One reason this
is such a splendid concert tape is that director Marty Callner, who has worked
with Hall and Oates, Heart and Whitesnake, doesn't seem compelled to show off
his technique. He has a gorgeous setting, the outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheatre
near Denver. And he has one of pop music's most physically attractive,
musically interesting performers in Nicks. Callner's cameras record the event
faithfully, without distorting it. The second reason the tape is so enjoyable
is that Nicks herself, about 10 minutes into what begins as a listless
performance (taped in summer 1986), literally puts her foot down. In the middle
of Talk to Me, she stomps three of four times, as if to pump herself up,
and the effect is galvanizing. Impassivity is part of Nicks's style, but from
that moment her singing seems to take on an undervoiced passion. Her backup
musicians also seem to take themselves up another notch, particularly drummer
Rick Marotta, guitarist Waddy Wachtel and Robert Martin, who plays saxophone for Talk to Me. The appearances by 'special guests' are overbilled. Anyone
who turns away to eat a potato chip could miss the contributions of Peter
Frampton and Nicks's Fleetwood Mac colleague Mick Fleetwood. And Callner lapses
during Dreams, patching in a phony sky full of lightning. There's nearly
an hour of solid music, though, with such Nicks hits as Stand Back and an
extended Edge of Seventeen, complete with a real dove in honor of the
song's refrain ('Just like the white winged dove sings a song/ Sounds like she's
singing it to you'). When Nicks is shown under the closing credits walking out
to the edge of the audience (where she is loaded down with stuffed toys and
flowers), the crowd's affection seems well earned.
(Sony, $19.95) Ralph Novak
[article accompanied with small b&w promo photo of Nicks with the caption, 'Stevie Nicks: A Kickall to a Concert That Scores']
This article was transcribed and sent to me by Dark Angel, with thanks