Come down here for a minute

All my Stevie Nicks listening last week caused a song I had nearly forgotten about to bubble back up to the surface. The great thing about being a Stevie Nicks fan is that you can double your pleasure so-to-speak because not only do you get solo songs from her (well, we USED to, anyway) but you also get songs from her when she's working with Fleetwood Mac. It's kind of like when Phil Collins was recording solo and with Genesis, which led to a pretty much uninterrupted onslaught of Phil Collins music, only Stevie produces music that I actually like. (that's harsh, I listened to and enjoyed a fair amount of Genesis and Phil Collins back in the late 80s.)

The song in question is Fleetwood Mac's "Sweet Girl" which was recorded for The Dance live album in 1997 and featured on the subsequent tour. I am fond of saying that it is one of the best Stevie Nicks songs of the last 15 years, and I stand by that assertion. Despite the brilliance that is shown on Trouble in Shangri-La, especially when you compare it to the previous two solo albums, there is something about "Sweet Girl" that sounds like classic Fleetwood Mac. Listen.



I don't know if it's the fact that you can hear all three voices, or if it's that Stevie sounds so damn good (and looks so good too - the Street Angel days were definitely behind her at this point) or what, but it's such a solid song. I was talking to my friend Matt about it the other day who I can always count on when I'm in a decidedly Fleetwood Mac mood. Our passion for Fleetwood Mac was one of the first things we discovered we had in common, but as we've discussed frequently, we see the band through decidedly different lenses. His is Lindsey-centric whereas mine is, naturally, more Stevie focused. We do agree on "Sweet Girl" though - it comes together just perfectly in the end. The harmonies, the guitar work, the production, Stevie's vocals - everything just works.

Lyrically, this is in between some of Stevie's more straight forward songs and her so-spaced-out-not-even-she-knows-what-it's-about songs. It is a bit obtuse in places, but a Stevie Nicks song without at least some degree of hazy lyrical meaning is no Stevie Nicks song at all. It has a wonderful bittersweet tone that characterizes many of my favorite pop songs. And what's better is that it reprises the "track a ghost through a fog" lyric that originally appeared in Tusk's "Angel." It is one of my favorite examples of Stevie recycling her lyrics. From a lesser songwriter, it would seem lazy. From her, it is endearing.

And speaking of, Matt and I were also discussing the "dramatic conversational moment" in "Sweet Girl" - the point at which Stevie descends into a bit of speak-sing and says "Come down here for a minute" only to follow it up with a patented Stevie wail "Weeeeelll, come down here for a minute." It starts at right about 2:50 in the above video. It works so well, and so few artists can get away with that and actually make it work. According to Matt - and I agree with him - it ends up sounding cliched. But with Stevie, she always makes it work. Examples are littered through her solo work, my favorite being the breakdown of "Some Become Strangers" where she mutters "I don't really need this in my life!/Why don't we forget about it." Mentioning this to XO, he brought up the baby-talk "do it for yourself" in "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?" You could do a whole blog post on it, but it would likely be only interesting to me.

I saw The Dance tour a month in the Quad Cities a month after Heidi and I got married. Little did I know that it would be the last time that version of the band would ever tour. My biggest wish for that band is that they can coax Christine McVie out of retirement for one more album. They don't even have to tour (which is why she quit the band.) Just one more album of that lineup and I would be quite happy.

Sadly, I think it's a pipe dream, but one can still dream.

LDS (Latter Day Stevie): The Other Side Of The Mirror

I'm fond of saying that being a fan of Stevie Nicks' solo work would be so easy if her solo output had stopped after three albums. If any set of albums really represents a trifecta, it's her first 3 solo albums: Bella Donna, The Wild Heart, and Rock A Little. While this is not strictly true - 2001's Trouble In Shangri-La came closer to the brilliance of those first three album than anything in the interim - there is something about that set of albums that just really hits the mark. There was a natural trajectory from the acoustic folk of Bella Donna to the synth-laden Rock A Little, with The Wild Heart being an amalgam of the two, almost as if it were the offspring of those two very different albums.

The trouble comes with the albums between Rock A Little and Trouble In Shangri-La. The Other Side of the Mirror (1989) and Street Angel (1994) are really hard to love. As a fan, I feel like I end up making more apologies for them than anything else. They have only a handful of good songs between them, but as albums they really miss the mark to the same extent that the first three hit the mark.

