The incredible gap in effort between Gold Dust Wolan and Rhiannon

[Hawkeye]

With each passing tour Stevie keeps making it more and more obvious that there are just certain songs she's more willing to put effort into then others on certain tours. And it's usually rarer or newer songs that get a great Stevie live vocal and performance, She usually will sell a lesser known song (moonlight, New Orleans, ghosts are gone, fall from grace etc.)

Rhiannon is the easiest To get away with. One year, the entire tour they need to try just for fun. To see how much they can get away with, Do nothing but play that guitar riff over and over for 3 and a half minutes while a broom spins in the middle of the stage with the The bat wings attached. I think a good 40 to 60 percent of the audience would be satisfied And then Stevie can save her voice more and rest her legs so she can extend gold dust woman another 4 minutes to include a second dance and a fourth runthru of the chorus.

But there are exceptions. Every single year since Say you will I don't think Stevie can top herself on gold dust woman intensity and every year she does make it just a little better, or at the very least a little longer. The above paragraph is an exaggeration clearly for both songs but not by much. And it doesn't even bother me that much. It's great that Gold Dust woman almost gets rewritten every other tour this millennium. I thought for a couple tours it was gonna stall at never ending baby baby baby's and a slow droopy last minute with the spelling cape. Then the crack head dance was added as was the same tour the best musical interlude by the other 4 members of the band since the mirage tour making it such an incredible live song this decade for more then just 1 reason.

But then on this last tour the musical interlude during Stevie's dance do any really get better but it does get more fast rocking and intense. I think we can thank the foo fighters for this inspiration. And then Stevie takes the intensity of her vocal on he baby baby baby's which was much needed because I was starting. To really dislike that ending. But she took that places that aren't even an exaggeration to say were as good as the 70s Stevie especially late into the tour. Ending with the chorus again is an awesome arrangement idea also. I wasn't serious about doing it another time tho. It's just every year I think Stevie is is too old to top the previous tours gold Dust woman she surprises me.

But on the flip side every year I say "no way can Rhiannon be played verbatim as it was the previous year sure enough it is right down to the crazy comparison that Stevie will dance to gold dust woman for upwards of 1 and a half to 3 minutes, or even head bang to edge for different lengths of time, but Rhiannon is held to a standardized 3 spins since 2001. Not that I even care about how many times she spins, but it's so standardized that we never get treated to 3 spins but bless her heart she never tries to f**k us over with just 1

And honestly I 98 percent don't care that she's willing to change one song every tour and up her game, while the other one is scripted to a T with only changes in how loud she yells Take Me with you to the skyyyy after the all th sames. Rhiannon had its days of glory of incredibly different and yet equally awesome live performances from 75 to 80, and if Stevie truly is only capable of giving 110 percent on some of a 19 song set and only 75 to 85 on the other half, id rather we get great performances of the never played stuff and Rhiannon has been captured enough already. It's just that maybe they can spread the wealth one freaking tour and do a condensed gold dust woman and give Rhiannon a modern day ass kicking like gold dust woman gets. Complete with long guitar solo and long piano jam. And stevie looking and sounding like she does at the end of moonlight but instead belting out the ending of Rhiannon. And if thats not possible for a full tour, at least do it like that at the classic east show! (I realize it's too late to influence west, not that I expect to, just that slight feeling we all have that some of th inner circle at least read and report back **** from this board.

[Hawkeye]

And I'd add that edge of 17 was in gold dust woman's camp of remaining new and exciting and maintaining old intensity right up until 2012. It's fallen into Rhiannon's camp of this songs beat, chorus and reputation carry it enough, I'm cutting its length significantly and singling it like I care less.

And now again I'm not a doctor, if Stevie's vocals medically can't handle full effort for the full 19 songs, then by all means as a compromise to do the very necessary edge of 17 at and arena show m fine with it being cut, since maybe Morso then Rhiannon edge of 17 had had a good live run with many recent good renditions professionally recorded.

[vivfox]

I am so pleased to read someone else say what I have been thinking all along. Every time Rhiannon is performed I am hoping and praying she will do it the way she did between 1975 & 1982. I NEED the spins. The graceful dance spins. and I NEED the killer Rhiannon back in the set PLEASE!!!

[ricohv]

Originally Posted by vivfox

I am so pleased to read someone else say what I have been thinking all along. Every time Rhiannon is performed I am hoping and praying she will do it the way she did between 1975 & 1982. I NEED the spins. The graceful dance spins. and I NEED the killer Rhiannon back in the set PLEASE!!!

Yes. PLEASE!

[Macfan4life]

I think the last time there was any passion for Rhiannon live was Timespace 1991 and she was so zonked out on klonopin. I love the "will you take me with you's" at the end. Its a full rock version with no piano intro. Her voice still had range then too.
I do agree that within the last 10 years she has made Gold Dust Woman more fun live with her dance and added lyrics. But she is getting older and I saw her in March and there really was no dance but a head shake only

Here is a great live performance of Rhiannon 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9iSdWRQmQ

[wheart]

Rhiannon needs to go bye bye. Seriously. She has mentioned in several interviews lately and on stage that every time she suggests not doing Rhiannon everyone gasps. So if she's suggesting they not do it, she's over it. And it shows...big time!

[lilyfee]

Originally Posted by wheart

Rhiannon needs to go bye bye. Seriously. She has mentioned in several interviews lately and on stage that every time she suggests not doing Rhiannon everyone gasps. So if she's suggesting they not do it, she's over it. And it shows...big time!

I love the song as much as anyone else, truly I love Rhiannon... But why not get rid of it?? She said before that she always had to do Dreams, always had to do Rhiannon, always had to do Landslide... And yet did anyone miss Dreams when she dropped it this year? There are so many songs that could replace Rhiannon, particularly if Stevie herself wants to do them! She needs to start doing songs she wants to do and stop listening to everyone else!

[bwboy]

As a long time fan who's seen them perform several times, I would rather hear them sing I Don't Want to Know, Brown Eyes, Warm Ways, Book of Love, Crystal, the Farmer's Daughter etc ANYTIME over Rhiannon, Dreams, Don't Stop, or Big Love, but every tour there are thousands of people who attend a FM concert for the first time wanting and expecting to hear those very songs we long time fans are sick of. And how do you differentiate which classics to skip? They do the Chain EVERY tour, so should they skip that? No way, especially if their next tour truly could be their last. So as much as I hate it, we're stuck with the classics, but hopefully they'll throw in a few nuggets like Think About Me or I Know I'm Not Wrong to please us uber-fans, too.

The only other option, which I kind of like, would be if they altered their set list every other night and alternated the hits/classics like Landslide with Dreams, or Little Lies with Everywhere, or Second Hand News with Eyes of the World; that would free the set list up to include more deeper cuts.