Lindsey's Arranging On Tango In Night

[David]

Originally Posted by Royfan

So specifically on "Everywhere" - any theory on the opening real fast sequenced synth bit? and the dramatic chords in the chorus?

In other words , what I'm asking is , is it possible that Lindsey arranged those on a keyboard, but then let Christine play it? Cause he's credited with
arranging , but not keyboards..

You've probably answered your own question by calling that section sequenced—nobody "played" it because it was programmed. It's too fast for me to hear it precisely, but I think it's the first five tones of a major scale without the fourth (i.e., I-ii-iii-V), ascending and descending repeatedly and rapidly. It's arpeggiated, a roll, with major 6th and major 7th chords in the bass. (I had to re-create it manually in my Fleetwood cover band.)

It's emblematic of what we mean when we call Lindsey the "arranger" or "orchestrator." He provided a lot of that texture, color, and ambience in the Fleetwood Mac tracks by 1) playing an instrument, 2) collating partial bits of tape into wholes, like weaving a tapestry from different materials, and 3) toying with artificial and "found" effects to influence sonics, tempo, dynamics, and wave forms.

One thing he's been doing for many, many years is to use guitars to simulate keyboards. This confounds our senses (one hopes in a good way). We think we're hearing a keyboard somewhere in a track, but in fact it was generated by a plectrum-type instrument. Lindsey once told an interviewer that some of what you hear on Fleetwood Mac albums that sounds like a keyboard is really a guitar or mandolin or banjo that has been "treated" (like costuming your kid on Halloween).