I love those albums "Then Play On" and "Future Games."

By then, there were some new members. Fleetwood Mac had one of those histories in the first decade of their existence like some blugrass bands do, with frequent personnel changes.

Peter and Danny specialized in standard fretting and Jeremy specialized in bottleneck slide.

The original line-up recorded for Epic Records frrom 1967 until 1970. The first album was self titled. Other albums released during that time are/were "Mr. Wonderful", "English Rose", "Pious Bird of Good Omen", and lastly "Then Play On".

Starting in 1970, one by one the original guitarists left the band, starting with Peter Green. In 1971 the band relocated from England to Los Angeles. Christine Perfect (later McVie) joined after Peter Green quit, and Bob Welch (an American guitarist) replaced Jeremy Spencer. The band made several albums which averaged modest sales. Finally, Danny Kirwan quit and the band languished for a year or so. Back in England, the original band manager threw together a bunch of hacks with the intent of putting them on tour as "Fleetwood Mac". In order to prevent this from becoming an image problem, not to mention a loss of potential revenue, the real Fleetwood Mac band quickly audtioned two American musicians who had been playing together in the Los Angeles area. They were to replace Danny Kirwan, and their names were Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The rest is, as they say, pop history.

As a die-hard afficienado of American post-war urban blues, the first line-up of Fleetwood Mac was, IMHO, by far the best even though it attained only a mere fraction of the fame and fortune of the "Anglo/Yank" agregration.

Anyone got John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers 'Hard Road' album from '67?
Peter Green and John McVie are the core band, they also cut an EP with Paul Butterfield.
Mick Fleetwood did join them briefly, cut one single and left, with plans to form a band called Fleetwood Mac not long after.

None of the three original guitarists ever seemed to get the recogniton they deserved either individually or collectively. Even if they weren't as great as they were, though, it seems to me they'd deserve medals anyhow just for being the only band besides Moby Grape to make three lead guitars sound totally bitchin.

[This message was edited by Chris Bauer on 28 November 2006 at 08:26 PM.]

Jason, I would say Fleetwood Mac was most notably, ONE of the best all-white blues bands of that era. But let's not forget all of the other all-white blues bands of the 60's and 70's. Of which, many were extremely talented: Alexis Koerner http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Alexis%20Korner:1927000335 and John Mayall, who's many incarnations of "The Bluesbreakers" come to mind. Both of these two musicians had blues bands which were the "incubator" for many other British blues bands such as Ansley Dunbar's Retaliation, the early forms of T.S. McPhee and The Groundhogs and Savoy Brown w/Chris Youlden (sp). also, Chicken Shack with Stan Webb and Christine Perfect http://www.brumbeat.net/chickens.htm
and Keef Hartley's Half-Breed and many, many others.

On this side of the pond there were some really good all-white blues bands, too. The various "all-white" incarnations of Barry Goldberg's, Harvey Mandel's and Nick Gravenites' bands. I say "all-white" because all three had all-white as well as multi-racial blues bands. Also, Canned Heat, Room Full of Blues, early Pacific Gas & Electric, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Paul Ray's Cobras, SRV's Double Trouble, Anson Funderberg and the Rockets, Omar and the Howlers, Johnny Winter's band and the list goes on....

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

[This message was edited by Glenn Suchan on 29 November 2006 at 05:00 AM.]

now Moby Grape that was crazy ass band
i caught em too a few times & loved'em

[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 29 November 2006 at 09:45 AM.]

Mayall and Koerner's bands were very cool, and some great records, but a bit too jazz influenced compared to the Mac.

Thanks for finding those brain cells.

One question: Do a lot of people share my dislike for Mayall's singing?

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

Since you're going to get stomped to death by raging forumites, I thought I might give you a comforting farewell.

I eventually learned to like Bucky Nicks. If I think of them not as Fleetwood Mac but as a hot chick who hired a guitarist and an out-of-work but great rhythm section, then they sound pretty good. (But you have to forget that Christine Perfect was relegated to the role of hat-check girl.)

As a skilled musician, I have to believe that Buckingham is the strongest in the history of the "franchise."

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 02 December 2006 at 02:13 PM.]

The opening act was an unknown folk/rock singer/songwriter named Bruce Springsteen! Playing solo and singing about as good as he does today

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My Site - Instruction

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 02 December 2006 at 10:08 PM.]

Of course, I thought they still had a long way to go to catch Butterfield and Bloomfield. But then again - they didn't grow up in Chicago around the real deal.

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"The less I was of who I was, the better I felt." -- Leonard Cohen

[This message was edited by Darryl Hattenhauer on 05 December 2006 at 08:54 AM.]