Lindsey reacts: I'm So Afraid 97
 

First of all he answered her daughter about why they called it The Dance; he said he doesn't know (same as Tusk), but "the live show was kind of a dance of us all reconverging together". Well I remember an 1997 interview with both Lindsey and Stevie and the interviewer asked the same, Stevie said "Tell him Lindsey, it's Matisse".

Anyway his kids enjoyed that performance, so did I. Lindsey said it took many years to evolve into what it is. But I loved all ISA live performances since the 70s.

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The best version of ISA is the 1980 Live album. This Dance version is watered down. Maybe Lindsey better not write that book I've been begging him to write because he cant remember ****. He cannot remember why he named the album Tusk? His song Tusk was the lead single. Seriously?
He cant remember why it was called The Dance either nor can he remember turning all the dials during mixing the Tusk album.
The best part of this clip is the ending when his daughter mentions the Stevie stare and he sort of says people read too much into things and then it immediately ends :lol:

ISA was written before Stevie and Lindsey broke up. He acts like he thinks it was written in 1975 ir 1976.

It would have been nice had they used the version from the Mirage concert but considering it still hasn't had a DVD release, they probably couldn't get the rights to it.

Imagine if they did a reaction video to The Chain from Mirage. And involved Kristen! Oof that would be fun. :]

Thank you! I forgot to mention that part too. He is a guitar genius but does not remember what ISA is about, cant remember why Tusk was called Tusk, Cant remember why The Dance was called the Dance, and could not remember turning dials all the way one way during the recording of Tusk when asked about it.
He also was puzzled during The Dance rehearsals why Sharon Celani already knew Mac songs. He was not aware she did 2 world tours with the Mac.
I would think he would remember why he wrote one of his most epic songs that he has played live more than any other song. But he does not know. :(

I'm as big a fan of Friends as I am of the Mac. Yes, that extreme. I've seen almost every episode hundreds of times. And when I watched Friends the Reunion in 2021 they played the questions game similar to the one in S4.E12. I was suprised Courteney and Jennifer couldn't remember the name of the character Mr. Heckles, among other details. But they said they hadn't seen the episodes he appeared in for years. I still watch Friends often today, so for me it's impossible to forget many details.

I find hard to believe Lindsey don't remember how they called the album The Dance, or even Tusk (though I always thought giving it that name had more to do with Mick, because of the memory of Harold), or when he wrote ISA or the facts around those days. But I wouldn't rule it out. When you stop thinking about something for years, the memories become blurry.

And the fact is, Lindsey might not know some things today that he knew 10 years ago. That's being 76 years old.

I know what you mean about Friends and one of my delights was seeing Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny on a panel. They were asked about an episode and the interviewer described the plot to them and they looked at him like he was crazy. They laughed and laughed. Neither of them remembered it.

I was disappointed that Lindsey told them that he thinks the 1997 performance was the first time he perfected ISA, when he had sensation live performances long before that. I laughed when he said he didn't improvise when playing it night after night, because he had carefully planned each piece and kept it the same. I know some veteran Ledgies who would complain that he played it exactly the same every night. They thought it was lazy of him, lacking of an innovative spirit.

I was struck by this also.

You have to remember that the members of the band have had pretty exciting lives. They traveled the world many times playing to fans all over the world. They don't sit at home and play their music over and over like most of us fans have done. Mix in the alcohol, drugs, partying, age, and hard work and they don't have a lot of time and energy to remember every detail of every song. In addition, Lindsey was married and had 3 children that consumed a lot of his time.

I always suspected the name Tusk was from one of Mick's trips to Africa. Seems like I remember they had ivory tusks in the studio when they recorded the song and album. Lindsey usually starts his songs as instrumental rifts and adds words later. He probably named it Tusk as a afterthought. And then there was the story of tusk implying a part of the male anatomy which was just something they were joking about but I doubt that was what the song was about. Sounds like a song built on a guitar rift he was playing.

Watching Lindsey watch that performance, it makes me wonder what kind of emotions it stirs in him. I know it makes me emotional knowing that we'll never see those five people performing together ever again. I can't imagine how it feels for him when he was the one who was there not just for that live performance but all the albums and tours.

I can totally see him or any artist not remembering where an album name came from. I think Chris could not explain Mirage and guessed it came from John.
But his most epic songs and album Tusk?
Maybe Stevie was right when she said in her 1998 Fanatic interview that Lindsey does not care about lyrics or names of songs.
I too always wanted to know the details about ISA. Its one of Lindsey's dark songs which is rare. I suppose we may never know :(

Exactly. That was my point when I compared it with my Friends fandom. I watch episodes again again, as I listen different Mac songs versions again and again. So I perfectly remember many details. They can forget or confuse when they don't keep in mind those memories. And yes, add it to the drugs during their crazy years, it can be confusing. I remember Bowie said there was an album (can't remember which) that he didn't remember anything about the recording sessions because he was in lot of coke that year.

Hard to believe anyway, but possible. Now, if he was lying about remembering the album titles reason, or the year he wrote ISA, why would he do it?

However his comment about the SS looks, about saying people read too much into things.. come on they knew the effect that scene would have and it was more than planned. Gimme a break :lol:

I bet he still remembers the backstory of Not That Funny and Oh Diane :lol:

Back when we used to record every radio interview (remember the amusing Mary Turner OFF THE RECORD spots?) on cassette, some big radio special (maybe the Denny Somach special) reported that Lindsey wrote it when he was laid up with mono for a year. So this would have been a few years before 1975, when he and Stevie used to work out their demos together for their partnership. I don’t know whether the dark lyrics came specifically from his experience in a sick bed, but that’s apparently when he started working on it, including learning how to play the two-piece guitar harmony and multitracking it on tape.

