Live From The Record Plant (December 15, 1974) (Remastered) Fleetwood Mac

• 1 The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) [Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974] 05:44
• 2 Angel (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 04:59
• 3 Spare Me a Little of Your Love (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 04:09
• 4 Sentimental Lady (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 03:10
• 5 Future Games (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 09:01
• 6 Bermuda Triangle (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 10:41
• 7 Why (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 04:05
• 8 Believe Me (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 04:54
• 9 Black Magic Woman / Oh Well (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 06:54
• 10 Rattlesnake Shake (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 11:29
• 11 Hypnotized (Live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 12/15/1974) 07:30
• Total Runtime 01:12:36

Info for Live From The Record Plant (December 15, 1974) (Remastered)

The show presented here returns to Welch’s final days with Fleetwood Mac, possibly his last show with them. it is an excellent radio broadcast from the Record Plant, December 15, 1974. The show is live, but without an actual audience, being in front of only a couple dozen Record Plant-affiliated people, which makes for a somewhat strange silence after and between songs. But it is a great show nonetheless and Welch’s final fling with Fleetwood Mac.

The late 1960s/1970 Peter Green era of Fleetwood Mac is deservedly legendary and the era that began in 1975, with the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, is by far the most commercially successful era, but the time period between the two is often neglected in terms of recognition. Admittedly, this era was full of personnel changes and certainly a transitional time in the long history of the band, but they were still creating new, fresh and vibrant music. This December 1974 Record Plant recording, the band's second appearance that year, captures the lineup fronted by Bob Welch and Christine McVie, performing some of their finest material of that era, along with several tributes to the departed original leader of the band, Peter Green.

At the time, the group's previous management had a bogus Fleetwood Mac out on the road and the band was not only competing with the glory of a previous lineup, they were also battling to make it clear that they were indeed the real Fleetwood Mac. Hence Tom Donohue's introduction where he says, "They have had imitators. They've had even forgeries, but this is the real Fleetwood Mac."

The band launches directly into one of Peter Green's heaviest songs, "Green Manalishi." While not as intense or lengthy as Green and Kirwin's dense explorations on this number, Bob Welch does a respectable job as the sole lead guitarist, and the unique drive of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood's rhythm section, which often propelled this song, is still fully intact. This warm-up exercise gets the group pumped up for the material that defined the era.

The set then alternates between the best of Bob Welch's and Christine McVie's recent contributions to the band. Welch supplies "Angel," a lengthy excursion into "Bermuda Triangle," as well as the FM radio staple, "Sentimental Lady," which morphs directly into a superb rendition of "Future Games." The latter is an overlooked classic and this performance contains an extended monologue in the middle, where Welch explains the genesis of this captivating number. "Future Games" is certainly one of the high points of this set and this era of the band. Christine McVie contributes her infectious "Spare Me A Little" and lovely takes on "Why" and "Believe Me," three of her most memorable songs from this time period. Her voice is in fine form not only on her own numbers, but in conjunction with Welch on some of his numbers, where she provides harmony or counterpoint vocals.

Later in the set they return to honoring their founder, Peter Green, with a lengthy tribute jam containing three of his classics; "Black Magic Woman," "Oh Well" and Green's anthem to masturbation, "Rattlesnake Shake." The set ends with an arrangement of one of Welch's finest contributions, "Hypnotized," the highlight of the previous year's Mystery To Me album. Beginning with a unique guitar intro sequence not included on the recording, this is a dreamy, mesmerizing performance.

This is a fine performance and one of the last existing live documents of Fleetwood Mac with Welch on board. Like Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwin before him, Welch too would soon depart to pursue a solo career, leaving the band in search of another frontman/guitar player and the opportunity to again redefine their sound. Little did they know what astronomical success lay in store for them. (Written by Alan Bershaw)

Bob Welch, guitar, vocals
Christine McVie, piano, vocals
Bobby Hunt, Hammond organ, clavinet, ARP synthesizer
John McVie, bass
Mick Fleetwood, drums

