Fleetwood Mac | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 1968 | |||
Recorded | 19 April, November–December 1967 | |||
Studio | CBS and Decca, London | |||
Genre | Blues rock | |||
Length | 35:10 | |||
Label | Blue Horizon | |||
Producer | Mike Vernon | |||
Fleetwood Mac chronology | ||||
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Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie.
The release of the album brought the band overnight success; in the UK Albums Chart, the album reached No. 4 and stayed on the chart for 37 weeks, despite the lack of a hit single. Even though the album has sold over a million copies in the UK, it has never received a certification there. [1] The album barely made the chart in the US, reaching No. 198 in the Billboard 200. As of June 2015, the album has sold over 150,000 copies in the US. [2]
An expanded version of this album was included in the box set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions .
On 19 April 1967, John Mayall, the frontman of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, gave his bandmate Peter Green free studio time at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, to use as he wished. Four songs came out of the recording sessions. One of them was an instrumental called "Fleetwood Mac". It was named after the musicians in the rhythm section – Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The other three songs that were recorded on that day were "First Train Home", "Looking for Somebody", and "No Place to Go". [3] [4] [5] After the session, Green approached Fleetwood and McVie with the idea of forming a new band. [3] Fleetwood, who had been fired from the Bluesbreakers, [6] was willing to join immediately, although McVie was hesitant as he was already earning sufficient income through the Bluesbreakers. [7]
Green advertised in Melody Maker for a bassist; Bob Brunning answered the ad, but contacted the wrong phone number due to a misprint in the newspaper. Undeterred, he reached out to Melody Maker to receive the correct contact information and traveled to west London for his audition. Brunning secured the role as the bassist for Fleetwood Mac, on the understanding that he would leave if McVie changed his mind and agreed to join, and was informed by Green that their first performance would be at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. [3]
While searching for new bands to add to the Blue Horizon roster, producer Mike Vernon came across a demo tape of the Levi Set Blues Set, a band formed by guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Vernon played it for Green, to showcase Spencer's guitar playing. Green travelled to Lichfield, where the band had a gig, and successfully recruited Spencer for Fleetwood Mac. [3]
By the time of the Windsor Festival, Green had already gained recognition for replacing guitarist Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, which helped boost the band's profile. [8] On September 9, Vernon granted the band access to Decca Studios for a secret recording session late at night unbeknownst to Decca. The songs "I Believe My Time Ain’t Long", Rambling Pony" and "Long Grey Mare" emerged from those sessions. [9] Shortly after Fleetwood Mac's live debut, McVie left the Bluesbreakers following Mayall's decision to add a horn section to the lineup. McVie subsequently joined Fleetwood Mac, replacing Brunning. Brunning's bass parts were unused on the final album with the exception of "Long Grey Mare", although "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" was issued as a non-album single with "Rambling Pony" as its B-side, both of which feature Brunning's bass playing. [3]
On November 22, 1967, the band travelled to CBS Studios on New Bond Street in London and recorded "Merry Go Round", "Hellhound on My Trail", "I Loved Another Woman", "Cold Black Night", "The World Keeps on Turning", "Watch Out", "A Fool No More", "You’re So Evil" and "Mean Old Fireman". An additional recording session took place on December 11 that yielded "My Heart Beat Like a Hammer", "Shake Your Money Maker", and "Leaving Town Blues", although the latter song did not make the album. [9]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
About.com | [10] |
AllMusic | [11] |
Rolling Stone | (Positive) [12] |
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide | [13] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [14] |
The album sold well in the UK, reaching number four on the UK Albums Chart. [15] Upon release, Barry Gifford (writing for Rolling Stone ) praised the album, and described it as "potent enough to make the South Side of Chicago take notice". [12]
