Fleetwood Mac Releases Archival Rumours Live Album

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Fleetwood Mac in 1977 (Photo: Herbert Worthington; used with permission)

Fleetwood Mac have released their souvenir of their 1977 “Rumours” tour. The band was at the top of their game in August of that year when they returned to their adopted home in Southern California to play three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. Rumours had only been out a few weeks when the band left in February to tour the world, returning six months later to play The Forum concerts for nearly 50,000 fans.

Rumours was the #1 album in America and well on its way to becoming one of the most successful ever released. It eventually sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has just been certified 21x platinum in the U.S.

Rumours Live, released on September 8, 2023, via Rhino, as 2-CD and 2-LP sets, captures the energy and excitement of the band’s opening night at The Forum on August 29, 1977. The nearly 90-minute performance includes live versions of most of the songs from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the group’s first multi-platinum #1 album, which came out in 1975.

The concert remained unreleased for decades until 2021, when “Gold Dust Woman” from the show was included as a bonus track on Rhino’s expanded version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1980 concert album. The other 17 songs on the new collection have never been released. Listen to three of them below.

Listen to a previously unreleased live version of “Dreams” from Rumours Live

And here’s “Say You Love Me,” written by Christine McVie for the band’s 1975 self-titled album.

From the July 20 announcement: Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were the first two albums recorded by the band’s latest incarnation: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie, and the newest members, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. The lone nod to Fleetwood Mac’s other nine studio albums is a performance of “Oh Well,” a rock-guitar masterpiece originally released in 1969 and written by the band’s founder, guitarist Peter Green.

Engineer Ken Caillat, who helped record Rumours, also recorded the concert at The Forum using the Record Plant’s mobile recording truck. He captured the band’s impassioned performance at a moment of peak Rumours frenzy, including powerful versions of “Landslide,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Songbird,” and “The Chain.”

In the liner notes, Sam Graham observes: “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-John McVie rhythm section and Buckingham’s febrile guitar playing; and instead of a rote 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.”

Listen to “Go Your Own Way”

The complete track listing appears below the Amazon links. When you buy something using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting Best Classic Bands.

Fleetwood Mac Rumours Live 2-LP Track Listing
LP One
Side One
“Say You Love Me”
“Monday Morning”
“Dreams”
“Oh Well”
“Rhiannon”

Side Two
“Oh Daddy”
“Never Going Back Again”
“Landslide”
“Over My Head”
“Gold Dust Woman”