Listentomusicanywhere's Blog

I have to say that I largely lost interest in Fleetwood Mac in its various incarnations after the end of 1970, and was particularly dismissive of the commercial success the band enjoyed in 1976 with the “Rumours” LP.  Indeed, it took me about 20 years to overcome my prejudice in this regard, and acknowledge that there was some real merit in the output of the “transatlantic” line up, withe the boy with a girl’s name and a girl with a boy’s name.  On any view of the matter, however, the new group had nothing on the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac that I knew and loved.

One curious thing did occur to me in 1975, however, which I have mentioned previously.  In that year, you could go out and buy the new, eponymous Fleetwood Mac  LP; but you could have done exactly the same thing 7 years before that.

Anyway, I am much more intimately familiar with the story of Fairport Convention than I am with That of Fleetwood Mac in the years following the end of 1970; and so for the next few weeks, we shall be considering the truly fascinating tale of Fairport Convention in the 1970s.

Reply

Forward

Click here to Reply or Forward

Let me deal first with Fleetwood Mac.  It will be recalled that one of the group’s 3 lead guitarists, and indeed the undoubted personification of the band, Peter Green, had given notice in May 1970 that he was going, and duly went, at a time when it would cause the least inconvenience to the remaining members.  That left 2 extremely talented guitarists, both of whom were also blessed with excellent, though very different singing abilities.  These were Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan.  During a Christmas/New Year tour of the USA, Jeremy Spencer joined a religious cult called the Children of God, and just walked out of the group for ever.  His had been the chiming slide guitar which was a trademark of the band, and had indeed dramatically opened the first track on the first side of the first LP.  His sudden departure nearly killed the group, which was reduced to 3 guys and (unofficially) one Christine Perfect, who was at that time the girlfriend of the bass player, John McVie.

I believe that this rump line-up recorded at least one track, a rather nice thing called “Dragonfly”, which was on an LP released in 1971 called “Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits”, which I bought in 1974.

 I left the topic of Fairport Convention over 2 years ago, and that of Fleetwood Mac not long after that.  In each case, however, I took the story to the end of 1970.  This is because that new year marked a very significant turning point for each group, both of which had already suffered seismic personnel changes.  Indeed, one thing that the bands had in common in the early 1970s is that a Rock Archivist called Pete Frame drew up a “family tree” for each of them, so labyrinthine had the two matters become.
 
It is a good idea at this point briefly to recap what had happened to these groups in the 13 months to the end of 1970.  In the case of Fairport Convention, a third of the group, Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings had quit more or less simultaneously before the end of 1969.  Ashley Hutchings left to form Steeleye Span, a band whose early years I have mentioned in a series of posts above.  Sandy Denny left to form Fotheringay, a sadly short-lived group I shall talk about some more, God Willing.  A new bass player had been brought in, Dave Pegg, but even then the chaps knew that Sandy Denny simply could not be replaced; such an idea amounted to a contradiction of terms.
 
In the case of Fleetwood Mac, in May 1970 the Main Man, Peter Green, gave notice that he was going, and went.  At least he gave notice, but again nobody could replace him, so the group soldiered on as a four-piece, producing the excellent LP “Kiln House”.  That produced by the 1970 Fairport Convention, oddly enough, was called “Full House”.
 
Something akin to disaster was, unfortunately, going to happen to each group at the end of 1970.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”; the Last Post.

Track 13 on the CD is “jailhouse”, a 2.49 minute romp of the top class, with Liz Hanns doing a superlative lead vocal, in possibly the most “over the top” way on the record.

Track 14 is “guitar king”, which comes in at 2.47, and is the purest form of 12 bar blues on the album.  Not much evidence at all, if any, of Liz Hanns on this one.

The final track on the CD, track 15, is also the last track on the Canadian version of the LP, where it follows immediately after the masterpiece “sundown”.  This is the longest track on the record at 5.35 minutes, and is called “railroad”.  Liz Hanns provides a fantastic solo to close the record, a much more trad jug band blues thing than “sundown”, but very nearly as good.  “Cap’n's gonna kill you..till you’re almost dead.”

This ends the series about buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”, which I think I started about 18 months ago.  It has been great fun, and I may well do the same thing with another sampler or two in due course.

Next time, however, something completely different.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

Side 2 of the Canadian version of the LP opens with the same track as is at the top of the second column in the tracklisting on the back of the CD, Track 9.  This is “wildcat squall”.  This is a brilliant 2.49 minutes of Liz Hanns on her hollering solo best.  This one is like nothing else on earth, and really must have put a strain on her voice, a bit like John Lennon singing “Twist and Shout”.

Track 10 is another brilliant Liz Hanns solo called “don’t you ease me in”.  This is very different from the previous track, being a plaintive and very playful thing.  There is always some male backing vocal on these Liz Hann’s songs, but you’d hardly notice it.  Much tinkling mandolin on this one, which is amongst the best on the record.

Track 11 is “rich girl”, where Liz Hanns is confined to a few responses.  The male singer is of course splendid in his own right, but just not as good.  This song chugs along very pleasantly and predictably.

