Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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88 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wrongs righted on the best "Best of...", 20 Mar 2006
There have been compilations before of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the band he formed after leaving John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, but this latest one puts right most of the wrongs and omissions of those.
Everything you expect is here including Oh Well Parts 1 & 2 in its full 9 minute glory and without fading out in the middle, where you had to turn over the single, as previous collected versions had; and the previously unreleased US Version of Need Your Love So Bad, which is a superb extended six minute piece, with strings arranged by Mickey Baker (who played guitar on Little Willie John's original). Stop Messin' Round was on the flipside of Need Your Love So Bad, but it is here in the slighter shorter version used on the album Mr. Wonderful.
The towering magnificence of The Green Manalishi is also re-established by its inclusion. The compilation ends with a token track by Chicken Shack, because of Christine McVie's involvement with the band, and the then-recent hit remix of Albatross by Chris Coco, both of which I could have done without in this particular context, perhaps replaced by their first single, Rambling Pony/I Believe My Time Ain't Long.
Peter Green was up there with Hendrix and Clapton in the sixties and as well as his work with Fleetwood Mac it is well worth checking out the album A Hard Road by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
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55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should buy this, 3 Dec 2003
For anyone out there (and I've come across one or two) who's only heard post-Green, Stevie Nicks and co. Fleetwood Mac, this album will be a big surprise as they might as well be two completely different bands. Some of the best music you'll ever hear is on this album, including Man of the World - in my opinion the greatest song of all time - and Albatross, surely THE instrumental that no other instrumental will ever match. It seems to me that when people think about THE guitarists of the 20th century it's always Hendrix/Clapton/Page way ahead of Peter Green, which is a great shame as the man is a genius and early Fleetwood Mac was groundbreaking stuff. This album is an essential addition to any 'proper' music collection!
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64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last..., 10 Jul 2005
Up until now it's been impossible to find a sensible and comprehensive overview of this "first iteration" of Fleetwood Mac's music... but here it is. Including virtually all of their best tracks, it pretty much perfectly captures what they were all about. A million miles away from their second (or was that fourth?) iteration that took the world by storm in the mid 70's & early 80's, this is a very different proposition. Featuring Peter Green's exceptional blues guitar playing & singing supported by the mercurial Jeremy Spencer's slide guitar and, latterly, Danny Kirwin's third lead guitar - none of who made it past their late 60's/early 70's implosion - and backed up by John McVie & Mick Fleetwood's ultra-tight rhythm section, they were, quite justifiably, one of the most successful groups to emerge from the UK's mid 60's R&B scene. Like all "Best of..." compilations it arguably misses a couple of their lesser known "stand-out" tracks, in particular "Long Grey Mare" & "Without You", but just about everything else is here plus, as an added bonus, Christine McVie's wonderful rendition of "I'd Rather Go Blind" from her earlier Chicken Shack days and the excellent and previously difficult to find Danny Kirwin penned 1971 single "Dragonfly". And, on the way, you get all the hits, including the stunningly powerful "Oh Well Part 1" & "The Green Manalishi", the heart rending "Man of the World" and the beautiful, extended USA version of "Need Your Love So Bad", plus some real hidden gems, in particular Peter Green's outstanding vocals and guitar-work on his brilliant "I Loved Another Woman" and his fabulously "raw" harmonica playing on "Looking for Somebody".
So, if you're looking for "Rhiannon" & "Tusk" you've dropped into the wrong section of Fleetwood Mac's notoriously complex back catalogue, but if you're looking for some superb UK blues and R&B then you're most definitely in the right place.
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