Comfort zone

[wondergirl9847]

I was just watching the Letterman performance of Soul Drifter, which you can get at Neil's GYOW site www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com and back in the OOTC days, he would do that foot thing. LOL You know, hitting his heel on the ground while he plays/sings. Anyways, it got me to wondering about the interview from yesterday and how he always does/says things over and over (pun intended, by crud LOL).

I think it's Lindsey's comfort zone to do that. If he didn't have a speech ready to say, I think he'd freeze and we all know he stutters REALLY bad. He's more of a communicator with his music than he is with words. Hence, the debate about his lyrics. He, himself, has said that he is not the best wordsmith (I disagree). I believe he thinks that, not only with lyrics, but in speeches as well.

I know how it is to be nervous and scared in front of people, I took speech in college. LOL It's HORRIFYING to get up in front of a crowd and look at their (bored) faces, not knowing what to say. I pretty much read my speeches from the paper in front of me, which is not the point of the class. LOL

He is a shy person when he's one on one, but seems to come out of the comfort zone when he's playing on stage. Then, coming back to the mic, he probably feels that he's one on one with the audience and stumbles and relies on speeches.

JMO.

[seteca]

One of my favourite British comedians, Frank Skinner, once said in an interview (when asked how he feels about being such a famous British icon) "I still feel like I've sneaked into the party and sooner or later someone is going to ask me for my ticket."

I don't know exactly why, but I get the feeling that to a certain extent LB has the same sort of insecurity. It took LB & SN a long time to "make it big" and when they eventually did (via Fleetwood Mac), Lindsey (unlike Stevie) never got the individual fame and credit he so greatly deserved as a solo artist (producer, writer, multi-instrumental musician, singer) and yet when he's put into the "Fleetwood Mac machine" (be it concert, interview etc etc), he is treated by the interviewer or 20,000 fans as though he was given that credit.

The result is what we see on stage during his speeches: someone who is clearly very nervous, has memorized speeches and even actions out of fear, sometimes stuttering really badly on the rare occasion that he improvises, and could almost be described as "scared." He's not sure what's expected of him and I can't prove this in any way but I bet deep deep down he has some (however slight, by now!) subconcious fears of "waking up and it was all a dream."

I remember at the end of one of the SYW shows in the U.K., I was standing in my usual spot right in front of him, "Go Your Own Way" ended and the audience erupted into cheers and applause. All the 100s of people around me started screaming his name and cheering and clapping at him....he looked at this crowd...some of his most diehard UK fans, and I could see so clearly he wasn't quite sure what to do and the expression on his face was almost something like "what..? what did I do??".

(Answer: you inspired 1000s of guitarists and musicians, and shared your deepest thoughts and feelings with millions and millions of people around the world in the form of some of the greatest songs ever made in the history of music.)

Looking at your signature picture there, Christy, he's probably the most humble "rock star" of all time.