17 Reasons This 'Rhiannon' Clip Is the Coolest Thing in the Universe
1 This Rhiannon was performed in Largo the 25 November 1979 at the Capital Centre. The show took place one month after the start of the Tusk Tour on the 26 October 1979, and 2 weeks and a half after the Tusk documentary concert, held the 6th of November at the Checker Dome in St. Louis (that would be a Rhiannon to see). TheSuperFleetwoodMac also revamped from this show Go your own way, Sara and Sisters of the moon and you can find them on his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSupe...woodmac/videos.
2 Fleetwood Mac had still a fresh and passionate delivery. They admitted in interviews that the first shows of a new tour are the best because, traveling and performing for prolonged times, they progressively get bored.
3 Stevie's voice then had lost a part of her range but gained that particular fragile raspy sound that marks the Tusk Tour. Soon during 1979 her voice suffered great damage both due to her overtiring concert schedule and heavy amount of cocaine usage, and it hadn't returned the same ever again. However between the end of that year and the start of 1980 she went to a otolaryngologist and recovered enough to go on with the tour.
4 The band still performs the song in a clean and proper way compared with the 1980 performances wherein the band improvised heavily and sounded much rawer.
5 I love the way Stevie looks during this tour: the chestnut brown hair, the Tusk bun, the shawls and jackets specific for each song and the many new colors of her wardrobe. Here she wears her grey-blue Rhiannon dress, worn for the first time in 1978:
6 Stevie's harmonies on the Rhiannon chorus feel like ghost whispers.
7 The "taken by the wind" lyrics switch at 3:05 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pOCBO4ndE#t=185)
8 "Taken by surprise":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pOCBO4ndE#t=198
9 The powerful spin Stevie takes after her denial scream.
10 Stevie begins her butterfly flight in the dark. All we can see is a suggestive but just visible flutter of silk fabrics while Christine and John jams.
11 Stevie starts growling, holding her arms over her head with her sleeves draping and fluttering in front of her face. Then she slowly lowers them and simply puts her veiled hands on the microphone repeating her old chant, this time highlighting each line with an haunting "I know".
12 After a powerful "take me like the wind baby take me with the sky...", rapidly gets away in a silk vortex and comes back at the microphone flapping her wings. With her hands wrapped in voile she sings religiously under the red light: "all the same...all the same, Rhiannon...all your dreams unwind but your love's a state of mind"
13 The spotlight is turned on and Stevie unleashes her Rhiannon Rage: she slightly bends down and glares with fiery eyes, shaking her clenched hand, pointing her finger and screaming "dream on, you silly dreamer, would you try hard? you can't leave her..."
14 The band plays roughly, while Stevie improvises fiercely, building musical tension: "no, your love doesn't unwind and your love's not a state of mind, I know". Both these two elements will be taken to the extreme during the latter part of the Tusk tour, in 1980, whose climax for me is the Rotterdam performance.
15 The camera rapidly shoots up close Stevie's and John's face. Stevie stomps her feet and jabs at the audience. She gesture at herself with her hand like a claw "try on, try on, try..." before spinning away with an exhausted look on her face.
16 Stevie comes back, leans her hands on the microphone with her long sleeves hanging down and belts out her last words: "so long..."
17 After a last twirl, she collapse on the floor shaking her sleeves over her head and bending her knees to finally curl up wrapped in her fabrics.