The Other Side of the Mirror is the first of Stevie's albums that I experienced in real time. I remember hearing about it while eating breakfast over MTV on January morning in 1989, with Kurt Loder reporting that it would be released "sometime this year." In podunk Iowa, our primary music retailers were K-Mart, Pamida and the local department store chain (now defunct) Sernett and none of them were ones that you could count on for accurate information on new releases. This was pre-internet and the information was not simply at your fingertips! It was eventually released in May of that year after great anticipation on my part.

Maybe it was the anticipation, but I have always been less than crazy about this album. It's WORK to like The Other Side of the Mirror. In a word, the album is overbaked, a victim of the worst of cliched 80s production. Whereas Rock A Little has aged well despite its completely 80s production, Mirror barely sounds like a Stevie Nicks record. She is spaced out and not really engaged in the songs at all. The lead single, "Rooms On Fire" is uninspired, buried underneath layer after layer of turgid production. Sub-par songwriting doesn't help her case either. And what in the world is Kenny G doing on a Stevie Nicks album? For me, TOSOTM is to Stevie Nicks as Hard Candy is to Madonna in that it's an album I really tried to talk myself into liking. Both albums have some strong songs but do not hold together as albums very well.

It's not all bad though. "Long Way To Go" rocks pretty well and despite the fact that it's relatively tuneless, I do still like the song "Juliet" which found a home on this album after being rejected from Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night. I think it's the reference to the blue lamp that pushes it over the edge for me. And I have a soft spot for "Fire Burning" even though it sounds like she's barely present.

Years later, we'd find out why she was barely present. Instead of being strung out on cocaine or some other illegal substance, Stevie was growing more and more dependent on the prescription drug Klonopin. She's on record as saying that she really has no memory of the Mirror tour due Klonopin use. As she herself said "The fabulous Stevie that everyone knew just disappeared."

But if you thought Klonopin colored The Other Side of the Mirror, just wait till you listen to Street Angel. You ain't seen nothing yet. But that's the next post.

(part one of a three part series)

But I've a feeling it's time to try

On our way back from Minneapolis this morning, Heidi and I were listening to Rumours, the actual CD of which has found its way into the car so it's been getting more frequent than usual airplay. Anyway, while I was listening to it, I got to thinking that if I had one wish regarding Fleetwood Mac, it would be that Christine McVie could be coaxed out of retirement for one last album. Hell, they don't even have to tour, just one more album with that lineup. 12 songs, 4 each. Make them good because it's all you get. It would certainly beat the heck out of yet another greatest hits album.

As good as Say You Will was, it always felt like it was a collision of a Lindsey solo album and a Stevie solo album. With a few Christine songs (and shortened to about 12 songs) it could have been classic.

(Christine looks 20 years younger in that photo because it has been - rather unbelievably - 20 years since the "Seven Wonders" video!)

5 oldies

I was making a new playlist for my iPod the other day and deliberately did not put some of the more frequently played songs on there. With the help of Genius playlist, I managed to get some oldies in there and consequently, I have been listening to some songs that have not gotten play in a damn long time. Since I'm all about embarrassing myself from the standpoint of what trash I'm listening to at the moment, here is a sampling.

1) The Way I Am / Eminem
Not at all into the new Eminem stuff, but I do have a soft spot for just about everything else. A little Eminem goes such a long way for me, but as I have said before, it is probably as melodic as rap is going to get. I find myself extremely conflicted listening to Eminem as the subject matter of pretty much everything he does seems to be contrary to core values I have, but there it is.

2) Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave) / Roxette
I couldn't believe that this was not in my iTunes. I really disliked the song "Joyride", but I really liked this when it came out. When I first met Heidi, Roxette was pretty much the only pop music she listened to (favoring new-age and instrumental music for lack of a better description.) Upon discovering Sunday that this song was not on my computer, you better believe I remedied that in a big hurry!

3) Total Eclipse of the Heart / Nikki French
I remember when this remake came out roughly 1994ish. I was in college and completely opposed to it just on principle. How dare they take a classic 80s song and bastardize it with a techno beat and some no-name singer singing a monotone through the whole song? I resisted it for a terribly long time, but eventually was won over. What was I thinking? This song rules!



