Fleetwood Mac
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

THE REVIEW

Before becoming that chart-topping group known worldwide and creators of albums with monstrous sales ("Rumors" from 1977 has sold over thirty million copies), Fleetwood Mac was one of those bands that, along with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Jeff Beck, ChickenShack, Savoy Brown, Cream, and many others, created in the late sixties that movement known as British blues, which sought to revive the original American blues by mixing it with white rock'n'roll.

This first work by Fleetwood Mac consists of 12 pieces equally divided between original compositions and covers taken from the great American 'masters'. The group was formed by four outstanding individuals: the virtuoso and often troubled Peter Green, a guitar ace and true driving force of the project, Jeremy Spencer, vocals and guitar, Mick Fleetwood on drums, and John McVie on bass. Bolstered by a nice contract with Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon, Fleetwood Mac recorded this album in just three sessions held at the CBS Studio in London between November and December of 1967.

While Spencer, a great slide guitarist, is anchored to the roots of blues, Green is more inclined to disrupt the rules, although the best results will be seen in the subsequent records, making this one a fairly faithful album to the genre's stylistic norms.

The opening is all for Jeremy Spencer, author and protagonist with the slide of a traditional blues titled My heart beat like hammer. Green's subsequent and more famous pieces are Merry Go Round and Long Grey Mare, in which Spencer doesn't even participate in the studio. Original pieces alternate with some covers including Elmore James' stand-out rock'n'roll, Shake your Moneymakers, and, also by James, the blues Got to move and the traditional Hellbound on my trail interpreted by Spencer alone on the piano. Mention also for the wonderful and heartfelt Looking for somebody by Green, here also on harmonica, and for the cover of Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin Wolf, No place to go.

This first step of the group highlights the two great personalities of Green and Spencer who, together, would lead Fleetwood Mac in later albums to go beyond the traditional blues beats to approach more psychedelic and space-oriented sounds. The first part of the group's career, considered by many as the only one worth noting, would end with Green's departure in 1970 and Spencer's a year later, just to make it clear that they were the true blues soul of the band. This first step must be remembered for the attempt by young white Englishmen to revolutionize music that came from afar and had little in common with their urban culture. Fleetwood Mac, along with many other previously mentioned groups, succeeded in doing so while also paving the way for the birth of hard rock that would explode in the seventies. I want to finally highlight the album that Gary Moore dedicated to Green and the early part of Mac's career, "Blues for Greeny," released in 1995, redoing songs from the band, including many present in this debut.