Nicks, Stevie

Fleetwood Mac - The Dance

With each passing year bringing another high-profile rock reunion, prompted as often by balloon mortgage payments as any real artistic hunger, old fans could be excused for greeting 1997's announcement that the big Mac was back with skepticism: at their commercial zenith, Fleetwood Mac had offered superb transatlantic pop-rock with the added spice of a remarkable back-story, but the band's long decline and underwhelming later personnel shifts didn't bode well.

Such guarded expectations make the musical punch of The Dance all the more impressive, and enable the meticulously produced concert special to genuinely surprise. The band's musicianship--the one constant between the original, late '60s English blues band and its platinum '70s lineup featuring guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks--is in peak form, buttressed by a discreet auxiliary of additional musicians. Even with the hired guns, though, it's the rock-solid rhythm section of founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, and Buckingham's impassioned playing that strike sparks. Always a dynamic guitarist, Buckingham brings feverish intensity to both group classics and solo turns such as "Go Insane."

Both familiar hits and new songs (including the solid "Temporary One" and "Bleed to Love Her") further confirm that this isn't a rote exercise--the band sounds fully engaged. Buckingham, Nicks, and the elegant Christine McVie retain their vocal charm (although Nicks has clearly lost her upper register). And the sense of old wounds healed, and older affections acknowledged, gives true poignancy to the set's high mark, a brilliant live version of "Silver Springs," a truly haunting Rumours-era B-side that proves deeply moving. --Sam Sutherland

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback [Region 2]

VH1 Divas Las Vegas 2002

Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night

Recorded in late 1987, his hour-long concert documents a transitional period for Fleetwood Mac, with Lindsey Buckingham, their driving force, having left (until '97) that same year. It's a testament to Buckingham's role in the band that it took two guitarist-singers to replace him; but while Billy Burnette and Rick Vito are fine musicians with an abiding respect for the Mac legacy (they perform founding member Peter Green's "Oh Well" and "I Loved Another Woman"), this is a mostly lackluster affair, lacking Buckingham's fire and eccentric stage presence. Mainstays Mick Fleetwood and John McVie soldier on, as ever, with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie still on hand as well, and Rumours-era tunes like "Dreams," "Don't Stop," and "The Chain" have a certain timeless appeal. But when a vest equipped with drum and percussion sounds is the highlight of the show (during Fleetwood's solo spot), you know you're not exactly witnessing history in the making. --Sam Graham

Classic Albums - Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

Oh, the heartache. Oh, the drug intake. And oh, the sales records they did break. It's all here in this 70-minute, 1997 chronicle of the making of one of pop music's biggest albums ever, Rumours. All five members of Fleetwood Mac's most successful incarnation are interviewed, and their comments are even more candid than the confessional songs ("Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" et al.) on the album itself; descriptions of the torturous process of making a record while John and Christine McVie's marriage and the Lindsey Buckingham- Stevie Nicks liaison were breaking up at the same time makes for compelling, if slightly discomfiting, viewing. Meanwhile, lest one forget that Rumours was terrific as well as revealing, plenty of attention is paid to the songs. Particularly fascinating (as with most Classic Albums packages) are the breakdowns of the separate instrumental and vocal components of individual tracks. A great tale, wonderfully told. --Sam Graham

This is the definitive story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, with specially recorded versions of Christine McVie's "Songbird" and Lindsay Buckingham's acoustic version of "Never Going Back Again." 75 minutes.

