Was TITN a surprise?

[skcin]

This question is mainly for longtime fans - I was 12 when it came out, and I clearly remember 7 Wonders, Little Lies & Big Love being very big hits. But at the time, I didn't know exactly who Mac was, and couldn't connect the dots. I just thought they were a good band with some awesome hit songs, but I didn't realize they had done Gypsy & GYOW.

So, was the success of TITN a bit unexpected? It had been 5 years since Mirage and I assume the Mac wasn't all that popular anymore, or at least not at the forefront of the public's consciousness. So, when you heard it was coming out, were you nervous that it wouldn't do well? Excited? What about upon its release - did you love it or did it take time to grow on you? When it became a hit, with videos all over MTV, were you shocked?

[chiliD]

I was surprised that they did another album with the same 5 people, yeah. I figured after that long that somebody wouldn't come back...so, that made Lindsey's departure NOT all that much of a surprise (well, a little bit of one. He did the album, so I kind of expected he'd tour, too)...I was actually MORE surprised that Stevie Nicks came back (read on).

I liked Lindsey's tunes, right away...I liked Christine's tunes on first listen...I thought Stevie's tunes were horrid..."Seven Wonders" kind of grew on me a bit, but the other two? {insert sound of projectile vomiting here}. I really though after hearing them and how much I liked 1/2 of Rock A Little that Stevie was starting to bring her B-material to Fleetwood Mac and saving the good songs for her own career (that thought was quickly shattered once I heard OSOTM...she'd just lost it altogether) and I thought "Why did she even bother rejoining the band for this album?".

I think the strength of the album sales was mainly due to the greatness of their live show during that subsequent tour. (with the added help of the MTV videos...it was still a fairly new medium then...when MTV was still "MTV" if you know what I mean.)

[The Tower]

Originally Posted by chiliD

I think the strength of the album sales was mainly due to the greatness of their live show during that subsequent tour. (with the added help of the MTV videos...it was still a fairly new medium then...when MTV was still "MTV" if you know what I mean.)

Yeah- I remember it was alllllll over Mtv back then. It was only five years after Mirage, though- and Stevie had released two solos in between, with Lindsey and Christine each releasing one. I think the general public and, especially, the fans were really revved up to receiving it. I remember I bought it on vinyl the day it was released and went home and played and it and was . I had to warm up to it over time- on first listen I was completely WTF?? on "When I See You Again".

I remember sitting around in front of the tee-vee waiting for the official first airing of "Big Love". I thought it was odd that Stevie was even in the performing parts of the video since she's not even on the song. If I was a member of the band who didn't perform on a track I certainly wouldn't just lip-sync as if I my voice as was there. How embarrassing. But, they wanted to present a united front, blah, blah, blah. At the time, I thought "Seven Wonders" should have been the first single.

Now the whole album is pretty much blah for me. It's extremely dated. "Isn't It Midnight" and "Tango in the Night" are pretty much the only songs that really hold up after nineteen years. They should have done "Tango" instead of "I'm So Afraid" on the SYW tour . Would've been a much better choice.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by The Tower

They should have done "Tango" instead of "I'm So Afraid" on the SYW tour . Would've been a much better choice.

Agree in principle. Actually, they should've done "Tango" on The Dance tour in place of "I'm So Afraid"...then done "Murrow" on the SYW tour.

[strandinthewind]

Towie -

I think many people thought the love grunts on Big Love had La Nicks in them. I certainly did.

[Villavic]

Maybe So Afraid was good for the Reunion tour and the Dance, but the latest tours, they should have included Tango in the Night, I agree.

Now, the album was kind of suprise to me. In a decade full of Duran Durans, Culture Clubs and Thompson Twins, and no news of the band since 1982, TITN was a glad surprise to me.

Of course there was no internet at that time, and news were not so many in Peru ad in the States, about music industry. In 1997 I knew about the Dance and the reunion weeks before the show, and it was a huge surprise to me..

I like TITN, I like it very much, though it was the Stevie's weakest collaboration. But I like it far more than Mirage, as a whole album. Unfortunately then I knew the tour wouldn't be with Lindsey, so I thought it was the end of the band, as I knew it.

