The Dance We Shared

31

As February turned into March Lindsey couldn't get his mind off of making a double record and he not only was driving Stevie up the wall he was driving Mick up the wall. Lindsey's manager did want to go ahead with it, Stevie and Mick and John's manager didn't want to do it. But they were taking a break from the studio and they were going to go see the progress of the house. Because Lindsey had been at the studio and Stevie had been at home, they were in two separate cars, and she had the kids. So when she got out and saw the camera crew she was fuming but she kept it together for the cameras, but he promised her that he wasn't going to bring the studio home. 

"I've had this property for a few months now, it was a single story post and beam, and..." he tells the camera as he holds Everleigh, Seth playing in the rubble, but he stops when Everleigh grabs his sunglasses. "Ope, there we go...wanna try those on." 

"Daddy." Seth aloud as Lindsey peers over Everleigh's shoulder, the little girl playing with his sunglasses. 

"So agh, since we've had a couple of kids. We thought we'd build a bigger house here. This is going to be the studio where hopefully Fleetwood Mac will cut it's next album." He points to the open area they were standing next to. 

As soon as the Camera crew got what they wanted they left, and right there where they were standing Stevie glares at him. "I thought we said no studio at home." 

"I know, I'm sorry they wanted to come and I'm not about to tell them no." Lindsey shakes his head.

"You might want to start, go get your son." She growls taking Everleigh into her arms. 

***

Back at the studio, Mick, Lindsey, and Stevie were still having the double album talk and Stevie having enough just snaps.

"We think all these people that are our age are just going to come out of the wall and say, oh i'm just going to go start buying music again, and in fact, they'r enot laying around on the floor smoking dope thinking about what their next record they're going to buy is. They are trying to deal with delinquent children, they're trying to figure out how to pay the rent next month, or how they're going to pay for their house, or how to put their kids through college. They are not, the first thing on their mind is oh my god I have to get billboard and see what the number one record is. So we have to sell records to between ten and twenty-seven years old. That's kind of who buys records these days. So they're not going to buy a double record. They're not going to get how deep it is and how serious and how multi-layered it is. Because music now, the music business is fragmented and you know the very quick cuts on MTV. They're not going to buy 22 songs on a record from people that are in their fifties. It's just not going to happen, so personally I, even if I really really believed in a double record would say it's not good for my band." 

"And I come back to Tom and say on a hypothetical if somehow the band had become unifed and said that this is whay they wanted to do would that be a deal breaker for them. And he said  no." Lindsey addds.

"And if it doesn't work out with them are you still thinking about going to interscope." Stevie asks. Totally changing the subject.

"IF what doesn't work out...oh you mean the double CD thing?" Lindsey clairifes.

"Uh-huh?" 

"No." He shakes his head.

"People have families. We've got young children  and brand new houses we're building." Stevie lists.

"That's why we're looking at the numbers to see what it really means. I told them look, I'll eat hundreds of thousands. You know, I'll eat a Fuck of a Lot of money to be able to put out something like what I want to put out." 

"But that's just your opinion. You have that option, but our bills, our food comes out of my pocket. We did that for a reason. And I'm not willing to." Stevie shakes her head.

"Of course that's just my opinion but I am producing this and I am engineering it and I am here six days a week from about 10 until seven at night and I've got a lot invested in this.  And I also...if you haven't noticed I am so thrilled. I don't even wanna. It'll just make me cry, just doing this seeing John and you and me enjoying this. We are able to do this and all the sort of making up for the mistakes we made before and making things right...and if you don't think that means a fuck of a lot to me your wrong..it's just all of this together. It's just my selfish...it's not selfish. It's my ambitious idea." He just turns away from her and she twists her wedding rings.

***

May 31, 2002

Lindsey finally did it, he hit a nerve in the studio. "I thought about the first verse right, I thought if you put a couple of those things in back into the tense and the person  I don't know it just might...make it run...I don't know it might actually strengthen the narrative from the first and the second verse is all. When you say now you're going home who are you talking to?" 

"I'm talking to you." She hisses.

"But I'm saying if you put that in the third person and in the past tense it hangs with the first verse more. A decision no one made, now he's going home."

"Yeah but, then you'd have to say the now...because the now your going home is so beautiful it flows so beautifully and you could say now he's going home...but you can't change that because it's beautiful." 

"I'm just saying you know that it's sort of a rule of thumb in writing that you don't shift your tense and your person." 

"Well, I don't think you could say that to Bob Dylan. Cause he would say to you, I write what I want to." She narrows her eyes.

"Okay,  I just thought that because it's not as abstract as what Bob Dylan would write in those situations. It's not ah...It's not a fairly literally narrative." 

"But it's the way I write. It's the poet that I am. It's the way I write." 

"It's alright, I just couldn't not bring it up. I thought it might help the whole strength of the running and the continuity."