Fleetwood Mac are one of the bands I regret most having missed out seeing live; for one reason or another I was not able to see them in the few times they visited Holland in the last 15 years - and, after Christine McVie's death and Lindsey Buckingham's estrangement from the rest, it seems that I'll never get to tick that particular box. Closest I'll get to, is one of their live albums; basically Live and 1997's The Dance. Fleetwood Mac Live was the band's first live release after 13 years and about as many personnel changes. Fleetwood Mac, who had started out as a pure blues band, had lost its leader Peter Green to LSD and religious cults in 1970, and staggered aimlessly for a while, until they incorporated the American singer/songwriter duo, and real-life couple, of Buckingham/Nicks. With founding members Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John Mac Vie (bass) augmented by a trio of talented singer/songwriters (Stevie Nicks on vocals, Lindsey Buckingham guitar and vocals, and Christine Mac Vie on piano and vocals), they finally hit their stride, producing three artistically and commercially successful albums in quick succession: Fleetwood Mac (1975), the mega-selling Rumours (1977), and more experimental double LP Tusk (1979). With all those hits under their belt, the time was right to release a live album; after all this was the golden era of the double live album: Kiss Alive, Frampton Comes Alive, Cheap Trick At Budokan sold spectacularly better than their studio predecessors, and acted as springboards to unprecedented commercial success for the respective bands. Slightly less influential then these, Live captures Fleetwood Mac at their creative apogee, sports a hit-laden setlist and excellent performances. But, on the downside, it fails to convey the excitement of a real concert; there's very little between-song banter, and the recordings come from far too diverse sources: clubs, arenas, soundchecks and rehearsals. Which makes it all sound more like a collection of unrelated live recordings rather than a cohesive album. The band is really tight and professional, so the performances still sound slick (thanks presumably to a fair amount of overdubbing), albeit less glossy than the studio versions. So if you always felt that their studio albums were just a bit too clean, you might enjoy this LP better. What hit me immediately when I first listened to this, is how dominant Buckingham's guitar is, at least compared to the studio versions. I never rated him highly as an instrumentalist, but here he really lets his inner guitar hero shine: notably on Peter Green-era hard rocker "Oh Well", but also on opener "Monday Morning", and on elongated versions of "I'm So Afraid" and the punk/new wave-y "Not That Funny" from Tusk. The latter's yelps and howls are also repeated during the intro to another of his songs "Go Your Own Way", which sounds refreshingly rugged and quite different to the polished version in Rumours. "Don't Let Me Down Again" (from the couple's pre-Mac 1973 LP Buckingham Nicks) sounds fantastic re-imagined as a rowdy Southern rocker. It's fair to say that the aforementioned tracks, which feature Buckingham in lead vocals, are also the wildest and least commercial-sounding ones on this LP. Christine Mac Vie handles the more folk/blues numbers, including ballads "Over & Over", "One More Night", upbeat "Over My Head", country-ish "Say You Love Me", and of course what is arguably her best song "Don't Stop", which here also features some fine blues guitar by Buckingham. Moving on to the most pop-oriented of the band's singers, Stevie Nicks' enchanting voice is on the forefront on her ethereal hits "Dreams", "Sara", "Landslide", and a passionate performance of "Rhiannon". Additionally, she brings a new song called "Fireflies" - a rather upbeat number which, like most of the songs on Rumours, mines the rich dramatic seam provided by the interpersonal relationships within the band. Fleetwood Mac Live closes with Beach Boys cover "Farmer's Daughter", a wonderful showcase for the band's harmonies. Nicks' and McVie's vocals are amazing throughout, while Lindsey's are rougher, which of course he makes up for with his excellent guitar playing. John Mac Vie and Mick Fleetwood are the unsung heroes of the group (although they gave their names to it), but their performance here is also commendable - especially Fleetwood, his drumming on "Oh Well" is one of the album's highlights. Now, my own version of Fleetwood Mac Live is the original double CD release from 1988, but this has now been surpassed by a triple-CD Deluxe Edition featuring 15 more songs stemming from the same period, and superior remastered sound. In conclusion, there are some iconic (usually double) live classic rock albums that capture the artists' essence better than any of their studio LPs, and considered to be essential listening, e.g. The Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East, Kiss Alive!, Deep Purple's Made in Japan, Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, etc. Fleetwood Mac Live doesn't quite belong in the same category, but it's a damn fine live document of the band in their prime, and well worth owning for any fan.
***** for Dreams, Rhiannon, Don't Stop
**** for Say You Love Me, Sara, Not That Funny, Landslide, Fireflies, Over My Head, Don't Let Me Down Again, Go Your Own Way, I'm So Afraid
*** for Monday Morning, Oh Well, Over & Over, Never Going Back Again, One More Night, Farmer's Daughter
No comments:
Post a Comment