Los Angeles, California special Record Release Performance on Stevie's 63rd Birthday. Stevie sang 8 new songs from her In Your Dreams album.
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Wiltern Theater: In Our Dreams
Written by Michelej1 May 28, 2011 at 12:04 PM
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
The set list for this special performance contained an astonishing eight new songs:
Standback
Annabel Lee
Dreams
Sorcerer
Moonlight
Gold Dust Woman
Ghosts Are Gone
Soldier's Angel (with Lindsey Buckingham)
In Your Dreams
Rhiannon
For What It's Worth
Secret Love
Fall From Grace
Cheaper Than Free
Edge of Seventeen
Love Is
No signs of pneumonia tonight. Stevie came out with a forceful voice, confident, funny, happy and energetic.
Chris Nicks introduced his sister, just like their dad used to do in the past.
All of the songs sounded great, new and old. After Stand Back Stevie said that the Wiltern was the first place FM rehearsed . She said she sat on the floor making feather earrings there and she had no idea what would happen over the next 35 years. But the stage looks the same and that's just proof that some things never change.
She says that she is going to tell us stories about each of her songs, because that's something that she never gets a chance to do. But after 3 hours in, if we get tired of it, we have her permission to say, "Stevie, you're going off on a tangent. Come back!"
She says she wrote Annabel Lee when she was 17. Afterwards, she says that it was nerve-wracking singing it for the first time. Although it's not the first time for her. She's sung it a million times since she was 17. Still it was frightening doing it for a crowd.
For Dreams she said that this concert was going to be a blend of old and new songs, because all of her songs and all of Lindsey's songs and all of Fleetwood Mac's songs are part of the same thread [yeah, I kind of noticed that myself].
She said that both Sorcerer and Moonlight were about the same thing and written at the same time, so they are partner songs. They're both about the Lady from the Mountain. Moonlight is about both her and Lindsey and Edward and Bella.
GDW seemed to have a new guitar riff for Waddy in it. After it was over Stevie said that song changes with the venue. She said she did it in New Mexico and it took on the mood of the Indians and she herself became an insane Indian girl while singing it. She says it's funny how you bring your songs from place to place and they evolve with the setting.
For Ghosts Are Gone, as she begins to discuss Dave she says she sure hopes he's there! She tells us that because of Dave this has been the happiest year in her entire life and she's prouder of this record than anything else she has ever done. She considers him a national treasure. Stevie grabbed the tambo to accompany Dave's playing.
For Soldiers Angels she said she went to Walter Reed and before she knew it she had been there for 7 hours and it was time to leave and they left by the Medivac entrance, with the ambulances rushing in and she became hysterical. She said she went in that hospital a girl and came out a woman -- a MOM. She went home and knew she had to do something for those children in the hospital. So, she started giving them and their families all ipods.
She also wrote Soldier's Angel for them in 2005, but she didn't have a title for it until 4 years later in 2009 when she was in London. She was there when 7 British men were killed in Iraq and London went crazy with mourning. The frenzy on the streets, the little old ladies. It was very much like seeing London during World War 2 [um, no it was not Stevie, because London lost their fighters in 2009, but the city itself was not under attack, as it was in World War Two. In 2009, there were no air raids, no shell shocked children. You did not have to take shelter. As horrible as the Iraq war is, your visit to London in 2009 was no white cliffs of Dover]. But that's where she got the chorus for the song. That's where the "four years" and "what is righteous" part came from.
So, she finished the song in 2009, but she didn't record it because it never sounded right. Finally she said to Dave that they had to get Lindsey, because he is the only one who could do the song justice. So she said she called Lindsey up and he agreed to do the song. She introduces him as her nearest and dearest friend [I wouldn't call him that exactly] and her partner in crime.
When he comes out they hug and as they pull apart, she reaches for him again and presses her forehead against his. They perform very movingly, Lindsey's voice just a tad more strident than on the record. At the end, they turn their mics to each other and sing with eyes locked and it's much more effective than it is when they do that same bit in FM shows (it seemed especially horrible on Say Goodbye). It's just very stirring to have them singing together and to each other, but not to each other. United for a cause, against senselessness, making a righteous statement. I thought it worked very well.
