Quote:
Originally Posted by David
Better than all of that, of course, was that by August and September 1980, the band's musicianship—its collective ability to be in the pocket and sustain it for two hours—was the best it has ever been. Today's performances are a pale shadow: the bombast fools people into thinking that there's something special instrumentally going on, but there is not. Mick, for example, is often being led by Lindsey, Brett, and John in a way he never would have allowed or required in 1980. Perceptive critics called him "the anchor" that year for a good reason. Today, you can literally hear Mick "check" his tempo against the cacophony around him many times throughout the show. He adjusts in response.
Musicianship combines inventiveness, experience, and physical stamina. In mid-1980, the Macsters were all still young enough to have physical stamina—hand-eye (psychomotor) coordination and endurance. And after a ten-month tour, the brain didn't even need to fire an order to the musculature—the muscles just triggered seemingly automatically. Onstage at the Bowl, everybody's muscles were communicating on a level below language. There's no tighter jamming this configuration ever did than "Not That Funny" on August 31, 1980.
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Great observations here. I have noticed that instrumentally on this tour the Mac is letting a lot of the back line do a lot of the front line work. Mick still has a lot of power but his drums don't seem to be driving the music as they used to in the 1979, or 1998--or even 2006. And I wonder how much keyboard work Christine is actually doing.
I would agree that the Rumours line up reached a jamming peak with Not That Funny in 79-80. During the Welch years, Black Magic Woman held that honor. The 72 Seattle show has Kirwan and Welch trading licks and the band moves seamlessly into a double-time swing. In 74, on that Don Kirshner TV segment, the Mac, led by Welch and Fleetwood, is doing all kinds of interesting tempo and rhythm shifts. John seems truly inspired jamming alongside Bob, while Christine is playing groove licks on electric keyboards. They sound so sophisticated! Almost jazzy.