Live Album Reissue (April 9, 2021)

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

The Tusk hangover is what led to dim album sales. If they had released a live Rumours album, it would have sold similar to the Eagles live album. This is why Warner Brothers put up resistance to this album. Tusk got such flak which is remembered but not the scale of negativity. When Christine introduces a Tusk song "We havent played anything from Tusk so we are going to try some out tonight for you......." The crowd is silent. They did not want to hear Over and Over. People hated Tusk. The song Tusk was actually on a list of worst songs ever on a radio station countdown of the worst songs ever. Mick was the only one forcing the album to happen which everyone threw in his face "I told you so" when it also had disappointing album sales. The band was a platinum album band and the Live album sales embarrassed the band. However its probably one of Mick's best decisions ever. The Mac live was a different animal in the 70s and its so wonderful they were recorded and shared with the world. This is album so so much better than the Dance. OMG I cant even compare them.

What's surprising is how well Mirage did. Because it's nothing like Rumours. Hold Me and Gypsy really carried that album. I'm glad Hold Me is a duel vocal.

[jmn3]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

What's surprising is how well Mirage did. Because it's nothing like Rumours. Hold Me and Gypsy really carried that album. I'm glad Hold Me is a duel vocal.

I was way too young to be aware of it in real time but I'd have to agree that Hold Me and Gypsy were so strong that they were the primary reasons that Mirage sold so well. And not just the songs but the videos too.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by jmn3

I was way too young to be aware of it in real time but I'd have to agree that Hold Me and Gypsy were so strong that they were the primary reasons that Mirage sold so well. And not just the songs but the videos too.

THIS. Gypsy especially. MTV was new and hot. The video for Gypsy is(IMO) what really caught people's eye to Mirage.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

The Tusk hangover is what led to dim album sales. If they had released a live Rumours album, it would have sold similar to the Eagles live album. This is why Warner Brothers put up resistance to this album. Tusk got such flak which is remembered but not the scale of negativity. When Christine introduces a Tusk song "We havent played anything from Tusk so we are going to try some out tonight for you......." The crowd is silent. They did not want to hear Over and Over. People hated Tusk. The song Tusk was actually on a list of worst songs ever on a radio station countdown of the worst songs ever. Mick was the only one forcing the album to happen which everyone threw in his face "I told you so" when it also had disappointing album sales. The band was a platinum album band and the Live album sales embarrassed the band. However its probably one of Mick's best decisions ever. The Mac live was a different animal in the 70s and its so wonderful they were recorded and shared with the world. This is album so so much better than the Dance. OMG I cant even compare them.

I've never understood why Live didn't sell. I LOVED it the day it was released. It had a good mix of songs from the different albums. It made me love Oh Well, too!
Mick's life has been a cornucopia of bad decisions, but this fell into his 1% of good decisions.

And it's far superior to The Dance. The overdubs on The Dance are so blatantly obvious that it bugs me to even watch it. Not that Live doesn't have overdubs, but at least they didn't erase all of the warts for a complete whitewash.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

I've never understood why Live didn't sell. I LOVED it the day it was released. It had a good mix of songs from the different albums. I made me love Oh Well, too!
Mick's life has been a cornucopia of bad decisions, but this fell into his 1% of good decisions.

And it's far superior to The Dance. The overdubs on The Dance are so blatantly obvious that it bugs me to even watch it. Not that Live doesn't have overdubs, but at least they didn't erase all of the warts for a complete whitewash.

