Best official live album?

[chiliD]

I've realized that the only time Fleetwood Mac gets anything "right" is when they do studio albums. Live albums & compilation albums all seem to have things that just grate on the nerves due to "what COULD'VE been".

1) Live '80: released on the tail end of the "Double Live Album" trend of the late '70's/early '80s. Felt like at the time that they were releasing a double live album ONLY because it was the trend (or HAD been the trend the previous 8 -10 years) and they were the last of the BIG bands to release one...too little, too late (see below). (while I'm venting, Heart dropped the ball not releasing a full double live album from their Dog & Butterfly tour)

2) The Dance: Sure, the Rumours-crew comeback was definitely worthy of documentation, but the CD should've followed exactly the video/LaserDisc/DVD song order...meaning it should've been a double disc set. Omitting a few songs and changing the order cheapened the CD. (that said, does anyone have an mp3 of The Dance version of "Gold Dust Woman" they'd be willing to send me? That's the only track that I'm missing from that performance.)

3) Live In Boston 2003: Just should've been left as "video only". The CD was poorly conceived and basically overly redundant.

At this point, they basically never got the ULTIMATE live album that they should've released. I think had they recorded & released their double live album in the spring of '78 (taken from their three or four night stay at the GW Forum near LA in August '77, when they were really at their peak on the concert stage), it would've surpassed Frampton Comes Alive and made it an afterthought. BUT, they were still milking Rumours (if we only knew then what we know now that it would NEVER END!) & didn't want to interrupt its success.

That way, they COULD've released a 2nd double live album in about '84, compiling its tracks from the Tusk & Mirage tours; songs that weren't on the previous live album and maybe a couple of songs that had quite different arrangements on those later tours from the previous live album. (for example, "Never Going Back Again" being a full band arrangement during the Rumours tour, but was Lindsey by himself on the Tusk & Mirage tours, and the drastic changes in "Rhiannon" from '77 to '82)

There were a few artists who dropped more than one double live album within 5 or 6 years due to either a change in direction or rearrangement of their songs or having enough new studio material in between to warrant a second live album. (using David Bowie and Kiss as the examples there)

Oh...AND...the three disc Live At The Boston Tea Party recordings should've been released on schedule in 1970 as a double live album to document the end of that era of Fleetwood Mac. Releasing it 30+ years later just made the "what if" thoughts maddening.