Lindsey walks towards Stevie's mic for the bow. They hold hands and he reaches to kiss her, but she has bent down. So, he kisses her hand instead. When her head rises, he sort of moves to grab it and kiss her right temple. She leans into the kiss offering up her cheek, but they don't connect face to face, until he has started pulling away.
My first thrill of the night came after I entered the theater and found my seat in the Loge. I was disheartened that it seemed so far away from the stage below, especially since I logged on to purchase it at 10:00 a.m. on the dot, as soon as tickets went on sale. There I was, sausaged into my cramped upper row, still depressed with my seat and then Lindsey walked in right in front of me. I couldn't believe it. He actually was sitting on the Mezzanine level, but he entered on the loge and then stepped down. So, I was super excited. Then Mick appeared, but Mick didn't pass me. He entered Mezzanine level.
They sat for a few songs and then I saw Mick and Lindsey leave and I felt that they were going to join Stevie on stage, but only Lindsey did. Mick came out for the final bow, but he didn't perform.
After Soldier's Angel, I actually thought that Lindsey might hang around and do Landslide with her. I'm glad that overexposed chestnut didn't end up being in the setlist at all.
For the In Your Dreams introduction, Stevie says that when they talked about doing an album, she scoffed and said, "in your dreams, you must be out of your mind," because they never thought it could really happen. Dave comes back out and she says, "here's Dave and Peter too. This stage just has handsome talented guitarists everywhere. What can I say?"
She introduces For What It's Worth by pointing out that she is an honorary heartbreaker. Adding that only recently Tom Petty actually gave her a badge to commemorate her "heartbreaker" status. The intro build up has everyone excited that Tom Petty is about to take the stage, but it's Mike Campbell who is the "real heartbreaker" to her honorary one. She co-wrote For What It's Worth with Mike. In the past, she says she got to tour with the Heartbreakers on a bus and she had the time of her life. She says "take that however you want." She says FWIW is about someone who was there for her when she needed them and saved her life.
C'mon you naysayers, admit that FWIW is hot. Sounded good live, didn't it?
For Secret Love she says it's the one song that she really can't remember who it's about. She doesn't know who the "ancient creature" is, but whoever he is, he got himself a song. Ok guys, just by calling him an "ancient creature" I take that as an inside joke. I think that is something she would call Mick, when teasing. I think the song is about Mick and she doesn't want to say so because it was 1975 and she and Lindsey were still together.
Anyway, she says how she got it off of Youtube because it was probably stolen from her and they put it there. They probably took it and copied it without her ever knowing it was gone, she surmises. Or maybe she gave it to them, because she used to give out her songs back then. Back then, she explains, if someone asked for a copy of something, she'd just blithely give them a cassette with 9 or 10 songs on it. Anyway, Stevie says they stole Secret Love, but it was just her playing piano, so it wasn't very good.
Seriously, she is making me hate Cheaper Than Free. I just can't take it anymore. Why didn't she and Dave perform ELY for their duet? She has to tell the whole, stupid Reese story again and is so excited that they caught that historic moment on tape. She can't believe that stellar idea came from little Reese's blonde head [I guess this is Stevie's version of a dumb blonde joke]. She says that Reese has a really nice voice and they should make the song a three part song some times. Dave says that Reese is in the audience. Stevie says she knows, but Reese is hiding.
So, after Reese had that Albert Einstein moment, they decided to write the song. Dave goes to London and calls and asks Stevie if she has the words (poem). She says she has 4 lines. Well, he wants the whole song, because he has written all the music. So, in 30 minutes she writes the rest of that dreck. He puts it to his music and he gets the completed song back to her by 5:00, because that's just how they roll.
So, they sing and when they get to the part where they're going, "What's brighter than a smile? You my child. My child. My child . . . " I think I am going to die. My intestines are turning inside out.
The band introductions were cute and funny. When she got to Jimmy she said she was driving and picked him up off the street, hair and all. And after that she joked that she was driving and picked all the rest of them up too. In Puerto Rico, in East L. A. (for Carlos). She says Carlos has been her confidante. For Ricky she said that she was driving -- even though she doesn't drive -- and she stopped, then she said actually she didn't even stop, Ricky just jumped in the car without her even coming to a stop.
