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Fleetwood Mac: Colossal drug abuse, physical violence, epic strops... Forget Rumours, the Mac's craziest album was Tango In The Night.Classic Rock Magazine - October, 2013 issue. Available now
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Fleetwood Mac "Eye Of The Hurricane" 5 Page Spread on "Tango In The Night" - Classic Rock Mag Oct, 2013
Fleetwood Mac: Colossal drug abuse, physical violence, epic strops... Forget Rumours, the Mac's craziest album was Tango In The Night.Classic Rock Magazine - October, 2013 issue. Available now
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16 comments:
Despite some stellar Buckingham and McVie songs, it's my least favorite Fleetwood Mac album from the Buckingham/Nicks lineup.
But I'm happy it did well and continues to get a lot of attention.
Tango in the night is better than Mirage and Behind the mask. Fact. It's on par with Tusk and Fleetwood Mac but seeing as it's their second best selling album (Rumours being #1) it's obviously not just me that thinks it's a classic.
So many great songs from that CD, Little Lies, Big Love, Seven Wonders, Everywhere, Isn't it midnight, Mystified...
I still love listening to it today!
This Album was truly the work of C.Mcvie
and L.Buckingham. As everyone knows Stevie just was not "There", they had her demos she put vocals on them. As Lindsey says she was there all of 2 weeks! I realize she was ill, but she pulled herself up and got well. I think
she is as admired for that as for her music. But all in all this was one album that most of the credit goes to Mick, John, Christine and Lindsey.
Seven Wonders was awesome but Welcome to the room Sara sounded like a warped record and didn't make sense to me! And that other song she did, When I see you again was just the worst Stevie has ever done and I am one of her biggest fans but her voice was just terrible and nothing could be said for the lyrics either. Oh well it was just a bad time for Stevie to be singing. They recorded it right after Stevie got off Coke! That might of had something to do with it Christine had all the hits on this one, Good album. Behind the Mask was the worst album they ever done although Stevie had a couple of good ones on it. Without Lindsay there is no Fleetwood Mac!
@ the last Anonymous - "Welcome to the Room, Sara" is clearly about her experience in rehab. I do agree with the other thing you said, though, "When I See You Again" is just poorly arranged and poorly sang.
I really really want this album to get the remaster treatment, it definitely deserves it and I'm sick of hearing them talk about Rumours.
"Stevie's little girl voice at the end of "When I See You Again" is probably her worst vocal ever. It totally ruins what could have been a good song. Otherwise the album is excellent.
I always thought the band was massively insensitive to Stevie during the TANGO period. She was obviously very fragile and they finally got their revenge on her for her solo success. Rather than protecting her and dusting off a couple of great demos - say If You Were My Love and Smile at You - they allowed her to embarrass herself with Welcome... and When I See You Again. If they'd helped her and made sure she contributed 3 strong songs instead of one (Seven Wonders), TANGO would have sold millions more copies, successful as it was. Oh well....
I don't think Fleetwood Mac had much of a choice when it came to Stevie's less than stellar contributions to "Tango In The Night". Mick wrote in his book that Stevie was on the "Rock A Little" tour when their album was being recorded. And we now know on that tour Stevie did her last cocaine for each show, knowing she was going to have to quit drugs when the tour ended.
Mick also said that when she came in to work with them, she was angry that she was hardly on the album and said she should be singing on Christine's songs and how would they like it if she "had" to tell Rolling Stone that she didn't really work on the album. To which Chris said to her that she wasn't there; they worked for 8 months and she only came in the last 2 weeks.
So you can't really blame the band for her weak songs and poor performances. And remember, Stevie didn't even write "Seven Wonder". So the only 2 songs she did write for the album are both not her best at all. And I would bet she chose which 3 songs she would do, not the band.
