17 Reasons This 'Rhiannon' Clip Is the Coolest Thing in the Universe
1 This performance takes place at the Capitol Centre of Largo in the August 1978, during the "Penguin Country Summer Safari Tour". This is probably the worst quality video we have but it still portrays a great show. This Youtube channel uploaded most of the circulating videos of the show, I hope some new will be pulled out sooner or later:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDi...384aUtw/videos
2 The 1978 summer tour happens after that Fleetwood Mac have started the recording of the Tusk album in the early 1978. They test new material on the tour, namely Sisters of the moon, but also the new Lindsey's musical influences start to show themselves in a new way playing: this tour has a rougher, harder sound than the Rumours tour.
3 Stevie starts the song in an unusual way: "This is a song about a lady from Wales".
4 In this period Stevie changed style because she was suspected of witchcraft; I personally love her style during this period because Stevie's wardrobe shone with colors: violet and burgundy shawls with golden arabesque patterns, white, red, pale-blue and pink dresses and multicolors scarves. This is the first time in video that Stevie doesn't wear a black Rhiannon dress: the video doesn't permit to discern, she could be wearing her white, pink, pale-blue or red dress with her white or black feathered head-dress.
5 Stevie whistles her armonies on the Rhiannon chorus instead of singing them, just as during the Tusk tour. During this tour, and also for the Majority of the Tusk tour Stevie's voice suffered and started to drastically change: she couldn't reach her highest notes anymore and tried to force her voice down during her live performances. A Rolling Stone review of their 1978 Philadelphia show stated: "
the band is better off in concert when she shuts her mouth and whirls around the stage. Nicks sounded consistently weak vocally and apparently uninterested in the old material. Whole sections of the show, especially the one starting with "Dreams," were ruined by her lackluster vocals. She had to be saved repeatedly by Christine McVie’s backup harmonies, which were embarrassingly more tuneful and responsive to the arrangements than Nicks’."
6 "Rhiannon you cry but she's gone and your life knows no promise, still your life it's haunted" at 2:16 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz5h3g-_N9w#t=136)
7 For the first time Lindsey is portrayed in video with short hair. This will become his signature Tusk look.
8 Lindsey's guitar solo is a taste of his future Tusk Rhiannons, with a preference for distorted sounds over the clean and melodic sounds of the Rumours tour.
9 Stevie begins her Rhiannon dance, this time flapping her silk sleeves one after another and then adding a twirl. With her back to the audience, she spreads her silk wings and lets the wind wave them.
10 Now Stevie turns again to face the audience; with her head down, slowly rising while fluctuating her veils, she starts her chant, even if a little out of tune: "Dreams unwind love's a state of mind..."
11 Stevie progressively opens her arms unveiling her face and singing ponderously. Nonetheless she keeps going with a genuine smile on her face ready to unleash her Rhiannon rage.
12 Stevie grabs her microphone, chanting while stomping her feet, and then crouches, pointing in every direction while shrieking: "All the same...all the same, Rhiannon"
13 Now Stevie slowly rises, throwing one of her sleeves behind her back and screaming while beckoning at the sky with her hand: "Emerald, golden, cold white, take me with you to the sky"
14 During her last, long, fatigued cry, Stevie lift her arms above her head opening them wide.
15 Rapidly Stevie takes off her feathered headdress and rotates it in the air with a roar.
16 Mick marks the end of the song with his drum roll, and Stevie makes herself fall on the floor graciously while twirling the haiddress in her hand in the air .
17 When she raises, Stevie thanks the public with a deep bow that shakes her long hair.