My dead cat plays piano better than Old Goatsy. :lol:

You have a dead cat?

The album was released on December 8, the day Lennon was murdered. Not to sound crass, but I think that sunk airplay right out of the gate. I was at the record store on December 8 to buy the album, and the store was playing “A Day in the Life” over and over. Ordinarily, on a Fleetwood Mac release day, you’d walk into a record store and hear it. Radio, too, was naturally and justifiably all over Lennon’s great legacy, and the Mac album was ignored for several days. Only later did I start hearing a couple of things on the album, like “Oh Well” and “Monday Morning” on KMET in Los Angeles. But not much at all, really. The album developed a sort of cut-out bin reputation, even more so than Tusk.

I think it was a rush job but not without strengths. All those barn-burning performances plus some great cover and sleeve art. It had the spirit of Tusk. It just wasn’t what the radio public wanted to hear back then. Fleetwood Mac in concert was for seeing, not for hearing, people thought. Maybe it was the wrong time for a live Mac album. The live albums that had been getting all the airplay, like Journey and Cheap Trick and Jackson Browne, had all been released a few years earlier. Mac was a little late to the table. Live Rust was getting more airplay on KMET in 1980/81 than Mac Live even when the former was already a few years old.

Several. In my freezer. Doesn't everybody?





I take Fritz out of the freezer on Tuesdays, and bang him across my keyboards. He still plays better than Old Goatsy.

~I~ rushed out and bought it the day it was released. I love it more than Tango, Time, BTM, and the giant cat turd SYW.

You have giant cat turds? :laugh:

Yes. I've not thrown SYW away yet.

I can't imagine the lot of gallons of kopi luwak you prepared with that. You must have become a millionaire.

Only barely.

Not sure about the time factor. Supertramp's Paris was released in september '80 and i think it was a success (one of my favorite live albums, by the way). It reached the top ten albums list in several countries, include US Billboard 200 albums (n.8).

Maybe the FM Live release day (coinciding Lennon's death) was an issue but in the long term I guess there were other causes.

This is a pleasant filler track. I prefer the Live version to the demo, but it didn’t seem necessary.

The Live album should have been a lot safer. It drags badly in spots. Put SHN, YMLF, Tusk, Songbird, and The Chain on there.

Its rare that we agree. But I agree with you. I like the demo but the live version gives me solo piano bar sort of vibes. I would not classify her singing as whiny as someone said. She is projecting her voice to emphasize parts of the song. I find it raw and can feel her emotion on the live track and not so much the studio track/demo.
But I would have axed all 3 new songs along with Not That Funny for Sisters, The Chain and Songbird.

And that's what I was thinking about, when I said the track listing was a mystery to me. Several missing.

I doubt the entire tour was recorded. I’m betting the truth lies somewhere between what Ken and Richard always said - they would go out for about two weeks and record. We definitely know they recorded shows in both ‘79 and ‘80 both state side and abroad. I would be really curious to know how many Tusk tour tapes they have.

I agree, if they had so many tapes to pull from it’s odd that they didn’t follow the setlist from the tour and wind up with their own version of Frampton Comes Alive.

Then again, it’s equally as puzzling that there hasn’t been a re-release of The Dance with the full set including Gypsy etc.