Modern attitudes to the album are also largely positive, and many critics argue the album is one of the highlights of the British blues bloom. TeamRock describes it as a "marvellous debut that established the group as the best British blues band of the day". [16] Writing for Ultimate Classic Rock , Nick DeRiso described the album as a "stellar debut" and "maybe the best album from the British blues boom". He also ranked it as the 4th greatest Fleetwood Mac album. [17] The Telegraph has described the album as a "classic sixties London 12-bar blues rock debut", while also calling it "raw, physical, high spirited and blessed with the exceptional playing of Peter Green". [18] The Encyclopedia of Popular Music describes the album as "seminal". [19] AllMusic noted the influence of Elmore James on Spencer's compositions and wrote that Green's "inspired playing, the capable (if erratic) songwriting, and the general panache of the band as a whole placed them leagues above the overcrowded field." [11]
In 2023, the album received renewed attention after "I'm Coming Home to Stay", a bonus track featured on the 1999 re-release, was used in the third episode of the HBO television series The Last of Us . [20]
ThoughtCo. described the album as an "inspired mix of blues covers", and placed it in the top 10 "The Best Blues-Rock Albums of the 1960s". [10] The album was voted number 435 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums . [21]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "My Heart Beat Like a Hammer" | Jeremy Spencer | 2:55 |
2. | "Merry Go Round" | Peter Green | 4:05 |
3. | "Long Grey Mare" | Green | 2:15 |
4. | "Hellhound on My Trail" | Robert Johnson | 2:00 |
5. | "Shake Your Moneymaker" | Elmore James | 2:55 |
6. | "Looking for Somebody" | Green | 2:50 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "No Place to Go" | Chester Burnett | 3:20 |
2. | "My Baby's Good to Me" | Spencer | 2:50 |
3. | "I Loved Another Woman" | Green | 2:55 |
4. | "Cold Black Night" | Spencer | 3:15 |
5. | "The World Keep on Turning" | Green | 2:30 |
6. | "Got to Move" | James, Marshall Sehorn | 3:20 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "My Heart Beat Like a Hammer" (Take 2 – master version with studio talk*) | Spencer | 3:31 |
2. | "Merry Go Round" (Take 2 – master version with studio talk/remix*) | Green | 4:19 |
3. | "Long Grey Mare" | Green | 2:12 |
4. | "Hellhound on My Trail" (Take 1 – complete master version/remix*) | Johnson | 2:04 |
5. | "Shake Your Moneymaker" (Master version with studio talk*) | James | 3:11 |
6. | "Looking for Somebody" | Green | 2:49 |
7. | "No Place to Go" | Burnett | 3:20 |
8. | "My Baby's Good to Me" | Spencer | 2:49 |
9. | "I Loved Another Woman" | Green | 2:54 |
10. | "Cold Black Night" | Spencer | 3:15 |
11. | "The World Keep on Turning" | Green | 2:27 |
12. | "Got to Move" | James, Sehorn | 3:18 |
13. | "My Heart Beat Like a Hammer" (Take 1*) | Spencer | 3:43 |
14. | "Merry Go Round" (Take 1 – incomplete*) | Green | 0:54 |
15. | "I Loved Another Woman" (Take 1 – incomplete*, take 2*, take 3 – false start* and take 4 – incomplete*) | Green | 6:08 |
16. | "I Loved Another Woman" (Take 5 – complete master version/remix* and take 6 – incomplete*) | Green | 5:08 |
17. | "Cold Black Night" (Takes 1–5 with false starts, take 6 – complete master version/remix*) | Spencer | 5:28 |
18. | "You're So Evil" (*) | Spencer | 3:05 |
19. | "I'm Coming Home to Stay" (*) | Spencer | 2:27 |
Note
Fleetwood Mac
Chart (1968) | Peak position |
---|---|
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts) [22] | 4 |
UK Albums (OCC) [23] | 4 |
US Billboard 200 [24] | 198 |
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after their first public appearance. Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968. Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician starting with the band's second album, married McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac as an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left the band; she became known as Christine McVie.
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are an English blues rock band led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter John Mayall. The band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues musicians. Many of the best known bands to come out of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s had members that came through the Bluesbreakers at one time, forming the foundation of British blues music that is still played heavily on classic rock radio. Among those with a tenure in the Bluesbreakers are Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie, Mick Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves, and numerous others.
John Mayall is an English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians.
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, and reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s. In Britain, blues developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar, and made international stars of several proponents of the genre, including the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.
