Mirage Article

[soul_drifter333]

https://www.loudersound.com/bands-ar...hind-the-album

[Villavic]

I do believe in her words about Tusk, but I’m not convinced about Mirage with the And I don’t think there were any great romantic melodramas. Everyone was getting on great.”. I remember the stories I’ve read in The Ledge about Stevie’s coming from her big Bella Donna Success, Jimmy Iovine in France, Mick being the only member who wanted a long tour, everybody got a different manager (entered Azoff)… I don’t see the ideal context for getting on great. Maybe the alcohol blurred her memory.

Funny that the article mentions a character from a currently playing film. I'm not sure if Lindsey should be considered the Heathcliff of Hollywood.

[Macfan4life]

That was an awesome article. So much Chris from the Mirage re-release of a few years ago. What the theme of the article and what Chris says is true. Mirage was a #1 album with huge MTV videos yet its almost a forgotten Mac album. She speculates that maybe they were not organically writing like on Rumours and Tusk. Chris was a bit inconsistent here due to memory. She had previously stated that she quit cocaine after the Mirage tour and right before her solo album started. But in this interview she said she was off drugs for Mirage. I love this era of the band maybe because it is sort of forgotten and was really fast and furious time in their lives. It also was the end of an era for the band. Mick wrote about him and Stevie riding horseback in the French countryside in his book. It was a magical time. Some people say Silver Springs should have made Rumours. I say Smile At You should of made Mirage. Although with Bella Donna still riding high on the charts no way they were going to give Stevie 4 songs. But I think some rearranging the album could have made it stand out more.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I love this era of the band maybe because it is sort of forgotten and was really fast and furious time in their lives.

I feel the end of the era was the last day of the Tusk tour. The golden age of that lineup, despite not being peaceful. But I agree Mirage was magical and shone on his own. It's a shame there aren't any documentaries deeply dedicated to Mirage, like the Tusk doc or all those where 80% is about Rumours. Even about Tango!

The fact that there are no videos of the France recording sessions (for a doc or at least for tv reports from that time) also makes me doubt what Christine says about everybody getting on great. Obviously, cameras weren't welcome at Tango either. So both moments can be similar.

[David]

Stevie saw a bit of romance to it. I remember her galloping in on horseback one day, in a velvet gown – I can’t remember why.

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

[HomerMcvie]

I LOVE Mirage. I'm not sure I can rank them, but Mirage is in my top three, alongside Rumours and Tusk. White is in fourth place, and Tango fifth(or 70th place!)

[soul_drifter333]

I think part of her riding the horse was included in the original Stand Back video that got nicked because they thought she looked fat in that dress. At one point the horse is taking off like it's about to throw her. Good times

I love that version of the Beauty and the Beast film. Criterion has a great restoration of it.

Originally Posted by David

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

[Macfan4life]

It's a shame Ray Lindsey's book did not tell juicy stories. I read reviews and they are mostly all positive but the core Mac fans say nothing new is revealed and its what they already know
He probably does not want to embarrass anyone and keep good graces.

[Villavic]

And Mick thought about getting everyone away from their values and into a bubble, like we did in Sausalito when we made Rumours, to see if we could do something a little more Rumours-y, and not quite so left-of-centre as Tusk was.

Well, emulating the Sausalito situation to artistically return to the Rumouris mood wasn't Mick's only reason for keeping them away from LA... and the US. He wrote:

I had asked the band to record outside the United States, so that as a citizen of Monte Carlo I wouldn't be liable for American taxes. I was beginning to get into dire straits with money, having taken bank loans out at some of the highest interest rates in living memory to pay for real estate. I had to prove this new album was recorded out of the country. I was still thinking of emigrating to Australia and giving up my American green card to live as Lord of the Manor at Wendsley Dale, but at the same time, Lord of the Manor was getting more nervous every day. In the back of my mind, I knew I couldn't operate out of the United States. If I stayed away too long, Fleetwood Mac might drift apart, and I was obsessed with keeping this band together and working no matter what.

