The Chain <-- How did they do it?

[DownOnRodeo]

OK I downloaded ‘The Chain writing process’ boots from Dissention’s site. Many of you have probably heard it all before but for me it was all new.

So many funny moments! ….
- Stevie singing ‘Listen to the su…’ .. She does it twice!!
- Christine appraising the song as ‘Kinda funky’.
- That god-awful rendition of the ‘Love Song’ version of The Chain, and a guy’s voice off the left, assumably Richard or Ken, going ‘Oh …god!’ at the end.

So I guess this boot isn’t new but doesn’t this throw a lot of light on what we can assume about the formation of the song? I think we’re better off going by this boot than any of the band members’ later comments because they’re laregly contradictory of each other, because it’s not like *they’ve* sat down and listened to this boot. They have their own hazy memories, and have worked through so many songs before and since, which you’d think would all blur into one at some point.

So we knew that John had the bass line. That Christine had the ‘Keep Me There’ keyboard part. That Lindsey had the guitar solo at the end. Stevie had these “Write me a love song / Take away the sadness that you gave me” lyrics. Lindsey had the dobro guitar part. It seems he also had the ‘Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise’ lyrics. But I’ve heard that Stevie definitely brough those lyrics to the table. So perhaps they were extra lyrics or lyrics from another song she had. Lindsey then tried them with the guitar part (all the while the aim being to exploit the three-part harmony from ‘Write Me a Love Song’). This gelled, and Lindsey added the ‘Run in the shadows’ line. Anyone have a clearer perspective on the development of The Chain, keeping in mind this boot?

[dissention]

Actually, this is circulating for the first time. Someone had it on cassette for *many* years, then some things happened and it landed into the lap of a few fans who transferred it to disc. So, that's the story behind it. It hasn't been in circulation except for the past few months or so.

[seteca]

Thanks very much for posting these three clips Dissention. Listening to The Chain being formed almost brought tears to my eyes.

Joe, yea Stevie said in the Rumours doc. that the "Listen to the wind blow..." lyrics were hers.

Yea hearing Stevie interchange the lyrics of The Chain is always funny; she also makes the same mistake during the 2nd verse on the Tusk Documentary.

I thought something else that Christine said was also really funny: when Lindsey sings the lyrics "Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise" possibly for the first ever time (6:22 to 6:28), Christine says "yea that had really nice phrasing". Haha.....in retrospect we can all look back on that moment and say "yea well...DUH!!!"

Aw come on.....that "love song" version was great......!! haha!! Stevie sounds so effortlessly operatic! Lindsey's folk influences (and amazing talent) really show at that moment. (Yea I think that is Richard Dashut saying the "Oh God!")

It's a shame that the instrumental version of the song has been recorded over during the bass solo and the beginning of the guitar solo, otherwise we could have had (probably for the first time I think?) a full instrumental version of The Chain.

Also a shame that the recordings are clearly not in perfect order, which makes it harder to define the sequence in which the song was created. Going from all the interviews I've read/heard/seen and also by these three clips, I would say it went something like this:

John playing random bass parts-->John's bass solo
-->Ending of the song (i.e. Lindsey's solo + Mick's drums.)
-->"Keep Me There" is attached to the ending using that little guitar (originally keys) bridge at the end of the 2nd chorus
-->That idea is scrapped (for whatever reason) and the three writers sit down to work on a new first half, by using Stevie's lyrics "Write me a love song...etc". Lindsey plays supporting dobro parts using a rhythm similar to that of Frozen Love (i.e. the 2nd half of the riff is faster than the first half and sounds slightly offbeat.)
--->The new chorus is written and played pretty much as it sounds now.
--->The time in which the verse guitar is played is adjusted to fit the time of the chorus and becomes the verse guitar as we know it now.
--->The time spacing of the vocals are also appropriately adjusted.
--->The little guitar part that connects the 2nd chorus to John's bass solo is slightly changed to fit the mood and rhythm of the new song (if you listen very carefully to that instrumental version it sounds identical to the album version apart from that little guitar part. It still has the "Keep Me There" chord.)

Maybe it's because I've heard The Chain possibly more than any other Mac song, but I'm so glad that they changed the rhythm of the vocals/guitar during the verses from the original one that LB started out playing...it just sounded really staggered and forced, like my ears were expecting one thing and something else (wrong!) was being played.

[Livia]

I'm paraphrasing from an old radio interview that Stevie did, but I remember her saying, "Lindsey wrote 'listen to the wind blow' - and that's it. John had already been playing that whole bass part in the middle - that 'da-daaaa-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaaaa...' - and I had written the 'if you don't love me now, you will never love me again' for something ELSE - but they liked it and wanted to use it."

[Les]

I love this boot!

