The Pious Bird of Good Omen

The Pious Bird of Good Omen
Compilation album by Fleetwood Mac
Released	1 August 1969 [1]
Recorded	September 1967, January–April & October 1968
Genre	Blues rock
Length	36:00
Label	Blue Horizon
Producer	Mike Vernon
Fleetwood Mac albums chronology
Mr. Wonderful (1968) The Pious Bird of Good Omen (1969) Then Play On (1969)
Fleetwood Mac chronology
English Rose (1968) The Pious Bird of Good Omen (1969) Black Magic Woman (1971)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[3]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

The Pious Bird of Good Omen is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, one track from their first album Fleetwood Mac , two tracks from their second album Mr. Wonderful , and two tracks by the blues artist Eddie Boyd with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These came from Boyd's album 7936 South Rhodes. ^[5]

The album was released under the Blue Horizon, which had published all of their material up until the "Man of the World" single, which was instead issued by Immediate Records. By the time Pious Bird of Good Omen was released, the band had left Immediate Records and were searching for a new record label. ^[1]

The Pious Bird of Good Omen was not released in the US. The closest US equivalent is the English Rose compilation album, released in December 1968 and sharing four songs with Pious Bird.

In 2002, the album was repackaged by Sony BMG as Greatest Hits with cover art very closely resembling the 1971 Greatest Hits album, and with "Shake Your Moneymaker" and "Love That Burns" added to the track listing. In 2004, when Fleetwood Mac's Blue Horizon era albums were remastered, Pious Bird was reconfigured to remove tracks from the previous two Mac albums and the Boyd tracks, which were replaced by archival recordings from the 1967 and 1968 period.

Reception

Reaction to the album has been highly positive. It was described as "excellent" by the Rolling Stone Album Guide. ^[4] TeamRock ranked the album in the "20 Greatest Blues Albums: 1967-70". ^[6]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Need Your Love So Bad"	Little Willie John Mertis John Jr. [7]	3:50
2.	"Comin' Home"	Elmore James	2:38
3.	"Rambling Pony"	Peter Green	2:40
4.	"The Big Boat" (with Eddie Boyd)	Eddie Boyd	2:35
5.	"I Believe My Time Ain't Long"	James	2:55
6.	"The Sun Is Shining"	James	3:10

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Albatross"	Green	3:10
2.	"Black Magic Woman"	Green	2:46
3.	"Just the Blues" (with Eddie Boyd)	Boyd	5:35
4.	"Jigsaw Puzzle Blues"	Danny Kirwan	1:33
5.	"Looking for Somebody"	Green	2:50
6.	"Stop Messin' Round"	Clifford Adams Green	2:18

2004 release

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Need Your Love So Bad – Version No. 2 (Remake)" (Take 4 – complete master version/remix*)	John John Jr.	6:55
2.	"Rambling Pony" (Complete master version/remix*)	Green	3:32
3.	"I Believe My Time Ain't Long" (Master version with studio talk/remix*)	Elmore James	3:01
4.	"The Sun Is Shining"	James	3:10
5.	"Albatross"	Green	3:10
6.	"Black Magic Woman"	Green	2:51
7.	"Jigsaw Puzzle Blues"	Kirwan	1:33
8.	"Like Crying" (*)	Kirwan	2:29
9.	"Need Your Love So Bad – Version No. 1" (Take 1 – false start*, take 2 – incomplete* and take 3*)	John John Jr.	11:33
10.	"Need Your Love So Bad – Version No. 2 (Remake)" (Take 1* and take 2*)	John John Jr.	13:06
11.	"Need Your Love So Bad – Version No. 2 (Remake)" (Take 3*)	John John Jr.	6:18
12.	"Need Your Love So Bad – USA Version" (*)	John John Jr.	6:18

* Bonus track

Credits

Fleetwood Mac

• Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica
• Jeremy Spencer – vocals, slide guitar, piano
• Danny Kirwan – vocals, electric guitar (on side 2, tracks 1 and 4)
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood – drums

Additional musicians

• Eddie Boyd – vocals, piano (on side 1, track 4 and side 2, track 3)
• Christine Perfect – keyboards, piano (on side 1, track 2 and side 2, track 6)
• Steve Gregory – alto saxophone (on side 1, track 2 and side 2, track 6)
• Dave Howard – alto saxophone (on side 1, track 2 and side 2, track 6)
• Johnny Almond – tenor saxophone (on side 1, track 2 and side 2, track 6)
• Roland Vaughan – tenor saxophone (on side 1, track 2 and side 2, track 6)

Technical staff

• Mike Vernon – producer
• Mike Ross – engineer

2004 release

Fleetwood Mac

• Peter Green – vocals (except on tracks 3, 4, 5, and 7), guitar (except on tracks 3 and 4), harmonica (on tracks 2 and 3)
• Jeremy Spencer – vocals (on tracks 3 and 4), guitar (on tracks 3 and 4), piano (on track 4)
• Danny Kirwan – vocals (on track 8), guitar (on track 5, 7, and 8)
• John McVie – bass guitar (except on track 2, 3, and 8)
• Mick Fleetwood – drums (except on track 8)
• Bob Brunning – bass guitar (on track 3)

Additional musicians

• Mickey "Guitar" Baker – string arrangement (on track 1)
• Steve Gregory – tenor saxophone (on track 10 and 11)
• Christine Perfect – piano (on tracks 9, 10, and 11)
• Terry Noonan – director of unidentified strings and horns (on track 1)

Technical staff

• Mike Vernon – producer
• Mike Ross – engineer

Charts

Chart performance for The Pious Bird of Good Omen

Chart (1969)	Peak position
UK Albums (OCC) [8]	18

References

1. "Mac Walks Out On Immediate! Apple Records now favourites to sign Mac" (PDF). New Musical Express . 2 August 1969. p. 7. Retrieved 19 June 2025– via World Radio History.
2. "The Pious Bird of Good Omen - Fleetwood Mac". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
3. "Blender :: Guide". Blender. Archived from the original on 26 November 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
4. Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian David (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   9780743201698 . Retrieved 2 July 2017.
5. Vernon, Mike (1999). The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967–1969 (Boxed set booklet). Fleetwood Mac. New York City: Sire Records. 73003-2.
6. "The 20 Greatest British Blues Albums: 1967 – 1970 – Blues". Teamrock. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
7. "Need Your Love So Bad (Legal Title)". BMI. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2011. Credited on the album to Little Willie John, but in fact written by both brothers.
8. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 December 2022.