Analyzing album covers: The Dance

[juniper]

Originally Posted by beccamorrisfift

I wondered since when had Lindsey taken up golf. And what the hell is going on with his legs.

I always wondered the same thing! He looks like he's lost on a mini-golf course looking for the restroom... For a guy who apparently was annoyed that he wasn't on the cover of Rumours (and other albums?), I was surprised that he was OK with this particular pose. I wonder if the photog wanted to insist on no instruments, and Lindsey had a hard time chilling without a guitar in his hands, so they handed him that club??
-About the title itself, is there a story to the album/tour name 'The Dance'? I know in a few rehearsal videos, LB and SN are kind of dancing around together, and it's been mentioned in (a few??) of their songs, like SYW : it always seems to heal the wounds if I can get you to dance... IS that a LB/SN thing?

[moon]

Sorry people, I meant that I could not believe that photoshop was used as today. I say, even in the 90s, the pictures were maybe more "natural", without a little help from some software.
Regards!

[dreamer78]

Originally Posted by johnnystorms

i LOVE David La Chapelle's pics... they are VERY stylized and unnatural. but they WISELY chose a modern photographer to do their big comeback cover pics!

I agree very modern great choice
-i would think Lindsey was gonna hit Stevie with that cane lol

[drzubritsky]

Originally Posted by juniper

I always wondered the same thing! He looks like he's lost on a mini-golf course looking for the restroom... For a guy who apparently was annoyed that he wasn't on the cover of Rumours (and other albums?), I was surprised that he was OK with this particular pose. I wonder if the photog wanted to insist on no instruments, and Lindsey had a hard time chilling without a guitar in his hands, so they handed him that club??

I always wondered if Lindsey's odd, cross-legged pose was done to somewhat obscure the chubbiness that he had at the time. An unnatural pose is a trick that photographers sometimes use for that purpose.

There is something strange about the angle on Stevie's face in this photo; the picture doesn't really look that much like her. As someone else mentioned, I don't think her weight loss was nearly as significant as publicized. But her face was certainly thinner and she looked beautiful in the concert video.

My overall reaction to the cover photo at the time was...ho hum. The cover didn't reflect the vitality of the music contained within.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Agreed - and I love his photos of Stevie from 1994:

The 2nd photo is a classic. Stevie standing on a hookah pipe. But in the first pic she looks like she was dropped in a pile of old junk and her face is so pale, she looks dead.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

I never bought this album (The Dance)

What is on that record that is so exciting other than Silver Springs and Landslide? This is for you, daddy.

To me there are two kinds of FM fans. Before The Dance and AD(after The Dance). So many of you became fans after The Dance. But to me that was a crap live recording. Not worth ever listening to. Besides I had already had the live video of the show they played on MTV at that time. What did I need the CD for?

[sodascouts]

Originally Posted by juniper

-About the title itself, is there a story to the album/tour name 'The Dance'? I know in a few rehearsal videos, LB and SN are kind of dancing around together, and it's been mentioned in (a few??) of their songs, like SYW : it always seems to heal the wounds if I can get you to dance... IS that a LB/SN thing?

Here's an excerpt from an article where they discuss it:

So why is this CD called The Dance. What's The Dance?
Stevie: Go ahead Lindsey, it's Matisse.
Lindsey: Ya, we um, were attracted to a painting by Matisse called The Dance that's just five people holding hands dancing in a circle. Uh, it's a very well known painting and ah, there was a history to it that was very much analogous to our situation. And it just had, the feeling of the painting very much reflected how we were feeling when we first got into rehearsal. And so we tried to paraphrase - if you will -that painting in a photograph where we were sort of loosely in a circle of our own...atop the rubble of (laughs) 20 years of history, I'd say.

Source: Stevie and Lindsey Interview on WZLX Radio

If you're curious, you can see the painting here.

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by vivfox

What is on that record that is so exciting other than Silver Springs and Landslide? This is for you, daddy.


