However the album may fail as an accurate piece of documentary audio it more than succeeds as a cohesive piece of rock 'n' roll.

it pulled in songs from multiple tours to present a weird, idealized version of 'a Fleetwood Mac concert.' The original release threw in a few cuts from the Rumours tour, a song originally released by Buckingham Nicks ('Don't Let Me Down Again') that the Mac performed on tour in 1975, and even a couple of studio rarities ('Fireflies' and a cover of the Beach Boys' 'Farmer's Daughter').

The 2-LP set didn't just combine recordings from multiple dates on the Tusk tour. In that regard, Live was perhaps the apotheosis of the Frankenstein-ed 'live' album. The band recorded audio and video at every one of the 112 (!) dates they played between October 1979 and September 1980 and then proceeded to put together an album that putatively represented a Tusk tour date. Fleetwood Mac's 1980 double-album Live was released as a way for the physically, emotionally, and creatively exhausted group to continue the winning streak that saw them dominate the last half of the '70s with Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk.

Fleetwood mac live album 1980