When she got to Sharon and Lori she said, "a girl walks into a bar . . ." she says it's been a long time since she's been in a bar and Lori said it hasn't been that long. She says she meant them in 1979 and they have sung together since 1981. She says "a woman in my position" [what position is that?] could get new singers each tour, but she chooses not to, because she thinks "Stevie, Sharon and Lori" are magic together. So, she has kept them with her, the girls, even though it has not always been easy to stay together. In fact, Lori left them for 18 years, even though she continued to do albums with her.
She says Waddy for last and says she picked him up when "I was driving down Olympic. Actually, Lindsey and I were driving down Olympic." She said Waddy was a friend of Keith's and she and Lindsey met all of Keith's friends. Waddy was the hottest session player in town, but he was still poor. He's been her musical director since 1981, her inspiration and her love.
EO17 is on fire and I know all the Ledgies at the stage were ecstatic about the Edge Walk. When the body guard came down and grabbed Stevie by the waist, we knew what was coming.
For Love Is she again talks about dumping BATB and HAEWAFY. Lori saw the demo tape and Stevie realized that it was the last of her piano songs. It's about someone who was with her briefly, but saved her life.
She thanks the audience for "putting up with" 3 hours of music and says she will remember this night for the rest of her life. She tells everyone "strangers and non-strangers" to come onto the stage. When Dave comes out, he keeps motioning for someone else to join them on stage. Mick emerges to great applause. He bows to Stevie and she bows to him.
Stevie says that she wishes every night could be like this, that she could be on stage with all of the people she loves and then they could all just get on a train with her and go to the next city. She wishes she could take all of the performers and every one of us in the audience on a train with her to San Francisco. [Why San Francisco?]
She leaves the stage hand and hand with Waddy, as if feeling she is leaving someone out, she reaches behind her back and holds out her other hand for someone to grab. Dave takes it, but I wasn't sure if she wasn't reaching for Mick, since he is the one who usually walks her off the stage at FM concerts.
All in all, a glorious night. Wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. Hope there's a DVD.
![Christine McVie - Christine Mcvie [New CD] picture](/vintage/img/g/91YAAOSwjSVlQ5Xu/s-l225/Christine-McVie-Christine-Mcvie-New-CD-.jpg)
Wiltern Theater: In Our Dreams
The set list for this special performance contained an astonishing eight new songs:
Standback
Annabel Lee
Dreams
Sorcerer
Moonlight
Gold Dust Woman
Ghosts Are Gone
Soldier's Angel (with Lindsey Buckingham)
In Your Dreams
Rhiannon
For What It's Worth
Secret Love
Fall From Grace
Cheaper Than Free
Edge of Seventeen
Love Is
No signs of pneumonia tonight. Stevie came out with a forceful voice, confident, funny, happy and energetic.
Chris Nicks introduced his sister, just like their dad used to do in the past.
All of the songs sounded great, new and old. After Stand Back Stevie said that the Wiltern was the first place FM rehearsed . She said she sat on the floor making feather earrings there and she had no idea what would happen over the next 35 years. But the stage looks the same and that's just proof that some things never change.
She says that she is going to tell us stories about each of her songs, because that's something that she never gets a chance to do. But after 3 hours in, if we get tired of it, we have her permission to say, "Stevie, you're going off on a tangent. Come back!"
She says she wrote Annabel Lee when she was 17. Afterwards, she says that it was nerve-wracking singing it for the first time. Although it's not the first time for her. She's sung it a million times since she was 17. Still it was frightening doing it for a crowd.
For Dreams she said that this concert was going to be a blend of old and new songs, because all of her songs and all of Lindsey's songs and all of Fleetwood Mac's songs are part of the same thread [yeah, I kind of noticed that myself].
She said that both Sorcerer and Moonlight were about the same thing and written at the same time, so they are partner songs. They're both about the Lady from the Mountain. Moonlight is about both her and Lindsey and Edward and Bella.
GDW seemed to have a new guitar riff for Waddy in it. After it was over Stevie said that song changes with the venue. She said she did it in New Mexico and it took on the mood of the Indians and she herself became an insane Indian girl while singing it. She says it's funny how you bring your songs from place to place and they evolve with the setting.