It did not sell well because Tusk sort of killed the band with maintream rock stations which were huge in the late 70s and early 80s. They did not play Tusk and did not play Sara. I think some of them dug deep to try and find a rock song and Sisters was played a little. The live Eagles album was played tons on rock stations. I think people did not give them a second look after Tusk came out. The Mac sort of jumped the shark at that time which is why today on classic rock stations you only hear songs from the White Album and Rumours.
I love to tell this story but when I lived in West Palm Beach in the mid 90s there was a hard rock station (and I mean hard rock, no classic rock unless it was AC DC or Zep or Hendrix. They played Oh Well from the live album. I was floored but even they knew the song would go over so well with a hard rock audience.
Remember during the Mirage show at the US Festival where Lindsey announces a song from Tusk and Christine says to the audience "the album you guys hated"
She has a wicked sense of humor. After Tusk, few knew how to define the band. They were nor breaking down doors at the record store to buy Tusk and they certainly did not care about a live album mostly recorded on that tour.
That was all "real time." Looking back to the hardcore fans and the band members, they appreciate Tusk for its greatness. I too love the album but I hate what it did to the band. The counter reaction the band did because of Tusk put pressure on Lindsey to now be chasing corporate radio friendly songs which is so anti-Tusk when you think about it. Mirage had to be successful and radio friendly or the band could disband. Tango needed to get Mick out of bankruptcy and needed to be radio friendly have a 5 year hiatus.

[David]

I think it was a perfectly acceptable idea for the band to produce a live album in 1980. The tour was a great success commercially and artistically, after all. In fact, it was the biggest box office for US arenas that year, said Billboard. Remember the big spread congratulating Mac on that? But something about the live album just didn’t have much appeal to radio — maybe it was the weirdness. My problem with that album, I guess, is that it comes across as just a bunch of individual snapshots of sounds. It doesn’t arc dramatically the way other live albums do. Some other albums drew from numerous concert stops but they did so in a way that blended pretty seamlessly. You weren’t aware of the disparate geographies in the Stones’ Love You Live album, or Rainbow’s On Stage album, or the P-Funk Earth Tour album, or Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty. But Mac Live is an overtly varied parade of noises and vocals and audience responses. You could hear an occasional track on LA rock radio — “Monday Morning,” maybe, or “Rhiannon” — largely because the LA DJs were so Mac-friendly. (They played “Tusk” too, and I’ve already talked about how USC drove the popularity of that song regionally.) But essentially Live just came and went. It was released the day Lennon was shot, and the Mac tour was three months over. There really was no statement to be made from the band at that point, except possibly to itself. I bring up the scattershot quality as a probable reason for its lack of appeal, but I don’t think a unified approach (all from one big night in Munich, say) would have made any difference.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

It did not sell well because Tusk sort of killed the band with maintream rock stations which were huge in the late 70s and early 80s. They did not play Tusk and did not play Sara. I think some of them dug deep to try and find a rock song and Sisters was played a little. The live Eagles album was played tons on rock stations. I think people did not give them a second look after Tusk came out. The Mac sort of jumped the shark at that time which is why today on classic rock stations you only hear songs from the White Album and Rumours.

The rock stations may have rejected Sara, but Sara was all over the pop stations. I kept hearing it everywhere and I said, “Who IS this?” I’d heard their earlier hits and liked them, but I never actively sought the band out before. I never said, “I have to have this” before.

Well, also, looking back, maybe it was not just the haunting power of Sara, because when the White album came out, I was a kid and did not have spending money. Maybe that’s why I never tried to buy anything of theirs before. By the time Tusk was released, I was older and had money to spend on clothes and music. But anyway, Sara was a radio favorite.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The rock stations may have rejected Sara, but Sara was all over the pop stations. I kept hearing it everywhere and I said, “Who IS this?” I’d heard their earlier hits and liked them, but I never actively sought the band out before. I never said, “I have to have this” before.

Well, also, looking back, maybe it was not just the haunting power of Sara, because when the White album came out, I was a kid and did not have spending money. Maybe that’s why I never tried to buy anything of theirs before. By the time Tusk was released, I was older and had money to spend on clothes and music. But anyway, Sara was a radio favorite.

Sara was huge. No doubt but those pop radio stations would never be playing or promoting the live album. Rock stations would have if Tusk had some rock chops or rock hits. Seven Bridges Road from Eagles live 1980 was a staple of almost every rock station throughout the early 80s. That song live really promoted the hell out of that album. The harmonies were incredible. The live album could have had a similar impact if Tusk was a different album IMHO. Just imagine if in 1978 Fleetwood Mac released a live album off the back of Rumours. It would have been HUGE. Tusk was not a huge seller and the live album was a total flop for the band who had been selling millions of copies of albums up to that moment. Having said all this, I am a HUGE fan of the live album and its one of my favorite of all time. So thankful it was done because some of the songs are pure gold. Just explaining why IMHO the album tanked. I also tend to like albums that are not that commercially successful.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

THIS. Gypsy especially. MTV was new and hot. The video for Gypsy is(IMO) what really caught people's eye to Mirage.

