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List Price: $31.98 | | Label: Sony/Bmg Int'l
Salesrank: 74912
Released: July 6, 2007 |
| Our Price: $7.17 |
| Used Price: $11.53 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
2007 two CD set from Peter Green's original line-up of Fleetwood Mac. Originally a British Blues band led by the talented fretmaestro Peter Green, this double disc set features tracks from their late '60s albums for Sony: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Mr. Wonderful and English Rose. 32 tracks total including 'Black Magic Woman', 'Albatross' and 'Dust My Broom'. Forty years later, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie still remain from this original line-up. Sony/BMG.
The Essential Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (Rm) (2CD) Reviews:
British Blues At Its Best 
2009-12-18 - A previous reviewer ranked this one quite low, solely due to the fact that it did not have Rattlesnake Shake or Oh Well, and maybe another one which I can't recall. I don't agree. This double album showcases the old Mac at full power, doing almost all blues, in their energetic style. Of course, Peter Allan Greenbaum is the driving force, playing and singing as if he had been doing it for forty years, when in actuality he was in his early twenties when these were recorded. Make no mistake, Green was one of the most powerfully evocative and skilled blues guitarists AND singers who ever lived. Absolutely magnificent playing, and "not playing" as well. That is, he knew when NOT to play, which is so hard to do. Many guitarists with a lot of fame and notoriety cannot resist filling the spaces with notes, until you get nothing but noise. Green never did this; he played sparingly and made every note count. His slow blues are some of the best ever recorded. They are guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.
Only quibble I would have is that there are too many Elmore James impressions by Jeremy Spencer. I mean the kid could really play, but he limited himself so much. If I want hot slide and "Dust My Broom", I'll put on Elmore himself.
How is this Essential? 
2009-09-13 - How is this Essential Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac when "Oh Well", "Green Manalishi", "Coming Your Way", "Rattlesnake Shake" are not included? It's a Travesty...
Essential collection of the Blue Horizon years
2008-02-02 - I'm afraid I have a completely different view of this set than outlined in the well-written but somewhat narrow-minded review contributed by Jeffrey Blehar. It is true that Peter Green's finest hour came on Fleetwood Mac's outstanding LP "Then Play On," none of which is included here. And it is also true that several of the band's fantastic singles during the Peter Green era ("Man Of The World," "Oh Well," and "Green Manalishi") are not included on this set. However, there is a very simple reason for this: none of that material was recorded during the band's initial phase on the Blue Horizon label, which is, indeed, extremely well represented on this two CD collection (more on that in a moment). Perhaps if the title of the set were modified to more accurately reflect its contents, Mr. Blehar would have less to find fault with. But a one star rating for this treasure trove of outstanding music? As a hardcore Chicago blues lover, and a devout Peter Green fan, I no doubt hold this period of the band's career in much higher regard than Mr. Blehar and find plenty to enjoy, as I do not view these recordings as simply the end product of an "all blues, all the time straightjacket," as defined by Mr. Blehar. Naturally, it would be silly to compare the "authenticity" of Fleetwood Mac (or any other white blues act of the time--British or American) to the "real" bluesmen (Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King et al) to whom the band looked for their initial inspiration. But to dismiss their recordings as little more than standard twelve bar blues fare would be to miss out on Mr. Green's exquisite guitar/vocal technique and the way in which he and his bandmates adapted/modified the blues which made them one of the most successful bands in Europe, in the process exposing legions of young fans to music that they knew little or nothing about (in precisely the same way that Green's former band, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, had done with their well-regarded albums).
Instead, what we have here are two discs chockfull of well-played, exciting blues featuring no less than ten of twelve tunes from the band's fantastic debut album "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac", ten of twelve tunes from the less stellar but nevertheless excellent follow-up album "Mr. Wonderful" (I would dispute its characterization as "dreary" and call it "moody" and "atmospheric"), several outstanding singles that appeared on the U.S.-only LP "English Rose" ("Black Magic Woman" and "Albatross"), as well as the classic "Need Your Love So Bad" from the 1969 compilation LP "Pious Bird Of Good Omen." Add to that three rockin' tunes from the live-in-the-studio "Blues Jam In Chicago" LP on which Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Otis Spann and a few other top-flight Chicago bluesmen appear and you've got a pretty comprehensive collection of the very music that put Fleetwood Mac on the map.
