Songs: The Chain,
Dreams, Everywhere,
Rhiannon, I´m So
Afraid, Temporary One, Bleed To Love Her,
Big Love, Landslide,
Say You Love Me, My
Little Demon, Silver Springs, You Make Loving Fun, Sweet
Girl, Go Your Own Way, Tusk, Don´t Stop.
Type of Music: Pop(Rock) - Produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Elliot Schreiner - (1997)
Comments:
If I remember correctly, Ex-President
Clinton´s favourite band is Fleetwood Mac and Bill invited the band to play Don´t
Stop during his inauguration. The song, like many others, was used
frequently during the pre-election period by the Clinton campaign people. That
was the first physical contact between the five members after Lindsey left the
band in 1987.
At the same time, Lindsey was working on
a solo-album and invited Mick Fleetwood to play some drums. Mick then suggested
John to play bass and before long the whole Rumours line-up was working
together in the studio again on some new songs. And boy, did it feel good!!
Next step was a 40 gig tour around the USA and a Live CD/DVD. The Project was
called The Dance.
It goes without saying that commercial
reasons played a part in this reunion. After all, none of the solo careers was
really blossoming around 1997. But The Dance is much more than just
another Live Greatest CD where bored Old Stars try to revive the past.
Sure, the hits are there but a lot of
them get a different and better coat. Stevie´s Rhiannon starts off with
a slow but beautiful piano intro played by Christine. Christine´s Say You
Love Me is brightened up with Lindsey´s banjo and Lindsey´s acoustic,
almost classical version of Big Love is one of the highlights of The
Dance.
And the hilarious USC Trojan Marching
Band accompanies the Mac on the album closers Tusk and Don´t Stop.
And there are new songs as well,
cleverly hidden between the hits. Christine´s Temporary One is one of
her typical pop songs that never hurt but seldom reach your heart. Lindsey´s Bleed
to Love Her (touching) and My Little Demon (funny and entertaining)
and Stevie´s Sweet Girl blend in well with the older stuff. This last
song reminds me of Tom Petty´s Free Fallin´. I would have considered
that to be a coincidence if Stevie and Tom had not been lovers at some
time.
By the way, Stevie and Christine are in
Top Form here. Stevie´s voice is a few octaves lower but she adepts her songs
well to her “new” voice. Christine´s easy going voice just doesn´t change. But
then, her style of singing almost never required her to stretch her voice and
it aged well. John and Mick are still growing strong. Only Lindsey lost some of
his vocal power and from time to time he needs to force himself like in Go
Your Own Way.
But as a whole this is a great
performance. My personal favourites include the before mentioned Big Love,
Lindsey´s I´m So Afraid with a blistering guitar solo, the tender Landslide
and the standard concert opener The Chain. But above all there is the
definitive version of Silver Springs, the Nicks song that was originally
rejected by the other band members for the Rumours album. Stevie has
never really accepted this. Personally I also think she has never really
accepted the fact that she and Lindsey were unable to stay together as a
couple. It´s almost frightening to hear her sing “You never get away from
the sound of the woman that loves you” .
In fact, Mick, John, Stevie and Lindsey
decided to continue the Mac after the Dance tour. Unfortunately,
Christine refused. She simply was tired of the Life on the Road. She went back
to England to enjoy a life without the Mac. She did release a solo-album a
couple of years later but it went by almost unnoticed. That could not be said
from the Mac´s next Album!
As for this Live Album, make sure you get your copy of The Dance. You will not regret
it!
Rating: *********( 9 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
Who should buy this record: Everybody!
Afterthought: The DVD is great as well and contains the ultimate versions of Stevie's Gold Dust Woman. No idea why that song was not included in the CD
Jan van den Ende February 2013