Track 12 is “sundown”, a Liz Hanns lament which is the best track on this fantastic record; it truly is the stuff of dreams, 2.48 minutes of sheer, unalderated bliss.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

The wonderful Liz Hanns, the girl singer in the band, actually uses only a comparatively small range of notes, almost all in a lower register, but this she does in her unique Deep South style, with much tremelo and vibrato.  The effect is spine-tingling and utter joy to listen to.

Track 5 is the truly brilliant, plaintive, ”alabamy bound”, where Liz Hanns takes a strong, almost gospel lead, with a male vocalist doing a bit of a response in another mini call and response song.

Track 6 is “overseas stomp”, the shortest track on the record at a mere 1.22 minutes.  It is a great romp, with Liz Hanns again taking a strong lead, at times screeching like a cat.

Track 7 is the track on the sampler, “round & round”, another brilliant song of course, but where Liz Hanns plays only a small part.  A careful listen to this song does, however, give a valuable set of clues to what Liz Hanns was all about.

Track 8 is “cocaine habit”, a song I first came across as “Have A Whiff On Me” by Mungo Jerry.  It is a classic dope song, and done here to absolute perfection, with Liz Hanns again taking a strong lead.  Marvellous stuff.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

Every track on this record is utterly brilliant.  The only thing which really makes any of them any better than any other is the extent to which the wonderful Liz Hanns contributes to the vocals.  The more she does, the more splendid the song.

In style there is not much difference at all on the record; the album is one of Louisiana style jug band blues from start to finish, but ther’s nothing at all wrong with that.

Track 1 is “38 plug”, an up tempo thing with lots of Swanee whistle, where Liz Hanns takes the lead.  This is a brilliant opener.

Track 2 is “going to germany”, where liz Hanns is limited to mini responses on a sort of mini call and response thing.  The song has much mouth organ, and the title line is sung as “goana german”.

Track 3 is “canned heat” which has a sparse guitar accompaniment, and Liz Hanns is again in the background.  There was of course an excellent band with this name, that I first heard doing “On The Road Again”, and who appeared at Woodstock.

Track 4 is the famous “viola lee”, which I first heard as the classic Grateful Dead version.  Here, thank God, Liz Hanns has a solo vocal; this one is a masterpiece.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

Just a few more words on the CD insert, which, as noted above, is very nearly a straight clone of the LP cover, so far as I know it from the Canadian pressing.

However, under the track listing on the CD we get:

“all tracks trad: arr. Panama Ltd Jug Band except “alabamy bound”.

Contrast that with the LP version:

“all tracks trad: arr. Panama Ltd Jug Band except “Going to Germany,” by Noah Lewis, Peer International (BMI)”.

Odd, huh?  “Alabamy Bound”, of course, is not on the vinyl version I have.

As I mentioned earlier, you don’t get a clear picture of just how brilliant this record is from the sampled track “Round and Round”, splendid song though that be.  This is because the only girl in the band, one Liz Hanns, is restricted to backing vocals on that track.

Liz Hanns had a unique voice.  What you get with this is traditional Old Mississippi Mama as portrayed in films from or around the 1940s, but sung way over the top by a young English girl in 1969.  There is a hint of how this works in the backing vocals on “Round and Round”, but you don’t get the full effect until you hear the songs where she takes the lead, which is most of them.  The resultant sound is just ecstatic.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

As mentioned last time, I am blessed to possess a commercially produced CD version of this near perfect album.  It was made in Spain in 2006, and released by Retro Disc International S.L. as RDI 33005.

As far as it could be, it is a straight clone of the Canadian version of the LP.  The front of the CD itself is decorated with the front cover picture.  However, it has many more tracks than the Canadian LP, which only has 10, 5 on each side.

The track listing is in exactly the same comparable place as for the LP in the CD insert, the 4 pages of which, as I say, very closely resemble the gatefold sleeve of the LP. In particular, the track listing is in the same lower case format, and arranged in two columns as if there were still “two sides”:

First Column

38 plug

going to germany

canned heat

viola lee

alabamy bound

overseas stomp

round & round

cocaine habit

Second Column

wildcat squall

don’t you ease me in

rich girl

sundown

jailhouse

guitar king

railroad

There are thus a mighty 15 tracks on the CD.  Being a straight clone of the LP there are no liner notes at all, so I have no way of knowing which, if any, are “bonus tracks”.

Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.

Before I resume the story of why this is not only the best of the albums sampled on “Picnic”, but also one of the best LPs ever made, I want to say a little about the CD.

You may recall that I said earlier that I had this both on vinyl and CD, and I did not simply mean the “burned” ones referred to above.

About a year after I got the Canadian LP, maybe 2006 or 2007, to my intense surprise and joy I got a commercially produced CD version of this album.  In those days I was on the mailing list of a chap in Cornwall, right at the furthest south west tip of England.  This guy was remarkable, indeed in my view verging on the miraculous.  About once a month he would send me a letter, in which would be listed about 20 CDs he had for sale.  What was unusual, however, would be that at least half of them would be things which never seemed to have been available from any other source; I guess maybe he was importing them from continental Europe.  Anyway, one day there appeared on the list the eponymous Panama Limited Jug Band album in CD format.  I could not believe my eyes, but of course ordered it straight away; and it duly arrived.