Live Album Reissue (April 9, 2021)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[jbrownsjr]

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

[David]

Originally Posted by jmn3

Sara is supposed to be from Cleveland, right?

Supposed to be (much of it is) from St. Louis November 1979.

Some of y’all might remember that, about twenty years ago Maureen Loftus snagged a bunch of concert audio soundboards and packaged them with annoying labels and sold them through her fan lists. St. Louis November 1979 was one of them. She included all the songs from the concert untouched (although some of the tracks have really annoying cuts that she herself made).

Say You Love Me, The Chain, Dreams, Not That Funny, Rhiannon, Over and Over, Oh Well, Sara, What Makes You Think, Oh Daddy, Save Me a Place, Landslide, Tusk, Angel, You Make Loving Fun, I’m So Afraid, World Turning, Go Your Own Way, Sisters of the Moon, Blue Letter, and Songbird.

For the first time (unless we happened to attend the show at the Checkerdome), we heard the full performance of Sara, which I uploaded here:

• https://gofile.io/d/es5lOP

You can hear what’s what. The opening stanza appears on both the 1980 live album and the video documentary. A shortened version of the rest of the vocal appears on the documentary, and a completely different vocal appears on the 1980 live album for reasons unknown.

[BigAl84]

Omg Maureen...wow this brings back some memories. Her and this other dude sold exclusive leaked goodies back then. I think the dudes name was James John??? Something like that.

WTF ever happened to them. I was always a bit disappointed in how much tape hiss was on the Baton Rouge ‘78 and Memphis ‘82 boots, but I suppose that was out of their control. They always kind of over sold them as these pristine recordings which they were not.

Did the mysterious box of board tapes ever get leaked from the guy in Australia who fell off the face of the earth too?

[jmn3]

Originally Posted by BigAl84

Omg Maureen...wow this brings back some memories. Her and this other dude sold exclusive leaked goodies back then. I think the dudes name was James John??? Something like that.

WTF ever happened to them. I was always a bit disappointed in how much tape hiss was on the Baton Rouge ‘78 and Memphis ‘82 boots, but I suppose that was out of their control. They always kind of over sold them as these pristine recordings which they were not.

Did the mysterious box of board tapes ever get leaked from the guy in Australia who fell off the face of the earth too?

Oh jeez, I wonder if one of these two are who I bought my one and only paid bootleg purchase off eBay probably in '99 or 2000? The aforementioned Memphis '82 show. Somewhere around the house I still have the two CD's complete with their printed-at-someone's-home "cloud" label with fancy italicized font.

Definitely was not the sound I was expecting but still an interesting view into the Mirage Tour. Pretty sure Lindsey was completely smashed by the time he got to Go Your Own Way. His "thank you for coming" speech during the intro was a bit drunky sounding and the big solo comes to a ramshackle ending.

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by David

Supposed to be (much of it is) from St. Louis November 1979.

Some of y’all might remember that, about twenty years ago Maureen Loftus snagged a bunch of concert audio soundboards and packaged them with annoying labels and sold them through her fan lists. St. Louis November 1979 was one of them. She included all the songs from the concert untouched (although some of the tracks have really annoying cuts that she herself made).


For the first time (unless we happened to attend the show at the Checkerdome), we heard the full performance of Sara, which I uploaded here:

• https://gofile.io/d/es5lOP

You can hear what’s what. The opening stanza appears on both the 1980 live album and the video documentary. A shortened version of the rest of the vocal appears on the documentary, and a completely different vocal appears on the 1980 live album for reasons unknown.

It’s great to hear the full version of that Sara from the music video. Thank you for sharing. It sounds so much better than what is on the live album. I wonder why they redid the vocals. The instruments sound better too on this one.

Also, I really like the slightly faster tempo Sara from 1980 and especially 1982. Lindsey does a slightly different guitar riff in 1982 and I love it. I wish they were adding a live 1982 Sara to this deluxe reissue or they put it on Deluxe Mirage.