Thursday, January 31, 2019

Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) - Non-Album Tracks (1970)

Now that I've made it past Fleetwood Mac's very busy 1969, which resulted in three full stray tracks albums and part of another, I can tackle the band's 1970 with relative ease.

According to setlist.com, the band played over 80 different songs in each of those years. But in 1970, the vast majority of those songs were songs they'd done in previous years or were from the band's studio album that year ("Kiln House"). So I only have one stray tracks album to make this time around.

Happily, I can say this is a very strong album. Fleetwood Mac started out a blues band with the occasional 1950s styled rock song thrown in, but by 1970 the band was widening its musical palate. This can be seen in the hit song "The Green Manalishi," which was rooted in the blues and yet was something new.

By the way, before I say anything else, I just have to say, holy crap, listen to "I've Got a Mind to Give Up Living" at the end of this album! Guitarist Peter Green was on fire! How on Earth is it that so many concerts and archival albums from Fleetwood Mac's blues years have been released, and yet this song hasn't been officially released in any form yet?! What the heck is the record company thinking?! This recording is from a pristine soundboard, so sound quality can't be an excuse. If you like Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green era, you need to hear this song!

Anyway, 1970 was a big transitional year for the band. Green began slowly losing interest and quit the band altogether in July. At that point, Christine McVie joined the group. In truth, she'd been playing keyboards on their records since 1968, and married bassist John McVie that year, and frequently went on tour with the band as part of Chicken Shack or later as a solo artist, so her joining was gradual and almost inevitable.

In 1970, Christine McVie was mostly performing blues songs. But even so, because her voice would become so well known as one of the most famous voices of soft rock, it's jarring to go from hearing a song sung by Green to hearing one sung by McVie. As it so happens, I had more two songs than I could reasonably fit on an album, and a shortage of songs for my 1971 stray tracks album, so I've moved two McVie sung songs to the 1971 one. She still can be heard singing some on one song here, "Down at the Crown," but this album is still dominated by Green's singing and playing.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 The Green Manalishi [With the Two Prong Crown] (Fleetwood Mac)
02 World in Harmony [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)
03 Loving Kind (Fleetwood Mac)
04 Oh Baby (Fleetwood Mac)
05 Stranger Blues (Fleetwood Mac)
06 Tiger (Fleetwood Mac)
07 Only You (Fleetwood Mac)
08 Sandy Mary (Fleetwood Mac)
09 Down at the Crown (Fleetwood Mac)
10 I Can't Stop Loving Her (Fleetwood Mac)
11 All Over Again [I've Got a Mind to Give Up Living] (Fleetwood Mac)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15116037/FleetwodMc_1970e_TheGreenMnalishi_atse.zip.html

The cover art is the exact cover art of "The Green Manalishi" single.

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