The Mac makes some weird commercial choices...

[Scarlett DuBois]

Actually, I imagine it's more Mick than anyone, since I think he controls licensing, etc.

But here's what I'm curious about:

Fleetwood Mac has a loyal following, and gets new fans all the time thanks to the timelessness of stuff like Rumours and Tusk having such a cross-generational appeal. So frankly, with all the re-mastering technology available lately, the increased space on the CD medium, etc., I really think the band is missing a LOT of opportunities to make money:

For example. LIVE ALBUMS. The Mac were absolutely one of the best live bands EVERY, and in my opiion, one of the most ESSENTIAL bands to SEE live because their stage act was such a contrast to their studio act - they substituted ferocity for finesse, and it works just as well!

So what about LIVE albums?

Jefferson Airplane, for instance, has released so many archived live albums over the last 5 years I can't count them all. And they were a MESS live.

After all these years, all we have from Fleetwood Mac is still the one Live album, and it's a disaster. Okay, I don't mean it's BAD, but it's bad when you consider the CHOICES - did anybody really need to hear Don't let me down again at the expense of a live Sisters of the Moon? Where the hell is THE CHAIN? Tusk? Didn't they do brown eyes, too?

Stuff like this kicked ASS live, and it's only available on bootlegs.

And yet the Mac continues to release this endless stream of "The Dance" remakes - Live in Boston, etc. I love 'em, but really, this is like "Greatest hits live" type stuff. You can't tell me that they weren't EXTENSIVELY recorded AND filmed when they were in their prime - there are TONS of bootlegs, both video and audio, and a good deal of them are excellent sound quality. And this is BOOTLEGGED!

Imagine how plush this stuff could be if it were packaged officially!

Ditto for Stevie's solo career. Bella Donna hasn't been reissued for CD since like, what, 1991? Imagine a plush reissue. Think of the BONUS tracks: contemporaneous stuff like Blue Lamp and Sleeping Angel. B-sides!

The reissue of the Pretenders II has a whole second disc that's basically a live album. I'd pay top dollar for a remastered Bella Donna with a second disk full-set of just the HBO Source Concert!

And yet all we get is more, ya know, soundstage type stuff.

So does anybody have any idea what's with this? Frankly I think the Mac are all missing out on big dollars with this - imagine live DVD released. I'd collect 'em ALL, even if they released one for each tour, white album through Tusk.

And seriously, why is Stevie Nicks Live at Red Rocks on DVD and yet it's still used-VHS for the FAR superior HBO special? WEIRD stuff.

Anybody else think that the Mac is missing out on a LOT of money by not releasing all this readily available audio/video material from their glory days?

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Scarlett DuBois

And yet the Mac continues to release this endless stream of "The Dance" remakes - Live in Boston, etc. I love 'em, but really, this is like "Greatest hits live" type stuff. You can't tell me that they weren't EXTENSIVELY recorded AND filmed when they were in their prime - there are TONS of bootlegs, both video and audio, and a good deal of them are excellent sound quality. And this is BOOTLEGGED!

Well, if you think it's about the TRUE fans getting what they want, you're kidding yourself. It's about money. Can I say that again? Money.

Milking Tumour's sore teat, is the teat that's the most likely to earn the band the most money, so that's what we're stuck with. Putting out obscure song selections isn't going to make them big bucks, and THIS.BAND.IS.ABOUT.MONEY. Period.

Sad, but true. I'm very thankful for the video bootlegs that I've got, and I would bet a decent chunk, that it's all we'll ever see.

[David]

Originally Posted by Scarlett DuBois

After all these years, all we have from Fleetwood Mac is still the one Live album, and it's a disaster. Okay, I don't mean it's BAD, but it's bad when you consider the CHOICES - did anybody really need to hear Don't let me down again at the expense of a live Sisters of the Moon? Where the hell is THE CHAIN? Tusk? Didn't they do brown eyes, too?

Back in 1980, I thought the group made the right decision releasing a compendium-style live album, with tracks from different concerts on different tours. I had been to see the Mac on its latest tour. The plan at that point was to make a live album out of a single show, which was supposed to be one of the last two gigs in Hollywood—the fabled venue at the wrap-up of a fabulous (and tiring) tour. After that, some papers reported that the band was going to break up for good.

But I didn't think a single show would make an appropriate live album: the band in those days played in such a way, believe it or not, that disappointed a lot of people who expected to hear a polished simulation of the studio albums. (I remember the husband and wife who walked out of the Bowl on August 31 about midway through because the only song in the set they had liked was Never Going Back Again. The rest of the renditions were corrosive, pumping abstractions of their smooth studio hits, almost like listening to punkers cover the Billboard hit parade.)

So back then I was completely in favor of pulling from every which way in the spirit of making the live album easy to swallow. But as it turns out, it wasn't all that easy to swallow anyway, despite the fact that about half the album was taken from the band's 1975–1977 tours, when they sounded more ordinary and respectable. And since that time, as the 1980 tour itself has receded into the background of everyone's memory (except mine), I've wished more and more that I had a "Fleetwood Mac Live" album of one show: the Bowl was the obvious candidate, but other shows might have been considered based on the fame of the venue (like Madison Square Garden or Wembley Arena) or the roaring success of the concert (the Budokan or the German festival for 100,000).

