Fleetwood Mac reissues

[Mike Blakesley]

I know there are some Fleetwood Mac fans on the Corner.

They have just issued new remasters of three albums, FLEETWOOD MAC, RUMOURS and TUSK. All are expanded with bonus stuff. RUMOURS and TUSK are both 2-disk sets, while FLEETWOOD MAC remains a single disk.

In the case of RUMOURS and TUSK, Disk 1 contains the complete original album with all the extras on Disk 2. On RUMOURS, the single b-side "Silver Springs" is inserted between Side 1 and Side 2 of the album (although I think it would have "fit" better after "The Chain"...but that's what CD-R is for!) On TUSK, the full-length version of "Sara" (which was edited on the original CD release) is restored.

The bonus material mostly consists of demos and outtakes, along with a few "single versions" of songs, but there area few previously-unreleased songs too. None of which are awesome IMHO, but they do give some fascinating insight into the song creating process.

The artwork/packaging is spectacular. The jewel boxes each come in an "O" card, with nice booklet including lengthy essays about the making of the records, plenty of newly published photos and full credits.

A very nice reissue. Worth the $$.

 

[jfiedler17]

Awesome news! I'm a big Fleetwood Mac buff myself, so it's nice to see these three albums ('specially "Rumours," which, considering its legendary status, was long, long overdue for an expanded release) get the upgrade treatment at last!
Nice to know that the full version of "Sara" has been restored to "Tusk"; it always ticks me off when albums are edited down from their original lengths just to squeeze 'em onto one less CD.
I will definitely have to check those re-issues out!

Topic for discussion: I still prefer the Buckingham-Nicks-McVie era of the Mac (1975-1987) the best (and Buckingham's probably my all-time favorite member of the group), but why does all the pre-1975 Reprise material continually get neglected by Warner Bros.? (Has ANY Warner compilation other than the boxed set included a single pre-'75 cut???) It's always bothered me a little that Warner Bros. (or Rhino) has never seen fit to release any sort of 1969-1974 compilation or include just one pre-'75 cut or two on the hits packages. The way the label has always dealt with the band's back catalog, you'd almost think there WAS no band prior to "Rhiannon" and "Over My Head." Granted, there were no actual Top 40 hits during this period (though "Sentimental Lady" went Top Ten years later when Bob Welch re-recorded it), but McVie and Welch still wrote some really underrated songs over these years and they DID get some radio play at the time. I'd love to see some of this '69-'75 stuff compiled on a best-of package. Any thoughts?

 

[Mr Bill]

Sadly I must admit to liking some Mac tunes. "Tusk" is a favorite. As long as Stevie Nicks is not singing I can probably listen to it. Nicks' voice strikes me as a cross between a goat's dying bleats at best and fingernails on a chalkboard at worst...

---Mr Bill

 

[andywithaz]

Exactly

 

[W.B.]

. . . why does all the pre-1975 Reprise material continually get neglected by Warner Bros.? (Has ANY Warner compilation other than the boxed set included a single pre-'75 cut???) It's always bothered me a little that Warner Bros. (or Rhino) has never seen fit to release any sort of 1969-1974 compilation or include just one pre-'75 cut or two on the hits packages. The way the label has always dealt with the band's back catalog, you'd almost think there WAS no band prior to "Rhiannon" and "Over My Head." Granted, there were no actual Top 40 hits during this period (though "Sentimental Lady" went Top Ten years later when Bob Welch re-recorded it), but McVie and Welch still wrote some really underrated songs over these years and they DID get some radio play at the time. I'd love to see some of this '69-'75 stuff compiled on a best-of package. Any thoughts?

That's not all; there's also the pre-'69 material (that is, before they were signed to Reprise). The Peter Green-era Mac's biggest hit (in the U.K.) was "Albatross," a bluesy, interesting instrumental (released without a trace in the U.S. on Epic in early 1969 and re-issued two years too early from a standpoint of hindsight); they also brought us the original version of "Black Magic Woman" which would be a hit for Santana in late 1970/early 1971. The '68-69 Mac works, I.I.N.M., had also been put out under the Blue Horizon aegis in Britain (their then-producer, Mike Vernon, would later go on to produce Focus's 1973 hit "Hocus Pocus" and Bloodstone's "Natural High").

