Smile at You - Deluxe Outtake

[brad975]

I'm not sure if there's been much discussion of this, but I'm a little mystified by the outtake of "Smile at You" chosen for the Deluxe Mirage.

I've heard the famous "angry" version from the Mirage sessions, and I just heard an incredibly clear sounding version from the Tusk time period on YouTube (with searing guitar). I think both of these are better than the outtake chosen for the Deluxe Mirage.

Two things in particular bother me about the officially released outtake:

* She doesn't get through two full choruses (as on the other available outtakes). The song doesn't have a particularly dynamic chorus to begin with on first listen, so I think it needs at least 2 run-throughs.
* But when you do think she's going into a second full chorus, it stops short on "You needed someone to depend on ME." Me? Shouldn't that be another "You" as in the other versions? It sounds like a goof.

This isn't one of my favorite Stevie/Mac songs. But I do admire her wailing on the "angry" version. That's the most dynamic element of the recording to me. Maybe Stevie didn't want the world to hear her sound so angry, so she indicated a preference for another take. I don't know.

But it seems like a missed opportunity. The Tusk "Smile at You" would have been great to have on that Deluxe Tusk too.

As far as the SYW version, I can see why Lindsey added in the "Turned away and ran, just as fast as I can" sections. Because it could be argued that the song needed some added interest. But that bugs me also because it's ungrammatical. "Just as fast as I could" doesn't rhyme, however.

It was helpful to hear where those lines came from on the released outtake. But Stevie split them apart and sang them a little differently so that it didn't sound strange. "I should have turned away and and ran, just as fast as I can" effectively becomes the chorus on the SYW version, because she only does what I think of as the original chorus ("...My first mistake was to smile at you...") once on this version too.

This is just my opinion. I guess there's no absolute rule that a song needs a clear chorus. What do you think about the released outtake or other versions?