my thoughts
Ok, folks. Here are my thoughts on the doc.
Overall, it was endlessly fascinating for FM fans. I could watch 10 hours of this kind of "in the studio" stuff. Stuff that stood out to me:
1) I find Lindsey very interesting (he's my favorite in the group). He's really very out of touch with reality. I thought that Mick's comment of "he's never had a 2 bedroom house" hit the nail right on the head. Lindsey has either been comfortable or rich his entire life. He's never suffered for his art. If Say You Will was never released, Lindsey could sit back on songwriting royalties for the rest of his life and live very well. Mick doesn't have the monthly royalty checks coming in, and I wonder how uncomfortable those "art versus commerce" conversations are between Lindsey and Mick? Lindsey also speaks like someone who's been in a lot of therapy.
2) Stevie was not what I expected at all. She was a lot more unbending and a lot more of a "diva" than I expected. I always assumed that Lindsey was really the diva and that Stevie was more motherly and nurturing, but I thought the documentary showed them both to be pretty stubborn. When Lindsey was offerering lyrical suggestions to Stevie she was convinced from the first second that she would ignore whatever suggestion he gave.
3) Ok...this may start a controversy...but I would SWEAR that Stevie's face was digitally smoothed. There were a couple of close-ups early on that looked very soft compared to the level of detail that you would see in John or Lindsey's faces. If you pay attention to Stevie's close-ups, I think you will agree with me that her face has been smoothed in post-production. If this is true, it would be very disappointing to me. First, because it runs contrary to the very point of a documentary, and second because Stevie looks great for her age, and shouldn't try to hide the way she looks. She has nothing to be ashamed of.
4) Even though I knew a bit about the album from all of the articles and interviews, the documentary really demonstrated that this is not a Fleetwood Mac record by any stretch of the imagination. It's really a Lindsey album and a Stevie album combined. Can you really call a Lindsey song a Fleetwood Mac song if he dusts off a solo track and has Stevie put down some harmonies?
Just my initial impressions.
-Matt
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