English Rose

Performer: Fleetwood Mac
Engineer: M. Ross
Producer: Mike Vernon
Distributor: Infinity Entertainment Gr

Notes: Fleetwood Mac: Danny Kirwan, Peter Green (vocals, guitar); Jeremy Spencer (vocals, slide guitar, piano); John McVie (bass guitar); Mick Fleetwood (drums). For reasons that no one seems to recall in detail -- but for which we can be grateful -- when it was time to release a second Fleetwood Mac LP in America, producer Mike Vernon and the band didn't just send the existing Mr. Wonderful album across the Atlantic -- a little fine-tuning and retooling was in order. The band had just expanded by one member, to a quintet -- with the addition of guitarist Danny Kirwan -- by the end of 1968, whereas Mr. Wonderful represented them as a four-piece outfit. Additionally, the group had just toured the U.S. for the first time, as a quintet, playing to very enthusiastic audiences, and so there was some point to sending U.S. licensee Epic Records something extra, representing who they were at the start of 1969. And that became the English Rose album, offering three Kirwan-authored instrumentals, plus the hit U.K. single "Albatross," and also their previous single, "Black Magic Woman," which had been a British Top 40 hit (though it was unknown in the U.S., and preceded Santana's hit recording of it by almost two years). Half of Mr. Wonderful was still there, including the opener, "Stop Messin' Round" and "I've Lost My Baby," representing the stronger tracks from that record. Between the paring down of Mr. Wonderful and the addition of the single tracks, English Rose ended up being a stronger album than its predecessor, though without a hit single in America to drive sales and get it exposure, it barely brushed the Top 200 LP listings in the U.S. Strangely enough, despite the overlap with Mr. Wonderful, English Rose was released in England about six months later, probably to help make up for the loss of the group's contract (due to an oversight) by Blue Horizon. ~ Bruce Eder

Dirty Linen (p.74) - "It shows the band in top form with Peter Green at the helm driving the songs into Chicago-blues territory with mostly original material by Green and Kirwan." Dirty Linen (p.89) - "With Mick Fleetwood joining with John McVie to create a rock-solid rhythm section, their former John Mayall's Bluesbreakers bandmate Peter Green combined with the then-teenage Elmore James-like slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer to bring a new sensibility to the blues tradition."

Making endless shifts in personnel and style, Fleetwood Mac went from being one of the most original British blues bands of the 1960s--under the leadership of Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood--to becoming purveyors of a smooth, masterful L.A. pop aesthetic that conquered the American airwaves during the '70s. Their most successful album, 1977's RUMOURS--featuring the group's most well-known lineup of Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks--is one of the best-selling records of all time. Although never quite able to repeat that success, the band continued touring and recording off and on for the next three decades in various incarnations.

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