Fleetwood Mac between Peter Green and Buckingham/Nicks

it comes down to kiln house, bare trees, or mystery to me imo

Interesting how Floyd went through a similar period: post-Barrett/pre-1970s super-stardom with Dark Side of the Moon. I'll be boring and go with Bare Trees. It has that hazy, fractured pop sound.

me too. these albums all got pulled from rhapsody a couple years back -- maybe the band has disowned them or something? bare trees and kiln house are my faves but each album contains great tracks. and this clip, w/welch & bob weston, oh man oh man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUxCzEhLQY

hang on for the second song cause christine is sooo good in there

Aside from Penguin, these are all really good. I'd go with Mystery To Me as the best (and probably the strongest set the band ever did), but Kiln House is better than I originally thought: it's so eclectic that it's hard to get a handle on.

I definitely overlooked Station Man for a while, because it sounds so Grateful Dead in the beginning...

Future Games is their overlooked folk-prog classic and is way underrated. "Sands of Time" in particular is wonderful. The Floyd comparison is very apt.

I like that video above of Miles Away etc., but on album both of those tracks shred where here they're a lot spacier.

I think Wolfgang's Vault has a concert or two of the band right after B/N joined, but when their setlist still drew from this period.

I'm a really big FM fan (era Nicks - duuuuh) so friends would always try to get me to listen to the early shit. I never much connected. :-(

This isn't the early shit, fwiw.

i'm totally ignorant bout this era. i've got The Chain box set from the mid-90s (?) that briefly touches on these records ad I really like what little is there. looking forward to these poll results, if for no other reason than a place to start.

bob welch seems like a total bro btw

i only have Mystery to Me, but it's been killing me lately. Hypnotized and Keep on Going are so fucking funky

every bob welch album i've heard is amazing btw

I think if I had to rank all of them it'd go:

Mystery To Me
Bare Trees

Kiln House
Future Games

Heroes Are Hard To Find

Penguin

1)kiln house
2)future games
3)mystery to me
4)bare trees

don't know the other two

kiln house rocks and is on par w/"then play on", imo

"This isn't the early shit, fwiw."

Shows you how ignorant I am. :-(

you should just invest in a couple of these records, you can get 'em for super cheap. they're a lot closer to the period that followed than the period that preceded.

Considering the Mac has been around since '68 I guess you could call at least a couple of these records "early shit."

Plus, I don't think Kiln House is closer to the Buckingham/Nicks era. Both Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwin are still in the band after all. I always regard Future Games as the big break from the Green era because that's when Welch arrives.

that midnight special video kind of hits at what the Dead could've done with a Christine Mac instead of y'know, Donna Godchaux.

Voted MTM. but v v difficult imo

these days def listen to these albums more than tusk and rumours

Had to check...anyway, there's a King Biscuit Flower Hour show on Wolfgang's Vault from 1975 (so with B&N). They open the show with Station Man and close it with Hypnotized. Pretty good recording actually!

Hypnotized ownes

There are a couple of well-recorded Bob Welch era concerts on WG as well. Sentimental Lady into Future Games = great. Weird how this stuff doesn't seem to be better publicized.

'Mystery to Me' is the one I go for but to be honest I haven't really payed attention to the rest of them.
'Hypnotized' and 'Keep on Going' are really good.

ya the bass on keep on going is fantastic

gonna go with Mystery to Me, but I like all of them a lot. there's a pretty good Cosmo Vitelli edit of Keep On Going that stretches the song out to 6 minutes if you feel like jamming it out a bit longer.

my drunken ecstatic thred 'bout MTM:

Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me

anyway ... i am actually so tempted to vote 'Future Games' today!! that really is this weird lost rural-prog masterpiece.. But I will still ultimately go with 'Mystery to Me', out of sheer Christine and BOB WESTON presence, probably. however, all of these albums bear some wonderful fruit

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Good results. Hurrah!

so weird. 3 seconds before i clicked on this link, i just told someone Mystery to Me is my new fave

Everyone, if you haven't watched that YouTube clip upthread go back and do so now.

havent heard any of these - need to remedy that

freakin love "Prove Your Love" of of Heroes

Welsh's solo here is a corker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgopdqM1AvQ&feature=related

never saw this clip before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKrA-Z68Cs

i heard some fleetwood mac instrumental from this period on the radio recently, but didn't catch the title -- anyone know it? kinda dreamy, pretty tune?

this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh0Rp92f1uA

yes! thanks.

