Friday, November 23, 2007

7 Days Of Bubbatunes - bub97




bub97 Fleetwood Mac – Dreams
November 6, 2007

I’ve been meaning to make a Fleetwood Mac Bubbatune collection for sometime now. I love me some Mac and there are times when you just need a fix. Anyone who knows anything about the Mac’s history is sure to tell you they really hit their stride when they added Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham to their line up in 1975 and changed from a somewhat jazz band to the California rock of the 70’s that they were to become. Of course I always say, “add a little Stevie Nicks to the mix and you just can’t go wrong.”

I think a lot of Mac fans have their favorite songwriters, which is more than not, made up of Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks or Christine McVie. The three of them are the main songwriters in the band and their biggest albums usually have a couple ditties by each with a sometime collaboration between them all. Now it’s probably no surprise that I’m a big Stevie fan – I love her ethereal lyrics and crazy mysticism, but Lindsay is a very close second with his anger issues always on the surface. Of the three Christine’s songs are my least favorite but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t good by any means I mean she is the one who wrote “Don’t Stop”.
There are a few Fleetwood Mac compilations out there and I didn’t get all that creative with my track list using a lot of the same songs those others used but where the hits are here, I also opted to put on a few album tracks that are either only on a double disc collection or on the albums themselves. Of course Rumours, the 1977 gigantic selling Fleetwood Mac is represented thoroughly with the singles “Don’t Stop”, “Dreams”, “You Make Loving Fun” and “Go Your Own Way” but also included is the intense “The Chain” and one of the more overlooked songs Stevie’s “I Don’t Want To Know.” For Lindsay’s contribution to the album you need look no further than the ingenious “Never Going Back Again” which is just a rifling little guitar rift but with the infectious harmony vocals of the three singers it’s perfection.

The new line up with Stevie and Lindsay’s addition was the self titled 1975 album that launched for singles Christine’s “Say You Love Me” and the whsipy woman who rings like a bell through the night – “Rhiannon.” But the highlight to me is Stevie’s “Landslide” – a song that is often imitated but never as full of depth as when you hear Stevie’s version. In fact the only thing that comes close to the original from 1975 is Stevie’s own re-working from The Dance album with her and Lindsay playing to each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

After the much heralded Rumours album came 1979’s double album set Tusk, which had a ton of over wrought songs by all three songwriters but where they came down a few notches came out some brilliant songs including Lindsay’s USC Marching Band epic “Tusk” (don’t tell me that you love me huh!), Stevie’s haunting “Sara” (‘drowning in the sea of love/ where everyone would love to drown’) and my fav of all three a Christine composition “Think About Me” that is just as jovial as any of her romantic little endeavors but actually has a little bit of ferocity in it. I thank Lindsay for some reason.

A live album and a few solo albums came between Tusk and Mirage in 1982 but the wait was well worth it as Stevie came up with what is her best Fleetwood Mac single in my mind – “Gypsy”. The whole thing is wonderful from its upbeat tempo to Stevie’s insane vocal, not to mention her exciting lyrics and Lindsay’s super cool guitar solo at the end. The whole thing is definitely a band effort and one of my all time favorites.

But Christine does really well with her contributions to Mirage as well with the lead off single “Hold Me” which is still one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs and a new favorite “Love In Store”.

After more solo albums the band reunited for 1987’s Tango In The Night and came up with another huge success and some of their best singles ever – Stevie’s “Seven Wonders” is one of my favs as well as Christine’s “Little Lies” (though it really is Stevie’s ‘tell me lies’ in her vibrato that make the song), and my all time favorite and our opening cut for Dreams, Lindsay’s “Big Love” (huh huh)

After Tango In The Night the line up started changing every couple of years with Lindsay leaving, Stevie staying and then leaving, then coming back, Christine not wanting to tour etc. etc. There were albums recorded during the time and a few chart hits but with the exception of Christine’s “Skies The Limit” – a song that didn’t chart – there really wasn’t any reason to replace a great song from a well known album just to have an all inclusive time line, so songs from Greatest Hits, Behind The Mask, Time and the newest Say You Will were all shelved.

What wasn’t shelved however was an excellent little reggae-ish Stevie composition “Paper Doll” that was released as a single off of the box set The Chain, and Stevie’s live performance of “Silver Springs” from the reunion concert The Dance. It’s a song that was super important to her when she originally recorded it for the Rumours session in 1977 as she had signed over all the rights to it to her mother as a gift (the woman wouldn’t take money from Stevie). But Mick cut the song from the album going with “I Don’t Want To Know” instead as it was shorter, the original “Silver Springs” ended up as a B-side to the single “Go Your Own Way” and eventually found its way onto The Chain, but only after Stevie had personally requested use of it for her own Timespace, greatest hits collection in 1991. A request Mick refused as he wanted it for the Mac box set, and a request that could’ve been the reason Stevie left the band – that time.

Now the original song can be found on said box set as well as on Stevie’s latest greatest hits Crystal Visions and then of course there’s the live version I’ve included here which was actually a hit.

Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (bub97)
Track List:
01. Big Love 02. Don’t Stop 03. Gypsy 04. Go Your Own Way 05. Dreams 06. Hold Me 07. Little Lies 08. Landslide 09. Never Going Back Again 10. Sara 11. Love In Store 12. The Chain 13. Rhiannon 14. Say You Love Me 15. Seven Wonders 16. Think About Me 17. Tusk 18. Silver Springs (Live) 19. You Make Loving Fun 20. I Don’t Want To Know 21. Paper Doll

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