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Brewer

The Big Love Saga - Fleetwood Mac

Updated: Jul 17, 2020

Big Love is a song by Fleetwood Mac. By continuing this post you agree to the watching of two short videos: 1. The original Big Love 2. The remake of Big Love If you want to get right into it, the videos are linked above. Otherwise, here's a quick intro on both.

______ Ok fair warning, the original song is bad. The music video is worse. In fact, the combination might be one of the biggest swings & misses you'll see from a legitimately talented group. BUT it's terribleness also makes it great. Big Love version 1 is in the same vein of Michael Scott's, Threat Level Midnight, missing the mark with embarrassing self-seriousness. Essentially Fleetwood Mac thought a bad song was good. No big deal right, happens all the time. BUT they thought it was so good, it needed an original music video to go with. And the music video is just brutal. I'm half convinced they shot & edited the whole thing themselves during a weird acid trip. Fleetwood's blind overconfidence gives the video a hilarious second hand embarrassment factor. In short, it’s bad in a very unique sort of way that you have to see for yourself Just watch the damn video. Do not miss the ending it's important Without further hyping, here's the original Big Love

______ There you have it. A lot to process, I know. It blows my mind that exists lmao, what in the fuck was that? Why the endless picture frames? Why are they suddenly on a beach? It's like Michael Scotts commercial idea in real life. Okay, refer back to that if/when necessary, but we have to move on here. Fast forward a few years, and the original Big Love was not aging well. After realizing this, guitarist/co-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham decided to scrap the song & completely remake it himself. Buckingham then solo-performs his new version at the recording of Fleetwood's highly regarded live album The Dance. Without further hyping, here is the remade version

_________ Pretty great, right? Could've done with a few less OOO-AHH's at the end, but a significant improvement overall The salvaging of this song is so interesting to me. One of the only instances I can think of a band completely remaking their own song and somehow turning it from bad to good!


The guitar performance in version 2 really stands out. Playing an intricate guitar part & singing flawlessly, while debuting a remade song, during the recording of a live album makes it a HoF performance in my book.

I'm awarding Big Love part 1 the Dion Waiters heat-check award


Part 2 gets a Kemba Walker step-back trophy

The Big Love Saga is a good representation of Fleetwood Mac in general. High ceilings, low floors, constantly evolving drama/drug use culminating in a shit-show of of output. Band members excluding each other & somehow producing their best work out of spite. I'm glad the Big Love saga exists. It shows the human-error side of music production & the possibility of reworking a miss into a hit. Was that at all interesting? What's the best piece of this? Stevies awkward dance in the music video? The ending freeze frame? So much to unpack Let us know what you think,


-Brewer

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