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Fleetwood Mac · S1 E3
Fleetwood Mac
Named after the rhythm section. Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, and Peter Green on everything else
Windsor, August 1967. A band nobody has heard of takes the stage at the Jazz and Blues Festival, and the bassist has already been told he'll be gone within a month.
Fleetwood Mac, Shake Your Moneymaker (1968). An Elmore James cover that opens the debut album and captures the raw energy of this brand-new band. Mick Fleetwood's drums hit like a freight train, Jeremy Spencer channels Elmore's slide guitar, and Peter Green holds back, letting the band roar without him taking every solo.
Green Leaves Mayall
Peter Green quits the Bluesbreakers in the summer of 1967, knowing exactly what he wants: his own band, built around the heaviest rhythm section in British blues. He calls Mick Fleetwood first. Fleetwood, freshly fired by Mayall for drinking too much, says yes before Green finishes the sentence.
Windsor Racecourse, Berkshire, England
Home of the National Jazz and Blues Festival in 1967. The stage where Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac played their first public gig, with a bassist who knew he was already on borrowed time.
TAP TO REVEAL: Who was the original Fleetwood Mac bassist?
“I wanted Peter Green, and Peter said Mick comes with me. I said fine. I would have agreed to anything to get Green.”
— Mike Vernon, Blue Horizon Records producer, quoted in Bob Brunning, "Fleetwood Mac: The First 30 Years," 1998
Shake Your Moneymaker, Fleetwood Mac (1968)
This is a statement of intent disguised as a cover. Elmore James recorded the original in 1961 as a loose Chicago shuffle. Fleetwood Mac rebuilds it as a full-throttle British blues workout. Jeremy Spencer's slide guitar is pure Elmore worship, but listen underneath: Mick Fleetwood's kick drum is twice as loud as anything on the original, and John McVie's bass locks in so tight there is zero daylight between the two of them.
Why did John McVie initially refuse to join Fleetwood Mac?
Stop Messin' Round, Fleetwood Mac (1968)
A 1968 single that never made it onto the debut album but captures the early band at its tightest. Green and Spencer trade licks over a driving shuffle while Fleetwood and McVie lock into the groove that would become the band's foundation. It's looser and more fun than anything on the album, the sound of five musicians who've just discovered they have chemistry nobody planned for.
Stop Messin' Round, Fleetwood Mac (1968)
Read the lyrics while you listen. A straightforward blues warning, delivered with the swagger of a band that knows exactly how good it is.
The band exists and the debut charts at number four, but Peter Green is not interested in repeating himself. Next: an instrumental with no vocals, no drums for the first eight bars, and no precedent.
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