Lindsey, Chris & Stevie....harmonies & other ??
 

Am I the one who has ever wondered how Chris, Lindsey and Stevie decided who would sing on each other's songs?

I can't help but notice how prominently Lindsey voice appears on many of Chris's and Stevie's songs, yet, both Chris and Stevie's vocals are noticeably absent from Lindsey's songs. (*Note* I'm talking about the released albums but I'm excluding The Dance and SYW albums. I'm also not talking about any live performances).

For instance, Don't Stop. I'm just curious as to who made the decision that both Christine and Lindsey would sing on this song. There's nothing wrong with it and I think it's great and all, but for a long time I never thought Christine's voice was very noticeable on that song. She and Lindsey have such similar voices that when she started singing her verse it kind of just blended with Lindseys. You can't even hear Stevie at all.

Then there's Think About Me and Hold Me. I could almost say that Lindsey's voice is more prominent than Christines' on both songs. You can't even hear Stevie on either of the songs except for quietly in Think About Me during the chorus. In the demo version of Think About Me, you can't even hear Christine. It's mainly Lindsey. Am I the only one that thinks this is strange?

Why do you think the songs are this way? Do you think this was fair? I've tried to come up with some possible explanations -
1) Lindsey was the producer so he always put his voice on songs that he wanted - ie he used this position to his advantage.
2) Lindsey and Chris just sang better harmony - this is true in a way. But I don't think anything would have been lost by adding Stevie's harmony in there as well.
3) Stevie wasn't around so they didn't include her - I don't think this is a good excuse because besides Tango, I think Stevie was pretty much always around or readily available.
4) Lindsey did this to punish Stevie - Simply put, he was jealous of all the attention she was receiving so being the producer he tried to exclude her as much as possible.
5) Both Lindsey and Christine worked so well together that they sort of just unconsciously excluded Stevie from their songs and/or made decisions to sing on each other's songs.
6) Stevie didn't really have a say in anything. Lindsey and/or Lindsey & Chris just told her what to do and she went along with what they said because she lacked support in the band.

This is also true with Stevie's songs. For instance, you can readily hear Chris and Lindsey's vocals on BC, Gypsy and then you have the duets - I Don't Wanna Know, which I think you can hear Lindsey's voice much better than Stevie's too. I also noticed that after Lindsey left I can hear Stevie's voice much more on Christine's songs.

But, I can honestly say I can't think of a single Lindsey song where I can noticeably hear Stevie or Christine. I haven't listened with earphones in a long time so I can't say whether you can hear them quietly in the background at all.

Anyway, I didn't post this because I wanted to start a Lindsey vs. Stevie vs Chris argument. (So let's try not to go there). I'm also not trying to bash Lindsey in any way - those of you who have read my posts know I'm a huge Lindsey fan.

I'm just curious as to what everyone thinks about this because it is something that I've always wondered about ???

You sound very sure, Ali, but I'm not so sure. I think the extent of Stevie's participation in albums like "Rumours," "Tusk" & "Mirage" hasn't really been settled. Have you ever been in a recording studio while anal-retentives worked on songs? It's enough to make you want to chew glass. If I were Stevie & I didn't play an instrument well enough to lay down any tracks in the studio, there's no way in hell I would stick around in a studio all day for weeks & months on end. That goes beyond boredom into the realm of masochism.

There's a revealing comment Lindsey made to BAM magazine in the January 30, 1981, issue about the making of "Tusk":

Did you see that article in US that quoted Stevie as saying that doing the album was like being held hostage in Iran with Lindsey as the Ayatollah? That wasn’t the feeling there at all! I mean, she wasn’t even there most of the time. She’d come in to do her song once a week and that would be it.
I can believe that something like this might have happened once or twice over the years, but to suggest that it was a regular occurrence album after album is to utterly demolish any credibility & professionalism that Lindsey or Fleetwood Mac ever might have had. I have no doubt that some fans do believe this to be the case, but I think it speaks more about them than about the working conditions of the band.
"Second Hand News"?
Most of the time, it may have just boiled down to what I call After-Hours Syndrome. Lindsey probably spent quite a bit more time navel-gazing in studios than any of the others. My hunch is that a lot of tracking -- both vocal & instrumental -- not to mention sound editing was done by him when the others weren't around.

I've noticed this too. Don't really know what to think of it, though.

I've also wondered about Stevie's layered harmonies with herself - who decided to do that? I personally love it when I hear her sing over her own voice (for example, "I wait for you to say, just go" from BC) but was it LB who thought it would sound best? Or does Stevie just like the sound of her own voice better than theirs (JK!)

Yes, even so I don't think it was at all like Tango where she was half way around the world. I think she was readily available. We'll just agree to disagree, I guess :) As far as Mirage - I would have thought she was around for the French Villa recording. But then, I read somewhere that they were there for three months and only worked for a few weeks or something like that. The rest of the time was taken up with BSing and partying.

Duh. Forgot about that one. Besides SHN - any others?

I agree. I think is probably the most plausible explanation. However, I wonder if he even tried to include the others - or if he just finished things and then said, "that's it."

Stevie on Lindsey's tracks?
All of Buckingham-Nicks, Monday Morning, World Turning, Go Your Own Way, The Ledge, I Know I'm Not Wrong, Steal Your Heart Away, What's the World Coming To, Peacekeeper, Say Goodbye.... I know I'm missing many more. So, yeah, I hear Stevie on many of Lindsey's songs. :nod:

I DO agree that sometimes Lindsey's and Christine's voices blend together, especially on Don't Stop, but I don't think they harmonize better than Stevie and Lindsey. Personal taste. I think those two were born to sing together.

