Another interruption to the studio album releases now with this collection of songs by the original four members of the band, recorded between 1967 and 1968 and finally released in May 1971. Before Peter Green could convert John McVie to joining the band in 1967 he had Bob Brunning on bass, who features on the track Rambling pony No.2 instead of John.
The CD release is another hash-up of different takes and false starts, but with extra tracks. Thankfully I also managed to find a copy of the original recording which was released on CD in 1994, and that is what I am reviewing here.
Peter Green wrote and sung vocals on the first four tracks: Drifting has a great instrumental lead and is nice and chilled, with a steady pace all the way through. It is also featured on the re-issue of Fleetwood Mac in Chicago. Leaving town blues is absolutely brilliant, with a country blues feel it is easily my favourite track on the album and one of my favourite Green tracks overall. There is then an early studio version of Watch out, which sounds a lot different from the version on Blues Jam at Chess but is just as good. A fool no more is a bit of a slow burner but a grower nonetheless.
The first song to feature Jeremy Spencer is a cover of the Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup track Mean old fireman, which is a lot different to the Elmore James style he became fond of, but moves along at a nice steady pace. Then there's the more rock and roll guitar sound of Can't afford to do it, written by Homesick James and sung by Jeremy it's a short catchy number.
The self-titled Fleetwood Mac is a Peter Green instrumental, on which he features on harmonica as well as guitar. It's a groovy piece of music and stands up against some of the instrumentals that did make it onto albums. Worried dream is a B.B. King track that Peter does justice, and you also get an early taster of Christine Perfect on piano too.
Jeremy takes a strong lead on the Lafayette Leake penned track, Love that woman, and that is followed by his own composition Allow me one more show, which I love. The final two tracks are Peter Green compositions, First train home is a blues-fest piece of excellence and Rambling pony No. 2 is a different take on the track from Pious Bird. It sounds more infectious on here and is a mix of folky-country blues.
This stands alone as a great album which showcases the blues vocals and instrumentals of the band's early days like no other album, apart from the debut. It features some of Peter Green's best compositions in my opinion and I'm so glad they finally saw fit to issue these songs. It's also nice to hear from Peter again.
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