The Last 16 years of FINISHED vault songs
 

So Stevie basically started digging back into "the vault" after The Dance Reunion. I thought it would be fun to take a poll and hear your opinion of which song was the best song out of all the ones she went back and finished. Which one ended up being better than the demo, outtake or unreleased song it was pulled from? I unfortunately forced myself to omit "If You Ever Did Believe" since this only gives me 10 poll options, but please chime in and let us know whether you think THAT song is the best, worst, etc.

I'd also be interested to hear what you think is the worst out of the ten. ;)

-Dave

For myself, I chose "Running Through The Garden". I think it's Stevie's shining moment on SYW and a vast improvement over the schizophrenic RAL outtake, in my opinion. I love her vocals on this one and how she feels it! :)

My least favorite on this list is the droning, soulless re-do of "Without You". It was a huge disappointment. I will continue to happily sing along to the original Buckingham Nicks demo for the rest of my life. Haha!

Excellent idea for a poll!

I went back and forth on this one, but ultimately chose Moonlight. I LOVE the demo for Lady From The Mountains, but never considered it to be a finished song. Moonlight took it to the next level, and is true perfection in my book. That said, the final version of Planets Of The Universe is magic to my ears, and I LOVE Stevie's vocals on Running Through The Garden.

Separately, this poll makes me want to put together a new playlist of Stevie's recent vault songs.

I think it may have started being referred to as "The Vault" post- The Dance, but she's been doing it forever, hasn't she? It's just always been how she works.

I know everyone thinks Smile At You was butchered but I thoroughly enjoy the released version. Without You, for me, is easily the worst of the bunch here. A sweet little love ditty transformed into an unlistenable stinker.

I love all of the rest of them, but I think Planets is beyond amazeballs. I love the old demos but the studio version is a brilliant transformation from that starting point and perfectly suited to her style on TISL.

You could totally do that! Adding "If You Ever Did Believe" and Stevie's Practical Magic version of "Crystal" (even though it's a "remake" from an already finished and released song) to all the songs in this poll would give you a whole albums worth of songs. :)

She had been doing it before The Dance, but I think the way she talked about it changed at that point. She brought very little new material to SA, but I think that was more out of a lack of creative output, rather than an affirmative desire to record her vault songs. With TISL, she spoke with more excitement about finally finding a way to record and release some of her old demos, in the way she wanted to.

I like them all except With out you. I chose moonlight because I think it's the best. Close behind would be any of the TISL tracks.

And what a great set of songs it is! Which makes me all the more excited about the new album! :D

It's a toss up between Moonlight and Sorcerer. Maybe I give Sorcerer a tad more credit because I like it live so much.

Michele

I also have to add this this was a tough choice for me, because I was obsessed...OBSESSED TO THE NTH DEGREE...with "Sorcerer" for the longest time. Hence my screen name. The falsetto, the build up to the galloping chorus with a perfect three part harmony, the ethereal two-note lead guitar on the chorus, I could go on and on...

I ultimately got burnt out on the song due to her "lazy" delivery of it year after year on stage. It just never translated well...and is a perfect example of "Stevie in the studio" versus "Stevie on stage". :(

I think all of the released tracks are better than the outtake/demo versions. The only one I don't care for much is "Smile at You," but that's only because the lyrics are bothersome. I love what LB did with it, production-wise.

If I had to pick one favorite, I'd go with "Moonlight."

If I'm correct in that were voting on most improved from unreleased to released then Anabell Lea got my vote, with secret love a very close second. If its just straight up which do you like most then moonlight may have won.

Sorcerer Wins for being least changed. It's basically the buckingham nicks version with Sheryl subbing for Lindsey's voice, which was fine, that song didn't need any changing.

Going against the grain here but Planets is my pick for the worst transformation. The perfect version of that song for me is on the first rumours reissue from 2004, then the piano demos, then the finishd TISL version is crap. They turned what was probably Stevie's most angry, personal song and turned it into a song ready to have dance remixes made. they even removed the best verse.

I can only listen to the extended, non-LP version for that reason - absolutely love the omitted verse.

Goodbye Baby, Smile at You, Running Through the Garden.

Best : Planets of the Universe
Worst : Without You