4) Spice Up Your Life / Spice Girls
Honestly, there really are better Spice Girls songs out there. "Stop" being one of them (which was played ad nauseum at a pharmacy where I worked in the late 90s). But this one is really hitting the spot. One of two Spice Girls songs on the playlist ("Say You'll Be There") being the other, it has made me think that it was a good thing that they milked the Spice Girls for all they were worth back in the late 90s/early 00s because looking at them now, it's clear their shelf life was limited.



5) Family Man / Fleetwood Mac
My favorite track off of Tango In The Night - this should make Matt happy because of his love of Lindsey Buckingham. But what I really love about this song is the breakdown right around 2:24 with Stevie warbling "am what I am what I am what I am what I am." Why is it not surprising that my favorite part of a Lindsey song would be Stevie's appearance? Anyway, cool guitar playing and an underrated song.

Honorable Mention: Celine Dion / When The Wrong One Loves You Right
An album track from A New Day Has Come, Heidi summed it up best: "Ah Celine, making adultery cool." As Paul said a while back, there are a handful of really good Celine Dion songs and I would submit that this is one of them. Here she is singing it with Destiny's Child.



I may do five more - we'll see.

The truth has come down now

This morning while I was getting ready for work, I heard Fleetwood Mac's "I Don't Want To Know." I thought to myself, "I should really write about this song" as it has always been a Fleetwood Mac favorite of mine. I kind of forgot about it until I heard it again at work this morning, on the radio no less, and I figured "this must be a sign." So here I am.

As much as I really do love "I Don't Want To Know", as Fleetwood Mac songs go, it is definitely the bastard at the family reunion. It is impossible to talk about "I Don't Want To Know" without talking about the song that it replaced on Rumours, fan-favorite, Stevie-favorite and Lindsey kiss-off song "Silver Springs." Stevie tells the story best, you can read it over here. The basic gist of the story is that "Silver Springs" was all set to be on Rumours, but then it was dumped at the 11th hour for "I Don't Want To Know." Stevie was devastated, "I Don't Want To Know" went on the record and "Silver Springs" was relegated to B-side status (of "Go Your Own Way" which is the Stevie kiss-off song. Talk about adding insult to injury.)

Since then, "I Don't Want To Know" has been persona non grata. To my knowledge, it has never been performed live. It was not a single and has not appeared on any Fleetwood Mac compilations, not even The Chain box set, but "Hold Me" wasn't on that one either, which is an even more unbelievable omission. Well, I am going on record here and now as saying that I prefer "I Don't Want To Know" to "Silver Springs." And not by a razor-thin margin either. By a lot.

It's not that I dislike "Silver Springs" - far from it. It is certainly one of Stevie's best realized songs as a songwriter. It is lyrically and musically strong. The imagery is vivid. The vocals are solid. I can understand why she wanted it on the album. I tend to think that Mick's "it's too long" reason is bullshit - it's only 4 minutes something, but I suppose that vinyl might have had more significant time limitations. I just prefer the fun of "I Don't Want To Know" over the why-so-serious of "Silver Springs." I have always said that if I were in a band, "I Don't Want To Know" is the Fleetwood Mac song I would cover. If I ever learn how to play guitar, I want to learn how to play this song.

Stevie is on record as saying that it was just a fun guitar song she wrote, and honestly, she's right, but what's wrong with that? I just can't help but love it. It's one of those songs that she wrote that was perfect for Fleetwood Mac if for no other reason than the tight harmonies. I just could not imagine this song on one of her solo albums. It is also one of her more "down to earth" songs in that it is not all mysterious and witchy and what-the-hell-is-she-singing-about? Also, it just simply makes me feel good when I hear it. There is a lot of raw emotion in "Silver Springs" but "I Don't Want To Know" is a little subtler, adding a spoonful of sugar to the nastiness that was Stevie & Lindsey's relationship back then.

