Quote:
|
Originally Posted by David
Au contraire. It's the more technical aspects of Fleetwood Mac work from 1977 to approx. the present that give the band its aesthetic standing, & yet another reason why it's a different solar system (with a couple of interstellar travelers providing a certain sameness of style) from previous groupings: you don't listen to Mystery To Me or Bare Trees & exclaim, "What a splendid use of mic placement!" or "What a bold foray into multitrack composite processing!"
Songs like "Empire State" or "Isn't It Midnight" or "Sara" are interesting only for their mechanistic properties, whereas "Before the Beginning" & "Oh Well" are interesting only for aspects pertaining to performance technique.
|
I don't totally agree. "The Supernatural" and "Fool No More" are two songs that fascinate me in the way Peter Green was able to manipulate his guitar with feedback and reverb. While I love the actual performances on those songs, I think I've been more impressed with the studio trickery than the songs themselves. Furthermore, I think the whole "Mr. Wonderful" album WAS a splendid use of mic placement. They worked for days to get the mics placed just right to get that "Chess tone" that makes the album all the more convincing as a purist, Chicago blues album.