Looking for timeframe of various demos
 

Trying to organize demos by sessions (eg, Bella Donna sessions, Tango sessions, etc.) Does anyone know the timeframe for the below tracks? Some I've heard conflicting info.

Blue Lamp?
Blue Water?
Castaway?
Cecilia (I've seen this listed as Buckingham Nicks sessions, but also as Tusk sessions)?
Forest of the Black Roses?
No Light (I'll Live Alone)?
Rhiannon (talking demo...seen listed as '78...how could is be post White Album??)
She Loves Him Still?
Sleeping Angel?
Watch Devil?

Thanks for any info you have!!

Here's my best choices:

Blue Lamp - Bella Donna, since it was released for Heavy Metal soundtrack in 81
Blue Water - Bella Donna
Castaway - Bella Donna
Cecilia - Mine says Tusk
Forest - Bella Donna
No Light - Sometime in the 70s - I'd like to know too
Rhiannon - Must be for white album or Buckingham Nicks 2.
She Still Loves Him - RAL (Did mike bise say there was a SA one too? RAL is common though)
Sleeping Angel - Bella Donna
Watch Devil - Another 70s one I think - not sure when though.

I thought Planets was from the Rumours sessions? Hence it's inclusion on the reissue.

Cecilia could have been written anywhere from 1975 (when she wrote SOTM) to the Tusk era, but I'm not sure about the recording. Are there two versions? I had one once that was labeled as Bella Donna era and another that said 1978. I don't know if that's just someone (me) ****ing with file naming. :laugh: I just remember one was really long. I think it's only being labeled BN because it might have been on the Cathouse Blues compilation that someone put together.

Blue Lamp - 1980.

That's got to be 1978 by process of elimination. There's a Yamaha CP30 being played on it, which means it wasn't recorded before late 1977, & it was released on ALMANAC on vinyl, a copy of which I bought in 1979. Furthermore, given the fact that the CP30 is on it, it must have been laid down at the Village Recorder during the year the band was making Tusk because Stevie wouldn't have had such a keyboard for her own use--she was using Christine's. That goes for the other demos with the same keyboard, like THE DEALER.

I think Stevie did a lot of demos with Mick Fleetwood drumming & Tom Moncrieff on bass in this period between Rumours & Tusk, & some of them seem to have been recorded at the Village, as well as the studio Tom & Stevie built (wherever that was).

I also think she did a lot of her solo piano demos from 1978 to 1980, even of songs that had already been recorded (like RHIANNON). I think several of the RHIANNON piano demos are dated March 1978. It was a very active time for Stevie musically, & she seems to have been filled with energy for recording demos, guest-appearing with musician friends (Kenny Loggins, Todd Rundgren, Walter Egan, Bob Welch, John Stewart), & showing up at awards shows.

When was that piano version of Rhiannon done, when she asks all of these random questions?

Stevie: Lindsey, Don't you think Rhiannon is a wonderful name?
Stevie (As Lindsey): Yes Stevie I do, I think Rhiannon is a wondeful name

"Blue Water" was recorded as a demo in March 1978 and copyrighted then, along with "Forsaken Love", "Forest of The Black Roses" and several piano demos of "Rhiannon". The "talking/questions" demo of "Rhiannon" is from Early 1978.

"Castaway" is from 1980, as are the demos of "Blue Lamp". The studio versions of "Blue Lamp" are Feb/March 1981.

"Planets of The Universe" written in 1976, demoed several times between 1976-1978 (as well as 1996-1998).

"She Still Loves Him" from 1984 for Rock A Little.

"Sleeping Angel" I don't remember off the top of my head. Circa 1976. Copyright is 1975 I believe.

"Watchdevil", as David said, showed up in 1978 on Almanac.

Thank you! Another question.
 

Thanks, Mike and everyone else. So, it's believed that the '78 demos and Sleeping Angel were not part of sessions for any particular album?

I'm puzzled about the Rhiannon 'talking demo' ("Don't you think that 'Rhiannon' is a beautiful name?"). She says, "Richard, I just finished this song and we have to go to a park and record the sound of birds rising. Okay? It's really important."

Why would she have been doing this in 1978 when she had already recorded it 3 years earlier, sang it live for the past 3 years, and speak about it in this demo as though it is a new song that she just finished and envisions the sound of birds rising to be part of the recorded version??

In the same vein, why would she be asking Lindsey if he thought 'Rhiannon', a song they've recorded and sang for 3 years, is a beautiful name?

It just seems that, based on what she is saying, that it is more likely to be 74-75, right?

Thanks for your thoughts.

In regards to 'No Light (I'll Live Alone)', the Planets piano demo in which she says at the end, "That was really intense"....anyone know from which year that is? (This isn't the one from the Tusk remastered edition.)

Hi Taurus19 , do you have Planets piano version on mp3, that you'd be willing to share, the only version I have is TISL .. Much appreciated!!!

