Rate These I'm So Afraids!
 

My love for this song knows no bounds. It's my favorite Lindsey song by far. WIth that being said, it's hard to pick just one version from throughout the years that is my favorite. Hopefully all the diehards have heard all of these versions and can voice their opinions.

For me, the big gaping hole in my FM knowledge is the Mirage tour, I've never heard it. But I'll put it on here for the lucky ones who have.

Me, personally, I had a hard time between the TUSK and SYW versions....I really love the power and energy of the recent versions (can't wait to see it June 10th in the Burgh), but I also love the way LB leaves the verses fairly sparse in the live 80 version, letting Mick and John set the stage for his freakout solo....I'll go with live 80 after much internal debate. :thumbsup:

And yours?

AMEN! It IS hard to choose, but if I were forced at gunpoint, I would pick the White Album tour. I love how enthusiastic Lindsey is when he sings it, lots of adlibbing groans, oohs, and ahhs, and to top it off those defiant high notes he slips in right before the end. LOVE it.

I couldn't have said it better. For me it is also tight between tusk-era and SYW-tour. Tusk era because of his singing, SYW-era because of the fact that he just let it derange into noise madness. So I voted for that one because I just totally "left the building" during the shows I saw (especially the European shows). I quote another ledgie: "it's not a song, it's an experience". And quoting the madman himself: "we took it to the stage and it turned into a pitbull".

Amen.

gerald

I voted for the Tusk era version. It's just perfection IMO :nod: . BTW, rollison , I think the Mirage tour version sounds a lot like the Tusk tour version. Linds' voice is just a little deeper. If anyone knows if he changed anything on that tour, let me know too (I'd have to go and listen to it a million times)!

The Dance for me!
 

Definitely the Dance version for me. He was just tearing that guitar UP! I love the introduction and the final solo. IN fact, that ending solo was one of the first guitar solos I made an effort to "learn all the way through."

Ack!!
 

The DANCE version
 

My fave one. The LIVE album is cool but very long. Though I love it, I find the Dance version the more mature and well developed. Ok, Lindsey voice is not as good as in the 80s, but is the guitar the starring in this song.

Ooh!!
 

Haha...I was about to say "well, the one I would vote for is not actually on the list of options," but it's now been noted.:)
From the first time I heard it after downloading it from Neil's site (almost a year ago now I guess) it became my favourite version of the song. The strange thing is that he performed that night without the rest of Fleetwood Mac, and without his own band, and yet in my opinion the meaning and emotions which constitute the song came across better on that night than on any other.
The atmosphere has been captured so well on that recording (made by our good friend David if my memory serves me correctly) and I love the crowd's reaction to Lindsey's presence. Knowing the events that happened in the year after this concert in terms of Fleetwood Mac, and that bitter part of the band's history, makes that speech he delivers before NGBA cast (in retropsect) an even darker shadow on this performace of ISA.

Given that my favourite LB era is without a shadow of a doubt the Go Insane/Tango In The Night years, it's unsurprising that this is my favourite version of the song. As Christy said, this is possibly the only hint we'll ever have of what the Tango In The Night tour should have sounded like.

The manic clawing of the strings at the very end of the solo is a hint of what we'd see on a nightly basis 17 years later, and for those f***ing a**holes over at "amiannoying.com" who decided to label LB's voice as "weak", I suggest they take a listen to this literally faultless (and amazing) vocal performance.

Ppfftt!!
 

I love all these versions. I was tempted to vote for the white album./Rumours tour version. But I went for the SYW version just because he blew my mind seeing that live, but I will say that Mick equally steals the song as much as Lindsey does. I think all live versions bury the album version although i do love hearing the haunting album versiona s well.

Tango In the Night Live
 

But I'm still waiting for Tango In the Night Live. I think he could replace So Afraid with this song some day. At least for few shows.

Hopefully not one I attend, lol.

Although the Dance album has an incredible ISA, I refuse to vote for it because for the Dance and SYW, that song has become painfully overrehearsed. A song's long, dramatic guitar solo can't sound the same every night its played for seven years straight and still be a strong composition. But I've never heard two boots from 75-78 where this song sounds the same at the end. My personal favorite is the Nashville, TN one from the Rumours tour. I think someone is posting this whole show online right now, actually; this live version is DEFFINITELY worth a listen. The end solo is brief, so it hits you hard. Also, Lindsey and Mick start with a cool jam that doesn't sound rehearsed like it does now. Plus I think his younger voice sounded better on this song; more emotion in it.

Don't get me wrong though... Lindsey could butcher this song, and it would still be a masterpiece.

Adam R.