'Creem Magazine' - FM Return Without Leaving' (Sept. 1987)

[David]

Originally Posted by BLY

There was no internet and we had to rely on “print coverage” for any updates. I remember looking for any information I could possibly find on the status of the band.

I was thrown for a loop when I saw Lindsey at the Long Beach Sports Arena in August 1986. He plugged the album — said it was the best thing the band had ever done and that it helped to heal the band (that was the word he used).

But then I wondered why Mick, who was there playing his conga drum during Stevie’s set, didn’t appear with Lindsey, too. Even the fact that Stevie and Lindsey did individual sets was weird. They were finishing an album, so why didn’t the three of them decide to do a group set instead of separate sets? And why couldn’t Chris and John come out and play at a Los Angeles benefit, where they both lived? Weird, weird, weird. If I reach back into memory, I recall just how off-kilter everything seemed, even without the internet communication channel. The vibe around the band was of troubled times ahead. The band members felt really disconnected from one another.

[Tusky]

Thanks for posting!
Do we know who the young, hot producer was who originally produced Tango?

[David]

Originally Posted by Tusky

Thanks for posting!
Do we know who the young, hot producer was who originally produced Tango?

Mo Austin and Mick reached out to Jason Corsaro (Power Station and Robert Palmer) and possibly to Nile Rogers (Chic).

That’s why Mick mentions the Power Station in his 1990 book.

[Villavic]

I guess you are missing those quotes from Mick's book, so her you go!

Since Mr. Buckingham was immersed in his own record, we felt it necessary to bring in an outside producer for the first time in years. First we met with Nile Rogers, but it didn't work out. Then Mo Ostin at Warners gave us some money to hire producer Jason Casaro from New York, who had coaxed such an astounding sound from the pickup band Power Station earlier that year. We booked into Studio One and held a week of glorified rehearsals without Stevie, who at the time was touring Australia with fellow Frontline client Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. (She appeared onstage with them a couple of times to sing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" until the authorities discovered she didn't have the right visa and prohibited her from performing.) Nothing came of these sessions; in fact, it took us about a week to realize that any outside producer who tried to harness the old Mac at that point was going to be in way over his head. So Mr. Casaro went home, and for a while in early 1986 it looked as if this record wasn't going to get made. In the end, to salvage the project, Lindsey and Richard decided to continue the now hallowed tradition of producing Fleetwood Mac themselves.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I guess you are missing those quotes from Mick's book, so her you go!

Since Mr. Buckingham was immersed in his own record, we felt it necessary to bring in an outside producer for the first time in years. First we met with Nile Rogers, but it didn't work out. Then Mo Ostin at Warners gave us some money to hire producer Jason Casaro from New York, who had coaxed such an astounding sound from the pickup band Power Station earlier that year. We booked into Studio One and held a week of glorified rehearsals without Stevie, who at the time was touring Australia with fellow Frontline client Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. (She appeared onstage with them a couple of times to sing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" until the authorities discovered she didn't have the right visa and prohibited her from performing.) Nothing came of these sessions; in fact, it took us about a week to realize that any outside producer who tried to harness the old Mac at that point was going to be in way over his head. So Mr. Casaro went home, and for a while in early 1986 it looked as if this record wasn't going to get made. In the end, to salvage the project, Lindsey and Richard decided to continue the now hallowed tradition of producing Fleetwood Mac themselves.

Which is what he (LB) wanted in the first place. Then realized, he was in over his head with harnessing people to actually work (besides Christine) . Ken at this point was out.

[David]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I guess you are missing those quotes from Mick's book, so her you go!

Thank you, Villavic! And in Comic Sans, no less.

Then Mo Ostin at Warners gave us some money to hire producer Jason Casaro from New York, who had coaxed such an astounding sound from the pickup band Power Station earlier that year.

I think Mick (or Stephen Davis) has the name wrong. There is a Jason Casaro in music, but I think the guy who started production on Tango was Jason Corsaro.

Nothing came of these sessions.

I bet some of the outtake stuff on the Deluxe is from those sessions with Jason. When Lindsey’s producing, outtakes are scant because everything gets put on the tape machine at the last minute and probably gets taped over while he “paints.” “Ooh My Love” sounds unusual for a Lindsey + Richard demo. The instrumental side of it could come from the Power Station producer, with Stevie singing later. The “Mystified” instrumental demo may have come from that week, too, even though it’s just Chris and two DX-7 tracks at most.

[Villavic]

I wonder what Tango would have been like if Ken had also been in the production. At the Penguin Q&A Sessions 2001, he just answered "I stopped working with Fleetwood Mac in 1983 because they didn't ask me to do. I think it was something between me and Lindsey".