Mike Campbell Interview

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

this really frosts me because in an interview during lockdown she made a comment how whoever she's been in lockdown with said to her "oh let's do an album/record some songs" and she quite snippily said basically oh that's easy for THEM to say but *I'm* the one that has to come up with the material....

The others have backlogs of material, so she isn’t wrong.

Still, imagine if “Wreckless Abandon” had been a Fleetwood Mac song.

her writing capabilities are dried up, and frankly it also says her desire to do it at ALL seems non existent anymore as well.

Have either of you listed to TITN or BTM lately?

Of course she doesn’t want to make an album with other songwriters.

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

The others have backlogs of material, so she isn’t wrong.

Still, imagine if “Wreckless Abandon” had been a Fleetwood Mac song.


Have either of you listed to TITN or BTM lately?

Of course she doesn’t want to make an album with other songwriters.

Stevie has a lot of songs in The Vault. She said in 2014 she wanted to make a second songs from the vault. I hope she does.

The point about TITN and BTM is that her songs are the weakest on those albums?

I like all of her songs on those albums but for The Second Time. Seven Wonders is annoying 80s synth and keys but I can at least tap my foot to it.

[David]

Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams

Stevie has a lot of songs in The Vault. She said in 2014 she wanted to make a second songs from the vault. I hope she does.

Amazing and puzzling why she does not put that second vault album out and tour it.

The point about TITN and BTM is that her songs are the weakest on those albums?

Exactly the point. When Lindsey says she has dried up recently, it’s a little cringe to think that she actually dried up thirty years ago. I mean, despite a few scattered cool songs, she hasn’t been operating at the level of a great songwriter in at least that long (for me personally, it’s even longer). She hasn’t written a “Sara” in forty years — and a “Dreams” or a “Gold Dust Woman” in Jesus years. Her burst of powerful songwriting energy in her mature years never arrived, and I expected it to. Her big statements as a lyricist, with all those songs that captured a generation, ended before middle age. We keep wanting her to return to the fore with an essential batch of songs, but she seems unable to funnel all that middle-age wisdom into songs that equal or exceed her earlier great work.

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by David

Amazing and puzzling why she does not put that second vault album out and tour it.

Exactly the point. When Lindsey says she has dried up recently, it’s a little cringe to think that she actually dried up thirty years ago. I mean, despite a few scattered cool songs, she hasn’t been operating at the level of a great songwriter in at least that long (for me personally, it’s even longer). She hasn’t written a “Sara” in forty years — and a “Dreams” or a “Gold Dust Woman” in Jesus years. Her burst of powerful songwriting energy in her mature years never arrived, and I expected it to. Her big statements as a lyricist, with all those songs that captured a generation, ended before middle age. We keep wanting her to return to the fore with an essential batch of songs, but she seems unable to funnel all that middle-age wisdom into songs that equal or exceed her earlier great work.

She did an interview in Fall of 2014 where she said how when she tours for 24 Karat, she would do 24 K songs and ones she didn't do from In Your Dreams and when she did a second 24 K, she'd perform those new songs and those she didn't do from the first 24 K.
I wish I could find that interview because she actually wasn't nice to the interviewer. The interviewer asked Stevie if she might do Silver Springs on her solo tour and Stevie shot back with "You just go through and choose"
She was probably not happy she had to be awake during business hours.

If you read Stevie's New Yorker interview, she says she has plenty of memories to pull from to write love songs.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by David

Exactly the point. When Lindsey says she has dried up recently, it’s a little cringe to think that she actually dried up thirty years ago. I mean, despite a few scattered cool songs, she hasn’t been operating at the level of a great songwriter in at least that long (for me personally, it’s even longer). She hasn’t written a “Sara” in forty years — and a “Dreams” or a “Gold Dust Woman” in Jesus years. Her burst of powerful songwriting energy in her mature years never arrived, and I expected it to. Her big statements as a lyricist, with all those songs that captured a generation, ended before middle age. We keep wanting her to return to the fore with an essential batch of songs, but she seems unable to funnel all that middle-age wisdom into songs that equal or exceed her earlier great work.

I'll go even further and say Stevie only had a decade of consistently great songs (1973-83). After that, it was hit or miss.

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

yes but the point is Mike was more than willing to share tracks with her which is the weakest part of her writing alone... so she'd have tracks, she reports she's got reams of lyrics and poems from forever, and the work would be putting some of those lyrics together with Mike's tracks to come up with a melody. She's got most of the pieces already and would mainly need to spend some time putting the right bits together, and she's not even interested in that.

Be that as it may, the others have backlogs of *completed* songs. Neil alone probably has a few albums worth of unreleased songs.

Stevie's record with Mike is a little spotty. There have been some great songs (Blue Denim), mediocre songs (Freedom), and some terrible songs (Desert Angel).

The biggest issue I see with Stevie is that she insists that songs be recorded just like her demos, which is a crappy way to go about being in a band, especially one full of critically acclaimed musicians. The collaborative spirit in the making of an album is half the reason to be in a band.

[On Ice]

Hadn't read this before and also hadn't really paid much attention to the 18-19 band, although it goes without saying Mike and Neil are both talented musicians, both are not a fit for Fleetwood Mac, entirely different league altogether. Stevie did come close to creativity for In Your Dreams, which did feature some good material, which was dragged down by a lack of awareness around less is more, which in 2022 makes it a drag to get through. A tightly arranged, well performed tune such as 24 K is what makes a great song and that approach would give us a great album. I agree with Steve that her truly great period was '73-83 and capped off with some amazing vocals on the Wild Heart and Mirage. After that, it wasn't until Rooms On Fire and Ooh My Love that we would see a glimpse of the Stevie of yore, but the album too, was dragged down by too many meh tracks and outright duds. Her other huge weakness is cover songs- her charm and appeal is in her own material, she is not a great interpreter of other's material. On a positive note, she is arguably the very best harmony and background singer who is still alive, in the business.

[aleuzzi]

To say Stevie had ten years of consistently good-great songwriting is accurate. It’s also more than many musicians/singers/songwriters could hope for. Since 1985, each of her projects usually offers one or two fine songs, such as “Blue Denim” on STREET ANGEL or “Throw Down” and “Everybody Finds Out” on SYW. Again, in this regard, she has persisted more successfully than many of her peers of that era. Recording “lost” tunes like “Lady” and “Lady of the Mountain” has worked for her, too. She remains remarkably marketable.

But as a songwriter she has been fallow for at least two decades. Her last batch of (then) new-newish songs was on SYW. After that, it’s been more excavation than genuine expression. Her dismissal of the BuckVie project was thinly-veiled jealousy and outright fear cloaked as greed.

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Her dismissal of the BuckVie project was thinly-veiled jealousy and outright fear cloaked as greed.

She told Sheryl Crow and Ellen that artists make albums because "you're financially able to" and because you're with the right group of people or something.

I would've thought that given evil Lindsey was gone. She would've jumped into making an album with Mike and Neil.

Mike thought they were going to do an album when he was offered the job by Mick.

But Stevie wants to play her classics alone on open fields for fifty thousand people this summer.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I'll go even further and say Stevie only had a decade of consistently great songs (1973-83). After that, it was hit or miss.


Be that as it may, the others have backlogs of *completed* songs. Neil alone probably has a few albums worth of unreleased songs.

Stevie's record with Mike is a little spotty. There have been some great songs (Blue Denim), mediocre songs (Freedom), and some terrible songs (Desert Angel).

The biggest issue I see with Stevie is that she insists that songs be recorded just like her demos, which is a crappy way to go about being in a band, especially one full of critically acclaimed musicians. The collaborative spirit in the making of an album is half the reason to be in a band.

and if you listen to her demos of songs like Silver Springs, it is NOTHING remotely as good as the finished produced version. Same for Dreams (though we've never actually heard her demo she says she wrote on her little electric keyboard in Sly Stone's bed) and Rhiannon was a bit thin with the same verse repeated and no chorus. So her best songs are her best songs because the band, and especially Lindsey, PRODUCED them ie turned them from some nice raw ideas into actual songs that could get played on the radio. She's on drugs if she thinks her raw demos would have made her famous. People like them now because they're neat "behind the curtain" peeks at her creative process, and because she's STEVIE NICKS. She would not, however, have become STEVIE NICKS off of those demos themselves. She might have had a small cult following, but that's it. (Same can be said for the work people like Jimmy, Belmont, Roy and the rest put into her solo stuff).

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

So her best songs are her best songs because the band, and especially Lindsey, PRODUCED them ie turned them from some nice raw ideas into actual songs that could get played on the radio. She's on drugs if she thinks her raw demos would have made her famous. People like them now because they're neat "behind the curtain" peeks at her creative process, and because she's STEVIE NICKS. She would not, however, have become STEVIE NICKS off of those demos themselves. She might have had a small cult following, but that's it. (Same can be said for the work people like Jimmy, Belmont, Roy and the rest put into her solo stuff).

Didn't Tom Moncrieff work her demos out too?

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams

Didn't Tom Moncrieff work her demos out too?

Yep.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

The others have backlogs of material, so she isn’t wrong.

Still, imagine if “Wreckless Abandon” had been a Fleetwood Mac song.


Have either of you listed to TITN or BTM lately?

Of course she doesn’t want to make an album with other songwriters.

yes but the point is Mike was more than willing to share tracks with her which is the weakest part of her writing alone... so she'd have tracks, she reports she's got reams of lyrics and poems from forever, and the work would be putting some of those lyrics together with Mike's tracks to come up with a melody. She's got most of the pieces already and would mainly need to spend some time putting the right bits together, and she's not even interested in that.

[UnwindedDreams]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

yes but the point is Mike was more than willing to share tracks with her which is the weakest part of her writing alone... so she'd have tracks, she reports she's got reams of lyrics and poems from forever, and the work would be putting some of those lyrics together with Mike's tracks to come up with a melody. She's got most of the pieces already and would mainly need to spend some time putting the right bits together, and she's not even interested in that.

She did it with Greg Kurstin! He gave her an Avicii track for Show Them the Way, HAHA