Thoughts about the 1977 Kansas City show
 

Ocassionally I revisit my many bootleg shows, rediscovering some rare forgotten gems. Fleetwood Mac's show in Kansas City on April 1, 1977 is one of them.

Christine says "We just finished making an album six weeks ago, and we've got to start playing these songs some time or another" prior to annoucing 'Gold Dust Woman.'

It's an interesting point in the band, because the set list was not yet dominated by Rumours songs. 'Station Man', 'Why' and 'Spare Me A Little' were still in the set list.

Highlights include:

Don't Stop - as a show opener! In its early stages - it is performed distinctly different than the standard live version. Same goes for 'Gold Dust Woman' where there is no cow bell intro, and no "ooh...pale shadow of women" outro. It's hard rocking, but unlike any version we are used to hearing. Obviously their approach to the songs evolved over time. These are versions of their new songs in their early live performance births.

Stevie is in prominent voice for 'Monday Morning' and 'Over My Head.' The outro of 'You Make Loving Fun' is sung with the lyrics "I'm beginning to wonder why - I have a feeling it's time to try" which were eventually changed to "It's all I wanna do."

Silver Springs is in the set list, since it was initially slated to be on the album. In Stevie logic, I wonder if she decided to pull it from the set list when she found out it was going to be regulated to a b-side.

I don't have the complete show; I believe there must be a few missing tracks at the end of the show.

Don't Stop
Station Man
Monday Morning
Spare Me A Little
Rhiannon
Why
Landslide
Over My Head
Gold Dust Woman
Oh Well
Silver Springs
You Make Loving Fun
I'm So Afraid
Say You Love Me
World Turning

This is an excellent bootleg. This is also the show where Stevie likes to claim to this day that the audience booed when they played the new songs. She uses that as the example to this day why new songs aren't favored in a live show. This was before the phenom of Rumours exploded but FM were still very successful from the White album. Rumours was released on February 4, 1977 so this could have been a show from after the record came out. I often have wondered though if this show has a mis labeled date and if this show was really from late 1976.

If Go Your Own Way was not in the setlist then it most certainly was a 1976 concert.

Go Your Own Way was played live at least twice in 1975 and I think surfaced sporadically in 1976 as well. It became permanent in 1977, but is missing from several bootlegs that year.

Is anyone willing to post a link to this please??:o

Possibly, yet a few songs are missing. World Turning is the last song, which doesn't seem likely as a show closer. I suspect 'Go Your Own Way' is one of the missing songs.

I've always questioned this date because Fleetwood, in his book, says that the band was flying to Europe on that day.

Mac's sinewy, meandering intros & outros grew out of the repetitive nature of touring itself. That's always a sign of an interesting band: the more you play a song night after night, the more likely you are to stretch it just for the hell of it, if you're casual & loose in spirit & style. That's part of what keeps the guys Stevie hires from ever being an interesting band--they never do this.

If you listen to NOT THAT FUNNY, for example, from St. Louis & Providence & Los Angeles in 1979 through Japan & Australia in Feb. & March 1980 through Cologne & Cleveland in May & June 1980 & finally through San Antonio & Los Angeles in August & Sept. 1980, you can hear the song stretch & stretch & grow simultaneously more relaxed & more explosive. What you're hearing is a great pop band put more & more distance between itself & its corresponding album track, & probably doing a lot of that subconsciously.

It's the reason that Robert Hilburn, first-string pop music critic at the L.A. Times, said in his review of the Bowl shows: "Great pop-rock bands this good are hard to find these days."

According to FMlegacy.com it does list April 2-24 as European dates. I sort of doubt they would leave Missouri and play the next night in England...

April 1, 1977 Kemper Arena - Kansas City, MO
April 2, 1977 The Odeon - Birmingham, England
April 4, 1977 The Apollo - Glasgow, Scotland
April 5, 1977 The Apollo - Manchester, England
April 8, 1977 Rainbow Theatre - London, England
April 9, 1977 Rainbow Theatre - London, England
April 10, 1977 Rainbow Theatre - London, England
April 1977 Colston Hall - Bristol, England
April 1977 Le Zenith - Paris, France
April 14, 1977 Jahrhunderthalle - Frankfurt, West Germany
April 15, 1977 Circus Krone - Munich, West Germany
April 16, 1977 Hamburg, West Germany
April 23, 1977 The Apollo Glasgow, Scotland
April 24, 1977 Hovet Stockholm, Sweden
April 1977 Olympen Lund, Sweden

That is my thought as well.

In 1975?! I had no idea. I knew it was performed several times in 76, but '75--are you sure? If so, at what shows and what was the setlist?

That date is wrong. There is no logic that this band would be playing SS, nor, revert back to an earlier working of a song (GDW, YMLF) after the album was out. Also, the setlist/performance/structure for the Philly 3-21-77 and the Paris 4-77 are nearly identical. The order may be different, though. That "4-1-77" show clearly does not fit in. Doesn't Stevie also introduce SS as being on the new album? This show was obviously from the previous summer '76.

That date makes more sense...1976. Songs like Gold Dust Woman don't sound fully fleshed out yet. If Rumours was completely done, the performance would have sounded more like the album. The same goes for Don't Stop.

I'm sorry for perpetuating a wrong date - I was just referencing the date on the tape.

I am genuinely confused about these two shows - Winston Salem and New Orleans. I have heard that New Orleans was the first live performance of GYOW but it makes more sense it was actually Winston Salem, as Lindsey introduces it by saying, "this is a tune I wrote a couple of weeks ago, it's gonna be on our new album, be out in about 3 months". Based on the last comment it seems both of these shows may have been mislabeled, but all the sources I find don't have them playing either of those towns in 1976. Is there an accurate source for the tour dates? :shrug:

Winston Salem date was November 20th.

Setlist:

1.01 Get Like You Used To Be
1.02 Station Man
1.03 Spare Me A Little (Of Your Love)
1.04 Rhiannon
1.05 Why
1.06 Landslide
1.07 Over My Head
1.08 I'm So Afraid
1.09 Go Your Own Way
2.01 Oh Well
2.02 The Green Manalishi
2.03 World Turning
2.04 Blue Letter
2.05 Don't Let Me Down Again
2.06 Hypnotized

New Orleans date was December 6th.

Setlist:

1.01 Spare Me A Little (Of Your Love)
1.02 Rhiannon
1.03 Why
1.04 Landslide
1.05 Over My Head
1.06 I'm So Afraid
1.07 Go Your Own Way
1.08 Oh Well
1.09 The Green Manalishi
1.10 World Turning
1.11 Blue Letter
1.12 Don't Let Me Down Again
1.13 Hypnotized

Thanks for the setlists. Rumours was released on February 04, 1977, so if we take Lindsey's "out in three months" statement as truth then the recordings most likely would be late 1976. That's my bet at least.

But then I can't be too sure. By the end of 1976, the band would've included You Make Loving Fun in their sets. Who knows?

I know, it's weird. Also, if the New Orleans December 1975 date is accurate, then we would have to assume the Winston-Salem date was 1975 as well since he stated he had just written the song 2 weeks prior and the month is correct as November.