Best official live album?

[David]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

I like the Live '80 album because it's the real deal. The kids had been touring for 18 months... so you hear that in Stevie's ragged Rhiannon vocals.

36 months, if you count all the time represented by the performances the album included. Rhiannon, Over My Head, Say You Love Me, Don't Let Me Down Again, Don't Stop, Dreams, & Monday Morning all were recorded before the Tusk tour.

In retrospect -- that is, after hearing so many (what seems like) hundreds of audience recordings from those years -- I'd have preferred a 1980 live album with different cuts or different performances. For example, I mentioned the December 1979 performances of Tusk with the Trojan marching band. Imagine the album with THAT on it! What a missed opportunity for some maximal fun. And where the hell is The Chain of a two-disc live album? There's something perverse about some of the tracks chosen for the actual album. Again, to confound expectations? Ok, but witty surprises generally only work once & tend to annoy on repetition.

[holidayroad]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

See? That's exactly why I *DO* love Live '80! It's a raw snapshot of a moment in time... even if it does show boogers in Stevie's nose, or John McVie's armpit stains . Everything FM ever did in the studio was polished up to a blinding sheen. Give me some grit. I don't need 400 backing musicians to 'fatten' up the sound... I wanna hear FLEETWOOD MAC! Not Fleetwood Mac plus Carlos, Brett, Steve, Taku, Neale, Sharon, Mindy, Lenny, the 126 piece USC Trojan Marching Band, etc etc etc.

I so agree with you! Believe me I was THRILLED to know that Lindsey was back in Fleetwood Mac and if it took something such as a money maker like The Dance to put him there, so be it. But, Live showed the band for what they were in a real concert, not a preconceived idea for an MTV special. Speaking of MTV, they didn't play much of any FMac from about 1991-1996. I felt they were hypocrites for being able to make money off a band they hadn't help promote in years.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by David

If you could have had a video of only one of the following, which would you pick?

1. Tusk from The Dance with USC marching band May 1997
2. Tusk from Inglewood Forum with USC marching band December 1979

1979 of course, but I take what I can get!

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

What? Are we watching the same thing?

Yeah, I know that everyone else really liked it. That's why I was wondering why it didn't stand out to me. It's not that I'm not crazy about the DVD and not easily stirred into a frenzy.

Ya know. I'm usually like, "Oh look at Stevie straightening Lindsey's scarf on the Today Show. I think she's worried about him being cold. I may need a valium. How can I frame that moment!" So, it doesn't take much, but I never could figure out why that Silver Springs DVD moment was water cooler talk.

Loved the song on tour though. We talk about the concerts being staged and it was, but when Lindsey would move towards Stevie and she would move away from him while scream singing, I really don't think she was faking it.

Michele

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Loved the song on tour though. We talk about the concerts being staged and it was, but when Lindsey would move towards Stevie and she would move away from him while scream singing, I really don't think she was faking it.

Michele

Gah! I love it when she moves her mic stand around. There's one particular clip on YouTube of SS on the Dance tour where, towards the end, Stevie is dragging the mic stand so far away from Lindsey that she ends up practically off stage somewhere next to John. It would have just seemed so much easier if she would grab the mic off the stand and carry it instead.

[daniellaaarisen]

Michele, I get your point about The Dance's "Silver Springs." Compared to versions we have on YouTube and in audio recordings from later on in the tour, it sure doesn't stand out in terms of emotional intensity. However, I think that people can feel how the ending of that song wasn't exactly scripted and in comparison to the rest of The Dance, it IS emotional and it IS a little jarring. You long time fans had been spoiled with emotional intensity for years and years by the time that The Dance came out. For people who were first introduced to the band with the DVD, its totally flooring... since we have nothing to really compare it to, I think. I mean, I was five when I first saw "Silver Springs" on the DVD and I vividly remember being torn up by it and crying while watching it over and over again. I think it takes a lot to affect anyone like that, let alone a little kid. So with that being said, many of you guys were used to the Lindsey/Stevie tensions for 20+ years before The Dance. Then of course there's the entire idea that Rumours had come out exactly 20 years before, and I'm sure people watched the DVD with that hyper-nostalgic mindset... I donno. But I do think "Silver Springs" is special on that DVD, even if it isn't the most powerful version we've heard from that time period.

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, I never understood what people liked about The Dance dvd version of Silver Springs.

You uh... you kidding?

[trackaghost]

I'd probably say, alongside the new songs, Landslide and Silver Springs are the highlights of The Dance. I remember just being thrilled to finally hear it performed live.

[cristochango]

I've never heard Live 80, and I'm not a big fan of The Dance (I am, but Its not my favorite)

Id rather watch Live in Boston over The Dance

and thats what I'm basing my choice of off

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

You uh... you kidding?

Well, it was wrong for me to say I never understood what people liked about it. There is nothing about it I don't like. I'm just saying it didn't stand out for me. Wouldn't have made my Top 10 Dance Moments list. Michele

[belladonnadream]

Live 1980...Love the Tusk sound. That album brings back memories

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by David

If you could have had a video of only one of the following, which would you pick?

1. Tusk from The Dance with USC marching band May 1997
2. Tusk from Inglewood Forum with USC marching band December 1979

2. Since there'd be a chance that I would be in the video. (and, you'd also have basically the same people in the USC marching band who were on the studio track....with The Dance, you have the KIDS of the people who were in the USC Marching band on the album track....sort of how I picture the entire Dance project...it's a nostalgia act performing the song, not the "original" cutting edge performance....Lindsey of all people should take his own advice from his song on Mirage...."Can't Go Back".)

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Well, it was wrong for me to say I never understood what people liked about it. There is nothing about it I don't like. I'm just saying it didn't stand out for me. Wouldn't have made my Top 10 Dance Moments list. Michele

I follow you. I feel the opposite but, I get ya.

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

I would probably love the 1980 version better if they'd release all the video footage with it and put it on DVD.

Music is released primarily to be heard. The 1980 Live album was released in a time long before DVDs and MTV videos. The songs all come from different shows. Unlike The Dance, there is no concise "video footage" to correspond with the Live album. It's a great "audio" document without any need for visuals. The sound should be enough satisfaction by itself!

[strandinthewind]

If the 1980 album had been from one concert (which it was not) and filmed in HDish (imagine it on Blue Ray!!!!) - many people would be picking that one. The visual of The Dance is just too compelling, esp. Silver Springs.