Was TITN a surprise?

[skcin]

This question is mainly for longtime fans - I was 12 when it came out, and I clearly remember 7 Wonders, Little Lies & Big Love being very big hits. But at the time, I didn't know exactly who Mac was, and couldn't connect the dots. I just thought they were a good band with some awesome hit songs, but I didn't realize they had done Gypsy & GYOW.

So, was the success of TITN a bit unexpected? It had been 5 years since Mirage and I assume the Mac wasn't all that popular anymore, or at least not at the forefront of the public's consciousness. So, when you heard it was coming out, were you nervous that it wouldn't do well? Excited? What about upon its release - did you love it or did it take time to grow on you? When it became a hit, with videos all over MTV, were you shocked?

[chiliD]

I was surprised that they did another album with the same 5 people, yeah. I figured after that long that somebody wouldn't come back...so, that made Lindsey's departure NOT all that much of a surprise (well, a little bit of one. He did the album, so I kind of expected he'd tour, too)...I was actually MORE surprised that Stevie Nicks came back (read on).

I liked Lindsey's tunes, right away...I liked Christine's tunes on first listen...I thought Stevie's tunes were horrid..."Seven Wonders" kind of grew on me a bit, but the other two? {insert sound of projectile vomiting here}. I really though after hearing them and how much I liked 1/2 of Rock A Little that Stevie was starting to bring her B-material to Fleetwood Mac and saving the good songs for her own career (that thought was quickly shattered once I heard OSOTM...she'd just lost it altogether) and I thought "Why did she even bother rejoining the band for this album?".

I think the strength of the album sales was mainly due to the greatness of their live show during that subsequent tour. (with the added help of the MTV videos...it was still a fairly new medium then...when MTV was still "MTV" if you know what I mean.)

[strandinthewind]

I was 20 or so when it came out. I remember being excitred for it and then being let down a little because the songs were perhaps too sleek and La Nicks' work was bad, with the exception of Seven Wonders. TITN also marked the first huge change I noted in her voice - it was lower and flat in places, esp. live.

But, I grew to like TITN.

[MacMan]

I think I was sortof was moving on from them at that point... I don't recall even seriously following them or hearing about the album before it's release - so I definately wasn't counting the days. I remember the constant radio and video play of the tracks... and I remember when I bought it thinking that Stevie's hardly heard anywhere on it except mainly the tracks she sang on. I liked the album at the time, thought it sounded great and went with the times - still like Little Lies and 7 Wonders and a couple of other tracks...

[David]

Originally Posted by skcin

This question is mainly for longtime fans - I was 12 when it came out, and I clearly remember 7 Wonders, Little Lies & Big Love being very big hits. But at the time, I didn't know exactly who Mac was, and couldn't connect the dots. I just thought they were a good band with some awesome hit songs, but I didn't realize they had done Gypsy & GYOW.

So, was the success of TITN a bit unexpected? It had been 5 years since Mirage and I assume the Mac wasn't all that popular anymore, or at least not at the forefront of the public's consciousness.

Madonna was the biggest name in the business. She was everywhere. Fleetwood Mac was still a pretty big name, though--it was kind of like the status they had in 1997/1998: not the hippest kid on the block by a long shot but still a big name as an 'elder statesman' band, & still impressive commercially (probably thanks to Stevie).

So, when you heard it was coming out, were you nervous that it wouldn't do well? Excited?

Yeah, I was really excited. I went to that big splashy benefit at the sports arena in the late summer 1986, where Lindsey performed & said that the band was finishing up its best album ever, so we were pretty excited. We were definitely waiting for it, month by month.

What about upon its release - did you love it or did it take time to grow on you?

A few weeks before the album came out, the radio started playing Big Love, & I really liked that one. Even the L.A. Times loved that one, calling it one of the best singles so far that year. About a week before the album was released, Jim Ladd (surprise surprise) played the whole album on KMET or KLOS or wherever he was at that point, & I listened to the broadcast & taped it, & I remember just loving the sound of all the songs as they unfolded one after another. I remember thinking the whole pentatonic thing going through so much of it & the crystal clarity of it all were just about the most beautiful thing I had ever heard from Fleetwood Mac. I had a Sony Walkman then & I remember thinking that I was going to be listening to THIS for a long time.

When it became a hit, with videos all over MTV, were you shocked?

