Fleetwood Mac - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (1968)

Fleetwood Mac started out as a blues band, one of the British groups to start playing American R&B in the 60s. They managed to find success under the leadership of guitarist Peter Green, before his departure and a flurry of line-up changes, after which they transformed into an entirely different band in the 70s.

Their first album came out at the tail end of the British blues boom, and subsequently it is quite surprising how successful they became, as at this early stage of their career they were playing pure blues music with little or no rock and roll frills. At this time most other British blues band had moved on to more experimental territories. Fleetwood Mac were one of the last ones to cling on to traditional blues, and did it with truly convincing authenticity. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer backed by the rhythm section of bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. Green, McVie and Fleetwood had been members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (Green having had the daunting task of replacing Eric Clapton), and Green and Fleetwood had left to form their own blues band, eventually enticing McVie to join them. Slide guitarist Spencer completed the outfit. The twelve songs on their debut album were split between the two guitarists, who both demonstrated their contrasting styles. Jeremy Spencer was a fervent disciple of Elmore James’ style of blues, whilst Peter Green’s songs generally went for a darker and more subtle approach.

|> Mr Wonderful (1968)
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