Fleetwood Mac on Dick Clark's *Primetime* New Year's Rockin' Eve

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by dissention
It doesn't contradict anything. I could say that Celine Dion has a very beautiful voice, but at the same time, I could say that I don't like some of the ways she uses her voice.

I love the beginning of Destiny Rules, but the rest of the song has a lazy vocal.

I'll never be a fan of the album version of Thrown Down, mostly due to her atrocious vocal. If, like you said, they didn't use pro-tools, it's VERY evident on that sucker.

RTTG has a great vocal, but there are points in that song where her voice gives out, ESPECIALLY during the period leading up to the second chorus. It cracks big time.

Sorry, but I don't think Stevie hit those notes on Sorcerer all by herself; there was some major help in the studio. She didn't even dare to try to hit those notes in concert; people would've cringed at the sound that came from her mouth. And I think that's what must be kept in mind: she may sound good on an album, but how will she sound live in comparison? I still believe that the reason RTTG was dropped is because it's too challenging for her to do onstage. While I still love her voice with all of its flaws and eccentricities, she very limited onstage these days and I don't see how it could necessarily be much better in the studio. We all heard some of the making-of clips on the official site before the album was released and she wasn't very good in some of them...but you'll never admit that.

If I found myself cringing while listening to something, I'd absolutely admit that, but it's simply not the case.
I watched every one of those making-of clips, and I was sitting here nodding my head, with a smile on my face, and thinking, "Hot damn, she sounds great!"

Regarding the "voice crack" you hear on the second verse of "Running Through The Garden"... do you really think that, if it was not intentional, or at least welcomed, Stevie wouldn't have insisted on recording it again??
If you're recording an album and your voice cracked while singing one of the songs, wouldn't you insist on recording it again, given the potential for millions of people to hear it?

Now regarding "Sorcerer"... if Pro Tools weren't used on "Sorcerer" (and that is one of the songs for which a Pro Tools engineer is not listed), then what kind of "major" studio aid would have helped Stevie hit those notes? And what would be the point of faking high-notes, when she could have just sung them in her normal range and no one would have ever questioned it?

Of course she shied away from them on stage... they're not in her comfortable range. And these days she's not about to risk singing notes on stage that she has to work to hit, for fear that some nights she won't acheive them, and she'll be back to the days of receiving bad reviews for her voice.
But that's not saying she CAN'T hit them, or didn't hit them in a studio environment.

I also still have a hard time figuring out how anyone could find the vocal on "Thrown Down" to be "atrocious."
Compared to what?
If we're comparing the album versions and the "Wall of Sound" versions, her voice on the latter is more nasally, and she's singing deeper than she is on the former. Seems to me that most people... if choosing a preference... would pick the album version as the "better" vocal.

There are times when Stevie's voice will be nasally, times when it will be deep and rumbly, times when it will be raspy or gravelly, times when it will quaver, etc.... because all of those things are essential shadings to the overall sound of her voice.

I wonder if fans of artists such as Marianne Faithful and Bob Dylan have such dissective discussions about their voices, or if they just appreciate them for the things that make those voices unique.

I know I personally get a whole hell of a lot more enjoyment out of music by not being cynical or sceptical.
Though I am a realist, and I know full well that Stevie doesn't have a textbook perfect voice, or a voice that will appeal to everyone.

But for me, it's perfect in all of its imperfections... "and nothing else matters."