Tony's Hazy Concert Memories

[amber]

Originally Posted by Serrart

Too boring and long, with a dull 'I-should-have rented-Basic Instinct-for-the fiftieth-time-and drunk-my-beer-on-my couch-instead-of-coming-here' touch. No insight on the concert at all. I'm glad the bracelet made his night. Mary has my sympathy.

Romy

Somehow, it was way funnier cause you worked in "BAsic INstinct"...

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by Serrart

Too boring and long, with a dull 'I-should-have rented-Basic Instinct-for-the fiftieth-time-and drunk-my-beer-on-my couch-instead-of-coming-here' touch. No insight on the concert at all. I'm glad the bracelet made his night. Mary has my sympathy.

Romy

They deserve each other.

[golddustwoman77]

I would like to start by saying that I have a sense of humor, and some of the thing that this guy said was humorous. I just wanted to take up the issue that has been discussed on Stevie's weight and aging.


What I think most people have lost site of is the fact that Stevie is almost SIXTY years old! I think about my mother who is a year older than Stevie. She can't get around like she used to, and she doesn't look like she did in 1977. My mother was very beautiful and slim, like Stevie, but just like Stevie (even working at it her health and appearance) she has aged and gained a little weight just like most human beings. Aging is a process that happens to EVERYONE, including the people who are passing judgement on the aging of people in the spotlight. These same individuals will be growing old one day as well. I wonder if they would enjoy it if people were constantly talking and writing about how they were aging. Many of the people probably don't nor have the ever looked as good as Stevie does, even now. Therefore, I'm not sure who they are to judge other people's appearance. Are they jealous of her because she is beautiful and they aren't? Maybe, they enjoy seeing beautiful people lose some of their appearance to age, because they never had it to begin with?

People should judge Stevie at the age she is now. If you do that, you will see that she is doing VERY well for an almost SIXTY year old person. I can't think of a single person who looks at sixty like they did at twenty-five. I think Stevie looks beautiful and sounds good for her age. I, in no way, think it is fair for her to be put down because she has aged or gained a little weight. I don't see that she is HUGE, which is how a lot of people try to make her sound. If that is fat, then I hate to see their idea of skinny.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

But, could she make you cry with her inflection of a lyric

I tend not to blubber at shows, however, I got really choked up when they encored with "Dreaming The Dream," which I really can't say with either Stevie or Christine. Actually, the closest I've come to getting emotional, as far as the "Rumours" band is concerned, would be "Twisted" and "Say Goodbye."

[ThePenguin]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I tend not to blubber at shows, however, I got really choked up when they encored with "Dreaming The Dream," which I really can't say with either Stevie or Christine. Actually, the closest I've come to getting emotional, as far as the "Rumours" band is concerned, would be "Twisted" and "Say Goodbye."

I cried like a baby the first time i heard "Twisted". I think it was more the joy of hearing those voices that were meant to sing together, singing together again! I guess i never expected to hear them doing new stuff...

On the recent tour I also cried at Say Goodbye..and I think during Sara when they showed the beautiful old footage up on the big screen. and Songbird used to get me weepy also. I cry a lot.

BTW Dreaming the Dream is/was a very sweet moving song, Bekka did a great job.

-Lis

[Highway Woman]

Originally Posted by Serrart

Too boring and long, with a dull 'I-should-have rented-Basic Instinct-for-the fiftieth-time-and drunk-my-beer-on-my couch-instead-of-coming-here' touch. No insight on the concert at all. I'm glad the bracelet made his night. Mary has my sympathy.

Romy

Have to agree here. Doesn't take a brilliant mind to make jokes about Stevie's weight or complain about Lindsey's overacting, unless you're bowled over by his pun "Lindsey BuckingHAM." Takes more than that to impress me. Sorry, guess I'm missing the non-fan insights that makes this one of the best things David's read about Fleetwood Mac in years.

[amber]

Originally Posted by Highway Woman

Have to agree here. Doesn't take a brilliant mind to make jokes about Stevie's weight or complain about Lindsey's overacting, unless you're bowled over by his pun "Lindsey BuckingHAM." Takes more than that to impress me. Sorry, guess I'm missing the non-fan insights that makes this one of the best things David's read about Fleetwood Mac in years.

[KateTheCursed]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew
So, for me, she's far from lame compared to "the good ol' days."
In fact, the "manic Stevie" was fun in its time, and I miss that version on occasion, but I prefer the mature Earth Mother version of today.


That's fine for you, Brian, but I don't think you represent the masses. Do you? Really?

I have no idea how many fans share his opinion, but I certainly do.

I much prefer the aura of Stevie today--her wisdom and her peace. I much prefer the jagged edges of her voice now. I do sometimes hear an older version and find myself enamored with the youth and innocence of her voice. But the meaning and layers of so much of what she sings now has only increased in depth. Like Stevie herself, the music has evolved, and it is that evolution that I find most fascinating, most endearing and most enduring.

