Love since 1992. and the same was always with Landslide. so it's really only SYLM.

I don't think the SYLM arrangement was done to mimick the unplugged era. I always got the impression that the SYLM arrangement was done to mimic the Eagles Hell Freezes Over show where they played a couple songs more mellow, bringing everyone front and center for a couple songs. FM is always following the Eagles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5MOvVnetbw

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

They even both start out with the thumb picked intro change.

Even recorded the concert at the same venue.

Back to the original question, there has been some small info leaked about a mid-nineties rejected album that had the alleged title of ‘Smile’, I added a page to the Still Going Insane website a while ago that tried to cover this era and the GOS era from info captured from trawling through the old Fleetwood Mac newsgroup that was active in the early days of the internet.

- http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/still...90s-album.html

There is also interviews with the cradle live band about them going into the studio with Lindsey post tour, maybe this is where the song ‘Come’ came from as the songwriters are Lindsey and Neale Heywood. Would really like to understand the post-cradle era better and why LB and Richard Dashut did not work on any other projects, but Richard seems not to want to discuss this. Richard did produce the Time album, but by The Dance he was completely gone, not even a thank you on the album credits if memory serves.

yes, i asked Janet about it once, to try and compare songs OOTC band recorded while in HI to what was on leaked GOS1. she was not completely sure but thought some of those might be it.

weren't those Rob Cavallo's exact words about it?

This is what I was asking about. Thanks.

Since we're talking about this era, does anyone know when and under what circumstance "Someones gotta change your mind" was recorded...thanks

Seems it's part of the "Isn't that weird" sessions Lindsey said at The Dance show:

GUITAR WORLD ACOUSTIC. November 2006
Mick Fleetwood played percussion on "Down on Rodeo" and "Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind," John McVie played bass on "Down on Rodeo" and David Campbell did some orchestration on "Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind." those two songs were recorded quite a long time ago, almost 10 years ago, at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood, and they were under consideration for [the 2003 Fleetwood Mac album] Say You Will. But that's really it. The other songs are all from the last three years. I recorded them by myself, either at home or on the road with Fleetwood Mac, and they're mostly guitars and vocals with a little rhythmic support. And lots of echo.

The link:
http://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/articles/...06-10_016.html

With Down on Rodeo it sure seems like while they may have put a master track together years earlier that the cut on UTS was a discard from SYW sessions.

But SGCYM is clearly recorded live, it's not fine tuned enough to be a studio track with just a crowd added. Or are my ears that naive?

When might this have been recorded?