And David, I think, makes a really good point here:
John has also spoken of the mind-numbing boredom; I think he escaped to his boat whenever possible!

So I guess to poor Stevie who didn't play an instrument, it got really nuts waiting around doing nothing! What a process, I can only imagine.

Wonder how many times Chris had to play a part on keyboards or Lindsey on guitar, etc...

Must drive you crazy sometimes I'm sure.

I've noticed this for a very long time, but didn't want to bring it up because i figured it would start another war. I just never understood why you could hear Lindsey on almost every song, but Chris and Stevie are noticeably not on almost every song. Now, of course it might not be such a great idea to have total three part harmony on every song. The thing that gets to me is that you very, VERY rarely hear Christine singing with Stevie and vice versa. They have little snippets in some of the other's songs, but they don't have even one song I don't think that is like a duet. Really, the only reason I can think of that wouldn't condemn any of the members is that, perhaps, Lindsey is on more songs because he was the only guy to throw in that sort of "masculine" voice (and I put masculine in "s because his voice is rather high for a guy). But since there were two girls, if you really only want one harmony on a song, you have to choose between the two, hence they get half the time Lindsey would get. But considering this IS Fleetwood Mac, I think there might be more nefarious reasons.

Trying to carry my bias away (which is impossible), I don't understand why they wouldn't have Stevie sing more since she doesn't play an instrument in the band. I mean, if she is the lead singer (well, front-person is a better word for her I guess), then I'd think she would be EXPECTED to do more. I guess not.

I always found it a bit annoying that you could hear Stevie better on Walter Egan and John Stewart albums, than you could on some of the Fleetwood Mac albums, but I think Justin (Sorcerer386) might be onto something.

Given that Lindsey was the lone male "voice" in Fleetwood Mac (in so much as Mick and John don't sing on record), perhaps it was a conscious decision by him, or even the entire band, that many of his songs wouldn't feature backing vocals from Christine or Stevie, but that their songs would typically feature backing vocals from him.
So as to have more of the masculine to balance the feminine.

Seems as plausible of a possibility as any. :shrug:

I would have loved more Stevie/Chris harmonies. I really love the reissue version of "Oh Daddy."

I've always thought the way Lindsey and Chris' voices blend was just eerie. When I was a kid, I couldn't tell them apart. :o

Stevie was on World Turning? ...don't think so, at least not that I can hear :shrug: The Ledge, I'm pretty sure is all Lindsey.

I wish Stevie had been more present on a lot of Christine songs. Take Love In Store for example...I think her vocals really improve the song. Stevie & Christine sounded so great together on Straight Back. There should have been more :(

I know what you mean, about the Chris/Lindsey thing! They sound so much alike, I guess with Chris being an alto and Lindsey being a tenor, they kind of hit the same ranges. "Hold Me" shows just how awesome they sound together, but also how much they sound alike!

I love Chris/Stevie harmony and "Oh Daddy"

That is also Stevie's fav. song of Christines...she actually helped her write one line in the song ("...but I can't walk away from you baby if I tried...").

I just listened to The Ledge today, looking for that, and I can totally hear Stevie. :shrug: Anyways -
I think it's possible, but absurd, that they tried to use Lindsey's "masculine" voice to go with Christine's feminine one. But, IMO, Stevie not only has a lower timbre to her voice than Lindsey, but also a more contrasting voice to Christines. So, I think, too, that Stevie shoulda sung on more Christine's songs to provide the contrast to Christine's smooth, smooth, voice. Lindsey's voice is pretty smooth and high and superficially similar to Christine's.
Before I knew more about the Mac, I sometimes thought it was Lindsey singing, when it was really Christine. Most notably on their "both singing" songs "World Turning" and "Don't Stop" :shrug:
But maybe some of it has to do with the factor of musicianship, and that Lindsey and Christine jammed together well on their instruments and with their voices. :shrug: Although, conversely, that could be a load of crap, because i think if you give Stevie a song, she can make up a kick ass harmony to it. Maybe they didn't want her rough vocal edges on some of their songs? I could see them thinking that. :shrug: Also, from listening to the things I have listened to, including random recorded conversations, I think they both may have been perpetrating a touch of "Stevie Backlash" :mad: Although Chris probably to a lesser degree, but still. They, at some points, may have had a sense of "banding together" to counteract the obvious "attention getting, star qualities" that Stevie had. You know, like, "hey, we rock, too!!!" :laugh: which, of course, they do. :nod:
My theory is that it is probably a combination of all factors mentioned. :)

Yeah, in my original post I said excluding SYW songs. ;) You are right - Stevie definitely has a presence on Lindsey's SYW songs!

As for those other songs, I can't *noticeably* hear Stevie on GYOW, The Ledge, IKINW or any of the other non SYW songs you mentioned. On the songs that I mentioned you can clearly hear Lindsey or Chris - they are noticeably present. That is, I don't have to dig out earphones to hear them.

It could also be just the way I hear things...I'm sure we all hear different things, that's why I think it's interesting to read other's opinions about this :)

Yeah, I can hear Stevie really well on The Ledge, fairly well on GYOW, and ok on IKINW. But I really listen for the harmony, maybe that's why. I mean, granted, it mainly sounds like just "a harmony" and i can barely discern Stevie's "signature" vocal qualities, but I can still tell it's her. The most seamless, "non Stevie" harmony that I can think of, where you can't tell it's *her* at all, is "Farmer's Daughter" from the Tusk reissue. That sh** is really tight, and I can't hear any of her vocal anomolies. And another Stevie harmony, which is one of my favorites (in fact it really makes the song for me) is on "I'm so Afraid" :nod: that is definitely one where she is prominent, even though she only has a few lines...