Peter Allen Greenbaum, known professionally as Peter Green, was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. As the founder of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Green founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 after a stint in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and quickly established the new band as a popular live act in addition to a successful recording act, before departing in 1970. Green's songs, such as "Albatross", "Black Magic Woman", "Oh Well", "The Green Manalishi " and "Man of the World", appeared on singles charts, and several have been adapted by a variety of musicians.
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of drummer Mick Fleetwood, was the source for the band's name.
Then Play On is the third studio album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 19 September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan and the last with Peter Green. Although still an official band member at the time, Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things". The album offered a broader stylistic range than the straightforward electric blues of the group's first two albums, displaying elements of folk rock, hard rock, art rock and psychedelia. The album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band's fourth Top 20 LP in a row, as well as their third album to reach the Top 10. The album's title, Then Play On, is taken from the opening line of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night—"If music be the food of love, play on".
Blues Breakers, colloquially known as The Beano Album, is the debut studio album by the English blues rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, originally credited to John Mayall with Eric Clapton. Produced by Mike Vernon and released in 1966 by Decca Records (UK) and London Records (US), it pioneered a guitar-dominated blues-rock sound.
A Hard Road is the third album recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released in 1967. It features Peter Green on lead guitar, John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond on saxophone. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh. Peter Green sings lead vocals on "You Don't Love Me" and "The Same Way".
Daniel David Kirwan was a British musician whose greatest success came as guitarist, singer and songwriter with the blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac between 1968 and 1972. He released three albums as a solo artist from 1975 to 1979, recorded albums with Otis Spann, Chris Youlden, and Tramp, and worked with former Fleetwood Mac colleagues Jeremy Spencer and Christine McVie on some of their solo projects. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 1998.
Robert Brunning was a British musician who was, as a small part of a long musical career, the original bass guitar player with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac released on CBS Records in the United Kingdom in 1971. The album assembles the band's hit singles in the UK covering the period from the band's beginning in 1968 to 1971, mostly in its original incarnation led by guitarist Peter Green. It peaked at No. 36 on the UK Albums Chart.
Blues Jam in Chicago is a studio recording by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac, originally released in two single-LP volumes by Blue Horizon in December 1969. It was the result of a recording session in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and a number of famous Chicago blues artists from whom they drew inspiration. The album has also been released, with slightly different track listings, under the titles Blues Jam at Chess Volumes One and Two and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, the latter by Sire Records in 1976.
Crusade is the fourth album and third studio album by the British blues rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, released on 1 September 1967 on Decca Records. It was the follow-up to A Hard Road, also released in 1967. As with their two previous albums, Crusade was produced by Mike Vernon. The album was the first recordings of the then-18-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor.
Michael William Hugh Vernon is an English music executive studio owner, and record producer from Harrow, Middlesex. He produced albums for British blues artists and groups in the 1960s, working with the Bluesbreakers, David Bowie, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John Mayall, Christine McVie and Ten Years After amongst others.
This is a discography for Peter Green, the founder and original lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1960s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he had a brief solo career, before further success in the late 1990s with the Peter Green Splinter Group.
Bare Wires is a studio album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, featuring Mick Taylor on guitar, Chris Mercer and Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophones, Jon Hiseman on drums, Henry Lowther on cornet and violin, and Tony Reeves on bass. It was released in 1968 on Decca Records. The album was the last John Mayall studio album to feature the name "Bluesbreakers". The album was also Mayall's first successful U.S. album reaching #59 on the Billboard 200.
Looking Back is the seventh album released by John Mayall in August 1969 by Decca Records. The album features songs by both John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and John Mayall solo work. The album reached No. 79 on the Billboard 200. Confusingly, there are two different albums with the title "Looking Back": a Decca UK release as a single album and a Decca Germany release as a double album. Later issues on CD would use the Deram label.
Jeremy Cedric Spencer is a British musician, best known for playing slide guitar and piano in the original line-up of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. A member since Fleetwood Mac's inception in July 1967, he remained with the band until his abrupt departure in February 1971, when he joined the "Children of God", a new religious movement now known as "The Family International", with which he is still affiliated. After a pair of solo albums in the 1970s, he continued to tour as a musician, but did not release another album until 2006. He released further solo albums from 2012 onwards and has also recorded as part of the folk trio Steetley. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.