Your opinion on "demos"

[HighPassion]

So, I'm getting a bit of a moral dilemma. I want to know what other Stevie Nicks fans think as well (especially those who collect tonnes of demos).


When I first got into Stevie/Mac, I had a hayday with collecting as many bootlegs and demos etc. as I could because I was thrilled to hear them. I love hearing studio work and how a song progresses into the final product. Or different interpretations of them from previous generations. It utterly fascinated me (and it still does).

I remember collecting all of them, and my dad (who is a huge music buff and somewhat works in the music scene) would tell me that he remembers artists used to give away demo tapes and soundboard shows to fans a lot in the 70's. He even had a demo tape of some Rumours tracks but misplaced it somewhere. Trust me, I've been after him since the day I found out about that to find it haha. But he hasn't. I've kind of given up hope.

Anywho, getting back on topic. I just assumed that these demos and stuff came from FM/Stevie giving tapes to fans and all that jazz.

Then the moral dilemma started...

I remember watching a copy of the uncut VH1 Storytellers, and a fan asked her about "Forest of the Black Roses" and "The Tower" (I think?). And Stevie was clearly PISSED. As she explained that those tapes of unreleased stuff came about because somebody actually went in and stole her tapes and copied them out to people. Like, she definitely held onto that grudge all those years.

So I kind of backed off from listening to the unreleased stuff after hearing that. Just to kind of respect her. I would still listen to audience bootlegs and soundboard shows though - I personally don't see the harm in those. Every band has them.

Like Jimmy Page once said, "You know you've finally gotten somewhere when someone starts to bootleg your show."

However, those unreleased songs are quite a different story. So I stopped listening to them, and stayed satisfied with my released Stevie material. I know that if there are songs she wants us to hear, she'll get them to us eventually (sometimes it takes longer than others).

And I also recall her saying once, if the song isn't out yet - there's a reason for it. It hasn't been perfected yet, it's still missing something and is she was waiting for someone to give it that extra zing that it needs. I think she was referring to Planets of the Universe when she said that, but I'm not sure. So I figured, fair enough.


Then I kind of forgot about all that, and with In Your Dreams coming out, my Stevie fever came back and I have been coming on here trading demos and getting more demos and having a hayday.

THEN I heard an interview with her where they were talking about "Secret Love", and how she was annoyed how all her unreleased stuff is now all over youtube. She said it was good in a sense that she was able to find that song again, but mad because that meant someone STOLE her tapes etc. And it brought back all my guilty memories of collecting unreleased stuff.

So my question to you all is, should a legit Stevie fan respect her wishes, and keep those songs locked up in a box like she has done? Or should we not worry about listening to them, being as she may never get around to recording all of them.

It's a tricky one, because I think some of her best work has yet to see the light of day. However, I can also see even with those songs, how they do need some work on them and she probably would rather us wait (if she gets around to recording them all).

And now I'm excited, cause Dave Stewart seemed to have resurrected the muse in her. So maybe she'll finally record some of those lost gems.

What do you guys think? If someone truely respects Stevie as an artist and is a "fan", should they respect her wishes?