Street Angel Tour

[SmthngOfADreamr]

I just received a bootleg video from the Steet Angel tour in the mail today and I am watching it for the first time right now - and I am totally shocked. For as much slack as she has taken for this album, her live performance is fantastic. Her voice sounds great, and she is very energetic. Highlights so far have been Outside the Rain and Rhiannon. But why she performed Docklands, one of the biggest clunkers from the album, when she could have done practically anything else I'll never understand.

I'm just curious as to everyone else's opinion on this.

[SmthngOfADreamr]

Originally posted by thewhitewingedd
Well....I haven't seen any live footage from the Street Angel tour but the few live MP3s I have from that time period are great....Well I think so anyway...I really have never understood why people didn't go for that album...I loved it...Even Docklands...I guess its just that I love her voice (ANY OF ITS INCARNATIONS) and if she sings I like it...Adam (THEWHITEWINGEDD):)

Oh don't get me wrong, I am a huge supporter of Street Angel... I can listen to it so much easier than, say, Rock a Little and even OSOTM at times. There are really only a few songs, namely Docklands, Jane and God's Garden, that I can say I honestly skip every time.

Anyway, I'm still watching the video, and it's still great. Destiny was better live than on the album, and Talk to Me is better than on the Red Rocks video.

[David]

Originally posted by SmthngOfADreamr
I just received a bootleg video from the Steet Angel tour in the mail today and I am watching it for the first time right now - and I am totally shocked. For as much slack as she has taken for this album, her live performance is fantastic. Her voice sounds great, and she is very energetic.
My heavy years spent following Fleetwood Mac lasted up until about 1987. When I saw Stevie play Arco Arena in 1994, her singing was strong enough to compel me to start following the band again. She still wasn't the dynamo I left behind in 1986, but her live singing was gorgeous to listen to, which in turn wound me up again.

It's too bad that what had been planned as a lengthy "world" tour got reduced to a mere couple of months fraught with depression & confusion & anxiety, especially since the performances themselves were so beautiful.

I don't think Stevie will ever give as good a performance as she did in Las Vegas or in Holmdel or in Sacramento on the Street Angel Tour.

[Sorcerer386]

Besides the obscure first verse, I really don't understand why everyone hates Docklands. I absolutely love the title line "And there are people who roam the docklands..." the word "roam" was the best word to put in there. Maybe it's just that, again not minding the first verse, I love the lyrics and what they say, especially the chorus. Then at the end, "in the Dock, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII BEG of YOU!" The only song I might choose for her to do live besides that song is Love Is Like a River.

[SmthngOfADreamr]

I think I don't like Docklands just because I don't get it at all. I don't understand the writers' message, if there is one at all.

I guess I would have much rather heard "rose garden" (even though we got to hear it on enchanted) or even "greta" or something.

[David]

Originally posted by SmthngOfADreamr
I think I don't like Docklands just because I don't get it at all. I don't understand the writers' message, if there is one at all.
The themes of the song seem to be dislocation or alienation.

There are people who roam the docklands
There are ships passing in the night
There are thousands of things that I have known
Gone in the daylight
Sometimes I feel like I'm in a foreign land
And there's a mirror I'm looking through
Lost in the place where I once was
Without a hand to hold onto

Are those the correct words? I did them from memory. The chorus seems to evoke a person who is lost -- perhaps emotionally as well as physically.

I've always loved the song & always thought the words & the music were very Stevie-ish. It's a perfect song for Stevie, & I'm glad she sang it on some of the tour shows (unfortunately not in California).

[pwyll]

All I have to say is listen to the demo. She should have left the arrangement the way it was in the demo (like most of her songs...."I Miss You" as an example, are best left alone).

[pwyll]

sorry about the last thread reply...I meant the "Love Is" demo....

[chiliD]

I don't think Stevie will ever give as good a performance as she did in Las Vegas or in Holmdel or in Sacramento on the Street Angel Tour.

I dunno...her Greek Theatre show, although too short in length, I thought; but then again, that's a notorious venue for curfews...was one of the best I've seen of her on her own. "Enchanted" tour was ok due to her playing some relatively obscure stuff...but that Greek Theatre show on the Street Angel tour was pretty darn good. Hmmmm...maybe it might've had something to do with Rick Vito being in her band, eh? :shrug: Finally she had a decent guitar player in her own band. :nod:

[Johnny Stew]

I'm actually one of the people who always enjoyed Waddy's work in Stevie's touring bands... his guitar playing gave the songs a bit of a harder edge, I felt, and I liked it.
But Rick most definitely is, was, and ever shall be the best guitarist she's had in her solo band, IMO.

Now if those two would just work together again.


Johnny Stew

[Sorcerer386]

Going back to Docklands, I think it is in part about isolation/alienation, but I think it's more about having all this stuff going on in your life and no one being there to help. Like, "you go down to the laundromat, maybe your sister is there" seems, to me, like saying, "go ask her, maybe she'll help." Or, more like people are just tired of helping you -- you've depended on people for too long and now you have to do things on your own. That's what I've gotten out of it anyway. :wavey:

[ricohv]

well ok...so Docklands does seem like she could've wrote it (especially in that time period)but to me it is just WEIRD. That line about the laundromat -sheesh-I'd rather here her fingernails on a chalkboard-than hear that (which is how I feel about the chimpanzee line in Jane). She who sings about crystal visions and great dark wings was all of a sudden singing about laundromats and chimpanzees! YIKES.
But I agree..I downloaded alot of those Street Angel tour songs from AG awhile back....never heard better live versions of Rooms on Fire or Talk To ME..and Destiny seemed especially inspired with the little acapella thing at the end. She seemed like she took more creative license in these songs than she usually does. And her solo version of The Chain that was apparently only performed once for the Westwood One show of her at the House of Blues was great!!!!

[David]

Originally posted by ricohv
And her solo version of The Chain that was apparently only performed once for the Westwood One show of her at the House of Blues was great!!!!
Those guys did "The Chain" at the Greek Theatre shows in Los Angeles (Aug. 24-25) & in Houston (Sept. 9), as well.

It was odd to hear it at the Greek because they didn't keep it in the set for the shows in Northern California which followed. And they didn't play it in Vegas in early September.

Maybe Dan Garfield convinced Stevie to add it for those few shows. Garfield had just toured with Lindsey the year before, who put "The Chain" in his solo set, too. So maybe Garfield was able to plant the idea in Stevie's head & convince her that the song really went over well with the audience in a solo environment.

Or maybe it was Vito's idea. What's odd is that she didn't make it a permanent fixture of the set that year.

[Christopher]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by David
[B]
Those guys did "The Chain" at the Greek Theatre shows in Los Angeles (Aug. 24-25) & in Houston (Sept. 9), as well.

She also performed "the Chain' at Fiddler's Green in Denver on her early August stop in 94'. David I was also at those 2 shows at the Greek that year and totally agree, Stevie was on fire, vocally she was the strongest in almost a decade if not ever. it was as if she knew she had something to prove instead of rest on her laurels , as it seemed she did during the Tango tour through the Timespace tour periods. Her vocals live and in the studio during the late 80's and earky 90's was uninspired and lifeless....of course now we all know...KLONOPIN.....

Also I dont mind Docklands at all, there was a time when SA first was released that it was one of my favorite songs, I just chalk the lyrics and feel of that song and CD as just Stevie trying to be more down to earth and less ambigious and cryptic, just trying on a different hat....It was a 90 degree turn after TOSOTM...and I just went with it.

Im one of those that loves just about anything Stevie puts her voice on....but of course I loved the return to form and character of TISL last year., and cant wait for the new Buckingham NICKS ha ha ...it will be FULL CIRCLE