Circa 1982, Who *Was* Fleetwood Mac?
 

Fleetwood Mac, as it stands in its current incarnation, is Stevie Nicks & Christine McVie. The men in the band are pure backup (despite the cloying efforts of Lindsey Buckingham to dig up the moldering spirit of Buddy Holly) & as such they just fill in the gaps, round out the record, or just plain snooze when the forces of Nicks & McVie grasp the moment.

--Joe Fernbacher
"Mirage" Review
Creem
December 1982

I pretty much agree with that. Strictly from a songwriting point of view, Lindsey's Mirage material is his worst. Stevie's voice was at her zenith. Christine's Mirage stuff is beautiful.

I agree. I also think LB was reluctant to even participate.

And it's also my favorite era for the band. FM could do no wrong, IMO, in those days. And I loved them all equally.

While I think the bands problems are evident in the music at that point in time {for example Stevies voice having to be dubbed in from other sessions, because 3/4 of the time she was not present during the making of the record do to drugs and solo stuff plus the rest of the bands addiction, fame, money and personality clash issues, with the exception of Christine who usually got along with everyone up untill Tango } I love that record! Book of love , Thats Alright, Love in a store, Only over you , Wish you were here , and Eyes of the world are my faves from Mirage.

This true?

We all know about the Tango sessions, but I didn't know Stevie wasn't present for most of Mirage. I was always under the assumption that they recorded in France....together....as a unit.

Unless I am mistaken I believe I got this from FM behind the music. That it was hard to get Mirage done, becuase she wasn't there and vocals had to be dubbed in. Maybe he said Tango and I got them mixed up. Anyone know for sure? I can't dig out my FM BTM right now~!

Wow, I didn't realize. It seems Lindsey tried pretty hard during Mirage to "do something" but it just came out crappy. I guess I am wrong? I don't even like Christine's Mirage material. The "tinny" production makes it unlistenable to me. And usually Christine's stuff is kind of...untouchable - the voice is still there. (yes, there are exceptions)
Never listen.
Stevie's voice was kick ass, though, I only like her songs. So far.

The tour was outstanding, though, thankfully. :woohoo: :woohoo:

Apparently, they laid down only some basic tracks in France. Most of the work on the album was done back in L.A. at Larrabee. Based on what the other Macsters have said & on some articles at the time (like the David Gans piece in Record), Stevie wasn't around for much more than a couple of weeks.

But maybe she didn't need to be. Besides, her solo album was huge at that point, so that naturally captured her attention.

The story of Lindsey's having to piece together bits of unrelated Stevie vocal tracks in order to create a cohesive work, though, refers to the "Tango" sessions.

Yeah I can see where that person is coming from, at least when it comes to mirage.

How odd that Stevie's tracks are clearly the best.... :confused:

I really like Lindsey's Mirage songs. Am I in the minority here?

I pretty much agree with this review. Chris & Stevie carried this record. This album was the last Fleetwood Mac album in which I actually liked Stevie's songs. I don't think Lindsey really even wanted to do this album because of the flack he had gotten for Tusk. At this point, I think he was sort of half in, half out of the band. The solo careers of both Buckingham & Nicks after Tusk totally changed everything for Fleetwood Mac as a band.

:shocked::shocked::shocked: :laugh: :xoxo: