Live Album Reissue (April 9, 2021)

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

Actually I could kind of imagine Stevie as the lead singer for Black Sabbath in 1977!

Nice!

[silversprings99]

I remember reading once here on the ledge that some of the songs on the 1980 double live album were NOT recorded during the Tusk tour in 1979/80, but also in 1975 and 1977 (f.e. Over My Head). Now I read in the iTunes store (the new remastered live album) that ALL the songs of the album really were recorded during the Tusk tour only, except for Don't Let Me Down Again. Is this true?

[jmn3]

Originally Posted by silversprings99

I remember reading once here on the ledge that some of the songs on the 1980 double live album were NOT recorded during the Tusk tour in 1979/80, but also in 1975 and 1977 (f.e. Over My Head). Now I read in the iTunes store (the new remastered live album) that ALL the songs of the album really were recorded during the Tusk tour only, except for Don't Let Me Down Again. Is this true?

Not a chance that’s true. Just off the top of my head, that Rhiannon is clearly from the Rumours tour. And I don’t believe Over My Head was played on the Tusk Tour.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by jmn3

Not a chance that’s true. Just off the top of my head, that Rhiannon is clearly from the Rumours tour. And I don’t believe Over My Head was played on the Tusk Tour.

Correct. Over My Head was not the Tusk tour. This reissue is a grab bag of tours.

The Rhiannon on the live album is absolute perfection. Damn it rocks and the vocals and everything is humming like a well oiled machine. As much as I LOVE the Mirage concert and all the songs, Rhiannon is the low point. Stevie mailed in the performance and the song just does not have the tempo and power as earlier tours.

If I had 2 questions to ask Lindsey. One would be about the urban legend about the tracking on Tusk and the other would be why in the world did the band include a song on the live album where his guitar string breaks at the end. Maybe they thought this was cool? You can hear someone (sounds like Chris) say at the end..."you broke a string didn't you" Now that is some weird s**t. Sara live is so wonderful it does not need touching yet they went to great efforts to touch the song for the album. Yet of all the Don't Stop performances, this is the one they picked. Strange. no?

(note to someone: I know the record company selects the songs so please hold the lecture. But the band could have corrected this)

The Live album has always been probably my favorite because back then Fleetwood Mac live vs the studio was like a different band. When I lived in West Palm Beach there used to be a hard rock station that never played anything from Fleetwood Mac because of course they were not hard rock. However, they would play the live album's Oh Well. Lindsey is on fire and John and Mick are flaming even more. Listen to that bass and Micks ending. Damn they were tight! (OMG, I said damn twice on this post ..now 3 times)

[BigAl84]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Correct. Over My Head was not the Tusk tour. This reissue is a grab bag of tours.

The Rhiannon on the live album is absolute perfection. Damn it rocks and the vocals and everything is humming like a well oiled machine. As much as I LOVE the Mirage concert and all the songs, Rhiannon is the low point. Stevie mailed in the performance and the song just does not have the tempo and power as earlier tours.

If I had 2 questions to ask Lindsey. One would be about the urban legend about the tracking on Tusk and the other would be why in the world did the band include a song on the live album where his guitar string breaks at the end. Maybe they thought this was cool? You can hear someone (sounds like Chris) say at the end..."you broke a string didn't you" Now that is some weird s**t. Sara live is so wonderful it does not need touching yet they went to great efforts to touch the song for the album. Yet of all the Don't Stop performances, this is the one they picked. Strange. no?

(note to someone: I know the record company selects the songs so please hold the lecture. But the band could have corrected this)

The Live album has always been probably my favorite because back then Fleetwood Mac live vs the studio was like a different band. When I lived in West Palm Beach there used to be a hard rock station that never played anything from Fleetwood Mac because of course they were not hard rock. However, they would play the live album's Oh Well. Lindsey is on fire and John and Mick are flaming even more. Listen to that bass and Micks ending. Damn they were tight! (OMG, I said damn twice on this post ..now 3 times)

I've also always wondered - whats up with the tracks recorded in santa monica? If it was at the santa monica civic aud, that is a really small venue and it wasn't a tour date. I was curious what spurred them to record those songs and record them there.

[BigAl84]

Also, regarding why certain songs were chosen and not others. This album was compiled (rather quickly I would assume) at the end of the tusk tour, perhaps it may have started during breaks in the tour, not sure. My point is, I'm betting they were all extremely washed out from the road and the substances. The bands involvement could of been extremely limited, even at that time.

