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Live (Fleetwood Mac album)

Live is a double live album released by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac on 5 December 1980. It was the first live album from the then-current line-up of the band, and the next would be The Dance from 1997. The album was certified gold (500,000 copies sold) by the RIAA in November 1981. A deluxe edition of the album was released on 9 April 2021.

Live consists of recordings taken primarily from the 1979–1980 Tusk Tour and a Buckingham Nicks track, "Don't Let Me Down Again", from the 1975 Fleetwood Mac Tour. The deluxe edition also includes a few recordings from the earlier Rumours Tour of 1977 and the later Mirage Tour of 1982. According to the liner notes, two songs were recorded at a Paris soundcheck and three at a performance at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium "for an audience of friends and road crew".

Background

Drummer Mick Fleetwood had originally suggested that the band release a live album at the time of the Rumours tour, although the band decided against it, with recording engineer Richard Dashut arguing that it would interfere with the band's in-studio identity. The band still recorded over 400 shows from 1975-79 in case they changed their minds. At the conclusion of the Tusk tour, Fleetwood brought up the idea again, and this time the band agreed despite Buckingham's and John McVie's initial reservations.

Of particular note are three new songs—Christine McVie's "One More Night", Stevie Nicks's "Fireflies", and a well-harmonized backstage rendition of the Beach Boys' "The Farmer's Daughter". The latter two were released as singles; "Fireflies" reached the top 60 in the US, while "The Farmer's Daughter" reached the top 10 in Austria. "Fireflies" was Nicks' rumination on the tumultuous recording of the Tusk album and her observance that the band stayed intact nevertheless. Her lyrics referred to band members as the "five fireflies".

"The Farmer's Daughter" appears to have been recorded at The Village Recorders studio where Tusk was recorded despite the liner notes—it appears in the Tusk re-release of 2004 nearly identical sans crowd noise. Various similar takes from a recording session have emerged on bootlegs, and at least two separate vocal tracks featuring Nicks can be heard on the version released on Live. The band covered "Farmer's Daughter" at the request of Buckingham, who deemed the Brian Wilson tune obscure enough to include on the album. "Don't Let Me Down Again" is a song from the Buckingham Nicks album and was recorded earlier than the rest of the tracks; the recording was made in 1975 in Passaic.

Also notable are three Lindsey Buckingham guitar showcases. The first, "I'm So Afraid", was popular as a concert finale during this period. The second was Buckingham's take on former Mac guitarist Peter Green's signature number, "Oh Well" (originally a 1969 single release). The third was "Monday Morning", a popular concert opener during this period.