Tango in the Night POLL (Fleetwood Mac)

cool stuff in the deluxe edition that got cut from the review

- the reconstituted "you and i" is awesome and had it ended tango it'd probably be my favorite fleetwood mac record even with the disintegrating stevie songs
- i've had the extended remixes for years but i still get really surprised when i hear a long lost stevie backing vocal woven into them, especially in "big love" and "family man" which i always thought of as (and which, afaik, are) solitary lindsey affairs

or the TELL ME LIES. WHOA. SWEET LITTLE LIES. OH NO NO YOU CAN'T DISGUISE that suddenly appears as a mixing decision in the "Little Lies" 12-inch.

Reissue's not out until the end of the month, right? That's a pretty early review.

I love the idea that Nicks deserved a writing credit.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 13, 2017 3:26 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's like something straight from the Mike Love school of earning writing credits.

/Then Play Long/ on the mysterious case of the disintegrating band: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/fleetwood-mac-tango-in-night.html🔗

That said, I don't think stuff that sounds like Nicks on "Little Lies" is Buckingham.

The three are on "Little Lies" – that's the beauty of the chorus, where each gets a line (and the beauty of the 12" is exposing listeners to the rest of Nicks' vocal).

x-post:

I'd probably go as far as saying that it ranks as one of Nicks' worst ever vocal performances on record.

the christine/stevie/lindsey tradeoff in the chorus is the most they ever feel like a band on the record and it's also just really sharp arranging, it's the part of the song that's like burned into my memory forever xp

yep!

It's the Mac song I remember most as a kid, thanks to that nasal Nicks hook in the chorus.

i heard it on the radio for years as a kid without ever identifying it as a fleetwood mac song. which persisted even after i became a fan; they didn't perform it the dance, which was my gateway

er, on the dance*

I used to wake up to the clock/radio every morning, and one of my formative memories is waking up to "Little Lies" one day. It was the sleepy-eyed equivalent of hearing something amazing and needing to pull the car over. 1987, so must have been middle school. Not sure when I even realized pre-'80s Fleetwood Mac existed, to be honest. What's weird is that I didn't buy the record until much, much later.

Posted before I got here...Like all the singles, would have voted for "Mystified."

I had completely forgotten about "Big Love"

For me, I heard stuff like 'Albatross' and 'Oh Well' first and I pretty much thought of Fleetwood Mac as being something to be put in the same bracket as Cream or something. British blues rock. But then later I'd see videos for Fleetwood Mac songs from different eras on VH-1 and I'd think "huh, wut?" ... I'd see 'Albatross' one day, 'Big Love' the next, then something like 'Rhiannon' and it'd be a bit confusing. It wasn't until I saw the Rock Family Trees episode on Fleetwood Mac circa 1994-1995 or thereabouts that I became aware of how it all fit together, then the Classic Albums episode on Rumours. That was basically my gateway... then suddenly it was like: "huh, so that's where the intro music from the Formula One comes from..."

In fact, before watching that Rock Family Trees, I'd assumed that the line-up that did 'Big Love' was a slightly different line-up to the one that did 'Rhiannon', because Lindsey Buckingham looked so different in the 'Big Love' video.

In two weeks it'll be the 30th anniversary of "Big Love" debuting on the Hot 100: https://weeklytop40.wordpress.com/1987-all-charts/

that Rock Family Tree doc is great for anyone who wants a nosey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYaE5qFpGQM

"Mystified" is kinda killing me right now.

'Isn't It Midnight' is my jam on this these days.

TA-AN-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Excellent review Brad

Edge of Seventeen anecdote is blowing my mind

It's hilarious that ten years later not a single poster has admitted to voting for "Welcome to the Room................Sara."

I will say this about it: as dire as the song is, it features Stevie's best performance on the record by a fair distance. The writing bears her trademark phrasing – and her singing is far more invested (and subsequently less manipulated by Lindsay). Which makes a certain amount of sense given that it's about the most relevant thing in her life at the time: drugs, rehab and isolation.

It's her only complete performance. She didn't write "Seven Wonders" and didn't finish "When I See You Again." She's there and not-there on this album in a way that astonishes me.

For me, it's never really mattered that Nicks contributed relatively little to this record, since McVie's and Buckingham's contributions are so potent.

(then again, Nicks always was my least favourite of the three songwriters)

Mine as well, tho Stevie's best moments—"Sara," "Gypsy," "Dreams," "Storms"—are undoubtedly really good, even if I sometimes question how much of what I like about them is wedded their arrangements and production.