I would imagine tapes were more carefully listened to and compared in recent years when compiling the Tusk Deluxe sets etc.

[David]

Originally Posted by BigAl84

I've also always wondered - whats up with the tracks recorded in santa monica? If it was at the santa monica civic aud, that is a really small venue and it wasn't a tour date. I was curious what spurred them to record those songs and record them there.

I think those newish songs were from July 1980 and that it was sort of a rehearsal for the final leg of the tour. (They were previously off the road in June and the final leg didn’t start until August.) We have a couple of “Fireflies” and “Farmer’s Daughter” versions that are all very close (save a piano track here and there), but why the band ran through three new ones, I’m just not sure. Maybe they planned to try some of them in concert.

On the album proper, the songs NOT recorded on the 1979–80 tour are:

• Monday Morning
• Say You Love Me
• Dreams
• Rhiannon
• Over My Head
• Don’t Let Me Down Again
• Don’t Stop

The “Sara” vocal has always both fascinated and baffled me. It sounds nothing like her 1979–80 vocals on tour. In fact, it sounds like that barrel-chested bronchial romanticism of the 1982 tour. It must have been recorded between the end of the tour (September) and the album release (December), but there is still no logical explanation as to why it sounds the way it does, save that she was in some post-bronchitis distress and loved the sound of her singing. Sometimes, when I have partially recovered from a chest cold, I like the sound of my own singing. There’s a cavernous quality that my illness brings.

I don’t believe that the album had much in the way of instrumental doctoring, other than mixing, of course, but I think some of the vocals — like the chorus on “Go Your Own Way” — were modified in studio. But nothing truly major, the way “The Dance” was polished up. Listen to the latter and then listen to the Irvine Meadows radio simulcast (Westwood One) from the tour and you can hear what the band really sounded like playing together.

As for why that “Don’t Stop” was picked for inclusion, possibly because it was so easy to mix given that it was from a publicity video they shot a few years before and were already using for marketing. (You saw it on TV to advertise Rumours in 1977.) But I love the way it peters out and Christine comments on the broken string — it’s so loose and impromptu, so indicative of the frame of mind the band were in during the Tusk years.

Incidentally, several of those inner-sleeve photos are from the final two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, including the shot of Stevie in her velour riding jacket with her leg up on the kick drum. She took that pose for a solid minute or two during the raging finale of “Go Your Own Way.”

Ahhh . . . where are the snows of yesteryear? Aye, where are they? Nostalgia infects my soul, and memories, yellowing with antiquity, infuse my spirit with a mellowing contentment.

[BigAl84]

Originally Posted by David

I think those newish songs were from July 1980 and that it was sort of a rehearsal for the final leg of the tour. (They were previously off the road in June and the final leg didn’t start until August.) We have a couple of “Fireflies” and “Farmer’s Daughter” versions that are all very close (save a piano track here and there), but why the band ran through three new ones, I’m just not sure. Maybe they planned to try some of them in concert.

On the album proper, the songs NOT recorded on the 1979–80 tour are:

• Monday Morning
• Say You Love Me
• Dreams
• Rhiannon
• Over My Head
• Don’t Let Me Down Again
• Don’t Stop

The “Sara” vocal has always both fascinated and baffled me. It sounds nothing like her 1979–80 vocals on tour. In fact, it sounds like that barrel-chested bronchial romanticism of the 1982 tour. It must have been recorded between the end of the tour (September) and the album release (December), but there is still no logical explanation as to why it sounds the way it does, save that she was in some post-bronchitis distress and loved the sound of her singing. Sometimes, when I have partially recovered from a chest cold, I like the sound of my own singing. There’s a cavernous quality that my illness brings.

I don’t believe that the album had much in the way of instrumental doctoring, other than mixing, of course, but I think some of the vocals — like the chorus on “Go Your Own Way” — were modified in studio. But nothing truly major, the way “The Dance” was polished up. Listen to the latter and then listen to the Irvine Meadows radio simulcast (Westwood One) from the tour and you can hear what the band really sounded like playing together.

As for why that “Don’t Stop” was picked for inclusion, possibly because it was so easy to mix given that it was from a publicity video they shot a few years before and were already using for marketing. (You saw it on TV to advertise Rumours in 1977.) But I love the way it peters out and Christine comments on the broken string — it’s so loose and impromptu, so indicative of the frame of mind the band were in during the Tusk years.

