DISCUSSION: Stevie's songs from Tusk

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by LiquidDiamonds

I think Edge of Seventeen is Stevie's opus. Much more engaging than Sara

Concur. And that's after saying that Sara is plenty opus-worthy and mighty engaging.

[LiquidDiamonds]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Concur. And that's after saying that Sara is plenty opus-worthy and mighty engaging.

Yes it is...

[aleuzzi]

All of her Tusk songs are excellent. It's her best grouping of songs on any single Mac record.

Storms is especially moving to me, but Angel runs a close second.

Sara is a beautifully orchestrated song with a great drum-bass backing track and these incredible vocal harmonies and swirling guitars. There's really nothing like this song in all of rock.

[Artemis]

Tusk is one of those rare albums where every one of Stevie's songs is absolutely wonderful, sure, her songs on the White album, Rumours and even Mirage are excellent, but, Tusk shows Stevie at her very best.

Sara - It draws me in from the opening "wait a minute baby" and those harmonies are gorgeous.

Storms - I find the opening few lines to be a little too nasally for my taste, but the rest of the song is gorgeous, so much emotion in the song.

Sisters of the Moon - One of Stevie's best "rock" songs, in my eyes. Although the "mooo-oooo-oooo-oooon" parts sound a little awkward, the rest of the song is perefection. I love the witchy wails, they're a small thing, but brilliant.

Angel - I don't think Stevie's done another song like this, but that's why I like it so much. The lyrics are great, and it's super-catchy. I found myself singing it in the shower this morning. So fetch.

Beautiful Child - My favourite Stevie song of all time at the moment. It's so emotional, and she has such control over her voice. Hitting those high notes in the "I'm not a child anymore" parts... gives me goosebumps. I'd happily cut off a few toes to have had her sing this live back in the 70s.

As for Stevie only having 5 songs to Lindsey's 9, and Christine's 6... I totally geeked out a while ago, and added up all the run times of the songs. If you count the 6 minute version of Sara, then Stevie narrowly beats Lindsey for taking up the most time on the record, while poor Christine really gets screwed. I don't have the file on this laptop, but, next time I go home, I'll be sure to check it out on my PC to get the exact times. /nerd.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Artemis

As for Stevie only having 5 songs to Lindsey's 9, and Christine's 6... I totally geeked out a while ago, and added up all the run times of the songs. If you count the 6 minute version of Sara, then Stevie narrowly beats Lindsey for taking up the most time on the record, while poor Christine really gets screwed.

I don't think Christine would have seen it this way. She writes shorter songs in general (though since 1990 some of her songs, like Hollywood and Love Shines, are longer because of several repetitions and extended guitar solos in the verses-choruses).

She wrote six songs on Tusk, which I think extended her as far as she wanted to go. As a listener, I wished she'd written--or at least performed-- two more songs to equal Lindsey's output, but from her point of view she probably felt she said everything she wanted to say. If she gets screwed at all on Tusk, it's in the running order of the songs: no song on side 2 is ridiculous. If Warners execs had their way, they would have printed only the first of the two discs, and she'd have only had two songs! Weird, since the most of the best material in Tusk comes from the second disc...

I once asked Bob Welch (in his second Q and A) why Christine only wrote four songs to his seven or eight on Mystery and Heroes, especially since by the time Heroes came out Bob felt fried and claimed he didn't have another song in him. His answer was vague: "that's just the way things worked out." I think a more realistic answer is Christine wasn't then, nor is now, too keen to extend herself beyond her comfort zone. To this day she does not possess a good deal of self confidence in her abilities either.

Just some thoughts.

[David]

I don't think any of Stevie's material on Tusk compares favorably with "Dreams" or "Rhiannon" or "I Don't Want to Know." But I like the parade of sounds that the band created for her tracks. The sonic variety is greatest on her tracks, & each of those tracks has a very different atmosphere from the other four.

On Tusk there's an interesting pull within Fleetwood Mac to both support the Stevie Nicks mystique from the year before & to yank it back & forth a bit.

[EnchantedKiwi]

Everyone of her songs on this album are masterpieces in their own right. And the great thing is they're all such different songs.

AND i was so super happy to see them do Storms last year amazzzzzzinggg.

Sara is just like this classic ballad, and is so whimsical and fantastic.

Sisters of the moon, is so dark and i consider it the best song she has ever performed live to date

[bluefox4000]

Tusk Is actually my fav album for Stevie. I just think every one of her song's is just Great. Sara has this calming vibe. It's a song that could go on forever and I wouldn't care. Beautiful Child and Storms are two of her most emotional and beautiful ballads. Angel is just a boat load of fun. makes me smile. Sisters of the Moon rocks. I just love the musical vamp in the intro. It just builds perfectly. Tusk is Easily Stevie's best with the Mac.

Mick