Stevie Nicks ~ Dreams & Chains: The Anthology

[mikebise]

Thanks again for the kind words.

Am I missing anything? Anything significant in Stevie's career?

The NON-Master Reels demos & outtakes, I think, just do not sound crisp enough on an anthology (unless that's all that's on it). So, unfortunately, "She Still Loves Him", "At The Fair", "One More Tomorrow", "Beautiful Ghost" and the rest just do not fit in this collection. If even clearer copies showed up, yes, of course.

The older "Cathouse Blues"-era demos sound good enough, so some are on Dreams & Chains, even if not true Masters.

I'm thinking Live Songs may need some rethinking. If the 1983 Us Fest "Outside The Rain" ALSO had "Dreams" attached, I would definitely have used that. I'm about to replace the 2005 "Stand Back" with the December 1983 Saturday Night Live performance. My audio for the SNL "Stand Back" comes from the official DVD, so the sound is perfect.

Part of my inspiration for Dreams & Chains was Barbra Streisand's mind-boggling 1991 collection, Just For The Record. On it, Barbra used live songs, TV performances, unreleased albums, single mixes, outtakes, obscure duets, and MORE to make an awesome career-spanning epic. I've always wished Enchanted had been a bit more like Barbra's box set.

Some songs/performances I still think I'm missing are:

"Jane"
"I Pretend" - Talk about obscure!
"Sara" - complete, unedited 1979 soundboard from St. Louis (the video version uncut!)
"Are You Mine?" - Duet with Billy Burnette; outtake from Rock A Little
"Castaway" - There's a great 4-minute version on the Masters Reels
"Annabel Lee" - The TISL demo; a taste of Stevie's new album?
"Baby Doll" - It's too perfect!!!
"Doing The Best I Can" - 1989 BBC-TV
"You Won't Forget Me" - Live 1975; I think the sound is excellent
"Somebody Stand By Me" - This was our FIRST hearing post-Street Angel Stevie; pretty important?
"Let Me Count The Ways" - 1996; Not important, but obscure and easily sequenced in anywhere
"Gate And Garden" - This and "I Will Run To You" are all that's left from the official The Wild Heart
"Have No Heart" - TISL demo
"Too Far From Texas" - Stevie did it in concert; country stations here in Dallas played the Hell out of it!
"The Highwayman" - outtake version from Bella Donna
"Illume" - Stevie loves this one!
"Needles & Pins" - Live 1982 AND a single!
"Love Is Dangerous" - A rock radio hit and single!
"Races Are Run"
"The Second Time"
"Smiling Islands" - 1982 duet
"Circle Dance"
"Space Needle" - It's pretty long, though
"Straight Back"
"That Made Me Stronger"
"Sweet Girl" - Live 1997
"Unconditional Love" - Almost a single!
"Without You"

Not that THESE songs are the most significant, but, by going to 8 CDs, some of these might be good choices to fill up the CDs, as classics are shuffled around a bit.

Just typing this has me started adding another CD. However, I will be reshuffling a few songs from each of the other CDs, taking them for the 8th one, so that the hits are dispersed accordingly.