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1978 Concert Review
Rolling Stone
In Performance Fleetwood Mac/Steve Miller July 30, 1978 JFK Stadium, Philadelphia They might as well have called it a pop-blues festival. Fleetwood Mac and the Steve Miller Band, the two headliners, started out as blues bands and gradually extended their interpretations of the medium to embrace a larger, pop audience. Yet even after all the hits, it's obvious in live performance that both bands still base their deliveries on the blues. The audience packing JFK Stadium to the limits was older than most concert crowds. They sat and waited peaceably through the Sanford-Townshend Band's watery set and through Bob Welch, who might have sounded good if he hadn't been victimized by feedback from the stadium's sound system. Miller, ever the capable technician, didn't do much to incite the crowd's enthusiasm while delivering a near-perfect show, marred only by occasional vocal lapses when either he stopped singing or the PA system failed. The biggest response Miller pulled was at the mention of Philadelphia in "Rockin' Me," but his clever manipulation of blues-based hooks and excellent guitar playing maintained interest even in the least-inspired moments. He flashed some brilliant playing at the end of the set, carving out a ringing, trumpetlikesolo on "The Joker" and finishing with a blues instrumental. The encore, his early trademark "Living in the USA," drew a nostalgic response but clearly didn't match previous live performances of the song. Fleetwood Mac tapped the audience's energy more efficiently, channeling the opening applause into a rhythmic element of the first song. The group's great rhthym section was working overtime, with Mick Fleetwood slamming away the infectious drum backbeat while John McVie pinned down the arrangements with his loping, precision-punch bass playing. Lindsey Buckingham was in good form vocally and instrumentally, playing a letter-perfect guitar part on the classic "Oh Well" and a brilliant slow-blues intro to "The Chain," which provided a high point early in the set. The latter song, which seems the weak link on Rumours, becomes a tour de force onstage, where it is stretched out into a long, intense instrumental. Despite the commercial success Stevie Nicks has helped bring Fleetwood Mac, the band is better off in concert when she shuts her mouth and whirls around the stage. Nicks sounded consistently weak vocally and apparently uninterested in the old material. Whole sections of the show, especially the one starting with "Dreams," were ruined by her lackluster vocals. She had to be saved repeatedly by Christine McVie's backup harmonies, which were embarrassingly more tuneful and responsive to the arrangements than Nicks'. Nicks sang so poorly she even threw off the rhthym section, forcing Fleetwood to check and change tempos repeatedly during several tunes. By contrast, when Christine McVie took over lead vocals on "Monday Morning" and "You Make Loving Fun," the band sounded magnificent and everything feel into place. Nicks sang like she meant it only on the one new song the group played, "Sisters of the Moon," leading one to suspect her poor performance was due to boredom than ineptness. Despite Nicks, the Mac pulled off a red-hot finale, churning through bright versions of "Go Your Own Way" and "Second Hand News" that gave the fans what they came for. John Swenson
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moviekinks.blogspot.com |
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Can you post that review? How come these reviews aren't in the blue letter archives? They should be there.
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moviekinks.blogspot.com |
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Christine McVie- she radiated both purity and sass in equal measure, bringing light to the music of the 70s. RIP. - John Taylor(Duran Duran) |
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Interestingly, her harmony is crucial to SHN and GYOW - which they said were great
But, I agree, La Nicks can look bored to death on stage in this era. |
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Meanwhile, critics seem to review her current live performances in a more consistently favorable fashion than thirty years ago. Go figure.
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"Although the arrogance of fame lingers like a thick cloud around the famous, the sun always seems to shine for Stevie." -- Richard Dashut, 2014 |
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Wait, The Chain is a weak spot in Rumours?! Hmm, time to go eat my foot.
I've read so many negative reviews of Stevie from that time.
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"Do not be afraid! I am Esteban de la Sexface!" "In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice" Whehyll I can do EHYT!! Wehyll I can make it WAHN moh thihme! (wheyllit'sA reayllongwaytogooo! To say goodbhiiy!) - |
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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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moviekinks.blogspot.com |
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Tell me what you think, Stew. We can start a dialog here! One hopes others will join in, too.
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moviekinks.blogspot.com Last edited by David; 07-20-2006 at 12:10 AM.. |
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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.
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"Do not be afraid! I am Esteban de la Sexface!" "In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice" Whehyll I can do EHYT!! Wehyll I can make it WAHN moh thihme! (wheyllit'sA reayllongwaytogooo! To say goodbhiiy!) - |
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The asynchronous experientalist of the Fleetwood Mac saga has much to offer to the community's understanding & collective impressions of the band. I go in for a colonoscopy next week at the gastroenterologist's clinic.
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moviekinks.blogspot.com |
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By the way, I did add all of those other reviews/articles that you posted a while back to the Blue Letter Archives. |
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I listen to the 70's boots and while they all had their off nights, the FM FM and Rumors shows were IMO really good and often great. I listen with awe to Stevie's live Silver Springs and Rhiannon's. I also think LB had a far better voice then than now a la I'm So Afraid in that live outdoor concert on the Disney special - I mean WOW hardly covers it for him and really all of them on that. CM, IMO, could tend to wander off key, but like Billie Holiday and Bonnie Raitt, that just made it better. So, when I read reviews like the one above, I weight that against my own experience with the boots and tend to think it was a bad night or the guy just didn't like her, which certainly was a problem at that time when the pretty, flowery girl singing of dreams and witches took over rock and roll for awhile.
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moviekinks.blogspot.com |
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That is if you don't weenie out like you did LAST time you had the appointment.
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Among God's creations, two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes in order not to be separated from the man.---Andres Segovia |
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