Yes that was a little weird. Little Lies, especially...pop-rock radio in Los Angeles just kept playing it & playing it, twelve times a day every day. People at class in college were humming it & you walked into a store or a mall & there it was. It was slightly weird to me. It wasn't like Rumours because the band themselves weren't hip that way anymore, but all this airplay was bizarre. It was like these songs--Little Lies, Seven Wonders, Everywhere--just got stuck in people's brains & they couldn't get rid of them even though they didn't really love them. The songs were so hook-filled & that's what effective hooks do: they insinuate themselves in somebody's brain even when that person doesn't want it to happen. Have you ever started humming a song that you didn't even like? That's because of the damn hook, & that's what Tango had.

[DavidMn]

I remember getting it and thinking back I had the same feeling that I had with Say You Will in that I had to listen to it several times to wrap myself around it. A good album for sure.

[The Tower]

Originally Posted by chiliD

I think the strength of the album sales was mainly due to the greatness of their live show during that subsequent tour. (with the added help of the MTV videos...it was still a fairly new medium then...when MTV was still "MTV" if you know what I mean.)

Yeah- I remember it was alllllll over Mtv back then. It was only five years after Mirage, though- and Stevie had released two solos in between, with Lindsey and Christine each releasing one. I think the general public and, especially, the fans were really revved up to receiving it. I remember I bought it on vinyl the day it was released and went home and played and it and was . I had to warm up to it over time- on first listen I was completely WTF?? on "When I See You Again".

I remember sitting around in front of the tee-vee waiting for the official first airing of "Big Love". I thought it was odd that Stevie was even in the performing parts of the video since she's not even on the song. If I was a member of the band who didn't perform on a track I certainly wouldn't just lip-sync as if I my voice as was there. How embarrassing. But, they wanted to present a united front, blah, blah, blah. At the time, I thought "Seven Wonders" should have been the first single.

Now the whole album is pretty much blah for me. It's extremely dated. "Isn't It Midnight" and "Tango in the Night" are pretty much the only songs that really hold up after nineteen years. They should have done "Tango" instead of "I'm So Afraid" on the SYW tour . Would've been a much better choice.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by The Tower

They should have done "Tango" instead of "I'm So Afraid" on the SYW tour . Would've been a much better choice.

Agree in principle. Actually, they should've done "Tango" on The Dance tour in place of "I'm So Afraid"...then done "Murrow" on the SYW tour.

[strandinthewind]

Towie -

I think many people thought the love grunts on Big Love had La Nicks in them. I certainly did.

[Villavic]

Maybe So Afraid was good for the Reunion tour and the Dance, but the latest tours, they should have included Tango in the Night, I agree.

Now, the album was kind of suprise to me. In a decade full of Duran Durans, Culture Clubs and Thompson Twins, and no news of the band since 1982, TITN was a glad surprise to me.

Of course there was no internet at that time, and news were not so many in Peru ad in the States, about music industry. In 1997 I knew about the Dance and the reunion weeks before the show, and it was a huge surprise to me..

I like TITN, I like it very much, though it was the Stevie's weakest collaboration. But I like it far more than Mirage, as a whole album. Unfortunately then I knew the tour wouldn't be with Lindsey, so I thought it was the end of the band, as I knew it.

[Houseonthehill]

Wow interesting, this entire thread is phenomenal, just realizing the thoughts about quite possibly my favorite FM album at the time (about 6 months before I was born!)

[PenguinHead]

I eagerly awaited the Tango album with great excitement. It had been so long since their last album. Big Love started getting a lot of airplay right off the bat. As different as it was, I was happy to see Lindsey have another hit single (since there weren't any from him on the Mirage album (although Oh Diane and Can't Go Back were issued as foreign singles).

Overall I like the album, although Mirage, by a slim margin, seems more cohesive to me. I really liked Seven Wonders immediately, but over time, the crappy verse lyrics have sort of spoiled it. And, am I the only one who actually likes Welcome to the Room Sara? Yes, it's a very odd song, and that's why I like it....because it features the background voices of both Christine and Lindsey, and it addresses her stint at Betty Ford in a way that only Stevie could conjure up.

Didn't Stevie submit other songs for consideration? For example, Juliet and What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You? When I See You Again could have been a new Landslide-like song...but she so missed the mark on that one, lyrically and vocally. In fact, her voice sounded very shrill during that period, and I think the production only enhanced it.

