Best of Stevie on BTM
 

I thought we should take a look at Stevie's contributions. To me, her best is by far Love is Dangerous collaboration with Rick Vito. Freedom and Affairs of the Heart both have strong moments with weak moments and bad moments. The Second Time was not well executed but I feel she did put some effort into the song.

I hate to say it but the best of Stevie on BTM is her backing vocals or singing with someone else like Vito on Love is Dangerous. She knocks it out of the park with Rick on that song. She even provides haunting back up to Billy's Back of My Mind. I even like her back ups to Skies the Limit and Save Me. Freedom is her best song on BTM. Its a fairly good song but on any other album it would have been the ok song. But her other songs are such duds which makes Freedom shine even more. Affairs of the Heart is horrible and she sounds so drugged and bored. I also hate when backing vocals answer questions to the singer or provide a conversation. That song is nails down a chalk board for me. Her vocals on Second Time are horrendous. She sounds like an old woman chewing tobacco on a front porch in Kentucky :eek:
Sorry Stevie but your best contributions to BTM are back up vocals :(


That woman used to H …. O ... L L Y .. W O …O......D living

She never looked back
(and neither did we)

I agree with all this- her backing and harmony vocals are incredible on BTM, but her solo songs are not up to par, to put it gently. Freedom is exactly what you said it is- a decent song that sounds like a masterpiece on BTM but on any other FM album it would fall beneath the cracks.

Still, Love is Dangerous and In the Back of My Mind, along with the backing vocals on Save Me and Skies the aLimit, elevate those songs, and the album in general, to greater heights.

Stevie and Christine Have the best backing vocals on the planet. Which is why I was always so confused Lindsey did his own. Wasting talent.

Having said that, Stevie shines as a member of the band. Agree her vocals on all of Christine's songs are stellar. Much like she did with Oh Daddy that was eventually deleted for the final track.

Her own comp's. That's another story. I'll take Love Is Dangerous. Freedom gets skipped it's so bad. Tango and BTM were really bad for her.

When it released, I was in love with Skies, Save Me, Love Is Dangerous, and Do You Know. The rest of the album just lays there like a drunken lay.

I felt that way then, and still do. It's like SYW, cut the mother in half, and you might have something...

I always thought the same that after Rumours Chris and Stevie’s backing vocals were very buried in the mix on Lindsey’s songs as was Stevie’s on Christine’s Oh Daddy. It’s almost that the “Hits” had the three but not the album tracks…Rhiannon, Say You Love Me, Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Don’t Stop, You Make Loving Fun, Think About Me, Sara, Hold Me, Gypsy, Seven Wonders, Everywhere… Al featuring all 3.

I agree, Stevie's backing vocals are stellar throughout BTM, flawless is the correct description. I'd forgotten about the amazing take of Oh Daddy with her absolutely gorgeous, haunting vocals on the song- a real head scratcher why they didn't keep it in- what an amazing lead up to Gold Dust Woman that would've been (I'll create a play list with those better versions). The You Make Loving Fun take is the same, beautiful Stevie backing vocals- a version they did live for a while. Also Never Going Back Again- why not showcase her wonderful vocals throughout at the time. Her BTM back up vocals are just as good and had she brought better songs to the album and worked on her lead a bit more, softer actually, she could have really shone on the album as a whole including her own songs.

Freedom is the last great Fleetwood Mac song she did. Love Is Dangerous is okay but nothing special to me. Affairs Of The Heart is dreadful and The Second Time is arguably the worst song in Fleetwood Mac's catalogue.

I chose “Love Is Dangerous” because it’s generically good, a solid performance where she seems engaged enough with the lyric to make some fire happen, but I think you’re right about “Freedom.” Even if (for me) the song isn’t her best, she sings with conviction there. She believes what she’s saying—and that is no small thing. Where we disagree is with her last great FM song: I think at least four of her SYW songs surpass anything she did with FM since Tusk.

I seriously thought many were going to flame me to call Stevie's best BTM contributions were back up vocals only :lol:



Lets talk about Billy's contributions. His 3 songs range from Excellent, good, and OMG

1. Back of My Mind is excellent. It should have been the opener. Its not commercial yet hooks the listeners in. The first time I heard the song, I loved it. I remember taking a girl to the Farwell concert in 1990 and playing the cassette in the car. Her first time hearing the song she exclaimed "I like that song." I love how they also feature Christine in the bridge.

2. Do You Know - his voice with Christine is like peanut butter and jelly. They go so good together. This is another I would sing in the car and try and harmonize with Chris and Billy. Good.

3. Hard Feelings - this is my least favorite of the album (yes even behind Second Time). I know it gets some love around here but I never could get into it. Billy is not a great singer and this song highlights that fact. Hate it.


On another note, Mick's drumming is really good on this album. Its crisp and profound. John's playing is really good and Chris plays away. This is the reason I like BTM better than Tango. Its less commercial, less synth pop and more playing and hearing that classic Mac sound.

I think Stevie’s vocals on Love is Dangerous are incredible. She clearly seems inspired by Rick Vito here, and she knocks it out of the park. “Echoes of emotion and the visions of a fool/echoes of forbidden ground and it’s too good to be true/too good to be true” sound especially good. I have no idea what they’re talking about, but it sounds damn good.

Freedom is interesting to me. I like it, but when I heard the entire album, I remember thinking there was not one Stevie song I could imagine being played on the radio, with the possible exception of Love is Dangerous. I realized it was going to fall completely on Christine’s shoulders to sell BTM, and she certainly delivered. But Freedom just can’t compare to her classic songs, and I agree with aleuzzi that she had some better material on Say You Will.

Freedom has some awesome moments, that are otherwise overshadowed by some of the buzzsaw vocals earlier in the song, but once we reach "all the things you used on me don't work now that you've fallen" before that amazing guitar lick kicks in, is her best moment on BTM, Love is Dangerous notwithstanding. At that moment, I kept wishing that Freedom would go on a little longer, and yes, I did tend to crank the volume at that point, even when I spun the entire album on the 30th anniversary :]

With Affairs of the Heart, I capture "time would take its toll upon us all" too bad the rest of the song didn't have a lyric like this but describing the colour of doors on a long hallway makes me yearn for the days of staring at the stairs.

The Second Time had potential but it's not really a sad and emotional song as it is pathetic and made the album go from the awesome title track to sinking like the titanic by the time we got to it. When I saw the original track list, I couldn't wait to hear it. Sequencing wise, burying Stevie's two tracks toward the end was not good as she needed a song at least to the calibre of GDW to pull that off.

BTM is an interesting era in the band's history, and overwhelmingly saved by the ever talented Christine McVie. The tour though, I thought was fantastic and Stevie redeemed herself with some pretty awesome vocals.

She was inspired by Rick for sure. And she co-wrote 2 songs with him too. Love is Dangerous is a great rocker.
In seeing the BTM shows from that tour, they were definitely flirting on stage, like in Go Your Own Way.
I'd bet they were romantic!

Do you think Rick and Billy have both seen her battle worn business?

I'll bet she had them both.

I think Rick and Stevie were romantic, which is cute.
He toured with her solo in 91 and 94, right?

Rick was a good looking guy.

I don't think Billy. It would've been cute if Christine dated Billy.