Fleetwood Mac released their first two albums within six months of each other, but then it took them over a year to released their third. This was the 60s and releasing a new album every six months was not unusual so I wanted to see if there would have been enough material for the band to have released another album early in 1969. If this was to happen, this album needed to follow a certain amount of rules, including adhering to the template of the first two. That is:
Each singing member gets a roughly equal amount of songs to sing.
Some originals and some covers.
The LP would contain twelve tracks like the first two albums did.
What would have been new for this release was Danny Kirwan. He was added to the line up to take some of the burden off of Peter Green because Jeremy Spencer, the other guitar player in the band did not play on the songs Green brought to the band.
Looking through the rather fine ‘Complete Blue Horizon Sessions’ box set, there is the ‘Blues Jam in Chicago’ album. This album was recoded in the legendary Chess Records studio with Fleetwood Mac being joined by a series of blue legends such as Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy. There was enough original material from this release to cover the majority of the songs. To make this a coherent album, I have done some editing to remove studio banter, false starts and the odd bum note (especially true on I Can’t Hold Out where a stray sax notes comes in during Jeremy Spencer’s Elmore James’ influenced intro). With these songs included, there still wasn’t enough material for a complete album. There were a couple of stray songs written by Danny Kirwan that I have included and this meant there was only enough room for one cover. This is ‘Jumping of Shadows’. taken from the ’Live At The BBC’ album. It is a good blues number and the band seems to have played it quite a lot in their live shows around this time.
If the band had chosen to release another LP on the Blue Horizon label earlier in 1969, this could have been what is sounded like. This would also have been the last of a trilogy of Blues albums where the songs were recorded live in the studio. With ‘Then Play On’, overdubs and editing as well as spending more time on the process were the order of the day, but that is a story for another time.
Side A
- Watch Out (Blues Jam in Chicago Vol.1
- World’s In A Tangle (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.2)
- I Can’t Hold Out (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.1)
- Talk With You (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.2)
- I’m Worried (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.1)
- Without You (English Rose)
Side B
- Last Night (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.1)
- Something Inside Of Me – Take 2 (The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967-1969)
- Rockin’ Boogie (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.2)
- Homework (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.1)
- I Held My Baby Last Night (Blues Jam In Chicago Vol.2)
- Jumping At Shadows (Live At The BBC)
The LP artwork is edited from a Reprise Record release in Germany and the Netherlands from 1973, but with the title edited out. It is quite hard to find artwork of the five man Mac. The title was chosen as it links into the album that followed, even if that did not use the original Shakespeare quote accurately.