Oh, how sorry I feel for those of you who couldn't see the great Fleetwood Mac doing their thing for nearly three hours at Madison Square Garden the other night. You missed three amazingly bejeweled gypsy queen outfits (one head-to-toe maroon, two were all black) and a top hat, Mick clad in breeches, a vested pirate shirt and a bright red pair of shoes, and, of course, Lindsey breaking my heart with his thin legs and earnest soul. Landslide, Stand Back, and Go Your Own Way were crowd favorites, and personally I was particularly thrilled to hear Never Going Back Again, Tusk, Dreams and Go Insane.
At one point, Lindsey and Stevie, who stayed pretty far away from each other on stage, broke the decades old tension (which both quipped about to the audience) when Stevie waltzed across the stage, sang into his mic and fell into an embrace. Tingles, my friends – actual tingles! and the crowd went nuts. She also performed her signature gypsy twirl and told the Behind the Musicy story of song-writing in the late seventies in a room with just a mattress, a turn table (playing Velvet Underground), lace, and paper flowers. The end result: Gypsy.
If I've made you significantly jealous of my most excellent birthday gift from Jim, cheer up, because you can make believe you're there with the excellent Fleetwood Mac live album recorded in 1980 in various spots like Cleveland, Paris, Kansas City, and Tokyo during their world tour. Just like the other night, the band started things off with Monday Morning and systematically proceeded to play their way through the hits.
Plus, unlike the current Unleashed tour, Christine's around for the album, adding her mellow voice to her classics Over My Head, Over and Over and Say You Love Me. Stevie sounds spectacularly enchantressy and informs the crowd “this is a song about a Welsh witch” before diving into Rhiannon. Go Your Own Way nearly matches the virtuoso rock storm of the other night, but not quite.
This double disc set deservedly went gold when it was released and made a charted single with the song Fireflies. I listened to it pretty much all day before, of and after the concert.
But what do you think?