I appreciate your comments but I would still argue that they were massively insensitive. So the band went ahead and started recording when they knew she was unavailable (the ROCK A LITTLE tour) and sick (the Betty Ford stay). They decided to start a new FM album in a very random, organic way - which is fine - but didn't care that Stevie already had personal and professional commitments. At this point, her solo career was much more in play than FM, who had't worked as a group for many years and who came back together by happenstance - when Christine asked Lindsay to play on her cover song for the A FINE MESS soundtrack. One couldn't expect Stevie or her people to clear her schedule because Christine was recording one song with the band. And as the artist director of the group, it was Lindsay's responsibility to be truthful with Stevie about the material and steer her toward better choiceds - for herself and for the band. Thankfully SEVEN WONDERS got recorded, even though she didn't write it, but what a shame it was that she had such fantastic material in the vaults that was ignored in favor of inferior material. All it would have taken was one honest conversation and Stevie would have gotten it. Stevie and fans were shafted, even though Lindsay and Christine contributed material so strong it's stood the test of time. But then again, everything FM related is weird.
One additional point - when it's repeated that Stevie came in for "the last 2 weeks" of recording to do her parts, everyone forgets that the the duration of the recording process - done at Lindsay's home - was entirely at the band's discretion. Meaning that they could easily have taken 3 more months to craft Stevie's songs but chose not to. Instead, they gave her just 2 weeks, adding further pressure on her. It was a mean and vindictive thing to do - and even moreso because they could blame her for being disconnected and make her seem like a deadbeat diva. It was Lindsay and Christine's revenge for Stevie stealing the spotlight - the one and only time it happened in this manner.
You are putting all the responsibility on the rest of the band though. In those days they had to deal with the record company and most probably had to deliver the album and start booking the tour. And remember also that the reason Lindsey says he bolted after the album was done right before the tour was that all the members of the band were still dealing with their own personal issues (drugs and alcohol).
I love Stevie dearly, but she bears as much responsibility for her participation in the album as the rest of the band does. She was in terrible shape physically and mentally, but I still believe she decided which songs of hers to record. And I would bet the band tried to get the best out of her that they could, but were stuck with what they got. She was being very difficult with them, and Chris was very angry when she threatened to tell Rolling Stone about her lack of participation.
Getting the band together at all at that point to make an album was not an easy thing at all, as we all know now, and you can't blame the rest of them for trying to make her fully take part. And if you look at the EP they just put it, it is almost the same now. Stevie only gives the Mac as much as she wants, and no more. Why, we will most likely never know for sure.
I would still like to hear the song tango in the night start their set and full band version of big love
Yea me too. I love the original Fleetwood Mac version of "Big Love". Wish Lindsey would do it that way in concert.
@Anonymous - "Stevie only gives the Mac as much as she wants," and you reference EP. Stevie has said she was in no shape to record or contribute to new music because she was grieving for her Mom, had pneumonia and spent five months just sitting around her house.
Whatever trivial ego pissing contests they likely engaged in during the 1980s I'm sure they are long passed that now. You are very correct in what you said, though ... when Stevie showed up to put the finishing touches on 'Tango' she was clean from coke because she had already successfully completed her stint at Betty Ford, but she was still a mess and really shouldn't have been doing anything but recovering. I also agree with you that she probably selected the tracks of hers that went on 'Tango.' "Welcome To The Room... Sara" is not the greatest track in the world, but it's still enjoyable and a very personal song. "When I See You Again" is just bad.
Overall, though, the album definitely deserves a remaster. I'm sure there are a couple Stevie demos from that time floating around that would have been better inclusions, and I'd like to hear them. Plus, the contributions from Christine and Lindsey are, I feel, some of their Mac best.
I finally got to read the full article ... I wonder when Stevie's two weeks were, in the middle? She went to Betty Ford right after the Rock a Little tour, so there's a documented timeline for when she cleaned up from coke. So she couldn't have been partying it up with Mick using tons of coke during the making of Tango unless there's a two to three week period she was there between tour stops or some after the RAL tour ended and before she went to rehab. Mick appeared in a lot of promotion for RAL so perhaps that's what he's remembering, especially if the band was starting to work on Tango in late 85.
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