FLEETWOOD MAC: 8/29/77
It's difficult for us mere mortals to imagine what it was like to be a member of Fleetwood Mac on August 29, 1977.
As the group took the stage at the Forum in Inglewood, California, for the first show of a three-night stand that would see them perform for nearly 50,000 fans, they were at the top of their game and on top of the world.
Rumours, the second album by the lineup featuring newest members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, had been released six months earlier and was well on its way to selling more than 40 million copies. For drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, it was the high point for the band ther'd cofounded a full ten years earlier; keyboardist/singer Christine McVie had been along for most of the ride as well, while Buckingham and Nicks, plucked from obscurity by Fleetwood Mac just two years before, found themselves fronting a formally journeyman outfit that had become one of the world's biggest rock attractions. Heady stuff. And now they were about to play a homecoming of sorts in Southern California. their adopted home turf.
The anticipation among everyone, musicians and audience alike, was palpable. And Fleetwood Mac delivered in spades. The 18 songs presented here, from the opener "Say You Love Me" to the closing "Songbird" - all but one of them taken from the Fleetwood Mac and Rumours albums (erstwhile leader Peter Green's "Oh Well" being the lone exception) - offer power combined with passion, exquisite songcraft matched with superb musicianship, and no-frills showmanship that lets the music speak for itself.
The songs are familiar: "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "Say You Love Me," "Over My Head," and on and on. But most of these live versions are more muscular. more ferocious. than the album recordings driven by the powerhouse Fleetwood/McVie rhythm section and Buckingham's febrile guitar playing; and instead of a note recital of the hits, the group stretches out in concert, as songs like "Rhiannon," "World Turning," and "I'm So Afraid" blossom into exuberant tours de force onstage
Of course, this gig wasn't Fleetwood Mac's first rodeo. Indeed, their intense touring schedule -- they'd been on the road pretty much non-stop since the release of the Fleetwood Mac album - played a major part in the bond they established with their audience. "Everyone is so different from everybody else," Stevie Nicks told an interviewer. "Look at us onstage -- we don't even look like we're going to the same place... We're very loose onstage, but I think the audience picks up that we're having a really good time up there." They're not the only ones, as this remarkable concert document confirms.
- Sam Graham
MICK FLEETWOOD: drums, percussion
JOHN McVIE: Bass
CHRISTINE McVIE: keyboards, synthesizer, vocals
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: guitars, vocals
STEVIE NICKS: vocals
Recorded at The Fabulous Forum, Inglewood, CA (8/29/77)
by KEN CAILLAT with Record Plant Mobile
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