Another MAJOR bonus is that each track appears exactly as it did on the original LP's, without the (countless) false starts, alternate takes and studio chatter that mar the otherwise outstanding "Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" boxed set which costs nearly three times as much as this affordable set. That's not bad for $12.98, in my estimation, and well worth the investment for those disinclined to spring for the box. (In fact, I had to purchase this set as a supplement to the boxed set, despite all the overlap, in order to obtain a handful of tracks that were ruined, in my opinion, by the "tampering" that occurred on that six disc set. See my review of the boxed set for details.) In any event, buy this collection and pick up "Then Play On" for a more balanced overview of this phenomenal band, though you will unfortunately need to pick up the single disc "The Best Of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" to get those classic stray singles mentioned earlier.
"Peter Greens" 
2007-12-02 - The title it self tells you it "Peter Greens" Fleetwood Mac. So if your looking for Stevie/Lindsey Fleetwood Mac, just look under Fleetwood Mac. There is nothing misleading with this title. Peter Green, is one of the Greatest guitariest, songwrites of all times. He has a legacy of being a Blues Master, and has left his mark in history.I think "Need Your Love So Bad", is one best songs he ever wrote. See if you can listen to, Gary Moore doing an album called "Songs for Greenie" where he does his version of Peter Green songs, that will blow you away, which by the way was recorded using the same Les Paul guitar that Peter use to record the orginals.
Unnecessarily thorough overview omits best of the original Mac 
2007-11-02 - If you've chanced to come across this Amazon listing for the "Essential" Fleetwood Mac, know that this 2-disc set covers an era of the band with absolutely no musical ties whatsoever to the more famous (and indeed excellent) Lindsay Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era of the band. Rather it focuses on the original Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer blues outfit of the late '60s.
More importantly, if you're genuinely interested in exploring this era of the band (which made a big splash in England back in the day as part of the legendary late '60s Brit-blues boom, but is really only known in the US for the single "Black Magic Woman" that Santana later popularized), this is NOT the place for you to begin. Don't be misled by the generous-looking tracklisting and double-disc format: this set omits the best and most intriguing material from the Peter Green era, focusing instead strictly on the tracks they cut with the Blue Horizon label from 1967 to early 1969. What that means is these two CDs include material from the first self-titled album (the exquisite and varied Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac), the rather dreary follow-up (the repetitive and questionably produced Mr. Wonderful), and the singles released around that time. ("Black Magic Woman" and "Albatross" are the two gems from this era, but the delightfully odd strings 'n' blues mash-up of "Need Your Love So Bad" is a treat as well. A lost Mac classic, this one.)
Unfortunately, what that ALSO means is that the songs Mac recorded and released immediately AFTER this period, the ones which turned them a visionary blues-rock band for a short period before Peter Green suddenly left, are NOT included here. You see, early Fleetwood Mac as represented on this particular set was a competent blues band (Green is an utterly dynamite blues guitarist, Clapton-caliber for sure), but they were trapped in a very narrow "all blues, all the time" straitjacket. The #1 single "Albatross" - chronologically the last song recorded during the Blue Horizon era - marks the beginnings of their move into something more intriguing.
But the real meat of the Peter Green years, the music that saw Green fusing blues with ambitious rock, folk, and psychedelic elements, came after the band had left Blue Horizon. Therefore the critical singles "Man Of The World," "Oh Well" (the template for Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," no less) and "Green Manalishi" are absent. Even worse, there's nothing from the one truly essential Peter Green-era album: Then Play On. THAT album, and THOSE singles, are what the legend of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac is primarily built upon. I shudder to think that someone might buy THIS set, hear a bunch of accomplished but monochromatic 12-bar blues songs, and dismiss Green's work without realizing that there was so much more to it than that.
As you might guess, finding a definitive commercial compilation of this era of the Mac is so hard because of the rights issues involved with work released on several different labels. But there is an answer! If you want to sample this great forgotten era of Fleetwood Mac, head over to the Amazon page selling "The Best Of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" and purchase that exquisitely selected compilation. It has everything you'll want and more: early blues rave-ups; the classic single sides; the massively important singles and "Then Play On" album cuts recorded right after the band left Blue Horizon; and even a pricelessly rare 1971 single that until now couldn't be found on CD ("Dragonfly").
