Quote:
Originally Posted by David
Some people saw those qualities all along. Was it Stephen Holden or another Rolling Stone critic who, back in 1981 reviewing Bella Donna, asked, "How can somebody so hip also be so incredibly silly?"? And Robert Hilburn, reviewing the Mac's spectacularly good concert in Irvine CA in 1982 for the L.A. Times, said of Stevie: "She has even shed some (though far from all) of the narcissistic aura that has made her something of a caricature in rock." My mind fills in with all these characterizations of Stevie—remember John Swenson's Rolling Stone review of the band's Madison Square Garden stop in 1977? Something about Stevie's stage business being literary in a bad way, but adding that "she gets away with her devices more often than not" because she "has undeniable charisma."
....That's her genius, in my opinion, that and her onstage (and offstage) character with its otherworldly traits, a combination of a Greek nymph or demiurge and a decadent nineteenth-century writer. But that appeal has always been elusive and youth-bound; it got sillier and more awkward as she grew older. For several years now, it's felt desperate.
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The bolded part nailed it. I realize it sounds (and probably is) ageist, but there is no denying the difference in effect watching her late 70s/early 80s stage presence and now. It is completely understandable that things change after 40 years -- of course, she's 40 years older! However, SHE needs to be self-aware enough to stop milking the same stage show she's been doing for 40 years. CHANGE WITH THE TIMES. You look RIDICULOUS in that same lace shawl, black Victorian whatever dress and platforms now. You look RIDICULOUS "twirling" like a hunchback clunking around in those platforms with your ankles about to cave inwards.
She was magnetic back then.... now she looks ridiculous and embarrassing. No self awareness in the slightest despite being completely focused on nothing but herself. She is a parody of her younger self... as if I'm watching a comedian make fun of her on SNL only she really is the joke.