 

[Rudy]

I'll skip the Rumours reissue, unless Warner decides to follow up with a DVD-Audio version. I already own the current DVD-A version, which has the original stereo version with "Silver Springs" added. It also has a multi-channel (aka "surround") mix, which I haven't heard yet. No bonus tracks, other than adding "Silver Springs". (The track was omitted from the original LP for time constraints.) The DVD-A sounds really nice, by the way.

I do know a DVD-A version of Tusk is scheduled for the near future, and I believe the self-titled Fleetwood Mac may be also. I'd rather wait for these than buy it twice and be stuck with outdated technology. Tusk may just be my favorite F.Mac album these days, followed by their self-titled. Some of their very early blues tracks...good stuff.

 

[jfiedler17]

That's not all; there's also the pre-'69 material (that is, before they were signed to Reprise). The Peter Green-era Mac's biggest hit (in the U.K.) was "Albatross," a bluesy, interesting instrumental (released without a trace in the U.S. on Epic in early 1969 and re-issued two years too early from a standpoint of hindsight); they also brought us the original version of "Black Magic Woman" which would be a hit for Santana in late 1970/early 1971.

Good point! I didn't mean to overlook the pre-'69, Peter Green-era material. There's some good stuff there! But there's no shortage whatsover of Peter Green-era compilation packages, even if most of them aren't major label reissues or as well-compiled-and-packaged as Rhino's anthologies. Look in any cutout bin or bargain bin at a music shop, and you're bound to find some cheapo-label Mac compilation with "Albatross" or "Black Magic Woman" on it.
Whereas Warner Bros. is sitting on five years worth of early '70s material and doing virtually nothing with it. Go fig.

(Incidentally, I agree that Stevie Nicks' voice can get grating at times. It's funny that you compare her voice to a goat, 'cause there's a "South Park" episode from a few years back where a goat gets mistaken for Stevie Nicks and they haul the goat onstage to sing "Edge of Seventeen." )

 

[AM Matt]

I finally listened to all 3 Fleetwood Mac reissues that came out Tuesday. The song "Sugar Daddy" (from "Fleetwood Mac") doesn't song that great the second time around probably because of tape hiss. On Rumours, the song "Gold Dust Woman" if any one of you had the 8-track tape, you will note that at the end of the song which has 10 more seconds, either Richard Dashut or Ken Caillat says "Thank You" at the end of the song. I also have The 4 CD Box Set of "25 Years: The Chain" which came out in November of 1992 which is also different. The songs "Beautiful Child" & "Brown Eyes" are great remixes than the other two while the song "Tusk" has the USC Trojan Marching Band in the first 50 seconds of the song which is instrumental. I might have heard of a bootleg of the song "Second Hand News" which has 30 or 35 more seconds when I heard that song on the radio back in 1978. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

One thing I'm glad of: they've restored "Sara" to its full length. They edited it to fit on the original Tusk CD. (This was an earlier CD, so they didn't push the 80 minute limit.) Thing is, due to that edited version (I believe it's the single version), I hung onto my vinyl for all these years, which still sounds really good.

On Rumours, I don't know when the nasty trend started, but at the end of "Second Hand News" on my CD, they repeat the short guitar solo at the end which, IMHO, has always been a nasty edit to my ears. (The final "yyeeaah" at the end of the song, at the beginning of the solo, sounds weird just coming out of nowhere on the extra piece they tacked on. The vinyl wasn't that way!) The DVD-A version has the proper ending on it. I don't know what possessed them to edit the song for the original CD! I'm hoping the remaster has the proper ending too.

One interesting thing for the surround mix is the addition of some extra parts, like the snare drum in "Never Going Back Again". I have yet to hear the surround mix, other than via a "downmixed" two channel version that sounds strange.

