Tango in the Night POLL (Fleetwood Mac)

Sorry for the messy voice to text, I hope any that makes any sense.

I take a crack at it. Thanks, thread!

Whenever I sing the chorus of 'Little Lies', I always pinch my nose to do Stevie's bit.

i got the reissue not that long ago so i've been listening to it a lot. it's funny to read the diverse reactions to welcome to the room....sara over the years. i didn't know it at all but it grabbed me right away--it's awkward and weird and tossed off but it has *something,* maybe in the big open chorus vocal and the way the backing vox come in, that i really like.

other big takeaway was john mcvie's playing on "little lies," a song i knew well but had never really dug into. i might think it's his best work in classic mac, which is saying something. he's the driving force in that song.

it's a perfect Christine McVie song too

I think "Everywhere" is more perfect, but "Little Lies" is more ... mysterious?

Sad seven wonders got no votes but this is a hard poll. Probably everywhere

T-ANN-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Alfred, do you still feel Honey, Hi is a dud??

Yes -- an innocuous one.

Alternative Tango coming for RSD

Stevie's interjections in the "Little Lies" extended remix are A+

This seems as a good as a place as any to air my suspicions (maybe this is common knowledge?) that the Lindsey-sung tracks on Tango (and Tusk) are pretty much all Lindsey, playing or programming everything, with a few exceptions and cameos.

I assumed so from the beginning, "Caroline" and the title track in particular.

not so much on Tusk.

Pretty sure "Big Love" is just him, too. And "Family Man." Basically anything featuring his pitch-altered/sampled vocals. With "Tusk" it's a little more obvious which tracks are just him banging around in the bathroom. Though of course stuff like the title track and "What Makes You Think You're the One" and "Walk a Thin Line" feature at least Mick banging away as well.

I saw something about having Mick replace the drums on "Big Love" with a copycat performance.

didn't he have Mick and John rerecord all the drum and bass tracks?

He might have. Mick and John pop up on his solo albums as well. There are so many drum overdubs on "Big Love," specifically - those kind of marching fills at the end, cymbal washes, little fills - that it makes sense some of that is Mick (who iirc at the time of "Tango" was totally zonked out and living in a trailer in Lindsey's yard). Most of it sounds like programming or something Lindsey could do, but Mick can be such a smooth drummer maybe it is him. Not even sure I've ever even noticed a bass on "Big Love!" Or keys. Has the band ever played it live as a band?

There are definitely a few complete Lindsey solo tracks that got ported over directly to "Say You Will" with either Mick and John on the original track or sort of dubbed on later.

They do 'Big Love' all the time but as Lindsey's Acoustic Moment.

But never as a full band, right?

Playing Big Love as a full band would just obfuscate the insane skill level required to play that guitar part and then manage to sing on top of it.

The version on Tango In The Night was such a missed opportunity. If he had recorded it in the mode of "Never Going Back Again", it would have been a classic. But it was 1987, not 1977, so instead we got the porn backing vocals and the miami vice production.

the og big love is great, how can you float "miami vice production" as a criticism and listen to the rest of the album

i'd like to suggest instead that it's lindsey's horny version of "running up that hill"

fair point, i suppose i do have the same issue with the rest of the album.

big love just feels different because of the missed opportunity. i remember when that song came out, and I just didn't connect with it all -- the "ugh/ahh" part at the end was really the defining element of the song. then several decades later, i heard a version of lindsay performing it solo, and it was stunning. i really couldn't believe it was the same song. or rather couldn't believe that the song he was playing was buried somewhere in the album version.

"running up that hill" is already v v horny
xp

but "big love" is def kate bushy and why i think it is dope af

can we ban "Miami Vice production" as criticism and phrase?

i'd like to suggest instead that it's lindsey's horny version of "running up that hill"

― princess of hell (BradNelson),

I'd long thought "Caroline" was but otm

my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3M6lBHA00

can we ban "Miami Vice production" as criticism and phrase?

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, August 2, 2018 12:43 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, if anything it should be projected on the walls of every recording studio as a deterrent

feel free to substitute "VHS cover meme"

alfred, thanks for the tip on little lies extended mix - have to hear that

The term "Miami Vice production" as a catch-all name for mid-to-late '80s production trends is useless, anyway.

Miami Vice used Bryan Ferry and Andy Taylor in its soundtracks: two distinct hair visions for the eighties.

I mean sure, you can tell that Tango in the Night, No Jacket Required, Born in the U.S.A. and Songs from the Big Chair all came out in the same decade, but the productions are still different from one another.

Also, I can't believe we're in 2018 and we're still seeing '80s records being criticised for sounding like records that were made in the '80s.

I was thinking more of modern-day records that strive to sound dated

Yet it's perfectly acceptable for Guided by Voices to record on 4-tracks and The White Stripes to record on old analogue equipment?

"Dated" isn't a pejorative, btw.

it is a sound I find highly unpleasant to listen to, how's that

That's better!

Framing "Big Love" as a missed opportunity presupposes that the live version had some notional existence at the time the original was composed - is there any evidence of that? I agree that Buckingham's live version is spellbinding, when I saw them live a few years ago it was the one moment of the show that gave me a chill even though I knew what was coming. But I've always assumed it was something that Buckingham developed after the fact. I'm just happy both versions of the song exist.

I don't think the studio version of 'Big Love' was a missed opportunity at all. The live version is indeed great, but the studio version still holds up.

Obviously the other thing about Tango is that it's a front to back production masterpiece that feels totally one of a kind and cohesive* so the idea of wanting to swap out some of its rococo excesses and make it less "Miami Vice" feels like a violence to me. If ever there was a record where "sounding like Miami Vice" was elevated to the level of vital ontology it was this one.

*except where Stevie's songs fall over.

in time this has become my favourite mac record

er next time to mirage

Another issue that I have with this whole "sounding like Miami Vice" bullshit is that Tango in the Night doesn't sound like Miami Vice at all.

otm

Tim F OTM about the quality of the production on this record, though - although I don't think the production is overstuffed or even excessive. I can think of far, far, far worse examples of heavy handed '80s production.

Seriously, this isn't even that "80s."