My current fascination with FM circa 1975-76

[PenguinHead]

I haven't listened to my many bootlegs in a long time. Today I randomly pulled out an old cassette, which was a show from Connecticut 1976. I was blasting it in my car, just amazed at how great they were - as the "new" Fleetwood Mac, prior to the Rumours phenomena.

The creative energy Lindsey and Stevie brought clearly was a huge inspiration to the band. They performed fast, fiery, loud and aggressive - like they had something to prove. There is such a distinct difference from later performances, when they became an established success.

I love the songs they performed, especially their reinterprations of older songs. It's interesting that Say You Love Me was not included in the set list until 1976. Later that year they would be trying out a few new songs from their yet-to-be released follow-up album - Silver Springs, Go Your Own Way, and You Make Loving Fun (in it's original arrangement).

Frozen Love and Jumping at Shadows (sung by Christine) were one-off performances, but the rest of these songs (mostly) were part of their standard set at that seminal time:

Don't Let Me Down Again
Get Like You Used To Be - a great opener (a Chicken Shack song?)
Station Man
Sunny Side Of Heaven
Oh Well
Green Manalishi
Hypnotized
Spare Me A Little
Why
Over My Head
World Turning
Blue Letter
I'm So Afraid
Landslide
Rhiannon

I just love hearing this live era of the band. I wish they would release a a live compilation CD from this time in history, sort of like they did with Madison Blues.