Watch out (Fleetwood Mac) (LP 2614 - 2616)

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac In Chicago (Vinyl, Sire Records, 1969) *****  

Fleetwood Mac Heroes Are Hard To Find (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1974) ****  

Rory Gallagher Blueprint (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1973) ****  

Genre: Blues rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Watch Out (FM in Chicago)

Gear costume: I'm Worried (FM in Chicago)

Active compensatory factors: Thankfully, the blues became an obsession with a whole generation of young poms. Among them: Eric Clapton; John Mayall; John McVie; Stan Webb; Christine Perfect; Mick Fleetwood; Peter Green...the list is long and includes a youngster from Cork - Rory Gallagher.

In January 1969 Fleetwood Mac, a band made up of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, plus three guitarists - Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwin, went to Chicago and recorded with some giants of the blues. The Chicago blues musicians who played at this session were Otis Spann (piano, vocals), Willie Dixon (upright bass), Shakey Horton (harmonica, vocals), J.T. Brown (tenor saxophone, vocals), Buddy Guy (guitar), Honeyboy Edwards (guitar, vocals), and S.P. Leary (drums).

The result is outstanding! The musicianship is first class and sounds fresh as a daisy in 2024.

The inclusion of studio chatter is particularly appropriate. It definitely puts you right there, listening along with the engineer and producers Mike Vernon and Marshall Chess. I can visualise the band in the Chicago studio vividly, as they take advantage of this return to the source.

By 1974 the band had been transformed into a different beast entirely. On board for this one are Fleetwood and McVie, plus Christine McVie, and Bob Welch. Chris provides four songs, Bob seven.

I love Christine's bluesy sway and her lyrics, which explore her vulnerabilities. Bob is more pop oriented and together they provide a template and a bridge from the blues to the pop world for the next iteration of the band, when Buckingham/ Nicks arrive. Bob and Chris have great voices that blend together well.

Sidebar: Not sure what they were aiming for with that cover. I was always put off by the image - a very tall, very thin Mick Fleetwood and his daughter shot in black and white.  It's so incongruous to the music of the album, which is very full bodied, warm and groovy. 

I somehow neglected to get Rory's Blueprint when I was buying the rest of his canon back in the seventies and eighties. Bizarre given how Rory and Irish Tour'74 were such landmarks for me in those early seventies.

Listening to it now, I'm thankful it wasn't a peak that I'd missed out on, like that live album. The studio was problematic for Rory. As I've subsequently come to understand, he certainly played many of the other songs live but only Walk On Hot Coals from Blueprint would make it onto the original Irish Tour '74 album.  

It's still a very worthwhile purchase and I'm thankful to finally have it nestled between Live in Europe and Tattoo.

Where do they all belong? That will do me for a while. I now have a complete collection of Rory's albums and enough Fleetwood Mac for the time being.