[littlewolf]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Towie -

I think many people thought the love grunts on Big Love had La Nicks in them. I certainly did.

so did i.
tango in the night was the beginning of fleetwood mac to me,after a couple of turns.
the first time they were about to play big love on mtv(was it mtv at the time?)the vj said:listen to those aaahhs,they´re stevie nicks.
this couldn´t have been my first time hearing FM,because i knew that reference meant that stevie hadn´t left the band,as it was rumoured at the time.
following year i changed a job and met a couple of guys who introduced me to peter green period fleetwood mac.
this brought back my interest in tango in the night and at the time everywhere was playing a lot,so i bought it,but didn´t like it very much,so when one of the guys from work wanted to buy it,i sold it to him.
for years i only listened to peter green period FM,but when behind the mask came,little lies was played several times and i decided to buy it again in -91 and from there i started to buy other rumours line up albums(and bare trees)

[priestofnothing]

Originally Posted by chiliD

Agree in principle. Actually, they should've done "Tango" on The Dance tour in place of "I'm So Afraid"...then done "Murrow" on the SYW tour.

That's funny. Not ha-ha funny, but co-incidence funny. I believe Lindsey (or maybe it was Mick) said once that the music for Tango in the Night (the song) was born out of some of Lindsey's live performances of I'm So Afraid. I can't remember where I heard that though - maybe it was in Mick's book?

[strandinthewind]

I was 20 or so when it came out. I remember being excitred for it and then being let down a little because the songs were perhaps too sleek and La Nicks' work was bad, with the exception of Seven Wonders. TITN also marked the first huge change I noted in her voice - it was lower and flat in places, esp. live.

But, I grew to like TITN.

[MacMan]

I think I was sortof was moving on from them at that point... I don't recall even seriously following them or hearing about the album before it's release - so I definately wasn't counting the days. I remember the constant radio and video play of the tracks... and I remember when I bought it thinking that Stevie's hardly heard anywhere on it except mainly the tracks she sang on. I liked the album at the time, thought it sounded great and went with the times - still like Little Lies and 7 Wonders and a couple of other tracks...

[David]

Originally Posted by skcin

This question is mainly for longtime fans - I was 12 when it came out, and I clearly remember 7 Wonders, Little Lies & Big Love being very big hits. But at the time, I didn't know exactly who Mac was, and couldn't connect the dots. I just thought they were a good band with some awesome hit songs, but I didn't realize they had done Gypsy & GYOW.

So, was the success of TITN a bit unexpected? It had been 5 years since Mirage and I assume the Mac wasn't all that popular anymore, or at least not at the forefront of the public's consciousness.

Madonna was the biggest name in the business. She was everywhere. Fleetwood Mac was still a pretty big name, though--it was kind of like the status they had in 1997/1998: not the hippest kid on the block by a long shot but still a big name as an 'elder statesman' band, & still impressive commercially (probably thanks to Stevie).

So, when you heard it was coming out, were you nervous that it wouldn't do well? Excited?

Yeah, I was really excited. I went to that big splashy benefit at the sports arena in the late summer 1986, where Lindsey performed & said that the band was finishing up its best album ever, so we were pretty excited. We were definitely waiting for it, month by month.

What about upon its release - did you love it or did it take time to grow on you?

A few weeks before the album came out, the radio started playing Big Love, & I really liked that one. Even the L.A. Times loved that one, calling it one of the best singles so far that year. About a week before the album was released, Jim Ladd (surprise surprise) played the whole album on KMET or KLOS or wherever he was at that point, & I listened to the broadcast & taped it, & I remember just loving the sound of all the songs as they unfolded one after another. I remember thinking the whole pentatonic thing going through so much of it & the crystal clarity of it all were just about the most beautiful thing I had ever heard from Fleetwood Mac. I had a Sony Walkman then & I remember thinking that I was going to be listening to THIS for a long time.

When it became a hit, with videos all over MTV, were you shocked?

Yes that was a little weird. Little Lies, especially...pop-rock radio in Los Angeles just kept playing it & playing it, twelve times a day every day. People at class in college were humming it & you walked into a store or a mall & there it was. It was slightly weird to me. It wasn't like Rumours because the band themselves weren't hip that way anymore, but all this airplay was bizarre. It was like these songs--Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Everywhere--just got stuck in people's brains & they couldn't get rid of them even though they didn't really love them. The songs were so hook-filled & that's what effective hooks do: they insinuate themselves in somebody's brain even when that person doesn't want it to happen. Have you ever started humming a song that you didn't even like? That's because of the damn hook, & that's what Tango had.

[DavidMn]

I remember getting it and thinking back I had the same feeling that I had with Say You Will in that I had to listen to it several times to wrap myself around it. A good album for sure.

[BlackWidow]

No one was "surprised" that Tango was a huge success!
They were actually being challenged in the press for being rock n rollers
turning 40..the old should they or shouldn't they??? SO..Twenty years later...you know the rest. It was odd that Chris got more attention than Stevie on a FM project..but Stevie was not well then.."whatsamattababy"