I'd always heard that "Listen to the wind blow, watch the sunrise" were Lindsey's too, and then he hadn't really gotten much farther. So at some point later, he asked Stevie if they could use some lyrics she'd written for a different song because they fit really well.

Hehe, depending upon Stevie's mood when giving interviews where she talked about this, she was either a tiny bit miffed that he was asking for lyrics she intended for a different song, or she was only too happy to give them over to this song.

I have no idea where I heard it, but I'm pretty sure the "running in the shadows" thing was Stevie's. She said somewhere that she sang those "running" lines, and then Lindsey went out and sang it for the lead vocal based on her sample, and she was pretty happy that he kept the rhythm in his delivery that she'd demonstrated.

There are some nice discussions of the Chain's evolution on the Rumours: Classic Albums DVD and the Rumours 5.1 Audio. But like you said Joe, their memories do contradict each other's sometimes.

[dissention]

I'm rather curious to hear the demo (or whatever) of the song that the lyrics "write me a love song" were intended. It's too bad that this is all that's out there of the writing process. I think it would be wonderful to just hear them discuss what to do with the lyrics, what to keep and what to keep out.

I was always under the impression that Stevie wrote the lyrics to the song (with the exception of 'listen to the wind blow...'), but now I'm wondering if each writer wrote some. Like, what did Christine contribute to? I'll bet that she came up with some of the harmonies.

Oh well, wait another ten years and more will probably surface!

[David]

Originally posted by seteca
John playing random bass parts-->John's bass solo
-->Ending of the song (i.e. Lindsey's solo + Mick's drums.)
-->"Keep Me There" is attached to the ending using that little guitar (originally keys) bridge at the end of the 2nd chorus
-->That idea is scrapped (for whatever reason) and the three writers sit down to work on a new first half, by using Stevie's lyrics "Write me a love song...etc". Lindsey plays supporting dobro parts using a rhythm similar to that of Frozen Love (i.e. the 2nd half of the riff is faster than the first half and sounds slightly offbeat.)
--->The new chorus is written and played pretty much as it sounds now.
--->The time in which the verse guitar is played is adjusted to fit the time of the chorus and becomes the verse guitar as we know it now.
--->The time spacing of the vocals are also appropriately adjusted.
--->The little guitar part that connects the 2nd chorus to John's bass solo is slightly changed to fit the mood and rhythm of the new song (if you listen very carefully to that instrumental version it sounds identical to the album version apart from that little guitar part. It still has the "Keep Me There" chord.)

Good job, but I don't think you've given enough credit to "Keep Me There." The chord progression & arrangement of the whole chorus ("If you don't love me now/You will never love me again/I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain") is lifted right out of "Keep Me There." I think the verses, musically speaking (not lyrically), were probably built fairly painstakingly from the three singers trying to find harmonies with one another -- unless someone specifically worked out the complex chord progression (when they're singing "Listen to the ..." they harmonizing a dominant 7th) - along with Lindsey working out a fingerpick arrangement, which may have helped solidify the unusual chord progression.

My hunch is that, all in all, Stevie's contribution to "The Chain" (apart from her natural ear for vocal harmony & how that may have helped structure the three-part harmony of the verses) was a lyrical one rather than a chordal one.

[David]

Originally posted by Livia
I'm paraphrasing from an old radio interview that Stevie did, but I remember her saying, "Lindsey wrote 'listen to the wind blow' - and that's it. John had already been playing that whole bass part in the middle - that 'da-daaaa-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaaaa...' - and I had written the 'if you don't love me now, you will never love me again' for something ELSE - but they liked it and wanted to use it."

I think that was that old NBC Source interview back around 1980. She admitted up front: "Lindsey wrote 'Listen to the wind blow' ... that's it. ... I wrote 'If you don't love me now [etc.]; & that was my 'chain' idea."

[estranged4life]

that is a good "boot" isnt it?

Seems alot of "interesting" stuff is surfacing now after all these years...

Brian j.

[DownOnRodeo]

Another interesting note ~

In the boot it is still early days, and Lindsey sings 'If you don't love me now...' very quietly, and Stevie sort of tentatively sings it with him. Don't you get the feeling that she's going "Trying to take the lead are we? Oh no you don't, buster", especially since whoever takes the lead on that song makes the other seem like the one who broke The Chain.

[JamieSPC]

... would someone be kind enough to e-mail these to me? "The Chain" is my favorite Mac song and I missed this discussion thinking the Penguin had gone away for good.

I'd be eternally grateful... if you'd send it to [email protected]

~Jamie

[dreams]

Wow, me too, I hate that I missed out on that one!! Does anyone know anywhere else that this boot can be found, or will it be reposted?? If anyone IS so inclined to email it, I would love to have it, at [email protected]
thanks all~very interesting discussion!