Rumours Expanded Edition

the 5 stars is for what is here rather than deducted for what is missing.Disc 1: The Remasterto my ears, it sounds exactly like the 2004 remaster, which is excellent already. the only difference is Silver Springs is added to the end of side 2 instead of end of side 1.Disc 2: Live 1977the Mac now have 4 official live cds: 1980 Fleetwood Mac Live (the Tusk tour), 1997 The Dance (w/3 additional tracks on the Silver Springs single cd), a 2003 10 track bonus cd included with the 2 disc Live in Boston dvd & now this one.i am happy to hear & have these 12 tracks from 1977. here is the young Mac at there prime. later tours, they become more polished & the recording quality of course improves, but it's great to hear them young. Oh Daddy & Songbird only appear here officially, The Chain, Gold Dust Woman & World Turning are omitted from the 1980 cd and Don't Stop 1980 is a sound check version.i like this 1977 Go Your Own Way better than the 1980 version because it's 1 minute tighter.i agree with other reviewers who said they would have liked to have a whole show instead of just 12 songs, but i have to accept what i can get.Disc 3: The DemosThis is where this set gets interesting and worth the price of admission. Overall, the demos released in 2004 are rough mixes without overdubs. Here, the demos are generally earlier takes. Clear from this is that the lead guitar parts are usually added last. I also offer my own subjective rating for the value of each track either for quality or how revelatory or unusual it is.1. Second Hand News (early take, acoustic demo), A, a true early demo of vocal & acoustic guitar. already the energy of the song is here. the 2004 is more like an early mix sounding much like the final song.2. Dreams (take 2, solo demo), A, lovely Stevie vocal with electric rhythm guitar, no drums. the 2004 demo again is close to the final song with the drums.3. Never Going Back Again (acoustic duet), A+, this is outstanding. very interesting to hear Stevie adding sparse backing vocals. also has a bongo track.4. Go Your Own Way (early take), A+. the song in mid-development. sounds close to the final but without the lead guitar. the vocals are an early version with a very different "you can roll like thunder" in place of "you can call it another lonely day". the 2004 demo is a later alternate version.5. Songbird (demo), A, a simply lovely early take. 2004 rough is a later, alternate mix.6. Songbird (instrumental, take 10), A, piano track only.7. I Don't Wanna Know (early take), A+. outstanding track with Lindsey doing the guide vocal for Stevie with electric rhythm guitar. this track really reveals how Lindsey sculpts the songs of his bandmates.8. Keep Me There (instrumental), B, demo track here of an average unreleased song, but interesting because the last 90 seconds later becomes the end of The Chain.9. The Chain (acoustic demo), A, a major revelation here. this is the Stevie demo of a generally unremarkable song which most likely Lindsey transformed into the powerhouse track of The Chain.10. Keep Me There (vocal), B, an unreleased ok song but again the ending becomes the ending for The Chain.11. Gold Dust Woman (early take), A, similiar to the final with an alternate vocal take and without overdubs. the 2004 release has 2 more interesting versions, including an acoustic demo.12. Oh Daddy (early take), A, definitely a very early working demo where you can hear Christine calling out musical changes. the 2004 demo more like an alternate take.13. Silver Springs (early take), A, lovely early take by Stevie. already, it's a powerhouse here. 2004 disc has a later alternate version.14. Planets of the Universe (demo), B+, nice demo of an ok Stevie song not finished until her 2001 solo cd. i like the demo better than the finished song. it sounds like Rhiannon. another take is on the 2004 cd.15. Dosen't Anything Last (acoustic duet), B, a short 1 minute demo of a Lindsey song with Stevie. 2004 cd has the solo demo with just Lindsey.16. Never Going Back Again (instrumental), A. this beautiful song always sounds great as an instrumental song. here it has the drum brushes. ironically on the 2004 cd, the track is called Brushes but it has no Brushes, but is a more polished demo.so now we have 3 versions of Rumours: 1990 single cd, 2004 2-cd remaster & this 2013 3-cd remaster. if u are just an average fan & already have the 2004 set there's no need to get this for any upgrade of sound quality. the avid fan should get this for the live set & the new set of demos. a casual & non-audiophile fan can get the old single 1990 cd for dirt cheap.for me, i'm glad i got this (didn't want to pay $89. for the set, so i won't get to see the dvd).

