Also, it’s a shame the video didn’t show a the full stage instead of all closeups; Stevie’s dancing was easy on the eyes as I recall. Of course, I was younger then.

You could take a lesson from niktemadur, below, who disagrees with me but acknowledges others might disagree with him. Which pretty much was my position as well and that of anyone older than 13.

You had no part in the “unity.”  You simply came here to shit on everyone’s appreciation of a song.  It’s not a huge deal, but you should at least have the balls to own it.

Don’t express your opinion if it is not in the groove. Got it.

No, no.  It’s “Don’t express your opinion in an inconsiderate and obnoxious way, and then become defensive when you get called on it.”

It’s not about banal truisms regarding the value in a variety of opinions or expressing them.  It’s about you sticking your head into a room full of people celebrating something positive, just so everyone can know that you think the thing that makes them feel so good is, in fact, vacuous.

Having an opinion and expressing it is easy.  It’s one of the first things children learn to do.  Knowing when and how to express that opinion so as to maintain a sense of basic courtesy is not as easy, but it’s well worth learning how to do.

That’s all I have to say about this. Take care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es9VqyhL5J0

Great, great video. It’s hard to believe that this music was created during the disco era.

How did they get Patti Smith into that Stevie Nicks suit.

I don’t know about that.  Fleetwood Mac may have started as a rock-blues band, but during the Bob Welch era they turned into mellow power pop, and they were still in the UK at that time.  Granted, Welch was “a yankee in King Arthur’s court”, and it was he who convinced the other band members to move to the United States.

Then there’s that weird, wonderful phenomenon where so many British teenagers in the early sixties got their eager hands on old blues records, imitated at first, then filtered it in their own way and made it their own, always in loving tribute.  Fleetwood Mac “going California” (just like Zeppelin did, in their own way) is just another event in a constant, fascinating evolution of music.

The presence of Buckingham/Nicks finalized a transformation of the blues origins of Fleetwood Mac, ironically taking that yearning for “the mythic America” in the UK and twisting it back into a yearning for ancient Celtic culture in the USA, case in point – “Rhiannon”, a song about a Welsh witch, written by a girl born in Phoenix, Arizona, of all places.

One last point and back to your other statement:  Sounds pretty much as vacuous as I remember it from the day.

You know, gimme Freeman Stowers’ “Railroad Blues”, Geeshie Wiley’s “Last Kind Word Blues”, Furry Lewis’ “Kassie Jones”, and I’m a happy, happy camper.  But you can also give me “All Over My Head” or “Second Hand News”, because I find it equally nourishing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC6mc0bMcWY

A 5 minute grace period between repeats sounds like a reasonable proposition, I doubt repeats spaced ten seconds, or even a minute or two apart, will generate much useful information for YouTube. Too much statistical deviation noise.

Maybe I have to “rewind” because I started daydreaming while looking at the video, maybe I had to use the restroom, maybe I had to direct my attention to an annoying mosquito or a text message or a thousand other things… you get the idea.

So the “variety in unity” part, not so much?

Don’t express your opinion if it is not in the groove. Got it.

What’s the point?  Obviously, your opinion isn’t inherently less valuable than anyone else’s, but in a room of positive reactions, your lone negative reaction (not merely a description of your opinion, like, “Not really my thing,” but an aspersion of the work itself) contributes less than nothing.

Contrarianism can be useful in practical matters, but no amount of analysis can keep it from being quite useless when it comes to art.

And from the review of their debut LP: “Fleetwood Mac’s debut LP was a highlight of the late-’60s British blues boom. Green’s always inspired playing, the capable (if erratic) songwriting, and the general panache of the band as a whole placed them leagues above the overcrowded field. Elmore James is a big influence on this set . . . ”

So not this song, specifically, but the band as a whole.

Now’s a good time to say it was a crime to exclude Green and Welch from the Fleetwood Mac induction into the Rock And Roll HOF, chalk up yet another reason why that organization sucks.  Example:
Who’s in? The Chili Peppers, Neil Diamond, Madonna, Abba.
Who’s not?  Roxy Music, Big Star, Tim Buckley, T Rex, King Crimson, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtYfKe1-0Pw

Ok I give… sounds like the same live version that’s has been played since I can remember…

Let’s all thank pjcamp for contributing his musical wisdom to the conversation.

I don’t think there’s a reliable way to track views otherwise.