Weeks after releasing their groundbreaking album Rumours in 1977, Fleetwood Mac was already on a world tour and returned for three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles months later. The energy of the band’s opening night on August 29, 1977, was captured in a live recording, to be released for the first time on September 8.
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Available in 2-CD and 2-LP format, Rumours Live includes 90 minutes of previously unreleased material from the band’s full 1977 set, which also included non-Rumours tracks “Rhiannon,” “Over My Head” and “Monday Morning.”
Engineer Ken Caillat, who co-produced Rumours along with the band and Richard Dashut, recorded the 1977 concert at The Forum using the Record Plant’s mobile recording truck. The live recording remained unreleased for decades with the exception of “Gold Dust Woman,” which was featured as a bonus track on the band’s 1980 concert album Live: Deluxe Edition.
Also included on the album is a performance of “Oh Well,” written by the band’s founder and guitarist Peter Green, who died in 2020. The song was originally released on the band’s third album, Then Play On, in 1969.
At the time of their Forum shows, Rumours was the No. 1 album in America and went on to sell more than 40 million copies worldwide.
In 2020, Rumours reentered the Billboard chart. The success came after the band received more than 30 million streams following a viral video of the track “Dreams,” featuring Idaho man Nathan Apodaca skateboarding to the song while drinking from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice.
“The songs are familiar: ‘Dreams,’ ‘Go Your Own Way,’ ‘Say You Love Me,’ ‘Over My Head,’ and on and on,” writes Sam Graham in the liner notes. “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 [Lindsey] 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.”
‘Rumours Live’ LP track listing:
LP One / Side One
1. “Say You Love Me”
2. “Monday Morning”
3. “Dreams”
4. “Oh Well”
5. “Rhiannon”
LP One / Side Two
1. “Oh Daddy”
2. “Never Going Back Again”
3. “Landslide”
4. “Over My Head”
5. “Gold Dust Woman”
LP Two / Side One
1. “You Make Loving Fun”
2. “I’m So Afraid”
3. “Go Your Own Way”
4. “World Turning”
LP Two / Side Two
1. “Blue Letter”
2. “The Chain”
3. “Second Hand News”
4. “Songbird”
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
