Fleetwood Mac - The story of the early years (1967-1970)

                                                      PETER GREEN (1946 - 2020) R.I.P

Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 in London when Peter Green left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Peter Green had replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers,^[8] and received critical acclaim for his work on their album A Hard Road. After he had been in the Bluesbreakers for some time, Green asked if drummer Mick Fleetwood could replace Aynsley Dunbar. Green had been in two bands with Fleetwood—Peter B's Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express (which featured a young Rod Stewart as vocalist).John Mayall agreed and Fleetwood became a member of the band.The Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Mayall gave Green free recording time as a gift, in which Fleetwood, McVie and Green recorded five songs. The fifth song was an instrumental which Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac". (Wikipedia)

   Shake Your Monymaker

 Soon after, Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band. The pair wanted McVie on bass guitar and even named the band 'Fleetwood Mac' as a way to entice him. However, McVie opted to keep his steady income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. In the meantime, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood teamed up with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, who was in the band on the understanding that he would leave if McVie agreed to join. The Green, Fleetwood, Spencer, Brunning version of the band made its debut on 13 August 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer. Brunning merely played at a handful of gigs with Fleetwood Mac. Within weeks of this show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist.(Wikipedia)

 Albatros

Fleetwood Mac's first album, Fleetwood Mac, was a no-frills blues album and was released on the Blue Horizon label in February 1968.^[13] In fact there were no other players on the album (except for the song "Long Grey Mare", which was recorded with Brunning on bass). The album was successful in the UK, hitting No. 4, though it did not have any singles on it. The band soon released two singles "Black Magic Woman" (later a big hit for Santana) and "Need Your Love So Bad".
The band's second album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like the first, it was an all-blues album. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the board.. They also added horns and featured a friend of the band on keyboards, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack.(Wikipedia)

 Like Crying

Shortly after the release of their second album, Fleetwood Mac added guitarist Danny Kirwan, then just eighteen years old, to their line-up, recruited from the South London blues trio Boilerhouse, consisting of Kirwan on guitar with Trevor Stevens on bass and Dave Terrey on drums.^[17] Green and Fleetwood had been to watch Boilerhouse rehearse in a basement boiler-room and Green was so impressed, he invited the band to play support slots for Fleetwood Mac. Green wanted Boilerhouse to become a professional band but Stevens and Terrey were not prepared to turn professional at the time, so Green sought to find another rhythm section by placing an ad in Melody Maker. There were over 300 applicants, but when Green and Fleetwood ran auditions at the Nag's Head in Battersea (home of the Mike Vernon Blue Horizon Club), the hard to please Green could not find anyone good enough to replace the pair, so he invited Kirwan to join Fleetwood Mac as their third guitarist.(Wikipedia)

   O Well
Green had been frustrated that Jeremy Spencer had little desire to contribute to Green's songs. A self-taught guitarist, Kirwan's signature vibrato and unique style added a new dimension to an already complete band. With Kirwan, the band released their first number one single in Europe, "Albatross". Around this time they released their second American album, English Rose, which contained half of Mr. Wonderful, new songs from Kirwan, and their third European album called The Pious Bird of Good Omen, which was a collection of singles, B-sides, and a selection of some work the band did with Eddie Boyd.(Wikipedia)

    I,m Worried (Njardhallen in Oslo, Norway, november 3, 1969)

When the band went to the United States in January 1969 they recorded many songs at the soon-to-close Chess Records Studio, with some blues legends of Chicago including Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. These would prove, however, to be Fleetwood Mac's last all-blues recordings. Along with their change of style, the band was also going through some label changes. Up until this point, they had been on Blue Horizon. With Kirwan in the band, however, the musical possibilities were too great for them to stay on a blues-only label. The band signed with the Immediate Records label and released "Man of the World", another British and European hit single. For the B-side Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince and the Valiants" and recorded "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band. Immediate Records was in bad shape and the band shopped around for a new deal. Even though The Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records (Mick Fleetwood and George Harrison were brothers-in-law), the band's manager Clifford Davis decided to go with Warner Bros. Records (through Reprise Records, a Frank Sinatra-founded label), the label they have stayed with ever since.(Wikipedia)

  Give me All Your Love

Fleetwood Mac's first album for Reprise, released in September 1969, was the well-regarded Then Play On. Although the initial pressing of the American release of this album was the same as the British version, it was altered to contain the song "Oh Well", which featured consistently in live performances from the time of its release through 1997, and then again starting in 2009. Then Play On, which was the band's first rock album, featured only the songs of Kirwan and Green. Jeremy Spencer, meanwhile, recorded a solo album (he was backed by the rest of the band) which consisted of many 1950s-style rock and roll songs.(Wikipedia)