So even though I really do prefer "I Don't Want To Know", I'm willing to let the songs coexist. I am, however, absolutely militant in my opposition to attempts to shoehorn "Silver Springs" on to Rumours re-issues, as if it were part of the original album. Put it on a bonus disc, record it live a zillion times, but DO NOT try to alter a classic album. Period. Really, I'm kind of opposed to all those "expanded editions" of albums anyway, especially when they are blatant cash grabs. I didn't buy the Fleetwood Mac re-isssues in 2005, but apparently Rumours is getting the deluxe treatment this year, so we'll see if they do anything with "I Don't Want To Know."

That song will always be special to me, even though Stevie will likely never ever sing it.

Meanwhile, I found this picture that I have never seen before. I think it is Mirage era (based upon the look Stevie has going) but it's hard to tell.

7 songs

I have not done the 7 songs meme in a while - and there have been several songs I have been REALLY into recently, so it felt like time to revisit it. Links to YouTube videos where I could find them.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

1) Help Me (Live in Cadogan Hall) / Will Young
This is currently my favorite cover song out there. Originally found on Joni Mitchell's Court & Spark, "Help Me" is deceptively simple, but the melody and lyrics are actually quite complex. I also love his androgynous voice, especially in the beginning when you can't decide if it's a male or female singing and as it hits some of the higher notes. I think Joni Mitchell would be proud of this version of the song.

2) A Fool In Love / Tina Turner
I have had a huge Tina Turner renaissance over the last few weeks. Even before I rewatched What's Love Got To Do With It, I was really loving this song. I have not heard Tina's original vocal on this, but rather, it is the rerecorded version that she did for the movie that has got my attention right now. What I love about it is how Tina's gruff vocals are such a contrast to the back-up singers on the chorus. That and the "you know you love him/you can't understand/why he treats you like he do/when he's such a good man." That lyric can really get stuck in your head.

3) Say You Love Me / Fleetwood Mac
This has probably always been one of my favorite Christine McVie songs in the Fleetwood Mac catalog. The version I am really into right now is the one from The Chain boxset which puts guitars over the piano opening and makes them more prominent throughout. It just seems to have more meat on the bones of the song. Plus the ending harmonies are just classic. Too bad that McVie is not joining Fleetwood Mac on their current tour.

4) Never (Heaven on the Floor Mix) / Kristine W. (stream it)
Kristine W. is one of those artists that you really don't need to own a whole album of. A few choice tracks here and there should satisfy most people. This (along with "Lovin' You" from the Queer as Folk soundtrack) is what I would qualify as essential Kristine W. After getting over my initial disappointment in finding out it was not a Heart cover, I really came to appreciate this song. It came on my iPod at the gym today and it is a PERFECT gym song. It's probably going on my year end best-of list, so you heard it here first.

5) If I Were You / Stevie Nicks
One of my most favorite of all of Stevie's album tracks, it pretty much never leaves the "Dan's Favorites" playlist on my iPod. The best part of the whole song is the "Every boy must learn to be a man/Well, I think I can help you/Yes I can" part. It takes me back to January of 88, playing The Bard's Tale on the Apple IIe and being sucked into the web of Stevie in which I am still stuck to this day. I never would have thought that 21 years later, it would still be in such heavy rotation.

6) We Connect / Stacey Q
Speaking of a song I would have never thought would be in heavy rotation on my iPod in the year 2009, this minor hit for Stacey Q is one of them. But for whatever reason, here I am, nearly 37 years old and I'm listening to this bubble gum stuff. I can't help it. It is so infectious plus it has the "tion" rhymes that get me every time. "It's no exaggeration/not imagination/You're the finest boy in town/Playing with temptation/overnight sensation/With a boy from the wrong side of town." It really is kind of scary the kinds of things that appeal to me.

7) Asleep / The Smiths
I am not a big Smiths fan, although I have been dallying with them a bit recently. What set it off was the song "Asleep" which featured prominently in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is the song that Charlie listens to and at that moment "feels infinite." I meant to blog that book, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed. However, it was a great book. And as Smiths songs go, this one is just heartbreaking - and there are a lot of heartbreaking, melancholy Smiths songs.

Not tagging anyone, but consider yourself tagged if you so desire.

Artistic supplement

I meant to post this with my Tusk post from earlier this week, but I completely forgot! As I was listening to Tusk, I remembered this picture of the cassette tape that I had drawn in a high-school journal from around that time period (1988.) I still have all those journals, tucked away in the basement and I had to go through pretty much all of them to find it, but I did.