For Ghosts Are Gone, as she begins to discuss Dave she says she sure hopes he's there! She tells us that because of Dave this has been the happiest year in her entire life and she's prouder of this record than anything else she has ever done. She considers him a national treasure. Stevie grabbed the tambo to accompany Dave's playing.
For Soldiers Angels she said she went to Walter Reed and before she knew it she had been there for 7 hours and it was time to leave and they left by the Medivac entrance, with the ambulances rushing in and she became hysterical. She said she went in that hospital a girl and came out a woman -- a MOM. She went home and knew she had to do something for those children in the hospital. So, she started giving them and their families all ipods.
She also wrote Soldier's Angel for them in 2005, but she didn't have a title for it until 4 years later in 2009 when she was in London. She was there when 7 British men were killed in Iraq and London went crazy with mourning. The frenzy on the streets, the little old ladies. It was very much like seeing London during World War 2 [um, no it was not Stevie, because London lost their fighters in 2009, but the city itself was not under attack, as it was in World War Two. In 2009, there were no air raids, no shell shocked children. You did not have to take shelter. As horrible as the Iraq war is, your visit to London in 2009 was no white cliffs of Dover]. But that's where she got the chorus for the song. That's where the "four years" and "what is righteous" part came from.
So, she finished the song in 2009, but she didn't record it because it never sounded right. Finally she said to Dave that they had to get Lindsey, because he is the only one who could do the song justice. So she said she called Lindsey up and he agreed to do the song. She introduces him as her nearest and dearest friend [I wouldn't call him that exactly] and her partner in crime.
When he comes out they hug and as they pull apart, she reaches for him again and presses her forehead against his. They perform very movingly, Lindsey's voice just a tad more strident than on the record. At the end, they turn their mics to each other and sing with eyes locked and it's much more effective than it is when they do that same bit in FM shows (it seemed especially horrible on Say Goodbye). It's just very stirring to have them singing together and to each other, but not to each other. United for a cause, against senselessness, making a righteous statement. I thought it worked very well.
Lindsey walks towards Stevie's mic for the bow. They hold hands and he reaches to kiss her, but she has bent down. So, he kisses her hand instead. When her head rises, he sort of moves to grab it and kiss her right temple. She leans into the kiss offering up her cheek, but they don't connect face to face, until he has started pulling away.
My first thrill of the night came after I entered the theater and found my seat in the Loge. I was disheartened that it seemed so far away from the stage below, especially since I logged on to purchase it at 10:00 a.m. on the dot, as soon as tickets went on sale. There I was, sausaged into my cramped upper row, still depressed with my seat and then Lindsey walked in right in front of me. I couldn't believe it. He actually was sitting on the Mezzanine level, but he entered on the loge and then stepped down. So, I was super excited. Then Mick appeared, but Mick didn't pass me. He entered Mezzanine level.
They sat for a few songs and then I saw Mick and Lindsey leave and I felt that they were going to join Stevie on stage, but only Lindsey did. Mick came out for the final bow, but he didn't perform.
After Soldier's Angel, I actually thought that Lindsey might hang around and do Landslide with her. I'm glad that overexposed chestnut didn't end up being in the setlist at all.
For the In Your Dreams introduction, Stevie says that when they talked about doing an album, she scoffed and said, "in your dreams, you must be out of your mind," because they never thought it could really happen. Dave comes back out and she says, "here's Dave and Peter too. This stage just has handsome talented guitarists everywhere. What can I say?"
She introduces For What It's Worth by pointing out that she is an honorary heartbreaker. Adding that only recently Tom Petty actually gave her a badge to commemorate her "heartbreaker" status. The intro build up has everyone excited that Tom Petty is about to take the stage, but it's Mike Campbell who is the "real heartbreaker" to her honorary one. She co-wrote For What It's Worth with Mike. In the past, she says she got to tour with the Heartbreakers on a bus and she had the time of her life. She says "take that however you want." She says FWIW is about someone who was there for her when she needed them and saved her life.
C'mon you naysayers, admit that FWIW is hot. Sounded good live, didn't it?
