Everything Red Rocks
 

It's been snowing here in North Carolina for the past 12 hours and I've been snuggled up in my blanket watching the Red Rocks DVD. For some reason, the snowy weather and a hot cup of cocoa really make this DVD more enjoyable. So...let's discuss it in explicit detail. Is there anyone on this forum who had a chance to see this specific show?

What I Like:

-I love the atmosphere!

-The band sounds great!

-The hair! The hair! THE HAIR!

-Releasing of the doves moment where Stevie turns into the 'bird whisperer' and translates for the dove! "She loves you! She told me!" lol

-When Stevie says, "This is serious."

-The part in "No Spoken Word" when Stevie sings, "I don't know how to learn from the pages of a AKLJAKSSJDDKASLJDFKSDHH BOOK!"

-The dance break in the middle of "Stand Back!"

-When she gets crazy at the end of "Edge of Seventeen."

-The 'edge' walk.

What I hate:

-The close-ups! Stevie looks beautiful, but they don't even match the hairstyle or the vibe of the performance! They are just thrown in!

-The cheesy choreography that the back-up singers were doing the entire show!

-The re-dubbed vocals! UGHHH! I want the original vocals! Although there are moments when the original vocals are heard. Anyone have a good copy of the original show?

-The show is way too short on the DVD! It's over as soon as you start the darn thing!

-EDITING! Who edited this? Absolutely horrible editing!

You probably don't know that until about 1995 when Lightyear re-released this it had been out of print to the general public for YEARS! But in '95 I finally got ahold of it through mail order and bought the VHS which was 30.00. Later when the DVD came along I bought that too. I first remember watching this show on HBO as a teen in 1987 or '88.

Well I'm glad it's on DVD for everyone to enjoy now, even if it's one big beautiful disaster. It's a shame that nobody has released the 1981 show on DVD!

And that just added to my frustration all those years I asked around at stores and video stores about Red Rocks and it's unavailability but they always had In Concert stocked from 1982-83 grrrrrr! :mad:

I can totally understand where you're coming from!

ohhhh! I also love it when she she screams "Well take your violet and blue mornings with you!" at the end of "I Need to Know."

This video project should have been scrapped. It should have never been released to the public. The same for the Tango Live DVD. All because Stevie wanted to be remembered in the long run as a thin woman. Perhaps they would have been enjoyable if we were allowed to see the actual shows. Instead we got chopped and screwed performances.

Are you rerally enjoying this DVD Brett???

Well, last year, when I first received the Red Rocks DVD I was extremely disappointed when I found out about the re-dubbed vocals. I noticed the close-up shots right from the start. I've come to terms with it though. I do enjoy the Red Rocks show, but it could've been better if they left a lot of it alone. I have a feeling Stevie went in and was like, "I look horrible! I sound horrible! We are going to re-do this show right here in the studio!" Someone should have said, "Stevie, leave it alone!" I know her vocals weren't the best during this tour, but they were soooo raw, crazy, and filled with emotion! Isn't that what we all love about the RAL era? I do!

As for the Tango DVD, well...I can't even stomach it.

Fans will always like or dislike something about Stevie or The Mac on the fan boards. I don't even pay attention to it anymore. I like what I've always liked or disliked about them. It doesn't matter if others feel the same.

:blob1::blob1::blob1:i love this dvd concert for the train wreck that it is..we usually pop it in after a few cocktails and point out all the fabulousness! Stevie was at her worst but thats what makes it so wonderful! Especially 'Edge' ...when she flips out!:blob1::blob1::blob1:

Someone make me the Red Rocks black coat. I love it.

hahaha! It's flippin' awesome!

oh...and the guy in the red hawaiian shirt and the chic with the crazy hair next to him ...:shocked:

I was just thinking of that! hahaha! Epic!

Stevie needs to start giving us some more behind-the-scenes backstage footage of her taped commercial concerts, like before. Even a few precious moments meant so much allowing us to peek at what goes on.

Yes. Very true.

LOL! Whenever me and my best friend would fly all over the country to go see a Stevie show, we would always bring a portable TV/DVD combo, along with the Red Rocks DVD. Every night, after seeing her perform, we'd go back to our hotel room, make a few cocktails and play the DVD and laugh our asses off and rewind and rewatch certain parts like...

Talk To Me - "Seldom hurt WAHWOOOWWW must you keep your secrets"

Dreams - "You'll know. Wah wah wah, you'll know. Yeah...ha ha ha HA AH Ha..."

No Spoken Word - "...from the pages of a gjkild%&$#hdihgodddamn f***ing BOOK!"

and of course ALL of Edge Of Seventeen, including what we dubbed the "Stevie Shuffle" at the end. You know, that long shot where she shimmy's and shuffles before running to the mic for the, "I know what it sounds like..." part. :)

I agree about the 'TITN' live dvd- I watched it twice, 20+ years ago, and never bought it on vhs or dvd. No Lindsey, and SN so depressingly in decline- I recall a denim coat or cape or something denim that made her look enormous, but it was the vocal overdubs that really killed it for me. I tolerate the vocal overdubs and redone close-ups on her solo Red Rocks dvd, because I still find it to have some good Stevie performances, though the concert is too short. Why the TITN dvd- without Lindsey- has remained in print for so long is a mystery to me. I think it's SN at her worst. Michelej1 this week wrote 'tastes change'- The dvd is so reasonable, it might be interesting to buy it and see if there's something in it I like, decades later. I wonder if the live 'Seven Wonders' will still sound like a bloodless dirge to me. I loved the drano vocals on the TITN album.
Poor SN. So many great performances that should have been official dvds and are not.
I do love most of her most recent 'Soundstage' dvd very much. She did a good job.
I confess I find her scarf dance on 'How Still' embarrassing and so silly. I mean, she isn't remotely dancing and has this big ole hankerchief spinning through the air like she's dusting an invisible wardrobe hutch. I keep expecting to see some Lemon Pledge squirted in the air. Maybe a glass of wine would help me appreciate it. I think most people like it.

Ha. Yes, I like it. I find it kind of sexy. But I know how you feel. Most people liked her BATB garb and it positively horrified me when I first saw it at Caesar's Palace. I was sure she was doing some SNL skit.

Michele

Now THIS is why Red Rocks is so rad. Because Stevie is f*cking hilarious.

Thank you!
I don't like Red Rocks or Tango Live (Stevie in baseball caps :distress:).
If you want to see Fleetwood Mac/Stevie on DVD I recommend purchasing Mirage Live.

I have both of these concerts downloaded and also Mirage and SYW but i've never really sat down and watched them other then maybe The Dance one. What was the deal with the overdubbing, and reshooting? What is overdubbing anyway?

I think there are some really amazing moments in Red Rocks; pretty much all of BATB and most of Edge of 17. I would love to have seen the original product, but I'm certain it doesn't even exist anymore. :)

HAHA yes! :thumbsup:

I loved the outrageous hair and diva effect in photos like this. I wish she would still portray herself on albums and tour merchandise this way. Did this photo ever make it onto tee shirts and such? Love it!!!

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1088/raltour.jpg

Oh my God! :shocked:

I never realized that. For years I thought that was just some gibberish, of which there were a lot in that video, and all I could make out was the "with you" at the end. Thank you for clearing that 20 year old little mystery in my brain up.

You're very welcome!

I just watched this for kicks. I couldn't even make it through the first minute. :(

Overdubbing is where you go in to the studio and 'enhance' the performance. This can be done by re-doing/fixing the vocals (which was heavily done for the Red Rocks DVD) and adding supplemental instrumentation.

I wonder if there are tapes filled with backstage footage from the 1981-1986 period. I bet some crazy stuff went on behind the scenes.

As much as they were taped by crew and personnel, I bet theres footage locked away somewhere just waiting to see the light of day. Only crew and them may ever know.

She looks so doped up, and it just looks like she's singing slow, and the outfit I don't care for. Her vocals sound good though.

Stevie's management pre-sold the Rock a Little tour broadcast rights to HBO, which aired the Red Rocks concert, so they had to deliver some kind of product to the cable network, as well as Lightyear Entertainment, the newly-formed home video distributor that scheduled "Live at Red Rocks" as its first music/concert home video release.

Releasing the actual footage could have further damaged her career considering how she looked and how poorly she sang. Despite the obvious "continuity" issues and problematic post-production, "Live at Red Rocks" still works. I don't mind that it's a patch job, but I think she looks amazing during the pick-up shots during Stand Back, and "Has Anyone Ever Written" is the definitive version for me. It's so much better than the CD version mainly due to the gorgeous ending. I love that the editor left in her strange, garbled squack during "No Spoken Word." She should have sang "not from the pages of a book" but her throat sounds rough and she's off-time, so she regains time by only pronouncing the word "book." It makes sense that they didn't offer a longer cut for the home video release, because they simply didn't have additional quality footage beyond the 60 minute cut prepared for HBO. Still, I would kill Katy Perry to see to. Well, I'd kill her any chance I get.

"Live at Red Rocks" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Video, Long Form - but lost to U2's "Rattle & Hum - and it was a huge seller and was awarded Gold sales status in 1988, so the industry views it as a success. (It's sales since '88 are not reported, but it wasn't available on DVD until 2007.) The Tango video was also certified Gold by the RIAA. Video certification has a different criteria than audio.

If she hadn't been vain about herself, (normal, who isn't?) and went and redone the footage, we probably wouldn't have gotten Red Rocks at all for our enjoyment. Like the Tusk bun, it is a piece of Stevie history (like it or not) and the only commercial solo footage we got of her for 20 years to add to our music video collection and a lot of us appreciate it and actually like it. Too many years went by without another video like this from her. I actually like Red Rocks more for the wildness she portrayed compared to Soundstage which was more polished, refined, and subdued.

Well my problem with Sounstage is that it feels more like a concert featuring Waddy Wachtel. They practically show more of him than her and his loud ass guitar doesn't help any.

So what exactly about Red Rocks is genuine?

A lot of fans love it. I cherish it because after seeing it on HBO as a teen it took me years to finally get ahold of it on video and in my hands in 1995. I love her wildness. I love the front cover photo she used. Everything about it really, I just wish it had been longer footage.

There's already presents under your tree? :eek: How do you survive seeing it everyday?

About Red Rocks. I actually enjoy it. I think there are some really awesome moments in it. I just wish it was longer.

I can't even watch it. It makes me cringe.