It's been reported before that Stevie had a development deal for a "Rhiannon project" , which may have become a movie/animated special, which may explain why the leaked master reels are labeled "Movie Reel Demos" or "Film Score". Stevie laid down new piano demo's for Rhiannon, as well as "Forsaken Love", "Forest of The Black Roses" ,"Blue Water" as Mike Bise mentioned in early 1978, and probably "Three Birds of Rhiannon" as well, which are the basis of the "Rhiannon songs" that Stevie refers to in interviews from time to time. Songs she has held back from recording because they were written specifically as a concept piece, and meant to be recorded as one project.

Stevie brought up the Rhiannon project again in 2007 in a few interviews while promoting Crystal Visions, saying then that she wanted to get this project done and it may be the next thing she does.....envisioning it as a Lord of the Rings sort of project. Of course this still remains on the list of 100 things Stevie has promised to do.

I think it would be terrific idea if Stevie just recorded a Rhiannon concept record with all these gorgeous songs, and released it w/o a movie or animated special attached. These songs are just too good to go unrecorded!! It would draw alot of attention and bring her Rhainnon legacy full circle. She mentioned at one point in 2007 that she wanted to work w/ David Foster, I can see these songs being produced with him in that dramatic style with orchestration, strings and a new ballad version of Rhiannon as it was written.

I agree with Christopher--it was intended (more or less) for some big project centering on Rhiannon.

I think she's just dramatizing her writing process & possibly the process of writing the proposed movie. I don't even think the men she mentions are even present in that place at that time. Maybe she wanted to record a document of the project, much the way that she filmed Bella Donna recording sessions.

Do you remember reading Daisann McLane's Rolling Stone cover story on Fleetwood Mac? McLane spent some time with the band in late 1979, from tour rehearsals through the first few weeks of gigs. At one point, McLane interviews Stevie Nicks at her Vilma Banky mansion in the Hollywood Hills (I guess where Jim Ladd also interviewed her in December 1979). She takes the reporter into her music room & plays some recordings for her, possibly the same recordings we've all heard:

The music room is dark; there are antique lamps draped with shawls, but she does not turn the lights on. And the tapes she ends up pulling out of her library are not rough Fleetwood Mac demos but works-in-progress for her solo project, a film and soundtrack based on the myth of Rhiannon, the Welsh witch. Earlier in 1979, Nicks signed on as a solo artist with Modern records, a label headed by former boyfriend Paul Fishkin and Danny Goldberg. For a while the move prompted rumors that she was preparing to leave Fleetwood Mac.

"The legend of Rhiannon is about the song of the birds that take away pain and relieve suffering," she says. "That's what music is to me. I don't want any pain." She puts a cassette in the deck and sits down cross-legged on the carpet, between the stereo speakers. The music begins; a gentle roll of piano chords. Nicks' own version of "Rhiannon" is softer, more emotional than Fleetwood Mac's. "It's not a rock & roll song," she says, closing her eyes.

You can read the entire article here: http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=534&c=18

Stevie laughing MP4 file edit

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0qn37b

They would have to use the original demo vocals for the Rhiannon project or the whole project would fall short since she can't hit those notes anymore. It would difficult to listen to new versions of those songs and have her try and add something new to them. The vocals would not blend. Just my opinion. Another missed opportunity since those are some of her best songs and it would be hard to change them to much.

Yeah, what was I thinking.....Dream on, silly dreamer....;)
But seriously, you have a valid point. For example, to me Stevie and Lindsey ruined the melody on "Goodbye Baby", and it was probably cause she could not sing it even close to the once temptress siren on the piano demo!! Instead we got oatmeal. The music is bland & goes nowhere, while Stevie is unable to lift it to the heights it deserved. I tried to get into their artistic interpretation of this old gem, w/ Stevie's hushed vocal intonations over Lindsey's lullabye arrangement, but all I could hear was the best parts missing from the demo. I was looking forward to this song on SYW most of all, and it was the biggest disappointment of Stevie's old vault songs.

Same case can be made for "Candlebright", albeit I like this one much better than the way GB turned out, but it still pales in comparison to the beautiful acoustic BN demo. Stevie voice was just soaring and so passionate on that.

Oh well, I still think these songs need to be fully conceptualized somehow, someday. And I cannot envision anyone but Stevie doing it, even if it has to be in her mature "torch" voice. Arguably, "Planets of the Universe" turned out pretty well. John Shanks & Stevie had to structure the verses more traditionally, but they turned the passionate demo into a fresh modern arrangement w/ classic Stevie flourishes, while she sings it well, it still is a bit cold only in comparison to the young voiced demo.

By the way does anyone have a master reel quality of "Forest Of The Black Roses" and "Three Birds of Rhiannon" that they could share :D I have the "Uncirculated Rumors" LP bootleg versions w. lots of low end and hiss. I really love these songs!! In my opinion, some of Stevie's best songwriting... she was really on a roll in the mid to late 70's!

This one is pretty good.

"Forest of the Black Roses"
http://www.sendspace.com/file/223lfg

We should start a thread with all the things Stevie has promised to do!