Fleetwood Mac has had more than one era, but the two most famous were influenced first by the blues instincts of Peter Green and then the California pop genius of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Their catalog focuses exclusively on these two periods, as shown by the following ranking of every Fleetwood Mac live album. Excluded are tours with on-stage collaborators ranging from Bob Welch and Dave Mason to Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. Even so, Fleetwood Mac got off to a decidedly slow start in releasing these LPs.
The group’s first concert recording (simply titled Live) didn’t arrive until 1980, long after 1977’s multi-platinum Rumours had redrawn the expectations for studio blockbusters. There would only be one more album over the rest of the decade, the oft-reissued (and renamed) turn-of-the-’70s-era Live in Boston from 1985.
READ MORE: The Most Overlooked Song From Each Fleetwood Mac LP
The ’90s saw a quickening pace as Fleetwood Mac released five live LPs capped by The Dance, a five-million-selling smash that reunited the Rumours lineup for the first time in 10 years. All four of the other albums featured the original Green-led lineups – and each included material that dated back to the late ’60s.
A new century has so far brought only a single contemporary recording, 2004’s confusingly titled Live in Boston. (This was during a disappointing era when Christine McVie was out of the band.) Three others have focused on tours after Rumours, 1979’s Tusk and 1982’s Mirage.
Which one’s best? Keep reading as we rank every Fleetwood Mac live album:
Ranking Every Fleetwood Mac Live Album
Fleetwood Mac’s live releases split focus between their early blues-focused material with Peter Green and a later era animated by the pop genius of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Here’s a look back.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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