                                           Peter Green solo

 In July 1969, Fleetwood Mac opened for Ten Years After at the Schaefer Music Festival at New York City's Wollman Rink. They re-appeared at the festival in 1970.
By 1970, Peter Green, the frontman of the band, was not in good health. He had taken LSD in Munich, which may have contributed to the onset of his schizophrenia.^[19] German author and filmmaker Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier met Peter Green in Munich, where they invited him to their "High-Fish-Commune". They were not really interested in Green; they just wanted to get in contact with Mick Taylor: Langhans and Obermaier wished to organise a "Bavarian Woodstock". They wanted Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to be the leading acts of their Bavarian open air festival. They needed Green just to get in contact with The Rolling Stones via Mick Taylor.(Wikipedia)

                                           Rattlesnake Shake

 Green's last hit with Fleetwood Mac was "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)" (first recorded at the Boston Tea Party in February 1970 and later recorded by Judas Priest). This recording was released as Green's mental stability deteriorated, and he wanted to give all of the band's money to charity. Other members of the band did not agree, and subsequently Green decided to leave the band. His last show with Fleetwood Mac was on 20 May 1970. During that show, the band went past their allotted time and the power was shut off, although Mick Fleetwood kept drumming. Some of the Boston Tea Party recordings (5/6/7 February 1970) were eventually released in the 1980s as the Live in Boston album, with a more complete remastered 3-volume compilation released by Snapper Music in the late 1990s.(Wikipedia)

    The end of a beautiful era......

More Fleetwood Mac:

 http://arthurfromholland.blogspot.nl/2010/01/fleetwood-mac-new-years-concert-french.html

http://arthurfromholland.blogspot.nl/2015/05/fleetwood-mac-green-manalishi-1970.html

Arthur Lee & Love - Forever Changes (Glastonbury Festival 28 Juni 2003)Update

 

Arthur Lee, real name, Arthur Lee Porter of Arthur Taylor Porter (Memphis (Tennessee), 7 maart 1945 - 3 augustus 2006)

 Baby Lemonade had been performing as LOVE since 1993, once playing in a club where only three people, with one being the sound guy, showed up, so playing in the Glastonbury Festival was a very big deal...and Arthur knew it.   '


Alone Again 0r

 As mercurial as Arthur Lee could be, he showed no concern in playing before 65,000-and-growing Glastonbury concert-goers, who all came to see if Arthur Lee & Love could pull off Forever Changes in a festival setting.


A House Is Not A Motel

 The talent and abilities of each musician on that stage was unparalleled and Rusty, Love's musical director was the link between the amazing ensemble of Swedish string and horn players and this loud, kick ass, take-no-prisoners rock-and-roll outfit.


And More Again

 The blend was perfect. It was Mozart meets Thin Lizzy. After a really cool introduction, and with the sun squarely in their eyes, they hit the stage and rocked the crowd with ''Your Mind & We Belong Together.'' Somewhere in the middle of a guitar solo, one of the speakers blew, creating a noticeable drop in volume and tone. Guitarist Mike Randle simply asked the monitor dude to ''Crank the guitar in my monitor!'' and kept going.


 The band tore into that first A minor chord, echo fuzz bass, tremolo reverb, and machine gun snare like it was the end of the world. Arthur stepped to the microphone and spat out the words like it was the end of the world. Love came to Glastonbury with the hopes of just playing well and having a good time, but they left with so much more than that.




The Daily Planet

 Arthur introduced the Stockholm Strings & Horns and they went down the line, playing every song on Forever Changes, in the order it appeared on the Album, a 36-year-old album played with the energy of a new release. By the time we'd hit the last notes of that one, the sun was setting and left this beautiful orange and red trail of clouds in its dust. At the end of the set, Arthur thanked everyone and then said, ''This next song is called Seven... and Seven... and Seven...1! 2! 3! 4!'

 
 Arthur Lee - vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mike Randle - guitar
Rusty Squeezebox - guitar, vocals
Dave Chapple - bass
David “Daddy-O” Green - drums
- with Orchestra




Arthur Lee, echte naam Arthur Lee Porter of Arthur Taylor Porter (Memphis (Tennessee), 7 maart 1945 - 3 augustus 2006)

Bob Dylan - Train Of Love (Johnny Cash Tribute- 1999)

“Hey Johnny, I wanna say Hi and I’m sorry we can’t be there, but that’s just the way it is. I wanna sing you one of your songs about trains. I used to sing this song before I ever wrote a song and I also wanna thank you for standing up for me way back when.”