For Secret Love she says it's the one song that she really can't remember who it's about. She doesn't know who the "ancient creature" is, but whoever he is, he got himself a song. Ok guys, just by calling him an "ancient creature" I take that as an inside joke. I think that is something she would call Mick, when teasing. I think the song is about Mick and she doesn't want to say so because it was 1975 and she and Lindsey were still together.
Anyway, she says how she got it off of Youtube because it was probably stolen from her and they put it there. They probably took it and copied it without her ever knowing it was gone, she surmises. Or maybe she gave it to them, because she used to give out her songs back then. Back then, she explains, if someone asked for a copy of something, she'd just blithely give them a cassette with 9 or 10 songs on it. Anyway, Stevie says they stole Secret Love, but it was just her playing piano, so it wasn't very good.
Seriously, she is making me hate Cheaper Than Free. I just can't take it anymore. Why didn't she and Dave perform ELY for their duet? She has to tell the whole, stupid Reese story again and is so excited that they caught that historic moment on tape. She can't believe that stellar idea came from little Reese's blonde head [I guess this is Stevie's version of a dumb blonde joke]. She says that Reese has a really nice voice and they should make the song a three part song some times. Dave says that Reese is in the audience. Stevie says she knows, but Reese is hiding.
So, after Reese had that Albert Einstein moment, they decided to write the song. Dave goes to London and calls and asks Stevie if she has the words (poem). She says she has 4 lines. Well, he wants the whole song, because he has written all the music. So, in 30 minutes she writes the rest of that dreck. He puts it to his music and he gets the completed song back to her by 5:00, because that's just how they roll.
So, they sing and when they get to the part where they're going, "What's brighter than a smile? You my child. My child. My child . . . " I think I am going to die. My intestines are turning inside out.
The band introductions were cute and funny. When she got to Jimmy she said she was driving and picked him up off the street, hair and all. And after that she joked that she was driving and picked all the rest of them up too. In Puerto Rico, in East L. A. (for Carlos). She says Carlos has been her confidante. For Ricky she said that she was driving -- even though she doesn't drive -- and she stopped, then she said actually she didn't even stop, Ricky just jumped in the car without her even coming to a stop.
When she got to Sharon and Lori she said, "a girl walks into a bar . . ." she says it's been a long time since she's been in a bar and Lori said it hasn't been that long. She says she meant them in 1979 and they have sung together since 1981. She says "a woman in my position" [what position is that?] could get new singers each tour, but she chooses not to, because she thinks "Stevie, Sharon and Lori" are magic together. So, she has kept them with her, the girls, even though it has not always been easy to stay together. In fact, Lori left them for 18 years, even though she continued to do albums with her.
She says Waddy for last and says she picked him up when "I was driving down Olympic. Actually, Lindsey and I were driving down Olympic." She said Waddy was a friend of Keith's and she and Lindsey met all of Keith's friends. Waddy was the hottest session player in town, but he was still poor. He's been her musical director since 1981, her inspiration and her love.
EO17 is on fire and I know all the Ledgies at the stage were ecstatic about the Edge Walk. When the body guard came down and grabbed Stevie by the waist, we knew what was coming.
For Love Is she again talks about dumping BATB and HAEWAFY. Lori saw the demo tape and Stevie realized that it was the last of her piano songs. It's about someone who was with her briefly, but saved her life.
She thanks the audience for "putting up with" 3 hours of music and says she will remember this night for the rest of her life. She tells everyone "strangers and non-strangers" to come onto the stage. When Dave comes out, he keeps motioning for someone else to join them on stage. Mick emerges to great applause. He bows to Stevie and she bows to him.
Stevie says that she wishes every night could be like this, that she could be on stage with all of the people she loves and then they could all just get on a train with her and go to the next city. She wishes she could take all of the performers and every one of us in the audience on a train with her to San Francisco. [Why San Francisco?]
She leaves the stage hand and hand with Waddy, as if feeling she is leaving someone out, she reaches behind her back and holds out her other hand for someone to grab. Dave takes it, but I wasn't sure if she wasn't reaching for Mick, since he is the one who usually walks her off the stage at FM concerts.
All in all, a glorious night. Wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. Hope there's a DVD.