Incidentally, several of those inner-sleeve photos are from the final two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, including the shot of Stevie in her velour riding jacket with her leg up on the kick drum. She took that pose for a solid minute or two during the raging finale of “Go Your Own Way.”

Ahhh . . . where are the snows of yesteryear? Aye, where are they? Nostalgia infects my soul, and memories, yellowing with antiquity, infuse my spirit with a mellowing contentment.

Also what's weird about that version of Sara - if it is from '80, it's not at that super fast tempo that most of the Sara's from 80 had i.e. richfield and tucson. It sounds closer to the temp of the 79 shows.

[David]

Originally Posted by BigAl84

Also what's weird about that version of Sara - if it is from '80, it's not at that super fast tempo that most of the Sara's from 80 had i.e. richfield and tucson. It sounds closer to the temp of the 79 shows.

I have no doubt that the instrument track is from one of the nights in St. Louis (1979), as advertised. If you’re inclined, compare the tempo with the tempo from the video. Should be pretty darn close, if not identical. The opening vocal stanza is not the studio — it’s an exact match with the live vocal. The discrepancy makes you scratch your head: if you are rerecording the vocal in the studio, why wouldn’t you do the opening stanza too? I think there was a lot of cocaine around — things that happened in 1979 and 1980 were as inexplicable as anything that happened in the band in 1967 or 1971.

Perhaps the album vocal is from one night on tour where Stevie had some chest cold, and was included so as not to duplicate the plans for the video documentary. If Richard Dashut is still compos mentis, someone should ask him.

[jmn3]

Originally Posted by David

I think those newish songs were from July 1980 and that it was sort of a rehearsal for the final leg of the tour. (They were previously off the road in June and the final leg didn’t start until August.) We have a couple of “Fireflies” and “Farmer’s Daughter” versions that are all very close (save a piano track here and there), but why the band ran through three new ones, I’m just not sure. Maybe they planned to try some of them in concert.

On the album proper, the songs NOT recorded on the 1979–80 tour are:

• Monday Morning
• Say You Love Me
• Dreams
• Rhiannon
• Over My Head
• Don’t Let Me Down Again
• Don’t Stop

The “Sara” vocal has always both fascinated and baffled me. It sounds nothing like her 1979–80 vocals on tour. In fact, it sounds like that barrel-chested bronchial romanticism of the 1982 tour. It must have been recorded between the end of the tour (September) and the album release (December), but there is still no logical explanation as to why it sounds the way it does, save that she was in some post-bronchitis distress and loved the sound of her singing. Sometimes, when I have partially recovered from a chest cold, I like the sound of my own singing. There’s a cavernous quality that my illness brings.

I don’t believe that the album had much in the way of instrumental doctoring, other than mixing, of course, but I think some of the vocals — like the chorus on “Go Your Own Way” — were modified in studio. But nothing truly major, the way “The Dance” was polished up. Listen to the latter and then listen to the Irvine Meadows radio simulcast (Westwood One) from the tour and you can hear what the band really sounded like playing together.

As for why that “Don’t Stop” was picked for inclusion, possibly because it was so easy to mix given that it was from a publicity video they shot a few years before and were already using for marketing. (You saw it on TV to advertise Rumours in 1977.) But I love the way it peters out and Christine comments on the broken string — it’s so loose and impromptu, so indicative of the frame of mind the band were in during the Tusk years.

Incidentally, several of those inner-sleeve photos are from the final two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, including the shot of Stevie in her velour riding jacket with her leg up on the kick drum. She took that pose for a solid minute or two during the raging finale of “Go Your Own Way.”

Ahhh . . . where are the snows of yesteryear? Aye, where are they? Nostalgia infects my soul, and memories, yellowing with antiquity, infuse my spirit with a mellowing contentment.

Sara is supposed to be from Cleveland, right? I remember years after having the Live album and I downloaded the Cleveland boot and heard Sara and was like, what the hell? The difference was, as you said, very noticeable!

Don't Stop with that clunky ending is weird but just seems to fit in. That version of Go Your Own Way was always so wild for me when I first got into the band after really only knowing The Dance live version and the snippet of the Mirage video that you see during Behind the Music. Then I found better versions as the years went on...and THEN the Tusk Deluxe release with the version from Wembley just blew every other one I ever heard away.

There's an episode of Friends where Phoebe finally sings "good" while sick. She spends the episode trying to remain or re-get sick to get that husky voice back.