Even with a double album, you couldn't have fit the entire August 1980 set onto vinyl, but this would have made a spectacularly packaged running list:

Side A
1. Monday Morning
2. The Chain
3. Don't Stop
4. Dreams
5. Oh Well

Side B
1. Rhiannon
2. Over and Over
3. What Makes You Think You're the One?
4. Never Going Back Again
5. Landslide

Side C
1. Tusk
2. Sara
3. Think About Me
4. Angel
5. You Make Loving Fun

Side D
1. I'm So Afraid
2. World Turning
3. Go Your Own Way
4. Sisters of the Moon
5. Songbird

Side D would have been a squeeze because four of the songs were so long. I see a photo of the band at the famous-looking Bowl on the cover, with color photos from the show(s) on the two sleeves.

[Scarlett DuBois]

You both make great points, Homer and David, and I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way.

As far as the live album goes, what I take issue with is not so much that they compiled recordings from different concerts - I think that's actually a smart move, to get the best of the best. My real issue with it is not so much the performances as the actual songs they chose to include - the real glaring omission being The Chain, of course, which was a signature live number, but I also think it's really weird that they felt they had space for the infinitely long "not that funny" but none for "Tusk", which WAS A HIT SINGLE.

I also really like the remark about them sounding like "punkers covering the hit parade" - this is a REALLY good description and also precisely why I like the Tusk Period so much. "Angel" is Stevie's best vocal performance on record, and for a REQASON - that kind of instrumental playfulness gave her room to play, and man, could she belt it out when she wasn't trying to play dainty.

As weird as it sounds, Fleetwood Mac would have made an excellent punk outfit. They had the pop sensibility, and their avoidance of beer-and-sex cliches already distanced them from their "dinosaur" peers a bit. Lindsey was definitely punky in terms of attitude and showmanship, and weirdly enough, from a TECHNICAL point of view, Stevie Nicks is very much a punk songwriter:

ALL OF HER SONGS ARE LIKE THREE CHORDS. I always astonish my really devoted punk-rock friends when I play them "Sisters of the Moon" - it really meets all the criteria of a great goth/punk number. The Cure wishes they had that song.

This isn't totally coming outta me either. I've read a lot of old reviews etc, and I could swear Rolling stone referred to Nicks as "A west coast, more controlled cousin to Patti Smith" on numerous occasions. I think I have also heard allusions to Siouxsie. Makes sense.

I guess just what surprises me is the MARKET for these things. I can't believe there's more money to be made on "The Dance" and "Live in Boston" and such, as opposed to a good American re-release of tusk footage or the mirage video.

I mean, I'm 23, so "The dance" era is where the mac WAS when I was introduced to them. But it's definitely not what I want to see. I am probably going to get flamed like hell for this, but I just can't understand why anyone would prefer 90s/current footage to the classic stuff - the band is older, they look it, and they sound it - Lindsey's guitar playing has kept up and Chris was steady as ever before she left, but let's face it, Mick isn't quite up to the drum heroics he used to be and Stevie's voice is COMPLETELY. AND UTTERLY. GONE. The Rhiannon psychotics used to be the pseudo-camp ravings of a young woman with a slight sense of humour and a great love of showmanship - now they're the fanservice of somebody who sometimes seems to be parodying herself a bit. The mannerism is there, but not the spark.

The setlist is a lot more boring than it used to be, too. I'm not some pretentious progger or anything, and I have NOTHING against hit singles, but the whole "greatest hits" type setlist is really a lot less interseting than the little gems that people around back in the 70s would've heard. Like a live "Angel" (weren't they still even doing that one on the Mirage Tour?) or the cool Christine Vocal solo on "Oh Daddy". I'm WAY more interested in stuff like that than hearing the 15,000000th rendition of "Say You Love Me". And god save me from Landslide - nice song, but I really think the current radio fondness for the whole "look at me I'm so acoustic and reflective!" schtick has overexposed it, and frankly, as far as the Stevie songbook goes, there is a LOT of stuff that deserved more live play than Landslide and didn't get it. Sara, anyone?

But my god, when I see the bootleg stuff on youtube from 75-80, it makes me wanna be in a damn rock band, it's just so glamorous and intense!

You'd REALLY think there'd be more of a market for this stuff. Somebody needs to bring this argument before Mr. Fleetwood, or the powers that be at Warner Bros. Record division.

[aleuzzi]

I too thought a compendium live album was, on paper, a good idea. But, oddly, many of the choices for Fleetwood Mac Live were poorly played. Christine was sorely out of tune on "Over and Over"; I've heard better versions of "Sara" and "Rhiannon"; "Landslide" was a disaster; and there was no "Tusk" or "World Turning"--two important staples of their live shows. And why not use "Sisters of the Moon" or "Angel," two songs that went over very well live on a routine basis?

I have heard so many great live versions of their songs from the 75, 76, 77, and 78 tours. Why not use them?

[Scarlett DuBois]

This is a really good question. There's SO much great live material just sitting around on the internet and in vaults, I don't understand why it's not being released. It really seems like at this juncture Fleetwood Mac is like the ONLY major band of the 70s not releasing old live material.

This sounds cynical and a bit bitchy, but I almost think they don't want people comparing the "Tusk video" era mac to the "Live in boston" schtick. Doesn't make the present-day appeal look so strong.

[David A]

Any one have any good MP3 of Tusk era FM? id love to know what they sounded LIVE back in the day

[David]

Originally Posted by David A

Any one have any good MP3 of Tusk era FM? id love to know what they sounded LIVE back in the day

You've been on the Ledge for years. How could you have never heard any live material?

Here's a great performance from the greatest month of live playing in that incarnation's history.

What Makes You Think You're the One?
Mobile, Alabama
August 11, 1980
http://www.sendspace.com/file/o38w2c