Is this fair?

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

No it's not a correction. I'm sorry if it came off like that. You can really hear the transformations in some of Stevie's Rumours songs when you listen to early takes. Gold Dust Woman for example started off one way and ended up quite another. Dreams didn't really undergo the same transformation. It was pretty much the same from where it started to where it ended up.

The melody and chords from the demo to Dreams remain in tact. But that’s it. Clocking in at well over the four minute mark, the song would have been tedious if a creative arrangement had not bolstered it. Christine has spoken openly about how much Lindsey was able to extract from the same three chords. His hand on the production is so strong here that if he had done it in 2017 he’d have wanted co-composition credit, which, for the record, I think is wrong but still in line with the point many are making about his vision enabling even the barest of demos to be transformed into something fully realized and orchestrated.

A good contrast with this is “Edge of Seventeen,” a great, driving song in need of a more imaginative arrangement that will sustain its many repetitions and length. Lindsey could have done wonders with that.