I disagree. Her songs are often the weakest but no way in hell would I want a Fleetwood Mac without her. She's peculiar: one of the few singer-songwriters who is both the most conventional, kitschiest member (Eagles fetish, New Age crap) and the weirdest vision.

otoh Buckingham is often a better arranger and producer and singer than songwriter; often his songs are about nothing and aren't anything except their arrangements. He's at best coaxing and shaping great songs out of McVie and Nicks.

*and HAS the weirdest vision

i mean i disagree too but that's bc her mac-oriented songs are all knockouts until mirage, which has "gypsy" anyway

I agree that Buckingham works wonders on McVie's and Nicks' material, it's partly the reason why McVie's tracks sound so utterly magnificent on Tango, and partly the reason why Nicks was able to get away with phoning it in.

I can't wait to hear what the Buckingham-McVie record sounds like, although I still see no reason why it shouldn't be put out as a Fleetwood Mac record.

stevie's songs can be really digressive but it's a good counterpoint to the precision of buckingham and mcvie, she gets adventurous in a way they do not

With maybe one exception, her songs on Say You Will are her best on a Mac record since Tusk.

I can't wait to hear what the Buckingham-McVie record sounds like, although I still see no reason why it shouldn't be put out as a Fleetwood Mac record.

― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Tuesday, March 14, 2017

I bet Nicks and her lawyers rewrote her contract so that Fleetwood Mac isn't "Fleetwood Mac" without her. She's the star.

With maybe one exception, her songs on Say You Will are her best on a Mac record since Tusk.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 14, 2017 5:38 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed. (what's the exception? "illume" is p dull imo)

Yep. Classic Nicks example of wandering in search of a melody.

otoh "Running Through the Garden"! "Goodbye Baby"! The title track! "Thrown Down"!

Mine as well, tho Stevie's best moments—"Sara," "Gypsy," "Dreams," "Storms"—are undoubtedly really good, even if I sometimes question how much of what I like about them is wedded their arrangements and production.

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, March 15, 2017 12:26 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, the best of Stevie's stuff really is genuinely great - 'Sara' for me being the pinnacle of her songwriting for Fleetwood Mac, and I really love 'Sisters of the Moon' and 'Gold Dust Woman' ... I'd still rank her as my third favourite songwriter in this incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, vastly preferring McVie's well crafted pop and Buckingham's stuff like 'That's All For Everyone', 'Go Your Own Way', 'What Makes You Think You're The One', his tracks on Tango...

On the Enchanted box set she includes a couple of demos of her best '90s songs ("Sweet Girl," "Twisted"), on which she and another guitarist (Jesse Vanenzuela on one!) play all the instruments and guess what -- the chord changes and melodies are all hers and survived intact. It's possible she was a better recordmaker by the '90s, but I'm reluctant to give Buck the lion's share of the credit for making her listenable; there's a faint whiff of misogyny.

stevie's songs can be really digressive but it's a good counterpoint to the precision of buckingham and mcvie, she gets adventurous in a way they do not

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Wednesday, March 15, 2017 12:38 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Adventurous like on the stock '70s California soft rock of 'Angel' or adventurous like on the stock '70s California soft rock of 'I Don't Wanna Know' ... or adventurous like the meandering, take-your-time-getting-somewhere '70s California soft rock of 'Storms' or 'Beautiful Child'? The latter two which neither have the pop hooks of McVie's material or are as interesting as Buckingham's material?

"I Don't Wanna Know" is as precise as any McVie!

agreed with alfred on the faint whiff of misogyny

"Storms" doesn't sound like Nicolette Larson, Carly Simon, Kenny Loggins, or however you define California soft rock.

and I haven't even mentioned the half dozen great solo songs on which Buckingham is nowhere near

we could also talk about "silver springs" which has like two choruses and sounds enormous in a way that basically no other rumours track does

I think Stevie is just one of those songwriters who does her best work bouncing off someone else. There's nothing wrong with that. She's not a typical singer-songwriter, more like Madonna.

"beautiful child" wanders and builds itself up block by block as much as "sara" and every time she sings "i am not a child anymore" it sounds like years have passed

^^^ yes. And her timbre changes!

I can't believe we're re-litigating Nicks' contributions. I got no problem with someone ranking her last among the three, but to call her flaws worse than McVie's homilies or Buckingham's formalist vacuity misses the point of a band complementing its members' strengths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIC_Kza4Ek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPEhIoKeTg0