"If You Were My Love" Preview!

[James89]

Originally Posted by sue

Oh crikey...Jamie .when was it played on UK Radio ?
I also think with you on this..in The UK, how can I put it, for older buyers...its important that the record's heard on the Radio....to open ears to the fact that she's got a new album out shortly

EXACTLY!!! It might be different in the US but it sure isn't here in the UK. Artists like Stevie are almost guaranteed a place on BBC Radio 2's playlist and yet she isn't on there yet. The Dealer was played last Thursday, the 7th, and was given a lovely introduction saying how Stevie's got a new album coming out and this is the first single and how this is the first listen of the song. The fact that the BBC totally overlooked it is a slap in the face for Stevie as without the BBC, the single won't be played AT ALL. I'm waiting until Saturday to see if The Dealer will be added then, because there's a small chance it could, and if it's not then I'm praying that the next song released will get added and played on BBC Radio 2.
Stevie needs the older generation to know about all of this because many fans of the Rumours and Bella Donna era won't be checking their Twitter accounts and refreshing their Instagram accounts every 5 minutes to get the latest info on the album.

[sorcerer999]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Here's the way I'm looking at it- Stevie is a "legacy artist" who hasn't even had a Gold album in over a dozen years. It's been 2 decades since she's had a Platinum album. Now she's 66 years old and is releasing an album full of reworked unreleased songs. All of these things aren't exactly the makings of a mega success for Warner Bros. The fact we're getting Twitter updates; finally an Official Website which is updating itself; multiple goodies are being made available to fans such as a VINYL EDITION OF THE ALBUM!!! , a choice of 2 posters, a photobook, etc; an Instagram account posting weekly snippets from the album; the track listing, album cover, and lead single were all released 2 full months before the album dropped; Dave Stewart posted clips of the recording of the songs along the way; Dave has also responded to various fan inquiries... all of these things are a pleasant surprise. I went into this album-making process with no real expectations of how it would be handled, and I'm really happy so far with what I'm seeing. Because let's face it, odds are highly against this album being a lucrative investment for Warner Bros.

I still think it's a bit early to be lodging major complaints about promotion, too. We've gotten an awful lot very quickly, and it's still 2 months before the album drops. Plenty of time for additional songs to be released, which we know is happening. Plenty of time for Stevie to be booked on various tv shows, which we know is happening (the Voice is just the start, I'm sure of it). We don't have an official music video yet, which is a bit weird... but we know one has been filmed.

I guess seeing how I've been a fan since 1993, I just have a tempered outlook on all of this. I remember the dark times before Street Angel & the Dance... and the excruciatingly long wait between the Dance & Say You Will; not to mention the full decade between Trouble In Shangri La & In Your Dreams. It's been nearly a dozen years since Say You Will. To me, this whole album announcement & roll out is happening at a breakneck speed for the Stevie/Mac world. We're being updated on the process better than we ever have. I'm a happy camper.

^^^ Yep! What this extremely intelligent and level headed man just said. We should ALL be happy campers!

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by sorcerer999

^^^ Yep! What this extremely intelligent and level headed man just said. We should ALL be happy campers!

They can't have huge expectations anyway.

[MoonSister75]

A happy camper here.....

Lovely new snippet - warm, rich, earthy vocal. It makes me want to hear much more. I'm very excited, and happy to wait patiently for this new album

[Josh2003]

I want my "If You Were My Love" to be a rocker, and this doesn't sound like it's that. It sounds like the Street Angel version, and I am hoping I'm wrong.

[Christopher]

This sounds beautiful! And her voice sounds great! .

Once again, as with "The Dealer", they appear to be staying true blue to her original solo demos & outtakes...stripped down! This newly recorded version sounds just like the acoustic guitar/harmony demos for IYWMY Stevie recorded 2/20/1981 (take 1, 2 & 3) from the Bella Donna Master Reels.

[HoursAndHours]

Originally Posted by Christopher

This sounds beautiful! And her voice sounds great! .