 

[jfiedler17]

On Rumours, the song "Gold Dust Woman" if any one of you had the 8-track tape, you will note that at the end of the song which has 10 more seconds, either Richard Dashut or Ken Caillat says "Thank You" at the end of the song.

Seriously? I never knew that! And I owned that 8-track, too! (I usually tend to skip over "GDW" when I listen to "Rumours," which would explain why I never discovered that.)
Man, it seems like ever since I got rid of my 8-tracks, I keep reading that there were exclusive edits or slightly different mixes on a lot of the 8-tracks I had ... makes me wish I hadn't been so quick to get rid of 'em! :|

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I have to agree, although somewhat less harshly, about Stevie Nicks. Some of her vocalizing is kind of annoying. She has two songs on TUSK though, "Angel" and "Sisters of the Moon," which are seriously great rockers.

My favorite FM singer is Christine McVie.....she wrote more hits for them than Buckingham or Nicks did, but never seems to get her due.

Agreed also about the old WB stuff. BARE TREES and MYSTERY TO ME should get a reissue since those are landmark albums. But hey, at least they're available on CD unlike the work of a certain Mr. A.

 

[Mr Bill]

One thing I'm glad of: they've restored "Sara" to its full length.

Holy C***! "Sara" is the one song where Nicks' bleating is at its very worst. Full length??? If it only lasted one minute that wouoild be one minute too long! This is one song that will send me into convulsions within seconds of hearing her voice. Lux Interior of The Cramps has better vibrato control than Nicks! "Sa-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-ehra-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh." Gag, ack, retch, blah! Someone finish that goat off! Can't you hear it's suffering?!?!?!

--Mr Bill

edited for content and a PG rating...

 

[Rudy]

Nice thread crap.

 

[Mr Bill]

Sorry. Obviously Nicks' "singing" has a visceral affect on me...

--Mr Bill
who now knows "thread crap" means. And both happy and sorry to oblige...

 

[AM Matt]

On the CD "Tusk", the song "That's Enough For Me" reminds me of a lost Monkees song done by Micky Dolenz. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[AM Matt]

On the "Fleetwood Mac" (White) reissue, it has the Reprise label with the ship. On "Rumours", it has "Burbank, Home Of Warner Bros. Records" with the paintings of the trees. The CD booklet also has the black & white photos poster from the original poster sleeve in which the other side had the lyrics. On "Tusk", it has the brown & red dots on the Warner Bros. with white. The CD of "Tusk" also has all of the original photos taken from the original record sleeves. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

I think the point was to recreate the labels that the original LPs were released on, which I think is a neat idea for reissues. I got Tusk when it originally came out, but my "Rumours" I bought a few years after it was famous, and "Fleetwood Mac" I only owned on Mobile Fidelity (which was a plain white label...one of the best MoFi albums I own, by the way).

Now that they put these to bed, they should get deeper into the older catalog now.

 

[jfiedler17]

My favorite FM singer is Christine McVie.....she wrote more hits for them than Buckingham or Nicks did, but never seems to get her due.
Agreed also about the old WB stuff. BARE TREES and MYSTERY TO ME should get a reissue since those are landmark albums. But hey, at least they're available on CD unlike the work of a certain Mr. A.

Great point about McVie! She did write more Top 40 hits for the band than Stevie or Lindsey, but rarely do you hear anybody actually point that out! McVie never really HAS received the credit she deserves for how vital an asset she is to the band. Case in point: while I still liked "Say You Will", it still would've been ten times stronger if McVie had some stuff on there to balance out Buckingham's more experimental stuff and Nicks' lack of strong material. (I didn't like anything of hers on there 'cept the title cut.) McVie's absence was sorely felt on that album.
And - I agree - "Bare Trees" and "Mystery to Me" are the two pre-'75 albums I'd single out, too, for new re-issues. "Mystery to Me" is probably my favorite of the two. "Emerald Eyes" and "Hypnotized" are seriously great songs. I also think I'm one of the few people who actually likes FM's version of "For Your Love" a hundred times more than the Yardbirds' version.

