Fleetwood Mac | Self Titled (1968)Empty Bottle Evenings

Feb122015February 12, 2015February 13, 2015No Commentby Bake

Fleetwood Mac | Self Titled (1968)

Posted in Music

The first time I remember listening to Fleetwood Mac was in the ’90s when the Rumours-era lineup reunited and recorded the live concert performance The Dance. My parents told me that this here band used to be really big in the ’70s. And they weren’t shitting me. Rumours sold 18 million fucking albums. Everyone from your parents (maybe even grandparents) who lived through the coke fueled ’70s to your nephew that kicked your ass playing “Go Your Own Way”on Rockband knows who Fleetwood Mac is. Sort of. There is a another huge group of musically inclined motherfuckers that talk about the band that was the band before the band. Peter Green’s version of Fleetwood Mac. I’ve always known of their presence, but honestly I never bothered to listen to anything that Mick Fleetwood and the McVies created before Lyndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band. Well, today for no apparent reason, I decided to dive in head first.

I’ve heard for a long time that I would dig these bluesy version of Fleetwood Mac that existed in the beginning but I convinced myself that Fleetwood Mac is Nicks rasping away to “Golddust Woman”, Buckingham desperately pleading not to break “The Chain”, or Christine McVie’s pop gems like “You Make Loving Fun”. Even though trusted sources told me this wasn’t just a lead singer change but an entirely different band, I didn’t get it. That is until about 35 seconds into the first track from Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 debut self titled album. Although the rhythm section is still the same old fogies that were on stage in the 90s (and still are!) “My Heart Beat Like a Hammer” is not just bluesy rock, or blues-influenced, it’s the real fucking deal. It’s followed by “Merry Go Round”, a traditional slow blues number with a solo that would stop even this band from bickering long enough to take it in over a glass of bourbon.

“Long Grey Mare” and “Looking for Someone” are your lessons in blues harmonica. “Shake Your Moneymaker” is a rowdy, cover of the Elmore James blues classic; it’s faster, louder, raw and awesome. “I Loved Another Woman” is a groovy (yeah I said it) song reminiscent of “Black Magic Woman” which, shocker, Peter Green fucking wrote. Who is this band?! There are a few more songs in the standard electric vein as well Green’s acoustic “The World Keep on Turning” to round out the album. It may not be the best blues album of all time, and who the hell am I to judge, but it is solid enough to make me search for ’60s era Fleetwood Mac live performances and if you care about this crap the same way that I do that’s more than enough of a reward.

I actually like the Rumours-era band. I’m not too proud to admit that I dabble in ’70s pop and god-have-mercy-on-my-soul-classic rock. But I really don’t understand why they kept the damn name. I mean I understand it is based on their actual names but.. it’s crazy. It would be like if The Black Keys added Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber to the band and started recording solely Bubblegum Pop and said fuck it, it’s still The Black Keys, we’ll record whatever we damn well please. EDM, Jazz, Gospel, yep, fuck it, we’re still calling ourselves The Black Keys. For Fleetwood Mac, their drummer, bassist, and sometimes keyboardist have been fucking around under this moniker for almost 50 years, but there are several different bands to discover here. I for one am just glad that I stopped wondering what happened before 1975 and opened my stupid ears.