I need to get a mini-USB cord to hook up an old external hard drive with all my old downloaded bootlegs on it. That Irvine Meadows show from the 1997 tour is a nice complement to the polished nature of The Dance - I love that version of Oh Daddy and a decent version of Stand Back as well.

[BigAl84]

Originally Posted by David

I have no doubt that the instrument track is from one of the nights in St. Louis (1979), as advertised. If you’re inclined, compare the tempo with the tempo from the video. Should be pretty darn close, if not identical. The opening vocal stanza is not the studio — it’s an exact match with the live vocal. The discrepancy makes you scratch your head: if you are rerecording the vocal in the studio, why wouldn’t you do the opening stanza too? I think there was a lot of cocaine around — things that happened in 1979 and 1980 were as inexplicable as anything that happened in the band in 1967 or 1971.

Perhaps the album vocal is from one night on tour where Stevie had some chest cold, and was included so as not to duplicate the plans for the video documentary. If Richard Dashut is still compos mentis, someone should ask him.

I'm worried about Richard. He's been MIA on facebook for a very long time.

[BigAl84]

Ok I stand corrected - apparently they recorded 60 concerts according to Ken C. in 2001!

Hi, Ken. The chance to ask you about your work is a really serious kick for a Machead like me. I am very grateful to you & Marty for providing this opportunity to get your take on things.

I'm a big fan of Mac's 1980 "Live" album, but I would have preferred a single concert recorded for posterity (there was talk at the time of releasing the tour-ending Hollywood Bowl shows as an album). Do you know why the decision was made to release a collection of recordings from various tours & venues? Did the band feel that picking & choosing from various tours & cities gave them the opportunity to compile stronger performances? I think a live album of a single gig (the Band's "The Last Waltz" or James Brown's "Live at the Apollo" or even Mac's "The Dance") gives the recording strength because the set is allowed to build the way it was planned, & it has that unified sense of time & place which is so important to a great concert. (David, Los Angeles, California, USA)

Thank you for the kind words. We recorded for over 60 concerts of Fleetwood Mac around the world. The problem is that some shows had one song that was performed so amazing that you would have wanted that included in the album, yet others in the show had problems. The band wanted to get the best performance of each song and felt that they did not want to go into the studio and "fix" problems, they wanted the public to hear the actual performance untouched. The Dance was recorded on a sound stage with very good isolation, enabeling the band to go in and overdub parts, perfecting the show. This is what the Eagles did too. Thanks,

[BigAl84]

If there is only 7-10 recorded shows for each tour, I'm guessing they are including the album master tapes for Tusk on that inventory list.


"This is kind of an behind the scenes question. I've always wondered if ALL the shows from the past Fleetwood Mac tours were recorded on the mixing board and stored away. Also this brings up another thought, how does the record companies keep track of all the master tapes and how are they stored? Do they have a tendency to deteriorate in storage? Thanks so much for your time. (Alex, New York, USA)"

No, generally 7-10 shows from each tour would have been recorded. All the tapes are stored at a huge temp controlled vault and tracked by computer database, by audio or video. The other day I call and talked the head of the vault and ask him to fax me a list of tapes for Tusk...in 10 minutes I had about 3 pages of tapes in my hand.

[jbrownsjr]

^^^ I really loved the Oh Daddy's on The Dance tour!

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by David

I have no doubt that the instrument track is from one of the nights in St. Louis (1979), as advertised. If you’re inclined, compare the tempo with the tempo from the video. Should be pretty darn close, if not identical. The opening vocal stanza is not the studio — it’s an exact match with the live vocal. The discrepancy makes you scratch your head: if you are rerecording the vocal in the studio, why wouldn’t you do the opening stanza too? I think there was a lot of cocaine around — things that happened in 1979 and 1980 were as inexplicable as anything that happened in the band in 1967 or 1971.

Perhaps the album vocal is from one night on tour where Stevie had some chest cold, and was included so as not to duplicate the plans for the video documentary. If Richard Dashut is still compos mentis, someone should ask him.

Maybe the opening stanza of Sara was not changed because its the best opening stanza ever. Of every live version of Sara, THIS is my favorite. IMHO, I dont care for the long drawn out fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre. I attribute that more to her solo version of Sara. IMHO, the shorter stanza, the better.
Although the opening stanza matches the vocal exactly through the entire song IMHO.