Once again, as with "The Dealer", they appear to be staying true blue to her original solo demos & outtakes...stripped down! This newly recorded version sounds just like the acoustic guitar/harmony demos for IYWMY Stevie recorded 2/20/1981 (take 1, 2 & 3) from the Bella Donna Master Reels.

On occasions where I feel like covering a song for fun, with my recording software, something I will often do is load up the track in the sequencer, and then build my version up around the original track. If I'm going to play with tempo or extra instrumentation, I will do that before I add the vocals. I think that's what they did with both the The Dealer and If You Were My Love. Notice that the track lengths are within seconds of being the same length as the demo versions. I'm not saying it was recorded with software, but I bet they captured the track off of YouTube or whatever and used that as the base track before building the new recording on top of it. It makes for a very fast recording process, which probably helps. So I think she's basically "covering" her demos - for at least some of the songs. And that's great, because it means it's very likely to be very true to the demo versions.

[louielouie2000]

Originally Posted by Christopher

Once again, as with "The Dealer", they appear to be staying true blue to her original solo demos & outtakes...stripped down!

I totally dig that aspect of both songs. The snippet we've heard of Starshine sounds to be in exactly the same vein. Other old demos which made it onto modern albums have been produced with far too heavy of a hand, in my opinion. Songs like Secret Love, Lady From The Mountain/Moonlight, even Planets Of The Universe. Not that any turned out terribly, but there was something more atmospheric about their earlier, simpler origins.

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

Now if they would start posting a few Polaroids from the "picture book" I might be happy...

Did you notice this? If you save the image, you can zoom in pretty good to see some of the mock-up shots.

I got this from the Warner store site, by hovering over the preview button, then saving the preview image.

[HoursAndHours]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

I totally dig that aspect of both songs. The snippet we've heard of Starshine sounds to be in exactly the same vein. Other old demos which made it onto modern albums have been produced with far too heavy of a hand, in my opinion. Songs like Secret Love, Lady From The Mountain/Moonlight, even Planets Of The Universe. Not that any turned out terribly, but there was something more atmospheric about their earlier, simpler origins.

Agreed. Especially with Planets Of The Universe. I will always prefer the version on the expanded edition of Rumours over the version on TISL. I generally prefer the piano demo over the Rumours version as well.

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by Josh2003

I want my "If You Were My Love" to be a rocker, and this doesn't sound like it's that. It sounds like the Street Angel version, and I am hoping I'm wrong.

I was thinking a good approach would be to start it off as the ballad version, and morph into the upbeat Mirage version.

[jkmaletic]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

I was thinking a good approach would be to start it off as the ballad version, and morph into the upbeat Mirage version.

That could happen.

I asked Stevie at the Grammy Museum event how she decides which poems are to turn into fast songs and which to turn into more of a slower-tempo. Her answer was all of her songs/demos start out at the same "fastness/slowness" (her words), then she hands it over to a producer that slows it down, or speeds it up. Then it is presented back to her, and depending on whether she likes the tempo they came up with, they change it (or not).

[Phil]

Originally posted by louielouie2000

Songs like Secret Love, Lady From The Mountain/Moonlight, even Planets Of The Universe. Not that any turned out terribly, but there was something more atmospheric about their earlier, simpler origins.

I beg to differ regarding "Secret Love" - the original demo was completely perfunctory and utterly devoid of atmosphere. This track is probably the dullest demo recording of Stevie's career and yet it was transformed into a shiny pop gem for IYD, resplendent with ambience to spare. It was still an average song, but the production definitely improved it.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

That raises the question...Will the singles be different from the "digital downloads" we received with the pre-order???

Well, I don't think there will be as many singles as there are digital downloads. So, like The Dealer, I think we'll get a download of the next single.

Will there be more than 2 singles?

Then, I think we are going to get some bonus songs as our remaining downloads, songs that aren't single.s

Michele

[StreetAngel86]

I NEED MOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAR than that clip d @mmit

but plain and scaled back not too fancy
and drowning out her vocal, me like

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

Is this the same unreleased song from "Street Angel" ???

it was an outtake
but there's a version from like every album
it just never seemed to make the cut.