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Originally Posted by CarneVaca
Nonsense. If anything, Lindsey has grown as a vocalist throught the years. Listen to the Buckingham Nicks tracks and the white album songs. He sang too high, often sounding a bit shrill. With Tusk his voice seemed to get better. In the song Tusk, he uses that whispering, lower register that is quite fetching. Then with Mirage, he brought that lower-register singing to a new level. For instance, his Elvis impersonation in Oh Diane is one of the reasons the song appeals to me. He does the lower-register stuff again in Big Love, You and I, Part I, Twister and other numbers.
If Lindsey sometimes doesn't sound that good live, it has nothing to do with whether his voice has gotten worse or better. He's just not a great live singer. Period. He has great moments, but often he pushes his voice too high, probably as a result of also having to play the guitar. It may not even be subconscious, but his playing and singing are in competition the whole time he is playing up there. It is tough to strike the right balance of playing, especially when you're doing leads as opposed to rhythm, and singing at the correct register. For instance, as much as I love the Tusk version from the Dance, his voice grates on me a little bit. I wish he'd sing it like the original, but I bet it's very hard to do.
Be that as it may, I seriously doubt the key in The Chain was changed to accommodate Lindsey. Considering Dreams and Landslide were changed for Stevie, the most likely reason for The Chain change is also Stevie's voice. I would bet that is also why Peacekeeper was changed from the original to the SYW version.
They're certainly not changing keys to accommodate Lindsey's guitars. Though to be sure certain keys are easier to play on the guitar than other, key changes for performances are usually because of the vocals. For instance, Peackeeper in Em is a hell of a lot easier to play than in Gm, but that's Gm is what the song was changed to. Of course the use of a capo makes playing in Gm relatively easy.
To be sure, Lindsey's voice overall may have coarsened a bit. It would be very unusual if it hadn't. But he can still blow some serious highs. I don't think he's lost nearly as much range as Stevie did.
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