My nit picks about the Live album

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Everyone makes some great points and many of them I agree with. But to rate this album you have to go back in time and put it in context. There was no internet. There were no bootlegs on CD's, tapes, or download files. The only way to hear live Fleetwood Mac was to go to a concert. There was no youtube to look at shows. No I-phones to record concerts. I bought this album at K-mart in 1983. I was simply blown away. The album demonstrated the HUGE difference between Fleetwood Mac studio vs live. They are a different band live. There are some serious rocking songs on this album. In the early 90's I lived in West Palm Beach and there was a hard rock station that would never play Fleetwood mac. But they would play Oh Well from this album. The live version of Rhiannon is incredible. Still to this day its the best live version I ever heard. I love the early day intro "this is a song about a Welsh Witch."
Even Over My Head is transformed from a sleeper to an upbeat rocker.
I just am so happy those harmonies on Over and Over were captured live for the world to hear. This album just made everyone know how good a guitarist Lindsey is on the stage. So glad they even included Don't Let Me Down Again. As I mentioned, there are a few alterations I would make. But the world is definitely better with this live album in it. I don't think its fair to compare it to the technology today where you can hear any Mac show live anywhere else.
One more point and this is probably the biggest point. Ever since the Dance, Fleetwood Mac live is very studio like live in concert. The songs are much more studio sounding live. This of course is from technology. Up until 1982 the Mac never had back up singers, additional percussionists, etc. They were in raw form live. These older shows make them much more into a rock band.
There are such amazing songs on this album that its probably one of my favorites. I much prefer this unleashed version of the Mac compared to the almost wimpy Dance.

Don't you mean up until 1987?

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

Don't you mean up until 1987?

Good catch. Yes that is what I meant but sometimes my brain is ahead of my fingers typing. I meant to say that 1982 was the last Mac tour of a raw sounding live band.

Another thing I LOVED about the Live album was the live pictures inside. I used to hang this album open above my bed as a teenager.

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Good catch. Yes that is what I meant but sometimes my brain is ahead of my fingers typing. I meant to say that 1982 was the last Mac tour of a raw sounding live band.

Another thing I LOVED about the Live album was the live pictures inside. I used to hang this album open above my bed as a teenager.

If there's one thing that technology has made worse, it's music. I know I have said this many times, but it would be awesome if Lindsey did the Tango tour and it was still just the five of them.

[WayOfTheDragon]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

it would be awesome if Lindsey did the Tango tour and it was still just the five of them.

Even if Lindsey had done the tour, it would've had an expanded lineup. According to Mick, Lindsey wanted an additional guitarist and percussionist, and probably other things, before he would agree to do the Tango tour (this was before he backed out). Maybe someone on here has Mick's actual quote.

[WayOfTheDragon]

Originally Posted by WayOfTheDragon

Even if Lindsey had done the tour, it would've had an expanded lineup. According to Mick, Lindsey wanted an additional guitarist and percussionist, and probably other things, before he would agree to do the Tango tour (this was before he backed out). Maybe someone on here has Mick's actual quote.

Here it is:
Source: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleet...hind-the-mask/

Admitting that the group essentially tricked Buckingham into co-producing Tango in the Night by hiring a producer they knew he wouldn’t want to record with, Fleetwood told Q that the guitarist’s long exit from the band ultimately came down to his unwillingness to tour.
“He didn’t want to go out on the road, and we knew that, and he kept putting us off,” explained Fleetwood. “We said, ‘You – out of anyone with the amount of work you put into this album – you’re not going out on the road? That’s crazy! You want to piss this down the drain? Don’t you want people to hear this?’ But by saying we were going anyway, we got him off the fence. He said he’d do it.”
Buckingham had a list of conditions for the tour, however. “He said he wanted two, maybe three, other guitar players, percussion players, all sorts of interesting things. So now we were over a barrel,” Fleetwood recalled. “‘Whatever you want,’ we said, ‘Just let’s get out there.’ For a while he looked as if he was going to do it – but he changed his mind after we booked the tour. It was not amusing.”

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by WayOfTheDragon

Here it is:
Source: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleet...hind-the-mask/

Admitting that the group essentially tricked Buckingham into co-producing Tango in the Night by hiring a producer they knew he wouldn’t want to record with, Fleetwood told Q that the guitarist’s long exit from the band ultimately came down to his unwillingness to tour.
“He didn’t want to go out on the road, and we knew that, and he kept putting us off,” explained Fleetwood. “We said, ‘You – out of anyone with the amount of work you put into this album – you’re not going out on the road? That’s crazy! You want to piss this down the drain? Don’t you want people to hear this?’ But by saying we were going anyway, we got him off the fence. He said he’d do it.”
Buckingham had a list of conditions for the tour, however. “He said he wanted two, maybe three, other guitar players, percussion players, all sorts of interesting things. So now we were over a barrel,” Fleetwood recalled. “‘Whatever you want,’ we said, ‘Just let’s get out there.’ For a while he looked as if he was going to do it – but he changed his mind after we booked the tour. It was not amusing.”

So Lindsey got them to hire all these extra people, then he bailed? I wouldn't mind extra instrumentalists if Lindsey wanted to keep up with the 80s sound, but no more vocalists. They didn't need them back then. They really didn't need them on The Dance. After The Dance they probably started needing backup singers.

[bombaysaffires]

IIRC the band actually didn't want to do a live album but the record company wanted it, and maybe Mick was encouraging it too, I forget. But there were lots of forces wanting them to do it and it got put out in the marketplace.

[MarkMc1990]

Love this album's version of "Landslide." When she sings "if you climb a mountain and you" with so much fragility but then regains command with "TURN AROUND"...I get chills. Not to mention the slightly varied melody in some parts is refreshing.