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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Silverline
Salesrank: 151083
Released: March 22, 2005 |
| Our Price: $17.00 |
| Used Price: $14.18 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Live at the BBC Track Listing:
1. Rattlesnake Shake
2. Sandy Mary
3. Believe My Time A’int Long
4. Although The Sun Is Shining
5. Only You
6. You Never Know What You’re Missing
7. Oh Well
8. Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave
9. Jenny Lee
10. Heavenly
11. When Will I Be Loved
12. When I See My Baby
13. Buddy’s Song
14. Honey Hush
15. Preachin’
16. Jumping At The Shadows
17. Preachin’ Blues
18. Need Your Love So Bad
19. Long Grey Mare
20. Sweet Home Chicago
21. Baby Please Set A Date
22. Blues With A Feeling
23. Stop Messing Around
24. Tallahassee Lassie
25. Hang On To A Dream
26. Linda
27. Mean Mistreating Mama
28. World Keeps Turning
29. I Can’t Hold Out
30. Early Morning Come
31. Albatross
32. Looking For Somebody
33. A Fool No More
34. Got To Move
35. Like Crying Like Dying
36. Man Of The World
Editorial Review:
A substantial supplement to the band’s recorded legacy with Peter Green, this album features 36 songs broadcast between 1967 and 1971. The music presents more solid evidence of the band’s skills in both blues and rock during its earliest incarnation.
Live at the BBC Reviews:
In many ways, the "real" Fleetwood Mac 
2008-06-02 - The original Fleetwood Mac existed of Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Bob Brunning, and Jeremy Spencer. Brunning joined as a temp, in lieu of John McVie, who got Green's original invitation, after Fleetwood and Green left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. But, in time, John McVie gave Green the call, and once musical chamelion Jeremy Spencer was discovered and hired, the groundwork was set. They cut two very good blues-oriented records, and Green then invited Danny Kirwan to join as well. This is the personell featured in "Live At The BBC." Of course, in the fashion of Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Jefferson Starship, and The Mothers, an ever-revolving roster of band members leads to confusion as to what actually constitutes membership of this band. If all Mac members, past and present, assembled in one place, they could probably pick teams and play softball against one another.
Back to the program at hand: Some of these selections are live in front of an audience, some only for asound crew, but all are cut live, no studio trickery whatsoever. They are of varying sound quality, but in cases like this, that doesn't matter. The original Mac was SUCH a good band, just hearing them do their magic is ALWAYS enjoyable. There is the very solid rhythm section of McVie and Fleetwood, and and the others are some of the best blues-rock guitarists out there. There are faster and flashier, but a "fast" player often goes so fast to cover up the fact they can't really play that well. In my "garage band" days, I have met many "good, fiery" guitarists who only distort their amp and go so fast; why? To hide the fact that they couldn't actually play at all! Yes, it's great to have speed and precision, but it isn't necessary. Look at David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. On his own admission, he simply doesn't have the coordination to do all that fast, flashy stuff. And yet, the solo in "Comfortably Numb (especially the live recordings of it)" is of the type one can just get lost in. BUT! Make no mistake about it, there is some very fast, fancy guitarwork in this program, although it is used with enough restraint to make it stand out. This can be summed up in a quote from B.B. King, while talking about Peter Green: "...he is the only white blues player who makes me sweat..."
With the personell of the 1968-1970 era, you also have some tasteful piano work by John McVie's fiancee, Christine Perfect, although at this juncture, she was only a session player, not a contributing member. After she joined the band following Green's departure, she found a place in my heart as one of the best songwriters I have ever heard. There are more prolific composers, but I have yet to hear a Christine McVie song I don't like.
Green and Kirwan often battle it out in several mid-song guitar duels, and the only edge I see on either, is Green is a better songwriter, with a more interesting voice. But don't get me wrong, Kirwan can hold his own, I don't put anything past him. But an often overlooked talent, is Jeremy Spencer. His slide guitar playing runs the classic Elmore James riff into the ground and beyond, but he was the man for the job when they would cover other people's material. He can sing Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, anyone from the old days TO A TEE! And the band played this material competently, every time.
The original line-up of Fleetwood Mac was a top-notch band, probably the best of their kind, but it self-detonated when Green had a crippling bout with humility, suffering a nervous breakdown, to the point of actually being committed to an asylum for a while. Follow this with Spencer suddenly joining some weird religious cult without so much as even saying goodbye to the band first. This was right after Christine Perfect married John McVie and joined the band full-time. Add Bob Welch, and then Kirwan decides he can be bigger on his own, and leaves; where is he now? Is he even alive?
Sure their general popularity increased, and they sold more records in time, but they really lost something with the loss of the triumvirate of Green, Spencer, and Kirwan.
A few years ago, I heard David Spade refer the Fleetwood Mac of the 1990's as "...Mick Fleetwood, with two guys from Los Lobos, and a contest winner." and I am often tempted to ask, "Will the real Fleetwood Mac stand up?"
Listen to the "REAL" fleetwood Mac - check this out.
