The Purple Dancer
 

I'm really into this song at the moment- it really is a lost gem. Why the hell didn't it get a place on The Chain box set?
I gather this was briefly played a bit in concert. Did it get played by the Bob Welch-era band after Jeremy left? Such an infectious little number.

Others will chime in with specifics but until then you might enjoy this old thread. There is a link to one post-Jeremy recording /performande and some song insight from Jeremy and people here (I am an old fan but rubbish on dates and details). I agree that this song is a lost gem!


http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showth...=purple+dancer

Many thanks, I searched for a Purple Dancer thread- don't know why I couldn't find it.
Wow, Jenny Boyd- that really does make it a gem.
She was a pretty good lyricist. She could have struck up a good songwriting partnership with Danny. If only...

My pleasure. Every once in awhile someone here starts a favourite song poll or a "what could of been" thread and Purple Dancer gets a mention. You're not alone in wondering about The Chain box--I know a few of us share your thoughts on that matter.

"Purple Dancer" and "Dust" had lyrics written by poets who weren't credited. God, this depresses me...

Dragonfly and Dust come from poetry.
Purple Dancer? I thought it was music by Danny/Jeremy & lyrics by Jenny Boyd (but credited as Fleetwood).

I meant to say Dragonfly.

Dancing in the space of time
 

Every time I see the words 'The Purple Dancer' here on The Ledge, I think "Ah!!! Is it finally going to be released?" (well, I think it in Dutch anyway). It has been my favourite FM song since - I'm not sure - about 1980...

Anyway, apart from 'The Chain box set', 'The Vaudeville Years of Fleetwood Mac', 'Show-Biz Blues', 'Madison Blues', 'The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac' and all the re-releases from last year, when did they REALLY have a chance of releasing this great song?

GJK

I assume that you were being sarcastic (doesn’t always translate well in written form) but your question as to when did they REALLY have a chance at releasing the number on CD, the answer is truthfully never on any of the sets cited.
“The Vaudeville Years”, “Show-Biz Blues” and “Madison Blues” are all compilations made up of non-copyrighted material, i.e. live recordings and studio out-takes that the studio somehow did not hold the rights to.
“The Best of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac” while an admirable example of cross licensing, simply was not the place for the number for obvious reasons.
As with the other examples such as ‘Dragonfly”, and Green’s two solo singles, the powers that be at Warner Bros. Records simply refuse to do anything with the Fleetwood Mac catalog (aside from the Buckingham / Nicks era) not even allowing their reissue label Rhino to put together a package.
Warner Film Archives helped set the standard for “Burn-to-Order” DVDs. Maybe they should look into putting together collections of unreleased material, or existing LPs with bonus tracks, and offering them as downloads or as “Burn-to-Order” CDs.

Yes, I was being sarcastic.

But thanks for all the extra information!

GJK

'Single Version Remastered'
 

Someone (thatmuse76) posted a great sounding version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RicSJtQVmI.

:]

Thank you very much, whoever you are!

GJK

Thanks for the link, GJK! Nice to hear this cleaned-up version, without the annoying pops I have at the beginning of the copy I have.

This claims to be the "official" version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gap2ActU-M

That sounds like the BBC version from Madison Blues (?)

John

it IS the bbc version from the "madison blues" set. strange that there's no accompanying info as it appears to be the mac's own channel.
martin

That's not an 'official' Fleetwood Mac channel- just a fan I think.
Anyway, nice to hear a crisp version on Yutube.

Just for awareness- there's a whole load of stuff on what definitely now seems to be the official Fleetwood Mac Youtube channel (some of it seems to be impossible to find on the channel unless you go directly to specific songs).

In particular they've put something billed as 'Fleetwood Mac and the Christine Perfect Band: Hey baby'.
Not sure why its called this- I wasn't aware of any specific album release with this title. Anyway, its basically the studio tracks from Madison Blues.
When I go directly to the Youtube channel I cant find it at all, but, one route to it is through The Purple Dancer link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjQm...Q-X-jG&index=9

It's from a micro-box set released in the early 2000s called MADISON BLUES (which was rereleased in smaller configurations). The collection is meant to show where Christine was coming from right before she joined and then how she sounded on tour with FM while Jeremy was still around. A very small window.

In that set is a handful of Kirwan songs, a live-in-studio rehearsal of "Purple Dancer" being one of them.

Yes, I have Madison Blues. I'm just not quite sure why this has been billed as Hey Baby.

Yeah, they reissued it a few years later under the new title. Truncated, too, I believe.