The band recorded audio and video at every one of the 112 (!) dates they played between October 1979 and September 1980 and then proceeded to put together an album that putatively represented a Tusk tour date. In that regard, Live was perhaps the apotheosis of the Frankenstein-ed "live" album. The 2-LP set didn't just combine recordings from multiple dates on the Tusk tour ... it pulled in songs from multiple tours to present a weird, idealized version of "a Fleetwood Mac concert." The original release threw in a few cuts from the Rumours tour, a song originally released by Buckingham Nicks ("Don't Let Me Down Again") that the Mac performed on tour in 1975, and even a couple of studio rarities ("Fireflies" and a cover of the Beach Boys' "Farmer's Daughter"). However the album may fail as an accurate piece of documentary audio it more than succeeds as a cohesive piece of rock 'n' roll.
While some tracks do occasionally suffer a bit from the vagaries of live performance—a cracked voice here, a late guitar melody there—thanks to the embarrassment of riches in their song pool and given that the band was at the peak of their powers, the selection of their best individual performances yielded excellent results, and nearly all of the tracks bristle with energy, vibrancy, and a sense of creative electricity that was surely a bit of a crapshoot on such a long and grueling tour. And, in some cases—"Over and Over" and "Never Going Back Again" especially—the live versions captured here are actually superior to the studio takes, gaining an intensity and immediacy that accentuates their inherent drama.
This new edition continues in the original's tradition, tacking on a third disc of live rarities that's similarly wide-ranging, including tracks recorded on the Mirage tour which happened two years after Live was originally released. While those extras feel (obviously) tacked on—more than an encore, but less than a standalone show—they also lack the flowing context of the main album and feel far more disjointed in their presentation. Nonetheless, getting to hear the Rumours band take on "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" at the Oklahoma City State Fair Arena in 1977 or a transcendent version of "Songbird" from the tail end of the Tusk tour in Arkansas is still quite thrilling.
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