17 Reasons This 'Rhiannon' Clip Is the Coolest Thing in the Universe
1 This Rhiannon is from the Mirage HBO special recorded on the 21 and 22 October 1982, a fan-favourite also because the Mirage tour, which only went on for two months, is the last tour that features the Rumours band formation until the 1997 reunion. The VHS contains a total of 13 songs, Rhiannon being the only one that was filmed during the 21st, however the tapes are still unreleased in their entirety.
2 There's another unreleased taped show of Fleetwood Mac headlining the final night of the 1982 Us festival. Part of the footage was to be released in a documentary about the event in 2012, but the release date has been postponed several times since then. A snippet of Rhiannon performed that night is visible on the 1982 Fleetwood Mac interview "Two on the town":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luxK918mcoE&t=179
3 Stevie wears the same white Rhiannon dress of the Bella Donna cover. During this tour her style morphed once again, consisting of highly contrasted colors, a lot of white and black balanced with touches of red or (less often) pink, a slightly backcombed revisited shag with very light gold hair with darker highlights, black smokey eyes and coral red lips. This style combined the most romantic elements of the fashion of the decade, such as black lace, voluminous discoloured hair and dramatic make-up, in stevie's personal style and creates a twenties vintage allure. In my opinion Stevie looks especially beautiful during Mirage and this era defines her image in the eighties even better than her later solo career.
4 At this time Stevie's voice change started during Bella Donna is complete, sounding more profound and confident. She's lost a great part of her upper range but added a lower and stronger quality to her huskiness. New York Times said about her 14 September performance at East Rutherford: "
She has lost the reedy fragility of her mid-1970's voice. But she compensates with a hoarser, rougher rock contralto, and her stage demeanor blends glamour and a kind of dangerous charm."
5 Nearly two weeks before this concert Robin Anderson, Stevie's best friend, passed away from leukemia. This practically destroyed Stevie but also made her performances on this tour the most heartfelt and wild of her entire career, giving birth to the mythical "speaking in tongues" version of Sisters of the moon.
6 Starting from Tusk, Sisters of the moon gruadally takes over Rhiannon as the fan-favourite show highlight, inheriting that same "rage beast" elements that made Rhiannon seem like a demonic possession. By 1982 Rhiannon has metaphorically transformed from an exorcism to a prayer, becoming more wistful and brooding rather than angry and desperate.
7 Stevie appears completely wrapped in white silks, and starts singing very roughly. Vocally this is not one of the best performance of the tour, also because this night she still suffered from the flu, but visually this is one of my favourite Rhiannon to date.
8 Also Lindsey (despite what Carol Ann Harris wrote) has a wardrobe change with new pale dandy outfits complete with vests and hats and a longer haircut. However his playing during the Mirage tour is cleaned out of the Tusk excesses but it doesn't really regress to Rumours, that had a polished but stripped-down sound while Mirage has lost the more progressive elements but abounds with virtuosity and flourishes, seeming like an attempt to adapt the Rumours sound to the eighties canon.
9 The Stevie-Christine eye-sex at 1:49, a recurring theme through the show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VENy0tvEpM&t=109
10 Stevie's slow spin at 2:22:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VENy0tvEpM&t=142
11 During this tour Stevie replace "taken by the sky" with the verses that close the studio version of Rhiannon: "dreams unwind, love's a state of mind". This may have been Lindsey's idea and you can hear Stevie and Lindsey working on this part during the Mirage rehearsals here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ijjtda7vf...arsal.mp3?dl=0
12 Stevie does perhaps the most graceful and hypnotic Rhiannon dance of her entire career, spinning in her white flowing dress, lapping her silk wings and then swaying her hips with balletic moves as she gets closer to the microphone.
13 Stevie hoarsely sings again the part, progressively lifting her voice until she screams "Dreams unwind, love is hard to find", then she hastily turns her back to the audience wavering her long sleeve. She puts hand and sleeve back on the microphone and continue singing but then restlessly turns again flapping her opposite arm. This time she grabs again the microphone whith both her veiled hands, finally belting out "take me like the wind child and with the sky, no" before lowering her gaze and her head.
14 Stevie crouches stomping her feet in a glorious pose. A famous magazine once called this exact posture "hidden dragon" and included it among her best stage moves: "
There’s something imposing about this great stance, like something serious is about to happen. Stevie digs her feet in, assumes the position, and just lets loose, like in this unforgettable performance of “Rhiannon” from Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 Mirage tour."
15 Stevie lets herself go in one of the last glimpses of her old Rhiannon rage, improvising one of the most particular ends of the song "baby you don't change her and I don't change her...we're all the same, Rhiannon" frantically passing the microphone's shaft from a hand to the other. This same lyrics can be heard on the Baton Rouge performance of Sisters of the moon.
16 After her last lines Stevie tiredly turns around and wraps herself in her silk sleeves, slowly stamping and swinging her hips at lindsey's guitar solo, waiting for its end.
17 Stevie sings out her new lines for the last time, spins around and, after a high kick with spreaded arms, she lets herself fall down waving the fabrics around her body.