Live 1980 Album - Retracked

[David]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

There different approaches to Live albums. It could be one entire performance, or selected performances from various shows.

The band (or its label) went back and forth about what to release. The earlier intention—advertised in Patrick Goldstein's Pop Eye column in the L.A. Times—was to record the then-upcoming Hollywood Bowl concerts for a live album. But minds must have changed. The last Bowl show was Sept. 1 and the album was released Dec. 8, so the group must have recorded the show still believing it was going to be for the album. I think the final live album was a rush job—the time frame of no more than two months lends credence to that. I have the impression of Mick, Lindsey, and Christine (Stevie was in South America learning to stand on her own) sitting in a studio while some other cats play them various cuts of their own concerts from 1975 to 1980, and just randomly picking what sounded good (or odd) to them. There's such a mishmash of different years on the album, I'd bet things weren't even labeled well. And then, of course, there's cocaine. I think if anyone involved was doing any thinking about this whatsoever, it was Lindsey, and he probably wanted to make a second Tusk statement—idiosyncrasy, explosive energy, incoherence, etc. LIVE is a postmodern live album avant la lettre.

[BlueDenimLamp]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

Firelies, Farmer's Daughter, and Oh Well made the album special - it gave us something new. LIVE was somewhat unconventional because it wasn't a straight shot live show, but tracks from different shows.

Oh Well aside, Firelies, One More Night and Farmer's Daughter have ever been in the set list up to that time. Dreams and Don't Stop were rehearsals, and a few of the tracks are from the Rumours era.

I assume that they have the rest of the live recordings from the Tusk tour in the can. It would be great if they if they released an expanded version of LIVE with all the outtakes. One issue of concern is congruity; many of the tracks on the album were sweetened up in the studio. I wonder if the outtakes got the same treatment, or were they left in their original form.

I'd love a live collection that features all the prior Mac/related songs they initially performed early on when Lindsey and Stevie first joined.

Get Like You Used to Be
Station Man
Green Manalishi
Sunny Side of Heaven
Believe Me
Why

Frozen Love and Jumping at Shadows were only one-time performances. I doubt they were ever professionally recorded.
I'm surprised they never performed Black Magic Woman -- perhaps because it was a huge hit for Santana around that time.

"Black Magic Woman" was a top 5 hit for Santana back in 1970 and FM performed it during the Bob Welch era so it's probably more of LB not wanting to play "other peoples songs" than anything else...

[FuzzyPlum]

Overall I really like the Live album.
Obviously the omission of The Chain is curious but aside from that I'm very happy with it. The Farmers daughter, One More Lonely Night and Fireflies are all lovely (I usually hate the word lovely but I cant think of an alternative that is as fitting).
It does a pretty damned good job of representing their live show at that time. Quite like the cover too.

[Jezzup]

I'd like to have SOTM and Angel from the Tusk documentary. Lets remove Dreams and Sara. I'd replace Over & Over with Think About Me. Not That Funny and NGBA I'd replace with Silver Springs and Tusk.

[PenguinHead]

t

Originally Posted by gssmith

The album is great the way it is. You can not fit everything on it. I still listen to it and the Dance a lot. More than the expanded Rumours live disc, 1982 live cd from the DVD, and especially 1987's live cd from that DVD, and 2004's live cd.
Each one has some gems though

The Chain on the live Rumours disc is kind of lame. Love the 1982 version!!

I agree. I like the LIVE album as it is. Forgive them for The Chain on the Rumours disc. It was an early performance, and the song hadn't found its legs yet.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

"Black Magic Woman" was a top 5 hit for Santana back in 1970 and FM performed it during the Bob Welch era so it's probably more of LB not wanting to play "other peoples songs" than anything else...

I didn't realize Santana's version was from the 1970. It was a radio staple throughout the 70's!

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by David

The band (or its label) went back and forth about what to release. The earlier intention—advertised in Patrick Goldstein's Pop Eye column in the L.A. Times—was to record the then-upcoming Hollywood Bowl concerts for a live album. But minds must have changed. The last Bowl show was Sept. 1 and the album was released Dec. 8, so the group must have recorded the show still believing it was going to be for the album. I think the final live album was a rush job—the time frame of no more than two months lends credence to that. I have the impression of Mick, Lindsey, and Christine (Stevie was in South America learning to stand on her own) sitting in a studio while some other cats play them various cuts of their own concerts from 1975 to 1980, and just randomly picking what sounded good (or odd) to them. There's such a mishmash of different years on the album, I'd bet things weren't even labeled well. And then, of course, there's cocaine. I think if anyone involved was doing any thinking about this whatsoever, it was Lindsey, and he probably wanted to make a second Tusk statement—idiosyncrasy, explosive energy, incoherence, etc. LIVE is a postmodern live album avant la lettre.

Thanks for the insight and context. Aside from the Hollywood Bowl, I suppose there must be other shows that were professionally recorded over the years. Given their unabashed propensity to mine that era of the band, I'm surprised that haven't officially released any of those shows in the long periods of their dormancy. Does Warner Brothers own them?

[brad975]

I have read before that "Rhiannon" was from the Rumours tour. But I hadn't heard that about "Dreams" on Live as well. I had been kind of surprised she could still hit some of those notes circa 1980.