[UndoingTheLaces]

I was in the summer before going off to college when Tango came out. I was already a big fan of Stevie Nicks but up until this point never really had made the distinction between Fleetwood Mac and Stevie as a solo performer. On a mix tape Gypsy sat alongside Stand Back and I just knew they were the same person singing. So when Tango came out I finally got that Stevie was a part of Fleetwood Mac. I went totally nuts for Seven Wonders. It was my favorite song that summer. Then I remember hearing the remix of Big Love on the radio and totally falling in love with it, but when they would play the single version I couldn't figure out why they cut Stevie's part. Once I got the album I realized it was just a special feature of the remix.

I enjoyed the whole album. Welcome to the Room Sara made no sense to me until years later when I found out it was about her time in rehab and it became much darker to me. Same thing had happened with Gypsy, a flightly song about mystical gypsies and lost loves became a very somber story of a dying friend. I still get emotional when I hear it.

That album was the one I listened to most during my freshman year at college. It was because of it that I went out and got all the other FM CDs (well, all the ones from that line-up anyway). I saw the tango tour and had no idea Lindsay wasn't going to be there until the night of the show and I was really crushed. It was still a very enjoyable show. I remember Stevie catching a frisbee thrown by a fan during Don't Stop and throwing it back into the audience.

I'm a huge fan of remixes, and the Seven Wonders and Big Love remixes had constant play in my dorm room and my walkman. I listened to the Little Lies remix a lot but really didn't like it very much. By the time Family Man came out I was losing interest and getting really wrapped up in Tusk, which is my favorite FM album.

[GarboSpeaks!]

I liked Lindsey's tunes, right away...I liked Christine's tunes on first listen...I thought Stevie's tunes were horrid..."Seven Wonders" kind of grew on me a bit, but the other two? {insert sound of projectile vomiting here}. I really though after hearing them and how much I liked 1/2 of Rock A Little that Stevie was starting to bring her B-material to Fleetwood Mac and saving the good songs for her own career (that thought was quickly shattered once I heard OSOTM...she'd just lost it altogether) and I thought "Why did she even bother rejoining the band for this album?".

It's an interesting ? to ask cause I think age has a lot to do with this.

What I mean to say is...older fans who were around for the Rumours heyday (maybe even Tusk) would be a tad more "eh" about the release of TITN vs. those coming of age in the video era...getting acquainted w/ the Mac and it's solo member efforts via MTV.
Those of us not at all of age to recall ANY album release but being aware of TITN, it's gonna have a different effect. Am I making sense w/out offending people?
I was maybe 16 I'd say...and had no idea of it coming out. I can't recall a build up to the album, but I was WAY into them by then and definately all over the possibility of FINALLY getting to see my 1st concert...add to it that it was for this album. BL & 7W were ALL over the tv, in rotation w/ Gypsy & Stand Back...to help those of us that hadn't "connected the dots." (Of which I had only done when Mirage came out.) I was swamped in jr. high w/ the "your not cool unless you are into WHAM & Madonna etc." Being in the know was just not happening for me, so it just sorta came out. I made more effort to know about these things in advance from OSOTM on. I don't think that TITN was an accomplishment in my book at the time, cause I was just grateful for more music. Prolly only by this time had I finally acquired all FM/solo efforts I could get my hands on, and was oblivious to the back catalog of guest efforts and music soundtracks. At the time I thought it was all great, but ofcourse w/ years of listening to it, I have my opinions. I still think it is a great album. Dated to be sure. One of the few Mac albums that just screams it's era. Stevie's WTTRS took FOREVER to grow on me, but I like all of Chris & LB's stuff. I would never have thought to think "hmmm, this stuff sounds like Stevie's leftovers from a solo album." But today I'd have to agree 10fold. LB's tunes sound like he's still trapped in the Kleenex boxes he used for Tusk, but can't quite break out. Chris...well Chris always writes poppy tunes.
In retrospect, it was a cool year. Saw them for that tour, and just became more hardcore. Still break out TITN once in a while for a listen, and enjoy it for a time...but then put it away again.

[JazmenFlowers]

*in my best Miranda Priestley voice*

When I See You Again is amazing. that's all.

I was only 6 or 7 when TITN came out so I can't really add anything else to this conversation, but I had to add my $.02