Fleetwood Mac - I Believe My Time Ain't Long - Non-Album Tracks (1967)

I've already posted a couple of quasi-Fleetwood Mac albums, one centered on guitarist Peter Green's work with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and one of Christine McVie's short solo career before she joined Fleetwood Mac, back when she was known as Christine Perfect. Now it's time to start in on actual Fleetwood Mac music.

The early years of Fleetwood Mac, back when they were a blues band led by Peter Green, are a mess. They put out a few albums in Britain which I consider the official albums of the time, so I don't want to duplicate any songs on those - "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac," "Mr. Wonderful," and "Then Play On." But they actually recorded a lot more studio material than that (if one includes things like their BBC recordings). I've made no less than six albums of stray tracks, just from their material prior to 1970. And, with only a few songs as exceptions, that doesn't even count their live material from that time.

Here's the first of those six albums (and I've got a lot more from after 1970!). Fleetwood Mac only had one official release in 1967, a single with "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" as the A-side. But their first official album, "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac," came out in February 1968, and all of it was recorded in 1967, starting as early as April. So, in addition to containing the A- and B-sides of their 1967 album, this contains outtakes of their first album, which could have been released at the end of 1967 before even their first album, if they'd really wanted to do that.

Now, an album of outtakes might not sound that appealing. But at the time the band was mainly doing covers of blues classics, and frankly I think it's debatable which is better, the songs they put on the album, or the songs they left off. Basically, if you like Fleetwood Mac doing the blues, you'll like it all.

I've added one oddity at the end, because I couldn't figure out anywhere else to put it. It's the instrumental "Soul Dressing" by a short-lived band called "Peter B.'s Looners." This is worthy of inclusion because both Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac were in the band when this song was recorded in 1966, and it has some nice guitar work by Green.

01 I Believe My Time Ain't Long (Fleetwood Mac)
02 Ramblin' Pony (Fleetwood Mac)
03 Drifting (Fleetwood Mac)
04 Watch Out (Fleetwood Mac)
05 A Fool No More (Fleetwood Mac)
06 Mean Old Fireman (Fleetwood Mac)
07 Can't Afford to Do It (Fleetwood Mac)
08 Fleetwood Mac [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)
09 Allow Me One More Show (Fleetwood Mac)
10 First Train Home (Fleetwood Mac)
11 Soul Dressing [Instrumental] (Peter B.'s Looners)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15115657/FleetwodMc_1967d_IBelieveMyTimeAintLng_atse.zip.html

The cover art is based on the cover for the "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" single, which is also why I gave the album that title. I made some changes, mainly with the placement of the text, and also removing the text of the B-side song title.