Fleetwood Mac - English Rose - Alternate Version (1969)

Here is the second of three stray tracks albums for Fleetwood Mac in 1969.

Although the band only released one album of all-new studio material in 1969, but they also put out two compilations of miscellaneous songs, generally made up of A- and B-sides. In Britain, the album was called "The Pious Bird of Good Omen." Even though I prefer to go with British albums as the more definitive ones, this album is a real mess. Despite having lots of other songs to choose from, it contains songs from previously released albums as well as two songs by obscure blues musician Eddie Boyd, which are only backed by Fleetwood Mac. The band backed lots of blues musicians around this time, so it's very strange why they choose these two songs by this particular person.

So I've decided to ignore that album altogether and draw from the US compilation album, called "English Rose." This album also was an inexplicable mess, containing no less than six songs from the previously released studio album "Mr. Wonderful," as well as some A- and B-sides. But it also had three songs that hadn't been released anywhere else yet. So I've ignored all the "Mr. Wonderful" songs, but I've used the other songs as the basis for this album.

That only makes up seven songs. Due to all those needlessly duplicated "Mr. Wonderful" songs, the album is still too short. So I've added in some more stray tracks from the time to fill out the rest. Four more songs come from the later archival release "Jumping at Shadows - The Blues Years," and one more song comes from the later archival release "The Vaudeville Years." One more song comes from a BBC compilation.

There's also one song here that isn't a Fleetwood Mac song at all, but I figure it's close enough for horseshoes. That's "Hard Work" by the band Tramp. Tramp was a short-lived side group that contained guitarist Danny Kirwan and drummer Mick Fleetwood after they already were in Fleetwood Mac. Tramp had a female lead singer, so the songs with vocals don't fit here. But their 1969 album contains one instrumental, "Hard Work," written by Kirwan and prominently featuring his lead guitar work. I think it sounds almost exactly like other Fleetwood Mac instrumentals by Kirwan.

Unlike the other 1969 stray tracks album I just posted, "Watch Out," this one has songs in a variety of styles. It also contains two big hits, "Man of the World" and "Albatross."

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Man of the World (Fleetwood Mac)
02 Albatross [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)
03 Something Inside of Me (Fleetwood Mac)
04 Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite (Fleetwood Mac)
05 Jigsaw Puzzle Blues [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)
06 One Sunny Day (Fleetwood Mac)
07 Without You (Fleetwood Mac)
08 Hard Work [Instrumental] (Tramp (with Danny Kirwan & Mick Fleetwood))
09 Showbiz Blues (Fleetwood Mac)
10 I Have to Laugh (Fleetwood Mac)
11 The Madge Sessions, No. 2 [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)
12 Jumping at Shadows (Fleetwood Mac)
13 Like It This Way (Fleetwood Mac)
14 Farewell [Instrumental] (Fleetwood Mac)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15115911/FleetwodMc_1969c_EnglishRseAlternate_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I simply used the cover of the official "English Rose."