The Dance

[michelej1]

[Doing a web search, then posting what is not already on the internet]

Tulsa World, August 29, 1997

Section: ENTERTAINMENT


Fleetwood Mac - The Dance - Reprise

Thomas Conner; James D. Watts Jr.

The much-ballyhooed reunion of the Buckingham-Nicks lineup of Fleetwood Mac is as splendid as you might have heard, and the CD of the live reunion concert rings like a bell through the night. This band -- pop's premier supergroup -- produced a richly diverse and innovative body of work, all of it warm and inviting despite the inner turmoil that plagued the quintet. That dissipated, the group reunites here for a celebration of their success (1977's ""Rumours'' is the third highest-selling album in history) and the overwhelming familiarity of the material somehow doesn't work against them as much as most reunited has-beens.

The hits from '77 to '87 are covered well (opening with ""The Chain,'' a likening of a relationship to slavery, which may be an apt analogy for this group), and the new songs are astonishingly fluid, natural and just as important as the oldies were 20 years ago. Stevie Nicks sounds better than she has in years, updating ""Rhiannon'' with some lyrical changes (""Will you ever win?'' becomes ""Would you even try?'' in a gorgeous introduction) and ""Sweet Girl'' mulls the things she surrendered for a life of fame and glory. Christine McVie's ""Temporary One'' successfully updates her old "" Mystery to Me '' English-blues shuffle. Lindsey Buckingham remains the group's lynch-pin. He offers two typically amazing new songs to this set (""My Little Demon'' is like Adrian Belew meets the Mac), but his mettle with the old material is still undaunted. One of the greatest guitarists alive, he snakes a wicked solo through ""I'm So Afraid'' and picks out ""Big Love'' with bare fingers, producing a bigger wallop than the studio wizardry of the original. There's a good reason it took two players to replace him. -- Thomas Conner,Entertainment Writer