The Best Of Lindsey Buckingham: What's your dream tracklist?

Now that Lindsey Buckingham is no longer a member of Fleetwood Mac, this seems to be as good a time as any for him to release a compilation
of his greatest solo works. Many of us have been wishing for a "Best Of..." for years.
Also, I believe I read the other day that now it is finally happening (or did I just dream it?). Isn't there a Lindsey Buckingham compilation in the works?

Anyway, I thought it would be fun for us fans to dream up our own individual tracklist(s) and compare them.

Most likely, Lindsey's first-ever "Best Of..." will be a single-disc compilation. But let's hope that fans are treated to a generous double-disc anthology.

1.
Disc 1 should contain what you consider to be the very best of Lindsey Buckingham.

2.
Disc 2 should feature a handful of other favorite album tracks + B-sides, unreleased tracks, rarities and/or alternative versions.


Go Insane: The Best Of Lindsey Buckingham

or The Best Of lindsey Buckingham: 1981-2018


Disc 1

Go Insane
Trouble
Countdown
Wrong
Holiday Road
Don't Look Down
You Either Do Or You Don't
Not Too Late
Did You Miss Me?
Soul Drifter
One Take
Cast Away Dreams
Doing What I Can
To Try For The Sun
All My Sorrows
Surrender The Rain (incl. spoken introduction)
Great Day
Down On Rodeo
In My World (with Christine McVie)
In Our Own Time

Personally, I'd like for disc two to start off with another 4-8 album tracks.

Disc 2

Rock Away Blind
That's The Way Love Goes
This Is The Time (incl. instr. introduction)
When She Comes Down
Love Runs Deeper
Flying Down Jupiter
The Right Place To Fade
Stars Are Crazy

+ B-sides, unreleased tracks, rarities and/or alternative versions.

* I need help compiling these!

So what do you think of my selections? And what would be your dream tracklist?

 

Of course most of us know and love Lindsey's first solo hit single "Trouble".
For those - perhaps younger music fans - who would like to find out what
all the fuss is about, when it comes to our beloved "troubled genius of Fleetwood Mac",
this is pure Pop perfection.

 

it looks like it's happening. Atlantic changing the plans and asking Lindsey for Best Of before issuing the album of new stuff he was planning for Mar or Apr 2018 is seemingly what messed up his solo touring plans for this year and why he had to plan concurrent solo with Mac tours.

at that fundraiser last week Lindsey told multiple fans who asked him that the Best Of will be released this year and that he's still planning to tour it this fall (perhaps starting in August).

i have to think more about your lists and what would be mine, but on the first glance i love what you came up with! i really hope his Best Of has actually his best solo songs, not just whatever songs were his hits. he has a pretty diverse opus and his music is so much more and so many different styles way beyond Trouble, and i hope Best Of will showcase that.

 

i just want the soundtrack tunes and rare stuff on here

 

i think what should be on his Best Of besides the obvious (Go Insane, Trouble, Holiday Road) should be solo songs that were supposed to be singles but never were, or almost were like:

In Our Own Time
Rock Away Blind
Down on Rodeo
The Right Place To Fade
Wait for You
Gift of Screws

That's The Way Love Goes
Turn It On

and then a few of his BuckVie songs (Love Is here To Stay), on top of maybe just a couple of his Fleetwood Mac ones - Go Your Own Way (maybe live?) and Big Love live acoustic.

i am definitely with you on To Try For The Sun -what an unbelievably gorgeous cover.

also so with you on This Is The Time and You Do or You Don't.

 

You felt there was nothing worth including from his first two albums other than the two singles?

 

Wot?! No “Time Bomb Town”?

 

Time Bomb Town would be #1 on my list.

 

so i'm ambivalent towards his first 2 albums and i feel i'm probably with Record Rotator on this. my favorites from those are Go Insane, DW Suite, A Satisfied Mind (which is a cover) and Johnny Stew. but if he has Gift of Screws (the song) on the Best Of, which i feel he must because of a lot of symbolism of that being perhaps his best solo album that never was, then that covers similar territory that Johnny Stew does. so i don't know...

and my favorites are definitely on his latter albums, and those albums had way less radio rotation and general recognition, so i feel those gems should be brought forward.

(it's the same reason why i feel so strongly that FM channel should have played solo Lindsey, the same as they play solo other 4 of the Rumours 5 - even John McVie! the fact they are not playing none of his rich solo material speaks volumes to me about the current state of the band.)

 

Well, you're correct. He even said it was happening on camera when someone asked him something like "what's next for you now"? He was just getting into a car at the time and I believe it was camera phone footage from a fan. He was signing something for him at the time. It wasn't an official interview.

Personally, I'd prefer individual remasters of his back-catalogue, but at least the box set will be remastered.

No doubt they'll be tracks not on it that certain people thought should've been, including me.