Now that they put these to bed, they should get deeper into the older catalog now.

Agreed. I'd still love to see a deluxe re-issue of "Tango in the Night," though. I loved the non-LP B-sides that went with the album ("Ricky," "You and I, Part I," "Book of Miracles"), and the album itself, even though the material's not always spot-on, is fantastic production-wise. I'm still blown away by how gorgeous it sounds. It'd be interesting to hear the original rough versions of the tracks.

Jeff F.
NP: Fleetwood Mac "Ricky"

 

[AM Matt]

The song "What Makes You Think You're The One" (from "Tusk") also & almost reminds me of the Monkees' (Micky Dolenz) "Randy Scouse Git". Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

Great point about McVie! She did write more Top 40 hits for the band than Stevie or Lindsey, but rarely do you hear anybody actually point that out!

I liked her solo album...the later one. I've never heard the "Legendary Christine Perfect Album". In fact, her absence from the current FM lineup is why I wouldn't go see them in concert. Granted they still sound good, but I would miss too many of her songs.

And - I agree - "Bare Trees" and "Mystery to Me" are the two pre-'75 albums I'd single out, too, for new re-issues. ... "Emerald Eyes" and "Hypnotized" are seriously great songs.

"Mystery To Me" is a good one to reissue, although I don't know how the old one sounds. If the same mastering engineer does it, it should sound good. The LP I have is very nice--quiet vinyl--so I will porbably just do a needle drop. I'd only get a remaster if it has extra tracks. "Hypnotized" is probably one of my all-time favorite Mac tracks.

 

[Rudy]

Sorry. Obviously Nicks' "singing" has a visceral affect on me...

Might be worth starting another thread to discuss it... Maybe a "what do you like/dislike about Nicks" thread. I know a lot of folks have a love/hate feelings about her singing.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

"Say You Will", it still would've been ten times stronger if McVie had some stuff on there to balance out Buckingham's more experimental stuff and Nicks' lack of strong material.

You should listen again to "Thrown Down," that is a good song. (pause here for Mr. Bill to insert a joke about throwing up -- sorry I beat you to it, Mr. Bill! ) )

I made my own version of SAY YOU WILL. I took out the more oddball Buckingham tracks and a few less-stellar Stevie songs, and filled it in with otherwise-unreleased Christine McVie songs that had been included on the 25 YEARS: THE CHAIN box set, along with one song of hers from the ill-fated TIME album. The McVie songs don't *really* fit in stylistically with the new stuff but it still made a more enjoyable album out of it -- for me anyway.

 

[AM Matt]

I like the song called "Silver Girl" (from "Say You Will") but I can't decide on which the CD version of the song or the DVD audio. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Sadly I must admit to liking some Mac tunes. "Tusk" is a favorite. As long as Stevie Nicks is not singing I can probably listen to it. Nicks' voice strikes me as a cross between a goat's dying bleats at best and fingernails on a chalkboard at worst...

Oh! Bill!! Boo!!! Hiss!!!!

I'm at the other end of the scale...I love Stevie's voice, especially in person! The first concert I was allowed to attend on my own was one of the "Day On The Green" events in concord, California (where our dear Shirley Wilson lives -- about an hour away from here). "Day On The Green" was a multi-band concert that included acts such as Frampton, E.L.O., Supertramp and Fleetwood Mac. Everyone was great, but when Stevie took the stage the entire audience went into a trance, literally.

I've never seen another artist who can command such rapt attention of a concert audience. She was simply amazing.

As a result, I've seen Fleetwood Mac several times throughout the years. I do have to say that it's not the same without Christy McVie. She isn't part of the band any more, and it's a shame.

All in all, though, in addition to Mendes and Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac was pretty much the soundtrack of my teen years.

Jon

 

[Mike Blakesley]

According to ICE, Christine was involved with overseeing the new reissues. Hopefully she will record with the band again.