Fleetwood Mac Live

[SteveMacD]

I think Mick wanted to follow the trend of releasing a live album of greatest hits. Everybody else seemed pretty luke warm to the idea.

[Lala]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

If I recall correctly, I think Mick was the only one in the band that really wanted the live album to happen.
He needed more money to blow through(pun intended).

Yeah I think that's what he said in his book. Whatever, we're lucky somebody cared even if his motive was a little gold dust.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Lala

Yeah I think that's what he said in his book. Whatever, we're lucky somebody cared even if his motive was a little gold dust.

I LOVE Live. I've never understood why it wasn't more popular.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Lala

The actual St. Louis (?) bootleg is better than what ends up on the LIVE album b/c it's not edited. The guitar is gorgeous. But you still might not like it since you think it drags on. That's okay. I think I've made it clear how obsessed I am with this song.

no, u might be right, there's versions of this i really like
i love the studio version

[shackin'up]

december 5, 1980, it became available in my hometown. I remember that day like yesterday. months of anticipation. I was eager to hear it, because my parents did not let me go to the concert in rotterdam that summer. (I was 14 and lived in a small town on the other side of the Netherlands.) It was the biggest "trauma" of my youth: it was the last time I was able to see SN and LB together until my flight to dallas in 2003.

Al those years "live" was my companion, along with Tusk. Those two became the soundtrack of my life.

I don't love that album, I breathe it. Every friggin second of it.

[Lindsey Jr.]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I love that pic in your signature. I've never seen that one before.

Thanks! Well, back in those days, I used to take pictures of FM members jamming, now I'm showing them to the world

Edit: this is a joke. But it's indeed a cool pic!

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Her voice on Landslide is haunting to say the least.

You got that right. It's one of the saddest songs ever recorded imo. I love it.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

If I recall correctly, I think Mick was the only one in the band that really wanted the live album to happen.
He needed more money to blow through(pun intended).

Mick actually wanted to release a live album between Rumours & Tusk to buy time because Tusk was taking so long (in the eyes of the record company). In retrospect, that might've not been a bad idea*. It would've been more "timely" in regards to the trend of releasing two-LP live albums...by 1980, the trend was starting to wane. Also, after Tusk raised the going rate for double albums, the Live album wasn't all that much of a bargain as it would've been had it been released a year & half earlier.

*But, on the other hand, the live album would've been mostly the "white album" and Rumours tunes on the heels of those two albums' success would've just been a live redundancy. (which is probably what Lindsey's argument against a live album, at that point, would have been)

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by chiliD

Mick actually wanted to release a live album between Rumours & Tusk to buy time because Tusk was taking so long (in the eyes of the record company). In retrospect, that might've not been a bad idea*. It would've been more "timely" in regards to the trend of releasing two-LP live albums...by 1980, the trend was starting to wane. Also, after Tusk raised the going rate for double albums, the Live album wasn't all that much of a bargain as it would've been had it been released a year & half earlier.

*But, on the other hand, the live album would've been mostly the "white album" and Rumours tunes on the heels of those two albums' success would've just been a live redundancy. (which is probably what Lindsey's argument against a live album, at that point, would have been)

Although if they'd included some of those 75 performances of the older stuff...

[David]

Originally Posted by Jyqm

Although if they'd included some of those 75 performances of the older stuff...

What's sort of weird is that they did include one track that was more than likely from 1975 -- & sort of a weird choice, too.

At any rate, I'm a fan of the "Live" album -- especially of its artwork & design motif. There was something "Tusk" about the use of the old newspaper font typeface on plain white backgrounds, & the front cover photo is a perfect symbolic representation of the band as seen (weirdly, from both the rear & the front) through the eyes of a stoned fan. The front photo is a deconstruction of both time (motion is irrespective of real time) & space (you see audience but you also see some bandmembers facing you & other bandmembers facing the other direction -- you really don't know where you are).

The track list is also daring, especially after a big expensive studio album that relatively disappointed in the sales department: no "Chain" for example but fifteen minutes of new material. All the photos used come from the Tusk Tour, as far as I can tell. But don't believe the liner notes written for the CD release: they take wild stabs at a few aspects & hit wide of the mark at least twice.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by David

But don't believe the liner notes written for the CD release: they take wild stabs at a few aspects & hit wide of the mark at least twice.

I loved the album when it was released, but the realization that it wasn't what it was touted to be ("...documenting the Tusk tour...")...when between 1/3 to 1/2 of the album WASN'T recorded during the 1979/80 tour, THAT tainted my enjoyment of the album thereafter. On top of that is that there are BOOTLEGS of actual Tusk tour shows where the performances of some of the songs are actually BETTER than what was released (some both in performance AND sound quality)

One of the first times that Fleetwood Mac had let me down (granted, I had/have lofty expectations)...here was a GOLDEN opportunity to really do something special with their live album and what, in retrospect, was really a half-assed job. (Ditto, later on with The Chain box)

But, despite my let down, as with the box set, I'm glad that the album exists, rather than not.

[DavidMn]

WHile on the subject of the Live album and it's contents, am I the only one that thought it very stupid to follow Songbird with Farmer's Daughter on the Dance tour? I mean c'mon, Songbird ands the show PERIOD.