❌Monthly Song Challenge: Archived🎵

Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live
Since I’m currently reading Gold Dust Woman, the biography of Stevie Nicks, it seems only appropriate to post her today. I saw her in 2017 and it was incredible. I’ve been a Stevie/Fleetwood Mac fan for as long as my memory serves. My mom used to sing me one of their songs as a lullaby.
Watching her spin around that stage (which I don’t think she does in this video) is nothing short of magical.

Stevie Nicks - Gold Dust Woman

Just a +1 for this since it’s her solo and not with Fleetwood Mac
I saw her in 1984 or 5. I have watched so many bands over the years, who all leap and strut and dance and fly through the air on cables like Peter Pan. She got all the same focus from everyone by just spinning in place. That is power.
 
Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live

I love books. Grew up reading everything I could get my hands on. Live in books. If asked "what is your favorite book?" I will hem and haw around, saying there are so many. And there are. I can name my favorite non-fiction, my favorite mystery, my favorite hard science fiction, soft science fiction, pulp, fantasy...I could go on. And I will protest that I couldn't choose a single favorite.

That is a lie.

My favorite book is Emma Bull's War for the Oaks. It is one of the first, if not the first, urban fantasy, and has a rock and roll singer get drafted against her will into the war between fairy courts in modern Minneapolis. And Minneapolis is as much a character in the book as any person. So of course, I went on a vacation based around my favorite book. I wanted to see some of the places first hand. One of the main locations is the legendary First Avenue. I got there in the early evening on a Tuesday or Wednesday --the weekends were always too crowded. I got a table, a two-top in the Mainfloor, and settled in to see where the climactic battle in the book took place. It was fantastic. I grabbed dinner and took notes. The band going on was called "Melvin and " something I can't remember. It was fun. The band came out with weird costumes and huge glasses, looking a little like a nice Funkadelic knock-off. Fun. A roadie comes out with someone wrapped in blankets with a huge knit hat covering most of his face, wheeled out on a hand truck. Okay... They hand him a guitar, and the opening guitar part of "When Doves Cry" screams out. Roadie walks off and pulls off the hat and it was fucking Prince.

He was working on things for a new tour, and so he and a few of his band would show up at clubs and play under a pile of weird names. Within ten minutes, the place was jammed, throat to elbow. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, and I had a table to do so. Amazing night. Probably the best concert I have ever seen that close.

But the song I chose goes back to the first time I saw him, back in 84 or 85. I wasn't a fan yet. But all great stories in life and history start the same way: "So, there was this girl..." I wasn't a fan at the start of the concert, I was a disciple by the end. This was Prince and The Revolution. As much as I loved all of it, I loved The Revolution era most. Wendy and Lisa. Apollonia 6 and Sheila E joining them for a half hour jam version of "I Would Die 4 U." Brilliant show.

This recording is from the same tour, about a month later.

"Purple Rain (Live, 1985)" - Prince and the Revolution (+2)


(21+2=23)
 
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Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live


Picture this. I'm seeing Elton John at an outdoor theater, sitting on the lawn. This is the first song of the concert. The stage fills up with purple smoke and the synthesizer part begins. Elton walks out of the smoke and the crowd goes wild. He walks over to his piano and begins to play.....

Just as the purple smoke is swirling around and the creepy song plays on, a thunderstorm opens up over the crowd. Lighting is flashing and thunder is bashing overhead, rain falling in sheets, all while THIS SONG is playing.

I was young when this happened, but I was pretty sure I'd never see such a convergence of time, space and nature again. And I haven't.
 
Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live

I love books. Grew up reading everything I could get my hands on. Live in books. If asked "what is your favorite book?" I will hem and haw around, saying there are so many. And there are. I can name my favorite non-fiction, my favorite mystery, my favorite hard science fiction, soft science fiction, pulp, fantasy...I could go on. And I will protest that I couldn't choose a single favorite.

That is a lie.

My favorite book is Emma Bull's War for the Oaks. It is one of the first, if not the first, urban fantasy, and has a rock and roll singer get drafted against her will into the war between fairy courts in modern Minneapolis. And Minneapolis is as much a character in the book as any person. So of course, I went on a vacation based around my favorite book. I wanted to see some of the places first hand. One of the main locations is the legendary First Avenue. I got there in the early evening on a Tuesday or Wednesday --the weekends were always too crowded. I got a table, a two-top in the Mainfloor, and settled in to see where the climactic battle in the book took place. It was fantastic. I grabbed dinner and took notes. The band going on was called "Melvin and " something I can't remember. It was fun. The band came out with weird costumes and huge glasses, looking a little like a nice Funkadelic knock-off. Fun. A roadie comes out with someone wrapped in blankets with a huge knit hat covering most of his face, wheeled out on a hand truck. Okay... They hand him a guitar, and the opening guitar part of "When Doves Cry" screams out. Roadie walks off and pulls off the hat and it was fucking Prince.

He was working on things for a new tour, and so he and a few of his band would show up at clubs and play under a pile of weird names. Within ten minutes, the place was jammed, throat to elbow. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, and I had a table to do so. Amazing night. Probably the best concert I have ever seen that close.

But the song I chose goes back to the first time I saw him, back in 84 or 85. I wasn't a fan yet. But all great stories in life and history start the same way: "So, there was this girl..." I wasn't a fan at the start of the concert, I was a disciple by the end. This was Prince and The Revolution. As much as I loved all of it, I loved The Revolution era most. Wendy and Lisa. Apollonia 6 and Sheila E joining them for a half hour jam version of "I Would Die 4 U." Brilliant show.

This recording is from the same tour, about a month later.

"Purple Rain (Live, 1985)" - Prince and the Revolution (+2)


Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live


Picture this. I'm seeing Elton John at an outdoor theater, sitting on the lawn. This is the first song of the concert. The stage fills up with purple smoke and the synthesizer part begins. Elton walks out of the smoke and the crowd goes wild. He walks over to his piano and begins to play.....

Just as the purple smoke is swirling around and the creepy song plays on, a thunderstorm opens up over the crowd. Lighting is flashing and thunder is bashing overhead, rain falling in sheets, all while THIS SONG is playing.

I was young when this happened, but I was pretty sure I'd never see such a convergence of time, space and nature again. And I haven't.
I am so unbelievably jealous. What amazing experiences/memories to treasure always. ❤
 
I am so unbelievably jealous. What amazing experiences/memories to treasure always. ❤
The advantage of being 55 years old: a good 43 years of prime concert years. Queen, Van Halen a couple times, Bowie, Metallica with Cliff and with Newkid, Ozzy with Randy, and a bunch more.
 
Day 13: A song you’ve seen performed live

after smoking a few bowls on stage, and then strumming one chord for 5 minutes, Billie Joe then proceeded to play this, months before it hit the radio.

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)-Greenday
Were they still touring for Insomniac when they played that? Or had Nice Guys Finish Last already been playing? I know Haushinka has been written while they were getting ready to record Dookie, but for some reason they put it on the shelf and put it on Nimrod.
 
Were they still touring for Insomniac when they played that? Or had Nice Guys Finish Last already been playing? I know Haushinka has been written while they were getting ready to record Dookie, but for some reason they put it on the shelf and put it on Nimrod.
It was Spring of '97, Nimrod wasn't out just yet
 
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