 

I know that I'd have this song on his greatest hits.

 

Im not familiar enough with his solo stuff.
I enjoyed law and go insane and aside from trouble and go insane (the obvious ones) i remember enjoying play in the rain ... i guess i need to give them a listen

 

"Love Is Here To Stay" is a great song. I'd like it to be on disc 2, perhaps instead of one of the songs I chose for inclusion. "Wait For You" was on my
initial list (as were many others), and it was a bit of a challenge to narrow down the number of songs on my admittedly very loooong list.
"Gift Of Screws" - the song, not the album - was also on my list, but I guess I just don't love it as much as the ones I eventually decided on.

 

Definitely "Out Of The Cradle" from 1992!

 

Thanks for mentioning "Time Bomb Town". Didn't know about that one, but it's good. I didn't listen to
Fleetwood Mac until around 1987 (though I must've heard some songs on the radio without paying much
attention).
I don't know much about Lindsey Buckingham's rareties and unreleased tracks. Thought it was about
time I caught up, and that those previously unreleased songs should be included on disc 2.

 

"Time Bomb Town" from the soundtrack to Back To The Future.

 

"The Singer Not The Song".

An unreleased song from the original version of the Gift Of Screws album.

 

Can you mention some titles (rarerities, unreleased)?

 

Just came across "Deep Dense", an unreleased song, also from the original version of the Gift Of Screws album.

 

I love it, when Lindsey sounds manic and goes bonkers ("Tango In The Night", "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave", "Come", etc.), but those two albums - IMHO - sound
like a rehearsal for bigger and better things to come (Out Of The Cradle and onwards). To me, they represent a time in Lindsey's career, where he was "feeling his way" and searching for his own identity as a solo artist.

However, I did add "Slow Dancing" - because I figured som fans would complain about its omission - and "Shadow Of The West" (I like this one quite a bit) to my long list, but - to my taste, anyway - I don't think they deserve to take the place of other, later, much better songs and recordings. "Law And Order" and "Go Insane" are all over the place, and of course that's part of Lindsey's complex charm and unorthodox approach to songwriting, arrangements and production, but they lack focus and cohesion. Also, I'm not really interested in cover versions of other artists' songs unless they're as Lindsey-fied as his interpretations of To Try For The Sun and I Am Waiting.

Play In The Rain? This one's too playful (pun intended). Lindsey's like a kid in a candystore, high on "sugar" . He's like that other guy, who used to wear a firefighter helmet in the studio, remember him?

That said, after your comment, I did relisten to both albums on Spotify to make sure that I wasn't excluding a "worthy-for-inclusion" song or two. I found a few other songs that were better than I recalled and then listened several times to each song.

These are the ones I do quite like, too: "Loving Cup" and "I Must Go".

In conclusion: these are the songs I like the best other than "Trouble" and "Go Insane". I would love for Lindsey to re-record/re-arrange them for whatever albums he may release in the coming years:

"I Must Go"
Too long. Cut the female vocals and replace them with Lindsey's own double-tracked vocals).

"Loving Cup"
A little too repetitious; would benefit from the Lindsey of today: his virtuosiy as a songwriter, arranger, producer, and mixer.

I'd be very interested in hearing these new recordings.

 

Most of his best work was done in the context of FM. I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I think "Caroline" and "Miss Fantasy" have the greatest hooks he's ever written. I'll have to come back to this thread.

I love Go Insane, though. I'd love another dance record from him, because he knows how to work a good groove.

 

Holiday Road (National Lampoon's Vacation)
Dancin' Across The USA (National Lampoon's Vacation)
Holiday Road (Extended Mix) (Vacation)
Time Bomb Town (Back To The Future)
On The Wrong Side (With Honors)
She Acts Like You (This Is 40)
Sick Of You (This Is 40)
Brother And Sister (This Is 40)
Sleeping Around The Corner (Electric Version)
End Of Time (Acoustic Version)
Seeds We Sow (Electric Version)

 

i love Lindsey's cover of The Singer Not the Song. he also has a very rough Blue Turns To Grey, if talking about his Stones covers.

Deep Dense is pretty spectacular and he has many great demo versions of it. i would love for it to get a proper release, however it was originally Nicks' song from the late 60s early 70s called Funny Kind of Love. somehow i'm thinking she would put a stop to him releasing it as a co-write these days, but you never know.

 

Will post a 1 CD-length track list soon. I tried to do a 2 CD list but by then you might as well just have all of the albums...

 

"Time Bomb Town" - essential
"Slow Dancing" - got decent radio play in its day and would be notable by its absence.

Random shout out too to "Begging for Favours", a Kim Carnes album track from 1985's Barking At Airplanes, but with Buckingham on guitar and backing vocals. Should've been the follow-up single to "Crazy in the Night"...