Unique recordings of a legendary band 
2007-05-13 - During the three years or so covered on these two discs, Fleetwood Mac evolved from being a blues band to being something else entirely, and they still had another four fraught years to go before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were to join the remaining members and turn them into a license for printing money. The original line-up that signed to Blue Horizon in 1967 stayed relatively stable during these three years but apparently Jeremy Spencer's unwillingness to collaborate with Peter Green on his boss's material meant that a third guitarist was drafted into the band.
Eighteen-year old Danny Kirwan from the band Boilerhouse joined in August 1968, and made his BBC debut later that month with a live broadcast for the Radio One O'Clock Club before a studio audience. By this time, the band's name had shortened to just Fleetwood Mac, and for the final two sessions represented on this disc (from July 1970 and January 1971) Peter Green was no longer in the line-up.
Changes in direction and line-up meant that a fair amount of material was amassed that did not see the light of day on their records and there are seventeen titles on this set otherwise unrecorded, plus two that were on a solo album by Jeremy Spencer (helped out by mates from the band).
The one and three-quarter hours here barely scratches the surface of the amount of material they recorded for the BBC, though there are plenty enough Elmore James covers, psychedelic blues and time-stopping flights of guitar to feed the soul. Twenty-one sessions between 1967 and 1971 are mentioned in Ken Garner's book of BBC sessions In Session Tonight, each probably averaging 20 minutes in playing time, though many of these may well not be preserved, at least not in the quality of those here, which is largely excellent and appears in the main to have come from single-track master tapes (Need Your Love So Bad is a notable exception).
Nearly all are session recordings, though the CD kicks off with a blistering seven and a half minute version of Rattlesnake Shake that was recorded live at the Paris Theatre in 1970 for the In Concert series; and includes two live performances from the Radio One O'Clock Club show mentioned earlier.
Liner notes are sparse, giving only first broadcast dates without specifying the programme involved, and unfortunately line-ups are limited to surnames, not specifying what instruments were played or who is singing lead. In Session Tonight helps out a little here but doesn't identify the mystery pianist who crops up on ten of the tracks. The most likely candidates are Jeremy Spencer, when not playing guitar, or Christine Perfect, who is credited with playing on Stop Messing Around, and appeared on some of their records of this period. Sweet Home Chicago comes from a World Service session they shared with Eddie Boyd, who may well be the pianist on that particular track.
BBC sessions are not synonymous with John Peel and though nineteen tracks come from his Top Gear programme, the rest were all recorded for shows presented by other disc-jockeys, including David Symonds and hairy cornflake Dave Lee Travis. One session, the only one to appear in full, was recorded for a Top Gear spin-off called First Gear, presented by producer John Walters while Peel was off on holiday. The theme for this month-long series was rock and roll and Fleetwood Mac came up with an appropriate mix of originals in the style of Buddy Holly and Elvis, as well as covers of songs by the Everlies, Big Joe Turner and Bobby Vee, the last being a tribute to Buddy written by his mother to the tune of Peggy Sue Got Married. Their blues roots were not forgotten, though, and the newest session included features Jeremy Spencer's version of Son House's Preachin'. This is the song that inspired Robert Johnson's Preachin' Blues, as also featured in a brilliant solo rendition by Peter Green in 1968 for Top Gear.
These double-sided discs feature a CD one one side and DVD-A on the other. I do not have DVD-A or surround sound equipment, but the DVD sides, played in standard DVD format through a digital amplifier, sounded clear and full of detail. I would have to query the benefits of 5.1 surround sound, though, as all the tracks were recorded and mixed to monaural single-track tape; and the claim on the sticker that the CD sides comprise "complete album in stereo" is clearly incorrect.
Great example of White Boy Blues 
2006-11-24 - As a previous reviewer pointed out, there are (at least) two flavors of Fleetwood Mac, the most familiar being the "pop" Mac of the '80s and beyond.
But before the arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and to a lesser extent, Christine McVie and Bob Welch... they were a pure "Chicago" style blues band. Guitarists Peter Green... Jeremy Spencer... Danny Kirwan... and the namesake rythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie - they were truly devoted to the blues genre. They, and several other "white boy blues" bands (John Mayall and Mike Bloomfield come immeditely to mind) proved their legitimacy, and were embraced by the "real" bluesmen of the era.
The guitarists knew their chops. (Peter Green, in particular, has become a living legend.) And Fleetwood and McVie have ALWAYS laid down the beat, whether it was "Sweet Home Chicago" or "Go Your Own Way."
This 2-CD set is "quasi live" at the BBC (recorded at a time when The Yardbirds, The Stones, The Beatles were also making similar recordings - talk about an era in music evolution!). I believe it's recorded in mono, but it sounds pretty good. The song selection contains Mac originals - "Rattlesnake Shake," "Albatross," etc. - novelty tunes like the Buddy-Holly-esque "Buddy's Song" and "Linda" - and a lot of covers of the standard blues repertoire.
Highly recommended for fans of (early) Fleetwood Mac or electric blues. (My own copy of this CD set has sentimental value, as I purchased it in London as a souvenir of a visit there.)
Heard only one cut, but oh man!
2005-06-09 - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and what it morphed into (they went condo) are two different planets. Just heard "Rattlesnake Shake" on the 2-disc BBC Live CD and I know I need to have this CD. I wouldn't touch the 80's+ Fleetwood Mac with a ten-foot pole, but Peter Green's original band is WAY underheard.