It did for me. That video was the perfect visual complement to that song. Had there been no music videos at the time, I suspect “Hold Me” would still have reached #4 in the US, because it’s just that kind of song—a surefire hit. “Gypsy” would likely have done well, too, but I doubt it would have had such longevity in the public imagination without the video. This is not a knock at that song, which is lovely, but an acknowledgment of how crucial visuals were in Stevie Nicks’ mass appeal. Christine made and sang earworms. We didn’t need to see “Say You Love Me” or “Everywhere” in order to be charmed by them. In fact, they were made to be savored on airwaves. But Stevie’s power is so completely tied to her stage presence, her theatrical skills in song performance.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

It did for me. That video was the perfect visual complement to that song. Had there been no music videos at the time, I suspect “Hold Me” would still have reached #4 in the US, because it’s just that kind of song—a surefire hit. “Gypsy” would likely have done well, too, but I doubt it would have had such longevity in the public imagination without the video. This is not a knock at that song, which is lovely, but an acknowledgment of how crucial visuals were in Stevie Nicks’ mass appeal. Christine made and sang earworms. We didn’t need to see “Say You Love Me” or “Everywhere” in order to be charmed by them. In fact, they were made to be savored on airwaves. But Stevie’s power is so completely tied to her stage presence, her theatrical skills in song performance.

I was already neck deep in my fandom when Mirage came along, so I'd have worshiped it regardless, but the Gypsy video truly seemed like a work of art at the time.

It's amazing how quickly $he slid downhill with her drug use, song writing, and voice. From the Bella Donna masterpiece in 1981 to the TURD OSOTM in 1989. Drugs are bad kids....

And yes, Chris is the earworm queen! It amazing how she always finds such catchy hooks!

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

THIS. Gypsy especially. MTV was new and hot. The video for Gypsy is(IMO) what really caught people's eye to Mirage.

Admit it... you stretched and danced in front of your floor mirror just like Stevie did in the video. I can even picture paper flowers in the background.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Admit it... you stretched and danced in front of your floor mirror just like Stevie did in the video. I can even picture paper flowers in the background.

Not so much. I've never been in touch with any "girly side" of me. Really.

YOU KNOW, now that you bring it up....it ALWAYS pissed me off that people ASSumed that I only liked FM because "that $tevie is so HOT!". Guys in high school would say that, and I'd just roll my eyes and let it roll off my shoulders. I always enjoyed the music far more than the drama. Perhaps the reason I loathe shippers so.... Shipping is so f*cking stupid.

Yeah, I've never been a fan of soap operas, either. I live in reality. Well, not really, but MY reality!

[UnwindedDreams]

Mick promoted his Peter Green Concert today and the BBC interviewer today said to Mick to come back and talk about the Fleetwood Mac Live album.

Mick said he'd love that. If it were Billy Joel in that situation, Billy would've said I have nothing to do with that release but I'll come back because I have nothing else to do.

[jmn3]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Yeah, I've never been a fan of soap operas, either. I live in reality. Well, not really, but MY reality!

See but if this was a soap we could’ve recast Stevie or wrote her off the show years ago. Hell, maybe the 2000’s era jerk Stevie is actually an evil twin and the real Stevie is locked away on an island somewhere just waiting for Lindsey to come rescue her?? Alright, I’m done

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by jmn3

See but if this was a soap we could’ve recast Stevie or wrote her off the show years ago. Hell, maybe the 2000’s era jerk Stevie is actually an evil twin and the real Stevie is locked away on an island somewhere just waiting for Lindsey to come rescue her?? Alright, I’m done

Do you mean, like her plane could crash? Or Karen was really her lesbian lover, and killed her in some passionate scene? Or $he contracts a horrible combination of V.D.'s, and suffers Al Capone's fate?

Now that's a soap opera I'd watch!!!