I think you’re right. I don’t think he spent much time on songs like “That’s Alright” and “Straight Back” (a pretty straightforward pop-funk arrangement) and that godawful “Welcome to the Room, Sara” (which almost feels like a deliberately bad imitation of island). However, he did expend a huge amount of orchestration on “Gypsy.” Who knows? Maybe he was in a better mood around her for a few weeks there — or he was challenging himself to arrange something right down to the ground and that happened to be the song on the reel-to-reel at that point.

I voted YES because when he loaded another song with a lot of great ideas and execution, we all benefited, all us listeners. If it rubbed him the wrong way to have to do so, tough.

I think that a lot of the problem Stevie had with his work on her work on the 2003 album involved that recurrent effect on her vocal of a bottomless phaser — you hear it on about four of her tracks. (It mimics listening to someone on your land line with the mouthpiece put down on a glass table.) I can’t help thinking he was doing something very deliberately in part because he knew she wouldn’t necessarily like it (something that was hugely different from her solo album vocals around that time). That’s not the same thing as trying to sabotage her, but it does involve his going ahead with what he wanted to do with production despite her wishes. And she flipped.

The context of your exhibit mentioning was bad Stevie songs that Lindsey played on. What are some other bad ones or "failures" as you call them?

To be exact, Lindsey did play on some Stevie solo songs.

Maybe he realized early into the song, that he was creating a monster hit- that he was on to something big, and just decided to run with it. Same with Hold Me. The production on both is over the top!

He has always pushed her buttons. That's what got him fired. I'd like to push her buttons, too, because $he's annoying AF.

Hi BwBoy- totally agree on when I see you Again- but even with that supreme dud, he added a few touches to camo the obvious problems with the song. He needs to own the failures but by and large, his production created the Stevie masterpieces we know and love.

Lindsey just played how Stevie asked him to. Stevie would demonstrate on the guitar and Lindsey would copy that.

It's common knowledge that she was a child prodigy on guitar and piano! He owes her everything!!!

I will say I believe that from 03-17, Lindsey, likely not directly, moved Stevie to really up her game as a stage performer during FM shows. I saw all the tours multiple times.
Stevie on an FM stage from 03-17 was fire. Twirls weren't undercooked. Stage clothes were new and colorful. She went for high notes in Dreams, Gypsy, Stand Back... that UP FOR SALE in GDW.

Other than the crackhead dance during the 2018 tour (the dance started in 2013), that same Stevie wasn't there. That crackhead dance was a waste of time which couldve been used for Crystal, Angel, or LDW or Twisted with Neil. She just points in random directions after banging her head for 5 minutes.

I think when you had Neil there, it allowed her to autopilot because he was a contractor who was paid to just do a job and had no role in FM other than to sing male vocal parts. With Lindsey, they had that stage competition, like Donnie and Marie or Steven and Joe Perry.
There will be those who come out and say 2018 was the best they've seen Stevie ( I saw 2018 4 times) but I've seen Stevie for decades and she was not exciting. And I think the songs she chose to sing in that setlist show the show was about cruising. From 97 on, Stevie dug up one of her album cuts and 2018 was the first she didnt. I was expecting Angel but she did Storms for a few shows which was done 80 odd times in 09, and dropped it for a flat Gypsy.

I voted yes, but I think the real reason he continued helping her isn’t directly mentioned in the choices. For Lindsey, the success of each FM project is essential to his identify and his legacy as producer/musical visionary for the band. If there’s a clunker that could have been something much greater, then he knows eyes are on him. I may not always like what he does, but his choices are at least interesting.

Personally, I loved what he did with most of Stevie’s songs on SYW. She sounded edgier than on TISL. Yes, I think some of his decisions about arrangements on her tunes failed, but even her dud songs on SYW seem innovative, a step forward musically, compared to what she had been doing for the previous 10 years. LB is integral to that step forward.

Now I am thinking of the version of Gypsy with Waddy. So sweet. And the way Stevie introduced it. When love changes in the flash of an eye it leaves people burning on the side of the road.

And some songs that were not innovative were still not what I would have expected from her. I mean, I did not expect Stevie to do an imitation of Christine on the title cut. And EFO sounds like something she would have done with a solo producer rather than Lindsey. They surprised me. Some people say that it was a BN album, but I found it took them in different places than they’d been before — even if some of those places were overgrown with tree roots, RTTG.

I think “What’s the World Coming To” and “Say You Will” were intentionally written to balance out Christine’s absence. They gave the album a little unabashed pop/balance the album needed.

And I'm one of the three living people who love What's The World Coming To. It's my favorite song on that turd of an album.:laugh::wavey:

No, that’s four…I love that song,
but then I really like the whole Album..
Peacekeeper being my favourite..
I was just glad to get new music ….

I like Peacekeeper okay, minus that squawking bird sound. I like about 6 songs on the whole thing. The rest is filler.

I like Stevie's songs on Say You Will. People hate Silver Girl and Running Through the Garden but I think they're on Stevie's best FM songs.

I definitely think Stevie's hardest rock songs are on SYW.