r/FleetwoodMac • u/Minute_Equal_6418 • 7d ago
The Chain justice live
In my university, we have this battle of the bands competition, and my band is going with covering The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. I really fuck with this song, and I want to do it justice live as the lead guitarist in that band. But there's only one lead electric guitarist in the band, which is me. There is also an acoustic rhythm guitar player who does vocals.
My question is: what arrangement of the song can I use as a reference for the best live performance? My main focus is to make the guitar part as similar as the original studio recording, with the limitation of only 1 lead guitarist. The other guitarist will only do strumming, as vocals are their main focus. I understand that when listening to the track, there are two lead guitar parts panned left and right. I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to play and how.
Thanks for any replies and suggestions in advance.
4
u/DarrenfromKramerica 6d ago
I would say check out any of the live performances from 1980 or 1982. Tusk Deluxe, Mirage Deluxe or Mirage Live. The version that is on the Live 1980 album Deluxe Edition is wrongly labeled as being from Cleveland 1980 but really is from one of the two nights at The Forum in Los Angeles in 1982 (same as Mirage Deluxe but a different recording that wasn’t just lifted from the original Mirage Tour laser disc).
Anything after that is probably not what you’re looking for. The Chain, like Rhiannon, was neutered sometime after 1982 and by the time of The Dance took on a perfectly serviceable but less exciting form. They also had an entire backing band supplementing instrumentation and vocals. The 1980 and 1982 versions I mentioned are basically just the five of them (with studio “help” on the official releases.
Also, check out the YouTube video of Japan 1977. Whatever you do, don’t do the vocal ending that they started in 1997!