Stevie Nicks - Live at Red Rocks

Set against the raw majesty of Colorado's Red Rocks amphitheatre, this 1987, post-Fleetwood Mac concert by Stevie Nicks is pure rock & roll cabaret. Backed by the lapidary if impersonal arrangements of her sizable band, including ubiquitous session man Waddy Wachtel (Jackson Browne, Keith Richards) on guitar, Rick Marotta on drums, and mood-setter Jai Winding at keyboards, Nicks's dusky, chanteuse vocals bear down hard on this program's nine selections. Hard, but not always interestingly. Sorely missing is the rare alchemy of a real band like Mac, in which Nicks's irresistible status as grandiloquent white witch and heel- stomping rocker enlivens, and is enlivened by, the reciprocal quirks of fellow members. In this star-focused setting, Nicks doesn't get to dance freely on the ledges of Lindsey Buckingham's maniacal palaces. Her responsibility is to anchor a more predictable enterprise, and while that certainly doesn't dull Nicks's commitment, it obscures her artistry and makes her show look like a self-tribute at a supper club. Highlights include a driving cover of pal Tom Petty's "I Need to Know," a bluesy "Talk to Me," and a touching "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You." A still photograph of Nicks and Mick Fleetwood (who adds percussion at a couple of points) that kind of dissolves in and out during "Beauty and the Beast" is embarrassing, but makes it perfectly clear what that particular tune is about. Peter Frampton shows up for an encore of "Edge of Seventeen," as do a bunch of white-winged doves someone releases from the audience, one of which finds refuge in Nicks's palm and decides to stay awhile. Ahh, rock's very own Snow White. --Tom Keogh

Stevie Nicks: Live at Red Rocks captures this sensual, poetic artist in the breathtaking, natural surroundings of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. State-of-the-art special effects set the stage for Stevie and her special guests, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Frampton. Your collection shouldn't be without this superb performance. Songs: Outside the Rain, Dreams, Talk to Me, I Need to Know, No Spoken Word, Beauty and the Beast, Stand Back, Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You, Edge of Seventeen.

Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Oh, the heartache. Oh, the drug intake. And oh, the sales records they did break. It's all here in this 70-minute, 1997 chronicle of the making of one of pop music's biggest albums ever, Rumours. All five members of Fleetwood Mac's most successful incarnation are interviewed, and their comments are even more candid than the confessional songs ("Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" et al.) on the album itself; descriptions of the torturous process of making a record while John and Christine McVie's marriage and the Lindsey Buckingham- Stevie Nicks liaison were breaking up at the same time makes for compelling, if slightly discomfiting, viewing. Meanwhile, lest one forget that Rumours was terrific as well as revealing, plenty of attention is paid to the songs. Particularly fascinating (as with most Classic Albums packages) are the breakdowns of the separate instrumental and vocal components of individual tracks. A great tale, wonderfully told. --Sam Graham

Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Oh, the heartache. Oh, the drug intake. And oh, the sales records they did break. It's all here in this 70-minute, 1997 chronicle of the making of one of pop music's biggest albums ever, Rumours. All five members of Fleetwood Mac's most successful incarnation are interviewed, and their comments are even more candid than the confessional songs ("Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" et al.) on the album itself; descriptions of the torturous process of making a record while John and Christine McVie's marriage and the Lindsey Buckingham- Stevie Nicks liaison were breaking up at the same time makes for compelling, if slightly discomfiting, viewing. Meanwhile, lest one forget that Rumours was terrific as well as revealing, plenty of attention is paid to the songs. Particularly fascinating (as with most Classic Albums packages) are the breakdowns of the separate instrumental and vocal components of individual tracks. A great tale, wonderfully told. --Sam Graham

Stevie Nicks: Live at Red Rocks

Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours [Region 2]

Oh, the heartache. Oh, the drug intake. And oh, the sales records they did break. It's all here in this 70-minute, 1997 chronicle of the making of one of pop music's biggest albums ever, Rumours. All five members of Fleetwood Mac's most successful incarnation are interviewed, and their comments are even more candid than the confessional songs ("Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" et al.) on the album itself; descriptions of the torturous process of making a record while John and Christine McVie's marriage and the Lindsey Buckingham- Stevie Nicks liaison were breaking up at the same time makes for compelling, if slightly discomfiting, viewing. Meanwhile, lest one forget that Rumours was terrific as well as revealing, plenty of attention is paid to the songs. Particularly fascinating (as with most Classic Albums packages) are the breakdowns of the separate instrumental and vocal components of individual tracks. A great tale, wonderfully told. --Sam Graham