Tango in the Night POLL (Fleetwood Mac)

That alt Mystified is pretty awesome and weird, though there's a single recurring drum sound in it that I'm finding crazily distracting.

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?

In this interview he talks about Big Love being about "the potential of a single guitar doing the work of a whole track", so that tells me he might have written it that way first, then added all the other elements later in the process

https://youtu.be/iBSWt0b4K8E?t=71

and the dream says I WANT YOU
and the dream is gone

I never ever ever got burned out on 80s production styles/techniques. 90s and 00s, almost immediately.

If anything, my appreciation for the technical skill of '80s production has only increased with time. There were a lot of legitimately stunning production achievements in the '80s. Of course, there are many examples of the trends of the time done badly, but that exists in every decade.

The tightly shrinkwrapped Fairlight-playground production on this is killing me in the best possible way. Sounds in places like the mutant child of Mylène Farmer’s “Ainsi Sout je...” and “Cupid & Psyche” Scritti. Had never listened to this album in its entirety before yesterday.

If anything, my appreciation for the technical skill of '80s production has only increased with time. There were a lot of legitimately stunning production achievements in the '80s. Of course, there are many examples of the trends of the time done badly, but that exists in every decade.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican)

lol what a pompous halfwit

“Isn’t It Midnight” deserved better.

And “Caroline” has become the go to song for my 3-year old to perform her experimental ballet routines.

Would be very curious to have a long discussion with the person who voted for "You and I, Part II"

Seven Wonders" (Stewart, Nicks) – 3:38 0

the hell

I finally heard the whole thing after hearing the singles for 33 years; would've voted for "Seven Wonders", with "Family Man" an amusing novelty. The production on the rest is not to my taste; I wonder to what extent drug intoxication and consequent decline in playing and singing ability necessitated Buckingham's sample-heavy approach?

I don't think Buckingham's ability to play has suffered even slightly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZp76M4NGc

i can't listen to 'family man' without thinking what it would be like if henry rollins was doing the backing vocal part

family... MAN

The production is the album, as in, insofar as songs exist as moods or humors Buckingham's mix bodies them.

The title track's as metal a moment as the Mac had achieved since I'm So Afraid off the 1980 Live album

Buckingham's solo in "Isn't It Midnight" too.

Not Buckingham's playing, I just wonder to what extent the aesthetic was determined by having a drummer and lead singer/songwriter in sub-optimal shape. Mirage has a lot less of that sampled sound although the technology did exist and was certainly available to them.

I meant, his playing wasn't deteriorating.

I just wonder to what extent the aesthetic was determined by having a drummer and lead singer/songwriter in sub-optimal shape.

I don't believe in intentionality, but yes: the band's been clear about the shape they were in.

I think Lindsey's spoken about how Stevie's contribution were scraped together as a result of her issues at the time, but I'm not aware of Mick struggling with playing at the time. I mean, the production is very much in keeping with the era?

xps

the band's been clear about the shape they were in.

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 25, 2021 7:11 AM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i actually disagree, having read a few different interviews with them about it; they tell more than few contradictory stories

At the same time the album is out of time: the programemd chimes and music box effects are novel.

regardless i have encountered no information that suggests mick fleetwood's playing was hampered at all xp

His playing and the drum machines are identifiable.

Pretty sure huge hunks of the album were patched together with a Fairlight. I was blown away learning from the Replacements book that Jim Dickinson used a Fairlight to cobble together acceptable drum takes, and if even the Replacements were (unwittingly) using the Fairlight for that purpose there is no way that Bucky wasn't doing it the same way (and, coincidentally, the same year), especially given members of the Mac were as fucked up as the Mats (and Bucky, if he had his way, probably would have replaced them all with machines if he could have, anyway).

Maybe Mick was hampered because his drum vest hadn’t arrived by studio recording time.

that buckingham solo video is insane

i really hate "little lies" lol i grit my teeth thru it every time i listen to this album which otherwise consistently blows me away. it's one of those songs i really associate w/ being in the back of my mom's car in endless traffic jams trying to get home from school or baseball or something. how did it win this poll?

voting for "everywhere" would be cheating so i prob would've gone with "when i see you again" or "big love"

I can’t really imagine supporting one of the two Stevie non-singles.

"Little Lies" is such a perfectly constructed song abetted by sympathetic production that I never tire of it. I often think Nicks' nasally TELL ME LIIIES chorus backup vocal is the shrewdest, most moving of her Mac tenure.

vs

WASSA MADDA BABY....BABY...BAY-BEE....BABY!

― My life is butthurt so badly (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, September 5, 2009

God, I love "wassa madda baby"

BABY

BABY

BABY

ennyoooseeeeeiiiiwanyoooo rmphrumph

That second half, though! I read it was another Nicks scrap that Buck stapled. Beautiful.

y'all heard this? my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=558bIK_X1ZY

I totally became a Mac-obsessed 11year old at this point, thanks to the Big Love video and some really exploitative documentary that was on UK TV around the release of Tango, with its tales of guitarists going mad and multiple touring Macs... Picked up a cheap copy of that 1980 live album shortly afterwards and was in deep

I've not spent a lot of time with the Tango extras, I should but I wasn't hugely enamoured the first time I streamed em. Yeah, obviously a lot of those Nicks tracks were glued together from scraps on the factory floor - really skewed my nascent sense of what a song could/should be at an early age tbh. Maybe in a good way.

My favorite outtake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYCEWeD_4lg

I need to stream em again - I'm not home-schooling tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a chance then!

This was the other thing that ran on UK TV around this time and made me a pre-teen Mac devotee - absolute fire drama and intensity, Lindsey and Stevie look like they're spitting at each other during The Chain...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdolGLi0Ayg

I've seen that Mirage tour doc, and, yeah, they're uh jacked up on something

Jacked up on love, my friend.

Also, metric tonnes of cocaine.

Good Bucky demo of "Big Love" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSWt0b4K8E

One thing I like about it is for a split second he doesn't have the right effect or mix or whatever enacted, but he quickly switches what needs to be switched.

There are lots of revelatory Bucky talks Bucky clips out there. Like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGKFY9NBZY

(Hilariously, he gets the time signature of his own virtuoso song wrong and has to be corrected!)

holy shit that acoustic Big Love is WILD