It may be one of those songs, like SARA, with inspiration from a bunch of different things happening in his life. Lindsey’s dad dropped dead in 1973 at a gas station — that traumatic experience may have found its way into the lyric on some level. Stevie’s grandpa died that same year, and her dad may have had the first of several open-heart surgeries.

Just watched this and I haven’t seen The Dance in an age.
ISA is, as his daughter says….so good.


I do find it weird he doesn’t remember Stevie staring him out during SS.
Yes I agree, don’t read anything into it…it’s a performance, nothing more.
Even so…..
It was a big deal at the time….I remember first time I saw it and was blown away.

I almost watched The Dance last night, but just couldn't. There are so many overdubs, that it just doesn't feel.... organic. Or cyclical.

Seriously. Mirage will always be my favorite concert video. They were at the height of their voices, looks, and everything else!

True..it’s so very exciting I can even forgive Stevie’s forced Vibrato…just
They all look amazing..

I love Stevie's scream after the first "...never break the chain!" at the Mirage concert.

But I understand that she had to take care of his voice in 1997. She could no longer afford excesses in that regard.

IMHO her peak vocal powers were 1980 to 1983 (before The Wild Heart Tour). Her voice started its decline during that tour doing copious amounts of blow with Joe. She was still hitting the highest note on Sara during the Mirage tour during the oooooo oooooo's. Bella Donna and that short tour showcased her amazing vocals. I hate Gate and Garden but no doubt it's one of her best vocal performances. Its drowning in background vocals which were not needed. Long story short her last tour of full vocal power was Mirage and she had no problem showing off that power thus The Chain scream.

perhaps he doesn't see it as anything earthshattering because he hasn't watched it 1000 times obsessively on tiktok as shippers have lol

I remember being very moved by it in 97 the first time i saw the dance. The whole concert was moving for me... but that particular clip has just taken on a life of its own in terms of mythology.

--Lis

100% agree. The only fact of watching them reunited... I was ecstatic. About those SS look between them. I wanted to think they just remembered all those old feelings when they were together, but just that, nothing more, and decided it was a cool performance so they repeated during the tour.

I remember in the NYC 1997 gig they mentioned Lindsey's family was in the audience and were thankful they came to see them on Thanksgiving evening. And probably Kristen was there too, I'm not sure when they started to date.

What about the cycles that keep coming around! Shouldn't that reinforce your faith in them? ;)

Yes. Stevie has said she deliberately held back the first night of The Dance taping, because she wanted to save her emotional performance for the second night. So, it was definitely planned. As for Lindsey, he knew it was powerful that’s why they replicated it during the tour. On the other hand, I don’t think he thought it was a particularly big deal. That’s just another Tuesday in Fleetwood Mac. He knows they always get a crowd reaction when they exchange moments. The Mirage tour was testament to that.

The internet has resurrected SS since Daisy Jones and the Sixth made younger people look up Fleetwood Mac videos. I have to believe that Leelee has mentioned it to her dad in the past. She didn’t just make that observation to him for the first time. He said his girls had him doing the Dreams cranberry juice stunt, so I know they discuss social media with him occasionally. He was just trying to play dumb.

I wish his kids would show him excerpts from his long NTF live performance and tease him about it: one because of the marijuana and, two because he was trying to be sexy. Well, I think he succeeded in that, but I’m sure his children would find it hysterically funny.

They have reinforced my belief that we're witnessing the band of my life, cycling into assisted living and funeral homes. As sad as that is.
The hardest part of living, is dying. - David Brown

“You know, life's a funny thing. Nobody wants to get old, but nobody wants to die young either.” Keith Richards.
Nothing could be truer.

Yes, it would be interesting and fun to know what they think about NTF.

I think I'm one of those few ledgies who does like NTF, specially the Mirage live performance. I know it is not a masterpiece, but I enjoy it because I can see they are having fun. Well, and I think I've said this before, I always watch it while drinking a (or several :thumbsup: ) glass of wine, that way I enjoy it more.

I remember being really moved by the whole concert in 97 -- it's what made me re-focus on FM after mostly following LB's solo career after Tango. But the level of mythology, or lore, that has arisen from those looks among younger people on social media is even bigger than what is was at the time. Something about watching isolated clips just blows up these moments.

I take LB at face value when he says he doesn't remember -- it's moments during a show where he was also performing and probably thinking of other things as well, in the midst of a whirlwind highly successful comeback of a band that had a gazillion intense stage moments that weren't captured on camera.

I also think LB probably would downplay all of the stage interaction on some level -- because it is a performance, maybe reflecting something real that happened, but so much has happened between him and Stevie for the 60+ years that they've known each other, that this may not even be a huge one for him personally.

1982's NTF is amazing. Stevie is not on the stage and Christine playing making faces is incredible. Is that not the last tour she played the upright (bench) piano. Mick's faces, John trying to inhale Lindsey's smoke, Lindsey screaming and Christine pounding the hell out of those keys is an awesome performance. Did I say there was no Stevie.
My only thing is I did not want to hear it during The Dance. All of that magic was gone and it was just Lindsey, Mick, and John with none of the magic. Some songs are to be left on other tours and this was one of them. Gosh it is long and then he also did an epic long Go Insane by himself.