Digitally remastered

Fleetwood Mac
The Fleetwood Mac story is an episodic saga that spans more than 30 years. It is the saga of a British blues band formed in 1967 that became a California-based pop group in the mid-Seventies. In between came a period where Fleetwood Mac shuffled personnel and experimented with styles, all the while releasing solid albums that found a loyal core audience. Despite all the changes, two members have remained constant over the years: drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, whose surnames provided the group name Fleetwood Mac. Though most rock fans are familiar with the lineup that includes Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks-by far the longest-running edition of the band, responsible for the classic albums Fleetwood Mac and Rumours-the group possesses a rich and storied history that predates those epics. Earlier Fleetwood Mac lineups included guitarists Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch. Fleetwood Mac when Green, Fleetwood and McVie, who were all expatriates from British bandleader John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, decided to form a band. McVie and Fleetwood had been playing with Mayall, a British blues legend, since 1963 and 1965, respectively, while Green replaced Eric Clapton (who exited to form Cream) in 1966. Initially a quartet, the original Fleetwood Mac also included guitarist Jeremy Spencer and then expanded with the addition of Danny Kirwan prior to their second album. Not surprisingly, the group’s first two U.K. albums-Fleetwood Mac (1967) and Mr. Wonderful (1967)-were heavily blues-oriented. “Black Magic Woman,” a Peter Green song from the latter album, later became a major hit for Santana. In 1969, Fleetwood Mac recorded at Chess studios with American blues musicians, including Willie Dixon and Otis Span; it was released as the two-volume Blues Jam in the U.K. and as Fleetwood Mac in Chicago in the U.S. By decade’s end, however, Fleetwood Mac had begun moving from traditional blues to a more progressive approach. Around this time, the group adopted its distinctive “penguin” logo, based on zoo-lover and amateur photographer McVie’s interest in the birds. There are arguably three “definitive” Fleetwood Mac lineups. One of them is the blues-oriented band of the late Sixties, which arrayed three guitarists (Green, Spencer and Kirwan) around the rhythm section of Fleetwood and McVie. They are best represented by 1969’s Then Play On, a milestone in progressive blues-rock. After Green’s exodus in mid-1970, the remaining members cut the more easygoing, rock and roll-oriented Kiln House. Early in 1971, a born-again Spencer abruptly left the band during a U.S. tour to join the Children of God. The second key configuration found Fleetwood, McVie and Kirwan joined by keyboardist Christine McVie (born Christine Perfect, she’d married bassist McVie) and guitarist Bob Welch, a Southern Californian who became the group’s first American member and a harbinger of new directions. This configuration produced a pair of ethereal pop masterpieces, Future Games (1971) and Bare Trees (1972). Kirwan, who was having personal problems, was asked to leave in August 1972. The remaining foursome, joined by new recruits Dave Walker (vocals) and Bob Weston, recorded Penguin (1973); sans Walker, they cut Mystery to Me (1974). Again reduced to a quartet with Weston’s departure, they released Heroes Are Hard to Find later that same year. Finally, the platinum edition of Fleetwood Mac came together in 1975 with the recruitment of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The San Francisco duo had previously cut an album together as Buckingham-Nicks. Drummer Fleetwood heard a tape of theirs at a studio he was auditioning, and the pair were drafted into the group without so much as a formal audition. This lineup proved far and away to be Fleetwood Mac’s most durable and successful. In addition to the most solid rhythm section in rock, this classic lineup contained strong vocalists and songwriters in Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie. Male and female points of view were offered with unusual candor on the watershed albums Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977). Fleetwood Mac introduced the revitalized group with such sparkling tracks as “Over My Head,” Fleetwood Mac’s first-ever Top Forty single; “Rhiannon,” which became Nicks’ signature song; “Say You Love Me,” which showed of the group’s three-part harmonies; and “Monday Morning,” the driving album opener and FM-radio favorite. Rumours was written and recorded as three long-term relationships-between Buckingham and Nicks, the married McVies, and Fleetwood and his wife-publicly unraveled. The album is a virtual document of romantic turmoil, and its timing reflected the interpersonal upheavals of the liberated Seventies. Resonating with a mass audience like no other album in rock history, Rumours yielded a bumper crop of songs with enduring appeal, among them the Top Ten hits “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun.” Fleetwood Mac toured for seven months behind Rumours and reigned as the most popular group in the world. Rumours has to date sold 18 million copies, making it the fifth best-selling album of all time. As a group, Fleetwood Mac has sold more than 70 million albums since its inception in 1967. Under the creative guidance of Lindsey Buckingham, whose skill as a producer and pop visionary became increasingly evident-Fleetwood Mac grew more emboldened with the double album Tusk, released in 1979. A more experimental album, Tusk didn’t match its predecessors sales, but it did earn two more Top Ten hits-"Sara" and “Tusk"-while extending the group’s longevity by forswearing formulas. Solo careers commenced during the three-year layoff that followed another extensive tour. Stevie Nicks, in particular, nurtured a career that rivaled Fleetwood Mac’s for popularity. Fleetwood Mac released two studio albums in the Eighties-Mirage (1982) and Tango in the Night (1987)-but its front-line members were increasingly drawn to their solo careers. Disinclined to tour, Buckingham announced he was leaving Fleetwood Mac shortly after Tango in the Night. He was replaced by guitarists Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, who appeared on the 1990 album Behind the Mask. Eventually, both Nicks and Christine McVie revealed they, too, would no longer tour with Fleetwood Mac. Nicks officially left the band a month after Fleetwood Mac regrouped to perform “Don’t Stop” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in January 1993. The indefatigable core of Fleetwood and the McVies recruited guitarist Dave Mason and singer Bekka Bramlett, but the proverbial link in Fleetwood Mac’s chain had been broken one too many times and this lineup’s one album, Time (1995), fared poorly. Then, in 1997, Fleetwood Mac’s classic lineup set aside their differences for a reunion that marked the 30th anniversary of the original group’s founding and the 20th anniversary of Rumours’ release. A concert was filmed for an MTV special and saw release on video and audio formats as The Dance, which found the group revisiting old material and premiering new songs. A full-fledged reunion tour followed.

This album contains no booklet.