To me there are two kinds of FM fans. Before The Dance and AD(after The Dance). So many of you became fans after The Dance. But to me that was a crap live recording. Not worth ever listening to. Besides I had already had the live video of the show they played on MTV at that time. What did I need the CD for?

Are you excluding the Peter Green era fans like chiliD?

What's so exciting? Well, The Chain for starters... it's still my favourite live version of that song. Bleed to Love Her, Silver Springs, Big Love and Landslide were all fantastic as well. I kinda consider those versions the "definitive" versions of the songs

Anyway you're right, I had never been a "fan" before The Dance, but when the album came out, I was just coming to that time in my life where music really started speaking to me. That said, the more I started listening to them I realized that I already recognized half of the Buckingham/Nicks era catalog from my childhood anyway.

[GJK]

Originally Posted by juniper

... For a guy who apparently was annoyed that he wasn't on the cover of Rumours (and other albums?)...

So, who's that curly guy between Christine and Stevie on the front cover of 'Mirage'?

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by GJK

So, who's that curly guy between Christine and Stevie on the front cover of 'Mirage'?

The studio janitor.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

What's so exciting? Well, The Chain for starters... it's still my favourite live version of that song. Bleed to Love Her, Silver Springs, Big Love and Landslide were all fantastic as well. I kinda consider those versions the "definitive" versions of the songs

Anyway you're right, I had never been a "fan" before The Dance, but when the album came out, I was just coming to that time in my life where music really started speaking to me. That said, the more I started listening to them I realized that I already recognized half of the Buckingham/Nicks era catalog from my childhood anyway.

This is me too. But, I didn't immediately embrace them-that didn't happen for me until 2007. That live version of Silver Springs is what got my attention - and I'm not even talking about the video. I just fell in love with that song. Because of that, I became a fan of everything else.

Originally Posted by sodascouts

Here's an excerpt from an article where they discuss it:

So why is this CD called The Dance. What's The Dance?
Stevie: Go ahead Lindsey, it's Matisse.
Lindsey: Ya, we um, were attracted to a painting by Matisse called The Dance that's just five people holding hands dancing in a circle. Uh, it's a very well known painting and ah, there was a history to it that was very much analogous to our situation. And it just had, the feeling of the painting very much reflected how we were feeling when we first got into rehearsal. And so we tried to paraphrase - if you will -that painting in a photograph where we were sort of loosely in a circle of our own...atop the rubble of (laughs) 20 years of history, I'd say.

Source: Stevie and Lindsey Interview on WZLX Radio

If you're curious, you can see the painting here.

Thanks for posting this. I think people forget or may not know what inspired the cover.

[sodascouts]

No problem. I wonder what was analogous between the history of the paintng and the history of the band. It's not evident from the brief write ups I have read on Matisse and the painting, and I haven't dug any further. Anyone know?

[WatchChain]

Originally Posted by moon

Sorry people, I meant that I could not believe that photoshop was used as today. I say, even in the 90s, the pictures were maybe more "natural", without a little help from some software.
Regards!

Computers in 1997 ??? Wireless phones in 1997 ???

Photoshop in 1997??? 1997 was the dark ages !!!

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

What's so exciting? Well, The Chain for starters... it's still my favourite live version of that song.

Really? Lindsey ruins it for me at the end with his high pitched shrill screaming. My favorite is the one from Rumours, or the one from the Mirage tour video. *amazing*

That said, I don't *ever* listen to The Dance anymore, but it got a ton of stereo time in '97.

[redbird]

I saw this for the first time when my mother bought it (I was 13 or 14 I think), it was the disc that really kick-started being an actual fan of the band, instead of someone who just knew all their songs on classic radio. I liked the blank white room + black-clothed band members, and I recognized the Rumours throwback of Mick and Stevie, though I didn't care for the way she draped all over the piano. I wished that all the other members were equally stylized, but now looking back, it captures their individual personalities accurately.