Once upon a time, when this first-ever fully retrospective Fleetwood Mac box set was new and flooding stores ahead of Christmas ’92, I owned a CD copy that was eventually ripped and purged along with thousands of others during my years-long reinvestment in vinyl.
As my bottomless deep dive into Christine McVie’s discography has sunk fathoms below the Rumours surface, I’ve endeavored to fill gaps in my collection where necessary — and affordable. But as 25 Years — The Chain remains only on CD and cassette, and its next-quarter-century counterpart 50 Years — Don’t Stop sells for $200 and up, I see no reason to shell out steeply for what amounts to 2-4 missing songs (depending on the set) and the same number of alternate takes.
When 25 Years was fresh, however, one of its key selling points to convince ardent fans to buy in again was its quartet of then-new songs: leftovers from Stevie Nicks (‘Paper Doll,’ recorded before she split in ’91) and Lindsey Buckingham (‘Make Me a Mask’) plus two from Ms. McVie that rank alongside her best from the post-Tusk era.
‘Love Shines’ and ‘Heart of Stone’ play like two sides of the same romantic coin, the former filled with renewed middle-age optimism, the latter soaked in second-chance recrimination.
The first one, led by a Lindsey-mimicking acoustic lick courtesy of Billy Burnett, was released as a single to promote the box set and included on 50 Years, so it’s on Spotify. The other tune, dappled with Christine’s organ filigree and occasional Stevie harmonies in the chorus, thus far languishes in increasing YouTube obscurity, available otherwise only on the CD set.
If either or both were in development at the time of Behind the Mask, they really ought to have been fleshed out and inserted, bumping out weaker bits. As it is, they’re currently hyper-pricey acquisitions that I’d like to think portend good things for the next Fleetwood Mac album, Time, with only Christine remaining as true star. I’ve not heard it in decades.
But I recall most people considered it shite.
[Photo cribbed from Discogs.]