Fleetwood Mac
Mr. Wonderful

But how, on DeB. praises are lavished on Peter Green, some even love him, goodness me, and then you go to look at the discography of his Fleetwood Mac and you don't find a single review of their second work?! So, however poor it may be, I will write it myself just to maintain the leadership of reviews of this multifaceted Group, in its first and glorious formation, which has given music at least one absolute masterpiece: that "Then Play On" which will follow this decent "Mr. Wonderful", which was released only 6 months after the eponymous debut album in August of the fateful '68, and this alone is enough to frame its noble temporal roots.

Enough talk, I immerse myself in its music easily framed as rock-blues right from the first bars of: "Stop Messin' Round" a fast rhythm & blues written by four hands, as indeed half of the tracks on the album, by Peter Green and his producer Clifford Adams, which soon leaves room for the classic "I've Lost My Baby" where the plot of Green's guitar delights most of the track composed by the other soul of FW Mac, Jeremy Spencer, whose guitar and voice counterpoint those of Peter until our hero will leave the group in a couple of years, after the epic concert in Boston, leaving (alas!) free rein to the two lesser figures of this first formation: bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood.

Returning to "Mr. Wonderful", we find another easy rhythm & blues "Rollin' Man" and a tribute to the great blues man Robert Johnson with the famous "Dust My Broom" which bring us to one of the most inspired tracks of "Mr. Wonderful": that "Love that Burn" which, despite the title, is a calm blues full of aplomb sung by the inimitable Green, wearily accompanied by the rest of the group with Steve Gregory and Roland Vaughan on sax. The first side of the vinyl closes with another classic by Bep Brown, the delightful "Doctor Brown", but the other side starts right away with the continuity of "Need Your Love Tonight" by Spencer, almost a citation of the previous track and still able to bring out the qualities of the two expert guitarists, Green in the first place.

More interesting and still guided by Green is "If You Be My Babe", another blues written by him together with Adams, which passes the hand to an anthology boogie signed by Spencer precisely: "Evenin' Boogie" embellished by his guitar with a useful interlude of Vaughan's tenor sax, definitely a danceable track (if you can follow it!); very lively despite the title is also "Lazy Poker Blues" always by the acclaimed duo Adams-Green, which passes the hand to another homage to that Elmore James who, in addition to those present, influenced an entire generation of rockers including Mayall, Allman, and Clapton himself, and so we come to: "Coming Home" which leaves room for the most Green track that Green could possibly be: "Trying so Hard to Forget", something easier said than done. It is in fact such a melancholic piece marked by the evocative harmonica of Duster Bennett and McVie's bass that with those two deep chords seems right in front of us, in short, a great closing, hard to forget.

To conclude, the musical judgment is overall good, a work that can be listened to effortlessly, but which in my opinion represents a step back compared to the debut album, indeed, with malice and given the modest temporal distance from its release, I am led to think that at least part of the material are "out takes" of that and the rest "filler" celebrations even if excellently executed. In short, a sort of calm before the storm of the subsequent masterpiece, without particular inventions, but excellent workmanship by its great creators. A nod also to the unforgettable cover which in the original album opens to complete one of the ugliest photographic portraits in the history of rock, followed worthily and with continuity by that of the collection "English Rose" released some months later at the same time as the record label change by the FW Mac, which will also fortunately lead from this point of view to a clear change of aesthetic. Excellent the remastered and expanded edition in 2004.