I was reading a review above-- or maybe below-- which spoke of this set of disks as if it were a 2-disk set. It is a 3 disk set, at a very good price. The first disk is the original record remastered (as I understand it), the second consists of live versions of the songs, and the the 3rd disk is a well thought-out sequence of the song composition and group ensemble playing that turned into this widely hailed classic.I like the addition of "Silver Springs" to the first disk (although I think it may have been added in previous additions). Unlike some of the irritating, out of place songs that were strewn through "Then Play On" in latter years, "Silver Springs" is there because it fitted from the beginning.I will do some more listening to Disk 2. I'm a great fan of Fleetwood Mac's previously released "Live" album. At first listen, it is easy to see this disk wasn't meant to replace that one! It presents a contrasting light to the studio tracks, helping to round out the story, if nothing else.Disk 3 is something new altogether. It presents the Mac's individual raw materials that coalesced into Rumours. It shines a light on the respect and generosity within the group which enabled the individual talents to give away to the group what they'd found on their own, trusting it would grow into something better, and, hoping too it might, well, keep them together.There is a lot on this CD that was a real revelation to me. Fleetwood Mac winds back the clock to before the hit record "Rumours" was born and lets us see the various strands of virtuosity that only the Mac themselves have known up to now were at the heart of the shimmering sound. The sequencing of the songs on disk 3 keeps the standalone brilliance of various early takes at arms length from each other, so to speak, leaving the listener to piece together a whole. Making them a part of the Chain kind of. The Fleetwood Mac fan is catapulted way back into the into the original stew of "Rumours," into the simmering, sizzling soul in the songs before they became the commercialized froth & confection of the finished product that set off the fabled big bang on the charts, the stir on FM car stereos, the blast out of frat-house speakers, the tinny nearness of beach transistor radios and the magic spell of cozy smoke filled rooms.It is fascinating to see the genesis of the "The Chain" taking place right before our ears, as it morphs into a Fleetwood Mac group composition from its former life inside two songs-- "The Chain" by Stevie Nicks, and "Keep Me There" by Christine McVie." I am glad this early version of "The Chain" is seeing the light of day. A very charming song, on which Nicks's voice haunts over straight-ahead non-fussy guitar chords, this "The Chain" stands is a flawless gem, in its own right. It opens up a curtain on a certain ordinariness & everyday longing that went hidden beneath the thundering final version on "Rumours." Nonetheless, as good as it is, it hardly hints at the magnificence of the final version which, drawing on the bluesy rocking basics of "Keep Me There," shoves the pensive initial opening verses of the song down a crazed, near-epileptic guitar-wailing climax."Gold Dust Woman" on disk 3 is another knockout. Stripped down to the bass, piano, drums, and guitar (who needs more?) it moves along with aplomb. The guitar concept is cool (a lot cooler, one is tempted to say, than in the hit-album version), as is the piano, and there's a kind of light-hardheartedness to it (I picture Cassius Clay gloating over Sonny Liston lying supine & defeated on the canvas below him) which is an essential part of the song, I think, but which ended up being lost beneath a tide of witchiness and halloweenery by the final version. It's a fun take on the song. Stevie Nicks's lead vocal, though, has not inhabited the lyrics yet. They're a little tentative and warbly. You can hear her working on nuances and phrasing equal to the richness of the story-book lyrics. There's a world of difference between the light-hearted, coquettish way she stresses the word "lovers" in the lyric "rulers make bad lovers," and the matter-of-fact delivery of it in the final version. There are also some splendid, left-behind vocal ideas that shine here: a reproving whispered "ahh-ahh" that punctuates the lead guitar between verses and a haunted far-away coda somewhat in the Yoko Ono vein, to close the song out.Disk 3 is almost as surprisingly good as the original vinyl record. I know other examples of rock artists' demos and early takes that have come out over the years; but, none I've heard are as well thought out, integrated, & revelatory as is Rumours Expanded Edition x 3.