I'd never seen that "Lay It All Down" clip either. Welch rockin' the sweater vest!

yeah that clips is smoking.
i think i pretty much have the same fashion sense as john mcvie.

ha i was thinking of starting a thread "rock stars wearing sweater vests"
xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWWBt83E61c

Gotta love the Bob Welch years. Mystery to Me and Heroes are Hard to Find are essential.
No Buckingham/Nicks FM without the crucial Bob Welch SoCal years.

This era is not on spotify but Bob Welch's "French Kiss" is and it is hitting the spot this tuesday.

I wish he was saying "Sentimental Lady, jam a while" though.

RIP Bob Weston http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_19688114

sad. nice non-fm clip of him here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2bHhlavflo

did not know that he was kicked out of FM for sleeping with Fleetwood's wife! That band.

news report mentioned cirrhosis : (

kind of amazing kirwan is still alive given his mental illness, alcoholism & destitute life post-fleetwood mac.

did not know that he was kicked out of FM for sleeping with Fleetwood's wife! That band.

Good thing that rule was relaxed somewhat in later years.

ha, didn't know weston apparently is one of the guitarists in l. buckingham's "trouble" video

I definitely would have voted for 'Bare Trees', it's one of my personal favourite Mac LPs.

> Good thing that rule was relaxed somewhat in later years

I was gonna say! Hard to imagine an alternate universe where Rumours (and most everything since) didn't exist.

I too would have voted for Bare Trees

'Sunny Side Of Heaven' is simply beautiful, I remember having that on repeat quite a lot when I first heard 'Bare Trees'!

kind of amazing kirwan is still alive given his mental illness, alcoholism & destitute life post-fleetwood mac.

is he? does anyone even know where he is? I thought he vanished.

this repeats the various stories about his recent whereabouts I see from time to time - some sort of homeless hostel/shelter in London

http://culturecatch.com/music/danny-kirwan-second-chapter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/08/bob-weston?newsfeed=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQZnfRcQiE

This era of the Mac is criminally underrated. "Hypnotized" is one of their greatest songs ever, totally beguiling and just shiveringly creepy at the same time. The whole Future Games LP (especially the title track and "Woman of a Thousand Years") straddles a similar line between drifty bliss and impending terror. The horror of the deep woods, etc. I'm totally in love with this stuff right now.

hot live clip from 1971. bob welch looks damn young

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKrA-Z68Cs&feature=related

nice kiln house era footage here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wONRlMK8C6A

cool

Future Games is my favorite LP from this era, but I gotta shout out the gorgeous "Earl Grey" from Kiln House--their best instrumental, apart from "Albatross."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT0vGdetW40

...and I just now realized they used the American spelling of "gray" in the title. Odd, given that the whole band was British at that point.

i'm finally getting into these! future games is like some weird gentle folk-psych-prog-blues-rock.............masterpiece?

I love Future Games, but Bare Trees is the pinnacle of this period for me.

Spinning a vinyl Bare Trees I picked up yesterday--kind of amazed how much it reminds me of the Allman Bros. (or at least an idea of the Allmans--harmonized guitars, slide fills for color, rolling rhythms etc.)

Future Games is so freaking great. Woman of a Thousand Years, Future Games, and Sands of Time are just amazing. Need to read the rest of the thread, but consensus up thread seems to be that it is not as good as Bare Trees or MTM, the former I have but the latter I do not.

It’s better than both imo

Yeah I agree

I just listened to Bare Trees again and it is so good. Yet, it is a distinct step toward the pop moves of Buckingham/Nicks and away from the weirdo mysteriousness of the early stuff. Still prefer Future Games.

Future Games is one of my favorite Mac albums. Woman of a Thousand Years....so great.

i like the album art of Bare Trees more than the album itself (same with Kiln House).

re: kiln house

the verses of "jewel eyed judy" are so magical. it's a shame the chorus doesn't really deliver but it's still a great track to slip into a mixtape imo

and then "one together" might be the best thing jeremy spencer ever wrote. that tune gets stuck in my head maybe every other week

lol i love jeremey, look at this guy

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Fleetwood_mac_jeremy_spencer_8.jpg/800px-Fleetwood_mac_jeremy_spencer_8.jpg

I've come around a lot on Bare Trees since reviving this thread last year. Now I think I like it about equally as well as Future Games, just different. I couldn't remember if people liked Penguin or Mystery to Me the best so I bought a used copy of Penguin that is coming today and it appears I chose the wrong one! Is Penguin bad? I'll tell you in a few hours.

Mystery to Me is much better

I just this week discovered Danny Kirin and decided he’s what I like about that era. On cursory listen Then Play On through Bare Trees.l is where it’s at

I like Penguin, I like Heroes Are Hard To Find. “Prove your love” is a lovely mcvie ballad

Adore "Prove Your Love" and the sunshiney feel-good chorus on Welch's "Silver Heels" on Heroes.

This era is wildly uneven for me, but outside of "Kiln House" and Kirwan's contributions, I love Christine McVie's songs. You could make a great album compiling just her stuff from these years.

I just got my copy of Penguin and on one play agree that it is several notches below Future Games, Bare Trees, and Mystery to Me. First track and the other McVie songs are relative highlights, but songwriting generally not that distinctive.

RIP Peter Green :(
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53539989#

Would have to admit he's in the "famous persons you didn't realize were still alive" category for me, but RIP. Funnily enough I was just watching part of this 1997 Rock Family Trees show about Fleetwood Mac last night, highlighting the band having a history of guitar players kinda losing it. I don't know their story all that well and have never been especially warmed to the Green era for some reason.

I mentioned in the reissues thread that an 8CD box comprising the albums from Then Play On through Heroes Are Hard to Find is coming out in September, including a live show from '74. Then there'll be a vinyl set of just '73-74 to complement the one from '69-72 that came out a few years ago.

OH MAN, This Clip Of The '75 Band Smoking Two Green Compositions...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZFM9iHJXyg

today seems like as good a day as any to play that keith fullerton whitman albatross blend

https://soundcloud.com/kfw/fleetwood-mac-albatross-blend

I just bought some thing of his in Bandcamp where he processed a bunch of songs through resonators it’s some other electronics and Albatross appears there as well.

xp want to second that Whitman “Albatross” piece is all-time

yeah it is unbelievable

I love both line-ups (and to a lesser extent the long "transitional" phase in-between), but Peter Green's Mac will always be my favorite. I love virtually everything they did to bits, even the loose jams they did at Chess Studios in Chicago right after New Year's Day in 1969. I just wish there had been more opportunities to see Green and Danny Kirwan play together, they were terrific fronting Fleetwood Mac. Terribly sad that personal struggles prevented any real chance of a strong revival of that line-up.

Saw him live with his band of younger musicians in 2010; he was quiet and sat while he played (the second guitarist did most of the vocals and crowd interaction) but when Green kicked off Albatross you could hear a pin drop

that keith fullerton whitman albatross blend

Whoa.

oof RIP. Albatross is the greatest rock instrumental of all time

“Rumble” certainly right up there, but apples/oranges.

I've come around a lot on Bare Trees since reviving this thread last year. Now I think I like it about equally as well as Future Games, just different. I couldn't remember if people liked Penguin or Mystery to Me the best so I bought a used copy of Penguin that is coming today and it appears I chose the wrong one! Is Penguin bad? I'll tell you in a few hours.

― Fetch the Bolt Thrower (PBKR), Saturday, May 2, 2020 8:45 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mystery to Me is much better

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, May 2, 2020 9:53 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^
This!

I just bought a copy of Mystery to Me and it's so good. Worst song is probably the Yardbirds cover, but even that, the jam at the end is pretty sweet. Everything else is B+ to A+ and the sound is very nice. So many details I never noticed the couple times I streamed it.

New comp of all the Danny Kirwan songs dropped on digital today: https://open.spotify.com/album/0lSd1hZaG62VvH2XZSmWg6?si=iZbWX3kIS52o6Y8dcUtYjg

Fine songwriter and there are quite a few gems in there, but I think Kirwan's greatest contribution was his guitar work - he wasn't a Peter Green clone but in terms of what he brought to the band, he was every bit his equal.

Just listen to his solo on this one by Christine - just beautiful and eloquent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiGEEHtumDM

The Green-era may be a completely different band than the Buckingham-Nicks era, but Kirwan had it in him to flourish in any of the band's line-ups. If it wasn't for interpersonal tensions and later mental illness, I think he could've easily stayed on to the very end.

This was a wonderful discovery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RicSJtQVmI

B-Side to "Dragonfly" and the only instance of Kirwan & the about-to-leave Spencer duetting. Finally on an album after nearly 55 years (was previously only anthologized on vinyl box-exclusive singles disc, in addition to live takes popping up on dodgy concert collections).

Speaking of "Dragonfly"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PJ1Sd40d2A

I'd never heard Dragonfly. It's so good! I'm such a huge fan of Future Games and it sounds almost exactly like something off that album.

I still have never heard Kiln House as I am waiting to encounter a nice vinyl copy for purchase.

New comp of all the Danny Kirwan songs

thank you for this! Danny is my favorite member of FM. it was fun to hear all his songs sequenced together like that. what a beautiful dude

xp a few hours after reading your post, i stumbled across the most beautiful copy of kiln house i’ve ever seen!

“Earl Grey” is the dreamy kirwain instrumental on that one, so good

<3

Someday I'll find one.