The great GOS internet leak mystery
 

Does anyone know how the Gift of Screws tracks were leaked to the internet?
Personally, I was really excited to hear the tracks a few years ago but I have to admit - I was disappointed to not have Say You Will be a total surprise.
Anyway - it's fun to have the Lindsey songs before and after. (I actually like most of them better before they were Fleetwood Macized).

Just curious if it was public knowledge as to who did the dirty deed of stealing Lindsey's hard work and leaking them.

Warner Bros. allegedly wanted to keep an eye on the progress of Lindsey's work this time around, and, as such, the songs made their rounds among various execs at the company.
Many of us have long felt that the songs were then leaked thanks to some unknown intern at one of W.B.'s offices, who probably "borrowed" one of the review discs, ripped it, returned it, and then started sharing the songs with other fans.

Another theory that has made the rounds, is that Lindsey leaked them himself in order to create some buzz, and hopefully force the hands of the Warner Bros. execs, so that they'd release the album.

For me, that theory holds no water, and is the most "out there" type of fan conjecture.

I saw people discussing this very issue on another board. They attributed it to a gentleman named David, I think. I do not know what his role is in all of this though.

:laugh: OK, David, own up!

i was recently thinking about this myself.... and i remembered that the GOS songs leaked almost exactly at the same time that stevie's tisl demos leaked (thrown down, annabell lee, not make believe etc) WHICH if i remember correctly, was just shortly after mick john and lindsey went into the studio to start work and stevie hit the road starting her tisl tour (right after she gave them a bunch of demos)

sooooo i'm wondering if someone working with the guys at that time could have leaked all that stuff... i mean, it would make sense... they all leaked right when they all were brought into the same studio.... house... whatever.... so it may be safe to assume that it wasn't someone that had anything to do with lindsey's GOS album... and it wasn't someone who had anything to do with stevie's tisl album.... perhaps it was someone who normally only works with fleetwood mac, and not on either person's solo albums.....

what do you guys think?

but that doesn't really explain why cds of the tisl demos made their rounds while gos was initially only mp3 downloads.... unless someone was trying to cover their butts and make it seem like they didn't come from the same place..... i don't know

Wasn't there some girl who was a friend of someone who knew Lindsey who said something about these songs? I remember reading something on the old Ledge about this-maybe she's the culprit:p

I doubt the artists themselves would have been behind these leaks. Stevie still uses a typewriter, for deity's sake! Lindsey is recording on tape and doesn't seem to know what WWW stands for.

This was either the work of a fan working for the label who knew the GOS tracks might never get released and felt they should. Or the label did it knowingly. The latter is most likely the case with TISL as the label might have been trying to hype up the release.

Tina from Fontana?
 

There was someone with the email lbu2@something named Tina from Fontana California who's name was Tina. She got onto the Lindsey websites and started promoting the GOS songs first if I recall.

This person knew Lindsey personally at some point back around the Dance or after Out of the Cradle - had some sort of relationship with him of which I do not know any details of. I think she just wanted the world to hear how good the songs were, but I also sensed there was some hidden agenda with her and some strange history between her and Lindsey. She worked in the industry, maybe in Anaheim or something, but I could never figure out the company name.

whatever the situation was, it's curious that Lindsey or Reprise never attempted to shut down Sararhiannon.com or sue the site's owner.
On the other hand, I'd like to think that Lindsey has sort of a Wilco/Grateful Dead/Pearl Jam attitude about his music - the more people that hear it, the better. I honestly don't think making any more money is his priority

There was a CD up on ebay last week called:

Lindsey Buckingham Gift of Screams.

A "silver" CD. I didnt win it however, so I dont know what was on it.

Whoa. I already did! A long time ago. There's no mystery--people are concocting stuff. If you guys are talking about the demos like "Given Thing" & "Blue Turns to Grey" & "My Little Demon," I don't know where those came from. Maybe it was this Tina person, as jeffs recalls. But the other stuff---the mixed, unmastered studio tracks ("Miranda" & "Red Rover" & "Come" & "Murrow" & "Say Goodbye" & "Twist of Fate" & "Gift of Screws" & the others)---was stuff that SaraRhiannon & I posted on www.sararhiannon.com just to get it out there. I got home from work one evening & saw the album CD literally sitting on my front doorstep. I made a few phone calls & found out that the album had recently been canceled. A couple of big producers decided to share it with someone to whom they owed a slight favor (it had nothing to do with Warner/Reprise), but I think part of their motivation was that they were unhappy about the record company's decision to scrap its release. I figured it couldn't possibly hurt to share it, & I don't think it did, at least not at the time. As far as sararhiannon.com getting in trouble, I guess the chance was there. But Sara really braved it. We posted on the newsgroup (where we hang out a lot) the moment we posted stuff, & lots of people kept right up with the feed.