The video of this performance from the rehearsals for the European tour was shown as part of "The Johnny Cash" tribute show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City 6 April 1999.

 As for the song itself, the single by Johnny Cash reached number one on the “Most Played C&W in Juke Boxes chart” from Billboard.

Here are the lyrics…

Train of love’s a-comin’, big black wheels a-hummin’
People waitin’ at the station, happy hearts are drummin’
Trainman tell me maybe, ain’t you got my baby
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home.

Now stop your whistle blowin’, ’cause I got ways of knowin’
Your bringin’ other people’s lovers, but my own keeps goin’
Train of love’s deceivin’, when she’s not gone she’s leavin’
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

Train of love’s now hastin’, sweethearts standin’ waitin’
Here and there and everywhere, there’s going to be embracin’
Trainman tell me maybe, ain’t you got my baby
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

Train of love’s a-leavin’, leavin’ my heart grievin’
But early or late, I sit and wait, because I’m still believin’
We’ll walk away together, though I may wait forever
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

 

Richie Havens - Handsome Johnny

                    Live from Woodstock Festival 15. August 1969, Bethel, White Lake, New York

 Richard Pierce Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.^[1] His music encompassed elements of folk, soul (both of which he frequently covered), and rhythm and blues. He had a rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings). He was the opening act at Woodstock, sang many jingles for television commercials, and was also the voice of the GeoSafari toys.

Handsome Johnny

 

Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the fields of Concord?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a musket in his hand
Marching to the Concord war, hey, marching to the Concord war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see
Marching to the fields of Gettysburg?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a flintlock in his hand
Marching to the Gettysburg war, hey, marching to the Gettysburg war

Hey, it's a long hard road, it's a long hard road
It's a long hard road, hey, before we'll be free

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Dunkirk?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with a carbine in his hand
Marching to the Dunkirk war, hey, marching to the Dunkirk war

Hey, look yonder, tell me what you see
Marching to the fields of Korea?
Looks like Handsome Johnny with an M1 in his hand
Marching to the Korean war, hey, marching to the Korean war

Hey, it's a long hard road, it's a long hard road
It's a long hard road, hey, before we'll be free
Hey, before we'll be free

with Paul "Deano" Williams on guitar and singing backing vocals and Daniel Ben Zebulon on percussion

The Dukes Of September - Pretzel Logics

           Donald Fagan               Michael McDonald       John Herrington            Bozz Scaggs

The Dukes of September was an American supergroup, formed in 2010 featuring Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs. The project was a resurrection of the previous New York Rock and Soul Revue which featured the same three musicians and played a combination of hits from the members' respective careers as well as a wide variety of covers.  

                                                           Pretzel Logics (Steely Dan)

In 2010 it was announced that Fagen, McDonald and Scaggs would do a fall tour together as the Dukes of September. The band was rounded out by Steely Dan touring members, Jon Herington (guitar), Freddie Washington (bass), Michael White (drums, who was replaced by Shannon Forrest), Jim Beard (organ), Jay Collins (horns), Michael Leonhart (horns), Walt Weiskopf (horns), Carolyn Escoffery (vocals) and Catherine Russell (vocals).

John Mayall, feat. Mick Taylor/Dick Hestall Smith (London 1968)

 Blues from Laurel Canyon is a 1968 album by John Mayall, featuring British blues music. It was his first album after the breakup of his band the Bluesbreakers in May 1968,although others claim it was on 14 July 1968. It was also his last album with Decca before moving to Polydor.

                                  With beautiful images of the Theems in 1968.................                

. John Mayall sings and plays harmonica, organ and guitar on the album. The other band members are a young Mick Taylor (guitar), Colin Allen (drums) and Stephen Thompson (bass). The guitarist Peter Green is featured on the track "First Time Alone". The engineer was Derek Varnals. All the songs on the album were written by Mayall. 

 

Neil Young & The International Harvesters - Austin City Limits 1984

Neil Young -guitar/vocals  .Rufus Thibodeaux – fiddle .Ben Keith-pedal steel.Spooner Oldham-piano

Anthony Crawford- guitar, banjo, vocals.Tim Drummond-bass.Karl Himmel-drums

                                                       "Are You Ready for the Country?"

 "Are You Ready for the Country?" is a song written by Neil Young and released on his 1972 Harvest album. The track features Young on piano backed by the studio band dubbed The Stray Gators, comprising Jack Nitzsche on slide guitar,Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar,^[Tim Drummond on bass, and Kenny Buttrey on drums. Backing vocals on the track are by David Crosby and Graham Nash. The recording was made in a studio set up in a barn on Young's ranch

                                      "Are There Any More Real Cowboys"(album Old Ways)

Are there any more real cowboys? is a song written by Neil Young. In a duet with Willie Nelson, he released it in 1985 as a single with the song I'm a memory sung by Nelson on the B-side. The single landed at number 37 on the Canadian country music chart.

 

 
 

 

Bob Dylan &The Dead - Ballad Of A Thin Man

                                         04 JUL1987 - Sullivan Stadium - Foxboro, MA

"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, and released in 1965 on his sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited.

Bob Dylan -guitar/vocals ,Jerry Carcia - leadguitar/vocals,Bob Weir - guitar/vocals,Brent Mydland - keyboards/vocals,
Phil Less - bass,Micky Hart -drums,Bill Kreutzmann - drums.

 

Muddy Waters at Newport (July 3, 1960)

           

Muddy Waters was one of the most popular blues artists of the 1950s.^[Beginning in 1948, he had fifteen singles that appeared on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues Records chart. His debut album, The Best of Muddy Waters (1958), contained twelve of his hits. However, by 1960, what had been the traditional blues audiences were moving away from Chicago-style blues towards the more polished R&B and soul sounds.Chess released Sings Big Bill Broonzy (1960), a collection of Muddy Waters' interpretations of songs by the blues musician Big Bill Broonzy.
                                             

                                                                Hoochie Coochie Man

 When he performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, his electric blues band consisted of Otis Spann (piano, vocals), Pat Hare (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Andrew Stevens (bass) and Francis Clay (drums

                                                   Put Tiger In Your Tank

 The gig was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, July 3. The day before, performances by Ray Charles and singing group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross were met with unruly crowds. About 300 drunken revelers made a commotion during Charles' performance and the police responded with teargas and water hoses. The riots became so out of control that the National Guard was called in at midnight to calm the crowd.

                                             I  Feel So Good

When Waters and his band arrived on the scheduled day, they intended to drive back on the next day, until driver James Cotton saw John Lee Hooker standing at a corner, his guitar on his back without a guitar case. Cotton said Hooker should get into his car to get the musicians out of harm's way. At the same time, the city council decided to cancel the concert, but concert promoter George Wein convinced them when he said that the United States Information Agency (USIA) planned to film the festival to teach American culture in other countries.[

                                                    Got My Mojo Working         

Before Waters' performance, his band backed Otis Spann, who was the band leader, and John Lee Hooker. At about 7 p.m., Muddy Waters entered the stage, wearing black, while the rest of the band wore white suits. At Newport 1960 opens with then-unreleased "I Got My Brand on You", which was recorded one month prior, and "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man", both written by Willie Dixon. Next are the Big Joe Williams cover "Baby Please Don't Go", Oden's "Soon Forgotten", Dixon's "Tiger in Your Tank" and Broonzy's "I Feel So Good". 

 

At Newport 1960 is a live album by Muddy Waters recorded during his performance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1960. With his longtime backup band, Muddy Waters plays a mix of his older popular tunes and some newer compositions. Chess Records released the album in the United States on November 15, 1960

 

Taste - Sugar Mama (Jazz Bilzen 1969)

 Taste (originally "The Taste") were formed in Cork, Ireland, in August 1966 as a trio consisting of Rory Gallagher on guitars and vocals, Eric Kitteringham on bass, and Norman Damery on drums. In their early years Taste toured in Hamburg and Ireland before becoming regulars at Maritime Hotel, an R&B club in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the summer of 1967

 Sugar Mama

In 1968 Taste began performing in the UK where the original lineup split up. The new lineup formed with Richard McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums.The new Taste moved permanently to London where they signed with the record label Polydor. In November 1968, the band, along with Yes, opened at Cream's farewell concerts. While with Polydor, Taste began touring the United States and Canada with the English supergroup Blind Faith. In April 1969, Taste released the first of their two studio albums, the self-titled Taste, with On the Boards following in early 1970, the latter showing the band's jazz influences with Gallagher playing saxophone on two tracks

 https://arthurfromholland.blogspot.com/2010/11/jazz-bilzen-2taste-rory-gallagher.html