Best Old Demo redone this decade
 

Each of the 3 Solo/Fleetwood Mac albums Stevie has released this decade have contained exactly 3 of Stevie's old demos. Yes, there are demo versions of more then half of the songs out there. But there were 3 per album that most of us had live with the songs forever before they were officially. Something about that is very weird. To be so familar for so long with songs no one is supposed to hear and most haven't. And it's even weirder when the song has drastically changed. Thats why Thrown Down is not included in this disscussion. The songs included are:

Candlebright, Sorcerer and Planets of the Universe from Trouble in Shangri La

Smile at You, Running Through the Garden and Goodbye Baby from Say You Will

Secret Love Moonlight and Anabell Lee from In Your Dreams.


1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?

3. Which demo changed the least?

4. which of the 9 songs is your favorite? (different from most imporved)

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?

1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?


Anabell Lee was an incredibly boring demo, although i always like the ending. Dave Stewart turned it into a musical dream. And that middle interlude is great addition.

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?

This will be unpopular but Planets of the Universe for me. Smile At You is a close second. It's intresting what Lindsey did. And I like Smile At You a lot on Say ou Will and the last minute kicks ass, but its still a downgrade.

3. Which demo changed the least?

Sheryl Crow was not trying to reinvent the wheel when she brought Sorcerer into the 21st century. It's almost identical to the BuckinghamNicks version with Sheryl's harmonies instead of Lindsey's. And obviously Stevie's voice is a tad different. Although Sheryl deserves a medal for getting Stevie to hit those high notes.


4. which of the 9 songs are your favorite? (different from most imporved)

Moonlight

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?

Dave Stewart Hands down. Id love to hear what he could do with already great Stevie demos if he did that with AL and Secret Love. Sheryl gets second for the already mentioned decision not to mess much with Sorcerer and I love the mandolin she added to Candlebright. And she doesn't lose points for Planets since that was John Shanks. i really badly want Fleetwood Mac to make one more album so Say You Will is not his last stab at working on Stevie's songs.

My opinions
 

Candlebright, Sorcerer and Planets of the Universe from Trouble in Shangri La

Smile at You, Running Through the Garden and Goodbye Baby from Say You Will

Secret Love Moonlight and Anabell Lee from In Your Dreams.


1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer? Planets of the Universe. I love the demo but the album version has such immense power to it. I still love the demo though. It's like 2 completely different songs to me now.


2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade? Smile At You. The angry version from 1982 will always be the best.

3. Which demo changed the least? Anabelle Lee. I loved the demo and the album version sounds almost exactly the same, except better quality.

4. which of the 9 songs are your favorite? (different from most improved)Planets of the Universe, Running Through the Garden, Moonlight and Anabelle Lee.(The way you worded this question made me answer with several songs. If you asked, " which of the 9 songs is your favorite?" Iwould have given you one answer.)

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?John Shanks.His production on the TISL songs were so fabulous, he made the ones he did not produce almost unlistenable. Sheryl Crow was a horrible producer for Stevie. Dave stewart was a good producer. John Skanks was better.

Candlebright, Sorcerer and Planets of the Universe from Trouble in Shangri La

Smile at You, Running Through the Garden and Goodbye Baby from Say You Will

Secret Love Moonlight and Anabell Lee from In Your Dreams.


1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?
I guess I will go with Planets Of The Universe... mainly because it's the most different from the demo? (Other than Smile At You...more about that shortly...) I absolutely LOVE it, but I love the Demo too...as someone said, it's like two (three???) different songs...

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?
UGH. Smile At You. That was a travesty, and the biggest 'missed opportunity' ever, imho...

3. Which demo changed the least?
I guess either Candle Bright or Sorcerer? Most of the others changed somewhat, I think...

4. which of the 9 songs is your favorite? (different from most imporved)
I'm going to go with Planets again, I absolutely love Moonlight, but to me, it's not really the same song at all as any of the demos ... sort of feel the same about Goodbye Baby

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?
Hands Down, Dave Stewart. He should get all of Stevie's demos and do an unreleased Box Set of 'basement tapes'

1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?
Secret Love, it's been transformed from a fairly nondescript demo into a fantastic little pop song. I feel it gets overlooked way too much. Probably because people wore themselves out on it before the album was released? Idk.

Also Annabell Lee, it's so beautiful on the album.

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?
Smile At You. There are just no words to describe how much the album version offends me.


3. Which demo changed the least?
Sorcerer, it's practically identical to the Buckingham Nicks demo, but with not-as-good vocals.

4. which of the 9 songs is your favorite? (different from most improved)
Tie between Moonlight and Running Through The Garden.

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?
Dave Stewart, by far. Although Lindsey did a fantastic job on RTTG.

To me the SYW tracks are head and shoulders above the others.

I love what Dave did with Annabel Lee. It was one of my favorite demos for a long time and even though the demo version is pretty sparse I always heard potential in it. I would make up my own background vocals when singing along to it and imagine what it would sound like with a bunch of strings. I was so pleased to hear the final version because it was even better than what I imagined. I do have to say that I like the ending of the demo much better simply because it has this great ominous feel to it. And the part they cut, which is just singing the chorus as a verse, is the part I sing most when the song pops into my head out of nowhere and I'm not actually playing it. (and yes, I do frequently burst into song when I'm by myself). But having said that, I love how the energy just builds and builds with the new ending so I could hardly say I was disappointed.

Secret love is one of those demos I had on a bootleg cassette many years before I discovered the Stevie community here on The Ledge. I had actually lost the cassette and all but forgotten the song when it popped up here on one of those incredible demo posting threads. When the preview of IYD came out and they played that little snippet in the YouTube ad I almost pee'd a little. This sweet little song that I had loved so much from years ago was now a fully realized song, and an incredible one at that.

I haven't been disappointed by any of the remakes. I didn't have the love affair with Smile At You that many here seem to have had so the new version was just fine with me. But I must say the most dramatic reinvention of a demo was Planets. When I first heard that I remember thinking "I know this from somewhere". It took me a few minutes to place it as that demo. Strangely enough, one of my bootlegs was missing any sort of title card so I didn't know the names of the songs and I made up my own from what I figured the names should be and when I went back and looked at them I had guessed Smile At You and Planets of the Universe correctly.

Fun questions!


1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?
Planets of the Universe

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?
Sorcerer

3. Which demo changed the least?
Candlebright

4. which of the 9 songs is your favorite? (different from most imporved)
Planets and Secret Love

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?
John Shanks (I wish Stevie would do a whole cd with him)

1. Which old demo was most improved by the producer?

Planets of the Universe and Running Through The Garden

2. Which old demo was the biggest downgrade?

Sorcerer (I think of the new Smile At You as a different song)

3. Which demo changed the least?

Candlebright

4. which of the 9 songs is your favorite? (different from most imporved)

Planets, Moonlight, and Running Through The Garden

5. Which producer did the best job overall on Stevie's demos this decade?

I'm going with LB. :shrug: