Wish list for Behind the Mask Deluxe Edition

[Conga]

"Pain in the balls.... of your feet"

I unironically love Lizard People.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Conga

"Pain in the balls.... of your feet"

I unironically love Lizard People.

I want the 20 min version of Lizard People.

[David]

My wish list for Behind the Mask involves it never having happened.

[secret love]

Originally Posted by David

My wish list for Behind the Mask involves it never having happened.

Right.

Let's wipe away Behind the Mask and Skies the Limit and all the rest - even the one Stevie soft spot The Second Time.

Heresy!

[David]

Originally Posted by secret love

Right.

Let's wipe away Behind the Mask and Skies the Limit and all the rest - even the one Stevie soft spot The Second Time.

Heresy!

To push my iconoclasm in everybody's face, I actually rather like Second Time. Stevie drops her pretensions and poses, and lets us hear her at a vulnerable moment. It truly feels much more authentic to me than Freedom or Affairs of the Heart - I'm not bluffing. By 1990, I was really bored with the Stevie Nicks mystique and wanted something different. I wanted to scrape off all that "moon spirit" crap (which was a lot less charismatic in a zonked-out singer in her mid 40s than it was fifteen years earlier) by then and see a rebirth of Stevie's artistry, whatever it actually looked like. And I suppose there are other moments on the album that are good enough - good hooks, good drumming, good vocal harmonies (because Rick and Billy were superb harmony singers, which they never got any credit for in Fleetwood Mac). But the album was mostly a throwaway. People have accused me of coming to that conclusion only in hindsight, but that's not true. I haven't changed my mind about it since 1990. The sound of it isn't even desperately commercial (the way Say You Will or Mirage always sound like they're trying to "tap in" to something in the radio audience), but it's the sound of a band that has kind of given up and just wants to take the road most traveled. It has that air of grabbing anyone who walks by that we were talking about in another thread. I don't think there was much inspiration in the people who made Behind the Mask, including songs, instrumentation (it's very impersonal - none of those quirks you came to associate with the instrumentalists in Fleetwood Mac from 1967 to 1987), cover art, and so on. Even the B sides are hopeless. The decisions the band made about almost everything give me the sense of having been drawn out of a hat quite at random. It's a good lesson for Fleetwood Mac and other bands: If you're not feeling particularly inspired, keep the work low key. Don't try making a "statement." That's the beauty of the band's next album, Time. It isn't any more brilliant or any less generic, but it's low key and modest, and that gives it a little charm.

[secret love]

Originally Posted by David

To push my iconoclasm in everybody's face, I actually rather like Second Time. Stevie drops her pretensions and poses, and lets us hear her at a vulnerable moment. It truly feels much more authentic to me than Freedom or Affairs of the Heart - I'm not bluffing. By 1990, I was really bored with the Stevie Nicks mystique and wanted something different. I wanted to scrape off all that "moon spirit" crap (which was a lot less charismatic in a zonked-out singer in her mid 40s than it was fifteen years earlier) by then and see a rebirth of Stevie's artistry, whatever it actually looked like. And I suppose there are other moments on the album that are good enough - good hooks, good drumming, good vocal harmonies (because Rick and Billy were superb harmony singers, which they never got any credit for in Fleetwood Mac). But the album was mostly a throwaway. People have accused me of coming to that conclusion only in hindsight, but that's not true. I haven't changed my mind about it since 1990. The sound of it isn't even desperately commercial (the way Say You Will or Mirage always sound like they're trying to "tap in" to something in the radio audience), but it's the sound of a band that has kind of given up and just wants to take the road most traveled. It has that air of grabbing anyone who walks by that we were talking about in another thread. I don't think there was much inspiration in the people who made Behind the Mask, including songs, instrumentation (it's very impersonal - none of those quirks you came to associate with the instrumentalists in Fleetwood Mac from 1967 to 1987), cover art, and so on. Even the B sides are hopeless. The decisions the band made about almost everything give me the sense of having been drawn out of a hat quite at random. It's a good lesson for Fleetwood Mac and other bands: If you're not feeling particularly inspired, keep the work low key. Don't try making a "statement." That's the beauty of the band's next album, Time. It isn't any more brilliant or any less generic, but it's low key and modest, and that gives it a little charm.

Read this post around the time you sent it up onto the boards and did not know what to write in response, David.

Are you a music reviewer in your day job? If not, perhaps you need a career change. Are you David Wilde?

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by David

To push my iconoclasm in everybody's face, I actually rather like Second Time. Stevie drops her pretensions and poses, and lets us hear her at a vulnerable moment. It truly feels much more authentic to me than Freedom or Affairs of the Heart - I'm not bluffing. By 1990, I was really bored with the Stevie Nicks mystique and wanted something different. I wanted to scrape off all that "moon spirit" crap (which was a lot less charismatic in a zonked-out singer in her mid 40s than it was fifteen years earlier) by then and see a rebirth of Stevie's artistry, whatever it actually looked like. And I suppose there are other moments on the album that are good enough - good hooks, good drumming, good vocal harmonies (because Rick and Billy were superb harmony singers, which they never got any credit for in Fleetwood Mac). But the album was mostly a throwaway. People have accused me of coming to that conclusion only in hindsight, but that's not true. I haven't changed my mind about it since 1990. The sound of it isn't even desperately commercial (the way Say You Will or Mirage always sound like they're trying to "tap in" to something in the radio audience), but it's the sound of a band that has kind of given up and just wants to take the road most traveled. It has that air of grabbing anyone who walks by that we were talking about in another thread. I don't think there was much inspiration in the people who made Behind the Mask, including songs, instrumentation (it's very impersonal - none of those quirks you came to associate with the instrumentalists in Fleetwood Mac from 1967 to 1987), cover art, and so on. Even the B sides are hopeless. The decisions the band made about almost everything give me the sense of having been drawn out of a hat quite at random. It's a good lesson for Fleetwood Mac and other bands: If you're not feeling particularly inspired, keep the work low key. Don't try making a "statement." That's the beauty of the band's next album, Time. It isn't any more brilliant or any less generic, but it's low key and modest, and that gives it a little charm.

I have never disliked a Mac album as much as BEHIND THE MASK. I have felt this way since the day it was released. In my opinion, only “Save Me” achieves the minimum standard. Your comments about Stevie are right on: by 1990, I was open to hearing anything other than the tired mystical fantasies. When “Blue Denim” arrived a couple years later, I was genuinely enthusiastic about her for the first time since “Imperial Hotel.”

I did like TIME, in part because it surfaced from nowhere, and because Christine’s vocals were excellent (even if the keyboard she was playing sounded awful). Add to this that the band were no longer pretending to be what they were, were stretching out and trying new things....Bekka and Billy were earthy and modest. I liked their chemistry.

[Macfan4life]

BTM has lots of fantastic qualities.

You can hear Christine playing keyboards (again) on so many songs and her style is revealed again and is so refreshing compared to the programmed tracks on Tango

You hear the classic Mac rhythm section again on all the songs. Even songs that are not great like Stand on the Rock, the Mac's rhythm section is fired up

Love all the vocalists singing together. Stevie and Billy. Christine and Billy. Stevie and Rick. No need to fake Stevie's voice like on Tango

I posted this before but I think half the album is excellent. Its not pop driven and holds up. The other half is not great and pulls the album down a bit.

I am in the minority but live the album cover. I understand none of them wanted to be on the cover so with that in mind what could you do. I love the mystery and so much tiny detail does tell a story.

Like Tango, Stevie brought some poor songs. In her haze, she was not writing great songs anymore and it would have been worth it to pull out an oldie.

Its comparing apples and oranges but I like BTM better than Tango. Its a group effort and Christine shines with her songs and keyboard playing. Gosh just listening to her layers or bridgey solos are amazing. You could strip all vocals and music and just listen to the keyboards on the songs and know its Fleetwood Mac. That is how dominant her style of playing is.