Billboard, 9/20 | Reissues

[estranged4life]

Originally posted by David
It's a good thing that the fans themselves have blown those stupid vaults wide open, & so much great stuff is now circulating. We truly don't need Fleetwood Mac, or Warner Brothers, or Rhino. We take care of ourselves; we organize our own feeding frenzies, & the dumb record companies & stubborn band members be damned.

The days of waiting 25 years for crumbs are over, folks. Rhino could set the release date for the twelfth of Never in the Land of the Yik-Yak, & it's all bunk to me!

God bless us bootlegging fans. [bows head]

said it Any better...

I think fans who don't go the bootleg avenue (Which I do understand) and are waiting for rarities to be officially released may be disappointed with Rhino's attempt because they always fall short with their reissues...

Brian j.

[wetcamelfood]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
I know John (wetcamelfood) avoids bootlegs, so this bonus material would be brand new to him.

Yeah, that's the main point Johnny, like I'm glad I didn't get the GOS stuff because then that stuff would've been "old" to me by the time SYW came out etc.

Just to be clear though for anyone unaware of my personal stance. I'm not one of the "belly achers" that Jazman spoke of regarding fans selling/trading boots. Quite the contrary, I applaud you guys for being the big fans you are and going to the lengths that you have to get as many Mac (& related) recordings that you can get. I guess I'm like Johnny Stew in the sense of wanting to hear the stuff as pristine as possible and with much dis-information among many bootlegs of incorrectly labeled tracklistings/titles etc. it's just too messy for someone like me trying to be as clerically perfect as I can be to try and keep track of all of that.

Well, I could go on and on about this but I just wanted to say that I have nothing against anyone who collects boots, it's just not something I do personally. Even then, I have gray areas where I "cheat" in the sense of live performances taped off of TV etc. as there's nothing illeagal about taping off TV (even if I wasn't the one who originally taped it off TV etc.)!

I do agree with Brian (estranged4life) and David (among the others) in that I KNOW that we'll never see all of the stuff that is out there in the "Mac trading community" released via Warners, the band (or whoever, legally speaking) but I guess I'd rather stay back a little and have those rare items be new to me whenever it is that the few that do get released, are in fact released.

Also, I never thought that Rhino was going to empty the vault contents on to these upcoming remasters. I thought we had already disseminated from the scraps of info we have gotten on this that the 1975 album would just be one CD (though with bonus tracks, probably just the remixes as someone had already guessed above) but whatever, I think we can bank on the remixes and B-sides as being the bonus tracks first and foremost but then, with a little luck & a dash of hope (sadly) maybe an unreleased track or two (or three? please? ).

Due to the bonus tracks "needing to be agreed upon by the band members", I suspect that the paranoia is setting in among the ranks of "oh well, we can't let that be a bonus track, it doesn't measure up to the quality we want presented to the fans". I did make a point of saying to David McLees that we as a fanbase would like to think that the band members would give us enough credit to know that we would understand that any demos (or whatever it is they have lying around that MAY be on these discs) were never meant to be released and that we would take such things in to consideration while listening to them (if they were included on the discs) and that we wouldn't do what they seem to fear which is us passing judgement on them as being "bad" and "not liking them anymore because (this song/recording/version) is inferior" etc. but from what he said, Rhino was all for the idea of putting what was around on the discs but the bottom line was (and is) that Rhino are the FM members robots. What THEY say, goes (as far as Rhino and what they release under the FM name is considered).

So anyways, my expectations for these were never really that high in the first place but I only attempted to get involved by writing to them as I had done so I wouldn't see a chez release and then think "gee, maybe if I had contacted them it might've made a difference" (if I hadn't done so). I knew deep down that it wouldn't have made a difference but you never know until you try to cover that base and turn over that stone and so on. Y'know?

Oh, and the Novenber 18th release date, yeah, I remember ChiliD saying this a week ago or something on one of the Mac boards (maybe the leg?) so I can't say I'm surprised either and I'll "believe it when I see it" as well but they really would be fools to delay it any further than the upcoming holiday season (coupled with losing out on any momentum that may still be going on with SYW etc.) so I'm hoping that this, along with the idea that this project must have been in the planning stages behind closed doors (i.e. "behind our backs") for some time (not that this is a shock either but...) so therefore, they must be FAR on with the project so to speak. So, if that is/was the case, then hopefully they'll come out then.

John