I didn't remember about that Monaco citizenship. Checking his book, this happened around or after the Tusk tour.

. I had purchased a cubbyhole apartment in Monte Carlo and technically became a legal resident of Monaco, thus hoping to avoid American taxes. I figured to commute between Australia and L.A., and my mum could use the Monaco place for holidays.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I was beginning to get into dire straits with money, having taken bank loans out at some of the highest interest rates in living memory to pay for real estate.j

He's such a dumb ass. I know many artists that have zero common sense, but Mick really takes it to a new level.

[jbrownsjr]

I love Mirage! It's not my go to...

I usually go to White, Rumours, Heroes, MTM Tango, Tusk, and Christine Solos.

Those have been my jams lately. Recently listened to the dual FM/Christine Perfect album on streaming. Different versions of her CP tunes.

[anusha]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

He's such a dumb ass. I know many artists that have zero common sense, but Mick really takes it to a new level.

He is not a business genius, but anyone who bought real estate in the early 80s would have had historically high interest rates, and not everyone thought they would go back down to where they ended up 10-15 years later. And there was a risk they could get higher.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by anusha

He is not a business genius, but anyone who bought real estate in the early 80s would have had historically high interest rates, and not everyone thought they would go back down to where they ended up 10-15 years later. And there was a risk they could get higher.

He NEVER learned(or wanted) to live within his means.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by David

Because Madame Nicks wanted to re-create Josette Day’s scenes in La Belle et la Bête, the Cocteau movie she had somehow discovered in 1978 or thereabouts. Day/Belle rides through the enchanted forest to Beast’s castle on a white horse. She’s dressed in a flowing cape and hood. When Stevie talked to Timothy White in 1981 for her cover story for Rolling Stone, she kept referring to this movie and what it meant to her.

I just finished reading Ray Lindsey’s completely disappointing book on his years as a gear tech for the band, and he devotes all of two or three sentences to recording Mirage. He reports that the band didn’t give a damn about anything at that time. Everybody in the band was no longer interested in the band. It’s amazing that Lindsey and Richard gave any engineering craft to the sessions — without even that, Mirage would have been a total dud as far as leaving any sort of impression. Robert Hilburn (LA Times) thought the album ex was appropriately named because it “practically disappears while you’re listening to it.” For us fans, the album has isolated little sweet spots, like “That’s Alright,” “Can’t Go Back,” and “Hold Me.” Maybe it should have been an EP.

Hilburn’s commentary is clever but perhaps a bit disingenuous, in my opinion. The album doesn’t so much disappear as one listens but one’s expectations are certainly reoriented—possibly deflated but then oddly reconstructed to suit the album’s almost stubborn attachment to giddy pleasures on a minor scale. Mirage charms; its does not haunt or beguile the way certain songs on the previous three albums do. It also doesn’t seem to spring from the earth. It’s sprinkled with fairy dust.

But I’ve been listening to it lately and believe it could have been quite different had the core trio fought Buckingham a bit more on his “music box” touches. Outtakes and rehearsals from the period show Christine’s piano is chunkier and more aggressive than one might expect, and the drum-bass combo has a real kick to it. “Put a Candle in the Window” suggests the pre-arranged material may have had some muscle…

The “alternate” (really a version before overdubs) of “Only Over You” has this hypnotic groove that I could listen to for hours. That groove is muted or subdued in the mix that ends up on the record. Why?

“That’s Alright” is a killer tune. So good. Stevie at her most lyrically engaging.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

The album doesn’t so much disappear as one listens but one’s expectations are certainly reoriented—possibly deflated but then oddly reconstructed to suit the album’s almost stubborn attachment to giddy pleasures on a minor scale.

Frankly, I don't know if my limited english skills prevented me from understanding what this means. Anyway, my confusion led me to analyze whether the album is a sum of all possible classical and non-classical trajectories between the initial and final states. That is, of course, assuming the songs were written to offer us a diploid, rather than a haploid, experience. Of course, whenever the lyrics consciousness does not cause a physical collapse of the wavefunction.