Blue Letter - Mirage Tour 1982
 

While grazing over the videos at youtube.com (which I discovered on this site - thank you!), I viewed the Mirage 1982 tour concert performance of "Blue Letter".

I don't want to drudge this stuff up - but it so intregal to the Rumour lineup's history - but - when you take a look at this - does Lindsey really look incredibly angry at Stevie? I've never seen such contempt in his eyes when he looks over to her. It seemed that she missed the cue for the harmony on "red bird, don't say you told me so..." with Christine lip synching it awkwardly... I wonder if I'm just getting too caught up in their drama and seeing something that's not a big deal - or if this is outright anger...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10hIy...Stevie%20Nicks

i dont see it personally...:shrug:
ive seen him give worse looks...

I think many viewers concoct drama & ascribe emotions to the performers that probably aren't there -- at least not as often as the viewers suppose.

I don't mean "you" personally, boots, but "you" in general. If you stop to think about what you're saying, & carry through on the implications & lay out all the logistics, it's pretty wildly fantastic. Viewers are always saying they think so-and-so is angry at such-and-such, & it might be true that, at that very moment, the camera caught someone getting pissy. But put it all into context. The band was on tour, performing these songs -- essentially the same way -- night after night for several months. Have you ever had a photograph taken of yourself in a candid moment, & had others say that you looked mad or sad or uptight or bored or something else, when you had no recollection of actually feeling any of that at the time?

If we stuck you in Fleetwood Mac in 1982 & put you up onstage with them for every night for a month or two, it's really unlikely that you would be exhibiting some grandly operatic emotion, visible on your face, each time the camera happened to catch you. Do you see what I'm saying? These guys are up there doing a show, playing instruments & singing, trying to keep a song together so that 20,000 people don't witness a musical catastrophe. The idea that they're up there sniveling & snarling in front of a camera, like soap opera characters, at virtually every moment of the tour is just ludicrous & unbelievable in my view.

I play periodically with a cover band, & sometimes friends or spouses of band members take our pictures & the photos often catch us looking as if we were feeling Emotion X when in fact we were feeling Emotion Y or not feeling anything specific at all -- just playing.

Even what seems like a missed cue -- what you saw in the video -- happened over & over on the Mirage Tour. It wasn't even really a missed cue. It's just the way they all did the song that year (in a general sort of way).

Thanks! I needed that input, because I get curious about little nuances between members of a band - not just this one - but others as well.

However, there are times when they get pretty pissy at each other. What about the show were LB kicked Stevie. Did that really happen?

Stevie's Blue Letter dance is the shiznit. Y'all bettah recognize a bitch's moves. :thumbsup:

She definitely had the 'tude down to a T that night. :nod:

That's a great general explanation, David. But, being in the audience for both nights of shows (and therefore the filming of the video), there WAS an obvious and definite "angry" vibe at one entire show...and the other night, was very "lovey-dovey" between all five members throughout the entire performance. Not that one show SOUNDED better than the other, that was pretty much consistent between the two shows. It was just that the vibe between the members was 180 degrees from one night to the next. So, when the video was finally released, it was pretty obvious which night any particular scene was taken from. Whether the emotions were REAL or not, that's up for debate.

ChiliD - are you referring to this particular concert back in 1982? I can't help thinking that there was something a bit angry in the tone of Lindsey - compared to seeing him in other concerts with her. The look in his eye is different and I wondered if some of that backstage drama made it's was on stage...Stevie looked happy tho...and yes - she was totally the "shiznit" in the hizzous that night.:)

And David - I also meant to say - that I'm sure your facial expressions on stage might not mirror what is actually happening; however, you most likely did not have a 5 year relationship and nasty breakup with one of the lead singers, spawning hatred and resentment in large doses while playing lead guitar at any given moment on stage. Those two had and still have major issues with each other that are classic, and has lead to some emotional give and take that they are still working out today. I do understand where you are coming from, but I sense your background with the band isn't one with notorious acrimony. Yes, some of us are fascinated by the drama, and see things that might not be there. However, this was the first time I viewed a concert with LB and Stevie where he glances at her with this...distain.... There is an anger that is palpable to me. And I do sense that in all the times they played this song on this tour - Stevie "f'd" up and LB was a little ticked at her for tending to her collection of stuffed toys.

It wasn't one concert. The Mirage video was filmed over the course of two consecutive nights of concerts at the GW Forum in Inglewood (Los Angeles suburb). I was at both shows.

Thanks! That must have been fun! And I think your personal observations may have confirmed my sense of the Blue Letter performance on hand. I know there are more important things - but I'm bored, and my curiousity gets the best of me.

And I just realized that the concert I went to in 1979 at Madison Square Garden for the Tusk tour - had that angry vibe. Wasn't a good show...sadly.

it's my fav part of the song!

thank you.

Stevie thanks you too. We bitches have to stick together.

mine too.

although nothing is better than the gold and braid dance:blob1:

Really?? :shocked: I was at both shows, too, pretty close up front. I don't remember any difference in their vibe. I remember the first night Lindsey's timing was off on his opening riff on 'Oh Well' & John & Mick just pocketed right in with him within seconds & all three were off & running a-ok. But I don't remember any anger or anything weird like that -- just two ordinary Mirage shows back to back. Quite frankly, they played & sang a lot more emotionally three nights earlier at the Irvine gig. I used to say to friends: "They filmed the wrong show."

Yes, of course, but every night of a tour? That's like having the same argument with your girlfriend every night for 60 nights in a row. You might be mad at each other for 60 nights, but the emotion isn't going to run at the same peak level night after night. The human body, the human psyche, has to calm down ultimately. That's what all our psyches do: we fly off the handle, & then we calm down, & then we fly off the handle, & then calm down, over & over. Emotional life is a roller-coaster. But you're not *always* at the top of the hill.
Big difference between disdain & anger. I think Lindsey & Stevie had almost nothing but disdain for each other at this point in their lives. But I don't think they lived at a white-hot pitch of actual anger that manifested itself in every moment of their performances on an entire tour. That's just not humanly possible. You'd burst a blood vessel ... or go into cardiac arrest!