But how do we really know what tour those takes came from? Just curious

[SisterNightroad]

The Hollywood Bowl wasn't professionally recorded.
The list of songs and their origins are listed on Wikipedia:

Side one
"Monday Morning" (Buckingham) – recorded at Tokyo – 3:51
"Say You Love Me" (McVie) – recorded at Wichita – 4:18
"Dreams" (Nicks) – recorded at Paris sound check – 4:18
"Oh Well" (Green) – recorded at St. Louis – 3:23
"Over & Over" (McVie) – recorded at Oklahoma City – 5:01

Side two
"Sara" (Nicks) – recorded at St. Louis – 7:23
"Not That Funny" (Buckingham) – recorded at Cleveland – 9:04
"Never Going Back Again" (Buckingham) – recorded at Tucson – 4:13
"Landslide" (Nicks) – recorded at London – 4:33

Side three
"Fireflies" (Nicks) – recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for crew and friends – 4:37
"Over My Head" (McVie) – recorded at Kansas City – 3:27
"Rhiannon" (Nicks) – recorded at London – 7:43
"Don't Let Me Down Again" (Buckingham) – recorded at Passaic – 3:57
"One More Night" (McVie) – recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for crew and friends – 3:43

Side four
"Go Your Own Way" (Buckingham) – recorded at Cleveland – 5:44
"Don't Stop" (McVie) – recorded at Paris sound check – 4:05
"I'm So Afraid" (Buckingham) – recorded at Cleveland – 8:28
"The Farmer's Daughter" (Wilson, Love) – recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for crew and friends – 2:25

[cactusjack]

what the hell? Fireflies is amazing. They should be performing it on the current tour - it's all about the Five being back together

[David]

Originally Posted by brad975

I have read before that "Rhiannon" was from the Rumours tour. But I hadn't heard that about "Dreams" on Live as well. I had been kind of surprised she could still hit some of those notes circa 1980.

But how do we really know what tour those takes came from? Just curious

It's based on what instruments they're playing (Christine and Lindsey started playing noticeably different instruments in 1979), on arrangements ("Never Going Back Again," for example, is rearranged between the earlier tour and the later tour), and on comparisons with all the audience concert tapes people have.

The songs NOT from the Tusk tour on that album are:

1. Monday Morning
2. Say You Love Me
3. Dreams
4. Over My Head
5. Rhiannon
6. Don't Let Me Down Again
7. Don't Stop

Nobody's ever been able to figure out where Stevie's post-recorded vocal on "Sara" came from—or why it sounds so beautifully gin-soaked in 1980, exactly like a 1982 rendition.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by David

The songs NOT from the Tusk tour on that album are:

1. Monday Morning
2. Say You Love Me
3. Dreams
4. Over My Head
5. Rhiannon
6. Don't Let Me Down Again
7. Don't Stop

Nobody's ever been able to figure out where Stevie's post-recorded vocal on "Sara" came from—or why it sounds so beautifully gin-soaked in 1980, exactly like a 1982 rendition.

Thanks for clarifying those songs. I assumed they were pre-Tusk, mostly from 1976-1977. Perhaps Stevie's post-recorded vocal was done during the sweetening sessions while the album was being prepped. I remember Christine saying this was a "warts and all" album. Stevie, in particular, didn't want to show her warts.

[WayOfTheDragon]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

Perhaps Stevie's post-recorded vocal was done during the sweetening sessions while the album was being prepped.

I assume this was the case, because Christine & Lindsey do some backing vocal parts that are completely different to the way they usually performed it on tour.

[QUOTE=David;1164150

Nobody's ever been able to figure out where Stevie's post-recorded vocal on "Sara" came from—or why it sounds so beautifully gin-soaked in 1980, exactly like a 1982 rendition.[/QUOTE]

but why why why replace that original vocal? there was nothing wrong with that st louis performance - vocally or otherwise.

[Andy Man]

Originally Posted by David

The band (or its label) went back and forth about what to release. The earlier intention—advertised in Patrick Goldstein's Pop Eye column in the L.A. Times—was to record the then-upcoming Hollywood Bowl concerts for a live album. But minds must have changed. The last Bowl show was Sept. 1 and the album was released Dec. 8, so the group must have recorded the show still believing it was going to be for the album. I think the final live album was a rush job—the time frame of no more than two months lends credence to that. I have the impression of Mick, Lindsey, and Christine (Stevie was in South America learning to stand on her own) sitting in a studio while some other cats play them various cuts of their own concerts from 1975 to 1980, and just randomly picking what sounded good (or odd) to them. There's such a mishmash of different years on the album, I'd bet things weren't even labeled well. And then, of course, there's cocaine. I think if anyone involved was doing any thinking about this whatsoever, it was Lindsey, and he probably wanted to make a second Tusk statement—idiosyncrasy, explosive energy, incoherence, etc. LIVE is a postmodern live album avant la lettre.

Yes, I agree with this post completely. "Live" does sound like an extension of the "Tusk" style, meaning very little cohesiveness and just a sprawling sound of chaos. In that sense I think it is a very original live album (i.e. it does not flow like a typical live album cash grab with only the hits).

However, I brought this topic up as I do think the live album was also a means for Lindsey to assert himself as the important player that he was in the band's success. Truly, it is his album. He has the most live cuts and they go on the longest due to massive guitar solos. I can imagine that by the time 1980 rolled around and the general public had pretty much identified Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks, this would have had to have some less than positive reactions from the band. In the case of Lindsey, he must have felt some frustration with the fact that it was essentially his production that brought the band to its height of popularity (in addition to the songs of all three, of course). I think that "Live" was in some ways a statement to the public that when you take away the theatrics that Stevie added to a show, it was essentially Lindsey guiding the energy (I would argue that this is still the case). "Live" certainly proves this. However, this does, of course, come at the expense of the others. It would have been great if Christine got at least one other live cut ("You Make Loving Fun" would have been nice, or, if they wanted more album tracks, "Oh Daddy" / "Songbird").

I do enjoy the album considerably as is. However, much like "Tusk", there are moments of the record where in fact we are listening to the Lindsey Buckingham show.