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Originally Posted by David
I maintain that the Madison Square Garden (6.29.77) review in Rolling Stone is the first negative review of Stevie in performance in a major U.S. publication. I've been looking for earlier negative reviews in big journals & can't find any--although I suspect that some of the big dailies criticized her for her failing vocals during the first several months of the Rumours Tour.
Stevie got mostly mediocre criticism written about her live work in Rolling Stone's In Performance column over the years: The Garden review in 1977 said she caterwauled like Linda Blair's Regan; this JFK review blames her for being uncommitted; Steve Pond's review of the Mac's final show on the Tusk Tour said Stevie was "essentially decorative" (but still "undeniably important").
But the RS review of the Tango concert in Landover was laudatory of Stevie (& of Mac in general). Of course, by that time, many of the Golden Age Rolling Stone staff critics had moved on or out.
Stevie's interrelationship with Rolling Stone over the decades is a fascinating one to look into.
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I look at the reviews in context of the time. We looking back from a later time get a different view, a more comprehensive view as far as making comparisons, but less comprehensive contextual view (obviously). I study the whole thing from many perspectives, time and social and intellectual wise. It's fun, it's interesting to incorporate all the different perspectives and puzzle out the reasons, and gain more insights from that.
That is one of the things I appreciate most about my perspective, time wise. Perhaps the only thing. Because in many other ways I lament my fandom timewise, I regret my inability to participate much at the peak of the band's crescendo.