{"id":807805,"date":"2020-05-26T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/uncategorized\/uncategorized-news\/17-reasons-this-rhiannon-clip-is-the-coolest-thing-in-the-universe-61514\/"},"modified":"2020-05-26T14:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T20:01:00","slug":"17-reasons-this-rhiannon-clip-is-the-coolest-thing-in-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/17-reasons-this-rhiannon-clip-is-the-coolest-thing-in-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Reasons This \u2018Rhiannon\u2019 Clip Is the Coolest Thing in the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to make the case for Stevie Nicks<\/a> as the most powerful American rock singer of the Seventies, here\u2019s your Exhibit A. Behold: This insane clip of Fleetwood Mac doing \u201cRhiannon\u201d on The Midnight Special<\/em>, 1976. It\u2019s the absolute peak of Stevie-dom. Here are 17 reasons why this performance proves Stevie is simply the coolest thing in the universe.<\/p>\n

1. Stevie\u2019s opening words: \u201cThis is a song about an old Welsh witch.\u201d Translation: This \u201cRhiannon\u201d is a totally different beast from the smooth studio version you\u2019ve heard a million times. This version is the epic.<\/p>\n

2. Stevie\u2019s hair. Oh, the hair. Beyond feathered. The feathers have feathers.<\/p>\n

3. Keep in mind, the audience has no idea who Stevie Nicks is. She and Lindsey just joined Fleetwood Mac last year. These people have heard \u201cRhiannon\u201d on the radio, but they don\u2019t know Stevie\u2019s name. They\u2019ve never seen her rock. Rumours<\/em> doesn\u2019t exist yet. They\u2019re probably thinking, \u201cFoxy lady. I think she just said this song is about a sandwich?\u201d They have no idea what they\u2019re in for.<\/p>\n

4. Sweet kimono, Lindsey. Did Stevie let you tie that sash yourself?<\/p>\n

5. The way she wails the line, \u201cYou cry, but she\u2019s gone.\u201d So much hungrier and rawer than the studio version. Stevie is not in mellow mode tonight. She\u2019s the new girl in a long-running band, but she\u2019s here to blow all that history away. She keeps pushing the song harder, faster, as if she\u2019s impatient to prove the new Mac is a real-savage-like rock monster, now that she\u2019s finally arrived.<\/p>\n

6. Stevie takes two power-twirls \u2014 one right before the second verse (1:15), one before the third (1:45). Tonight she needs only two twirls to say it all.<\/p>\n

7. Oh, that Lindsey\/Stevie eye contact. I have spent years of my life trying to decode that look at 2:36. What is that smile? An erotic glance between two tempestuous lovers, sharing a furtive smile of intimacy in the heat of musical passion? Or maybe John McVie just knocked over somebody\u2019s beer?<\/p>\n

\"Lindsey<\/p>\n

8. That Stevie\/Christine split-screen duet in the third verse. Their harmonies really make you notice how much \u201cRhiannon\u201d sounds like Nirvana\u2019s greatest song, \u201cHeart Shaped Box,\u201d except not even Kurt would try to get away with rhyming \u201cdarkness\u201d and \u201cdarkest.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. The 360-degree Lindsey-cam action at the 3:10 point \u2014 perhaps the finest cinematography of the 1970s to involve an upside-down bearded guitar freak in a kimono. Lindsey steps on his magic pedal and transforms into a Welsh druid.<\/p>\n

10. Everybody in the band gets a showcase close-up, even John McVie. As always, he looks like he showed up for a barbecue and was surprised to find a concert going on.<\/p>\n

11. Mick Fleetwood has a cowbell, but doesn\u2019t bang it, because when you\u2019re as cool as Mick Fleetwood, all you need is for the cowbell to sit there and listen to you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

12.  Lindsey\u2019s \u2018fro devours him and spits him out while he plays the Mick Taylor solo from the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cBitch\u201d all the way through\u2013twice! The Mac jam like they did in the 1960s with Peter Green, like they did in the early 1970s with Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan \u2014 except it\u2019s better now, because Stevie wrote the song. They still jam like this onstage in 2015, during Stevie\u2019s now-legendary \u201cCrackhead Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

13. Stevie\u2019s shawl-work during the jam. She doesn\u2019t overdo it \u2014 she just sways from side to side, lifting her lace chiffon in the air, a black widow weaving her spiderweb. Note: This garment probably now has its own corner of Stevie\u2019s private temperature-controlled Shawl Vault.<\/p>\n

\"Stevie<\/p>\n

14. Seriously, that hair. An aviary of white-winged doves, growing out of Stevie\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

15. This performance happened on June 11th, 1976. One week later, Blake Shelton was born. Coincidence? Probably. But you can hear a hint of Miranda Lambert in Stevie\u2019s growl.<\/p>\n

16. At the 4:30 point, there\u2019s a hush and you think the song is over. (The studio version fades out after barely four minutes.) But it\u2019s just beginning. Stevie starts to murmur, \u201cDreams unwind, love\u2019s a state of mind,\u201d chanting it over and over, beckoning with her fingers. The music speeds up. She stares through the camera and right into your very soul. She\u2019s belting now: \u201cTake me like the wind, baby! Take me with the sky!\u201d Lindsey backs her with a couple of power strums. Total shawl\/hair fusion. It\u2019s a little scary how intensely Stevie quakes, chanting Rhiannon\u2019s name, and you notice how steely she looks under all that black lace. She practically jumps out of her boots for that nine-second final howl, and then \u2014 like Rhiannon\u2014she\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

17. The studio audience must be in shock. Seven minutes ago, they\u2019d never heard of Stevie Nicks. But tonight they\u2019ll be seeing Welsh witches in their dreams. And it\u2019s 1976. Stevie is just getting started on her lifelong journey of stealing rock & roll hearts. Dreams unwind. Love\u2019s a state of mind.<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: A version of this story was originally published January 2015]<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you want to make the case for Stevie Nicks as the most powerful American rock singer of the Seventies, here\u2019s your Exhibit A. Behold: This insane clip of Fleetwood Mac doing \u201cRhiannon\u201d on The Midnight Special, 1976. It\u2019s the absolute peak of Stevie-dom. Here are 17 reasons why this performance proves Stevie is simply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 05:47:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}