For many years she was an electric whirling dirvish like none had seen before or since. As electric as she was though, it was never the twirling around on stage or the tamborine shaking or any of the other uniquely Stevie quirks that drew me to her. For me, her true gift from day one has been her ability to move her audience, not to move her butt. To convey to those of us sitting before her the anguish or the joy or the confusion or the love or the fear. Whether as in The Dance during Landslide when she nodded, arched one eyebrow and sang "And I'm getting older too" or as on the last tour singing Beautiful Child holding us rapt as she held the note on "I" as her voice dropped wonderfully intimate and confessional to sing "still love you, need you," that is sheer magic. More magical than all the stage twirls of both tours combined.

To me it doesn't matter how she dances or if her waistline expands and contracts. Even if she were to get so big that she had to buy dress fabric at Georgia Tent and Awning, she would still knows how to lure an audience into the palm of her hand. She would still have the gift and the grace to make that connection--to make me feel feelings that I don't always allow myself the liberty to feel.

[AliP]

I thought it was great! I like reading people's reviews who are not huge fans because their eyes are not clouded by "what they want to see or hear" as could apply to some hard core fans (like myself). I just skipped over all the non-concert crap. I could have done without the Stevie weight thing, but watcha gonna do?? Those kind of comments will never end so why bother. I agree though that he could have talked more about what he liked and disliked about the songs and the performances of the songs, rather than just commenting about Lindsey running around like a spaz and wondering about Stevie's concussion.


As someone else mentioned - this part made me LOLOLOLOL.

"Stevie still looked pretty messed up, but had changed out of her Jawa costume and into another flowing mess of fabric and Lindsey was all wound up like a Ritalin deprived spastic."

[KateTheCursed]

I never understand people bemoaning the loss of Stevie's range. It was never all that magnificient to begin with and was hardly a selling point.

If I were simply interested in one's sheer ability to hit a wide-ranging variety of notes, chances are fair to good that I would have never even given FM a second glance. None of the members can hold a candle to the likes of Aretha Franklin's range. H*ll if I were just concerned with range I'd probably be a disciple at the throne of Celine Dion. As it is, I'd rather listen to fingernails on chalkboard.

Maybe it's because I've always been far more interested in the more subjective end of music (the emotions it conveys and evokes) and the lyrical message.

To each there own I suppose.

[David]

Originally Posted by KateTheCursed

I never understand people bemoaning the loss of Stevie's range. It was never all that magnificient to begin with and was hardly a selling point.

You're totally right, as far as I'm concerned. The singers in Fleetwood Mac were never tremendously gifted technicians. Stevie's shrinking range isn't a problem for me aesthetically. What used to disappoint me a tad was that I didn't feel she committed as consistently to a performance in general. This was years ago: the Tango tour, the Mirror tour, the Mask tour, the Timespace tour, the Enchanted tour. At this point, I keep people's points about her age in mind. She is almost 60, & I wouldn't possibly expect her to be a wild she-cat.

Another thing that's important is for the people who prefer the mature Stevie to remember that their position isn't the morally superior one, & that people who prefer a wild Stevie she-cat aren't necessarily superficial, deluded troglodytes. We all have slightly different aesthetic responses to things. I'm calling for more tolerance all around.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Of course, if we're talking about which lady was the best singer the Mac ever had, I'd like to respond that there is a third choice...

I agree. As I was sitting thru that incarnation of FM, I was just kinda sitting thru the songs, missing C,L, and S. Then Bekka did Dreaming the Dream, and I became her fan. She has a wonderful voice. I REALLY wish she'd been given a chance....

[KateTheCursed]

Another thing that's important is for the people who prefer the mature Stevie to remember that their position isn't the morally superior one, & that people who prefer a wild Stevie she-cat aren't necessarily superficial, deluded troglodytes. We all have slightly different aesthetic responses to things. I'm calling for more tolerance all around.

That certainly isn't what I was trying to convey, and I hope it didn't come across as such. I was simply trying to convey that whether I was part of a minority opinion or a majority opinion that I completely understood and related to the idea of appreciating a mature Stevie and that he was not alone in that opinion (as it was somewhat implied).

I do love the early footage of Stevie. There is a raw intensity and power to those early performances that few performers ever even aspire too much less achieve. Stevie was and is mezmerizing. Truthfully though if I were to pick out a time period where I were to have little to no interest in Stevie as a performer it would probably be from about '85 to '95. As a fan those years (the Rock A Little Era in particular) are painful to me to watch footage of. In some ways I feel that reaction is because her craft slipped for various and sundry reasons and in some ways I feel it is because those performances were so raw and so vulnerable and so fraught with a certain possibility of peril that it is more than I can emotionally digest for more than a song or two.

Yet I am quite sure that there are some people who would undoubtedly list that time as when they fell in love with Stevie's music. I have a hard time relating to that line of thinking, but I can respect it because music is so hugely subjective...even for people who are more drawn to the technical side of music because technical superiority in no way accounts for genre preferences.

[KateTheCursed]

However it must be noted that Lindsey fans are infact superior to Stevie fans. Their appreciation for such skill and class, in preference to twirling chiffon being their ticket to moral superiority. I know, I am one of them.

Is this supposed to be a display of your wit or simply your selective reading skills?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Lux

However it must be noted that Lindsey fans are infact superior to Stevie fans. Their appreciation for such skill and class, in preference to twirling chiffon being their ticket to moral superiority. I know, I am one of them.

You are so bad