I have cropped out all my writing around it because there is no way on God's green earth that those words will ever find their way on to the internet. Let's just say, that which seemed profound when I was 15 is not so profound (and actually quite painful!) at 36. *shudder*

What I love about the picture is how the top of the cassette kept getting larger because I couldn't write as small as the writing on the actual tape! I couldn't even get all the songs in.

A ghost through the fog

As Sophia Petrillo might say: Picture it. Des Moines, IA. 1988. A 15 year old Dan, recently immersed in Fleetwood Mac is busily buying up all the albums from the Stevie-Lindsey-Christine line up. On this particular day, the purchase was Tusk, the sprawling double album that was the follow-up to Rumours. It is also the last of that set of albums that he had yet to acquire. A stop at Merle Hay Mall left him with exactly what he needed and he held the cassette tape proudly in his hands. Once back at the car, he climbed in the back seat and his folks popped the tape into the car. Christine McVie's "Over & Over" started things off on a nice note. Then "The Ledge" came on and his WTF reaction commenced.

I have been listening to a lot of Tusk these days. As is the case with most of these kinds of things, I can't really put my finger on what brought it on. Tusk is certainly not my favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Because of this, I don't really feel qualified to talk about it -- I don't know that I've ever given it a fair shake. But I have been listening to Fleetwood Mac for 20 years now, so I figured, what the hell? In many ways, I feel like Tusk is a Lindsey Buckingham solo album that the rest of the band was invited to do guest spots on. It's not like Lindsey does the lead vocal on every song and yes, Christine and Stevie get a fair amount of the spotlight, but for some reason, it has always felt like Lindsey's record. Tusk is not a bad album. However, it is chronically misunderstood and also ultimately collapses under its own weight. Very few double albums avoid this fate.

My favorite story surrounding the Tusk album is about how the head honchos at Warner Bros. "saw their Christmas bonuses flying out the window" when they heard Tusk. Certainly, if they were expecting Rumours II, they did not get it. It is big and bold and experimental and self indulgent and only periodically commercial. That has always been my problem with it - it doesn't really sound like Fleetwood Mac. Oh, it does in places, but I think with this record, we saw what Lindsey truly wanted to do in the studio, and he has continued in this vein for most of his solo work.

It is easy to fault Lindsey for Tusk being a big behemoth of an album, but really, he is also key to its success. Lest Matt stop speaking to me, I will say that he does contribute a lot of strong songs, even if the production seems a bit batshit crazy in a lot of places. I have always been fond of "Not That Funny" and I have vivid memories of riding on a charter bus through the night on the way to the Ozarks for a school trip listening to "I Know I'm Not Wrong." Even though I initially reacted very negatively to it, I have come to really appreciate "The Ledge" despite the fact that I couldn't understand a single word of it for the longest time. And although I think the production on his own songs is insane, his production of Stevie is stellar, reminding us that he is without a doubt the producer she needs the most.

It is no secret that I have always had a very Stevie-centric view of Fleetwood Mac, and her five contributions to Tusk are among her best work, in or out of Fleetwood Mac. I will never forget that day in the spring of 88, listening to "Sara" for the very first time. I can't get my head around the fact that there was ever a time in my life that I did not know "Sara." Years later when I was in college, I had a mix tape that collected those five songs from Tusk so that I could listen to them one after another. "Beautiful Child" is arguably her best contribution to Fleetwood Mac, and "Storms" with its key line "never have I been a blue calm sea/I have always been a storm" was one of those songs that I kept coming back to during my adolescence and college years as I grew into who I am today.

Tusk is chock full of memories for me, even though as an album it never got nearly the rotation that Rumours, Mirage or Tango in the Night got. The spring of 1988 was a real watershed time for me, and the music associated with it is indelibly stamped into my brain. I will always be able to summon those feelings and images while listening to Tusk. Perhaps that's why I dug it out after all this time. As I get older, those times become much like Stevie's famous ghost through the fog. The music reminds me of where I've been and helps me figure out where I'm headed.

For all its foibles and indulgences, Tusk sounds better today than the first time I heard it nearly 20 years ago. Time has vindicated it to some extent. It will never be Rumours, but I don't think that was ever the intention.



They are all infants in that video!