Fleetwood Mac

"Doesn't remember John McVie". I think he was a founding member wasn't he?

"Future Games". I've been searching out a nice copy and found it! A great lp!

I'm one who was born too late to remember the early years, but I've tried to catch up. I recently purchased the Speakers Corner "The Pious Bird Of Good Omen", I presume this is somewhat a culling of their best songs from earlier lps. What a great lp!

I've been a fan of the Kirwan & Welch years also. I believe I like the early years more than the later in spite of all of the "hits" produced in the later years. I always thought Mick Fleetwood was an excellent drummer, I'm becoming more aware that Peter Green was a "God" regarding his interpretation of the blues/rock scene.

Slaw,

Per my post above, Bob Brunning played bass on FM's first few gigs because John McVie was reluctant to leave his steady gig with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, notwithstanding the fact that Green and Fleetwood were bolting from Mayall to start their new band. I believe that one of those early shows made it to a live album, so J McVie isn't really a founding member. OTOH, he did join within a few months and has been there without fail for the 45+ years that followed, so - yeah - he's definitely a long timer.

John McVie is the Mac in Fleetwood Mac. Band name given by Peter Green. Apologies if someone else already posted this.

marty:
so appropos of nothing much i listened to the whole of tusk tonite and conclude that it is in fact the fm masterpiece, at least of the latter day iteration--vastly superior to the overrated, biggerselling fleetwood mac and runours. it helps me to understand your lindsey buckingham fixation--he's stellar here, with the brian wilson thing really happening.

Loomis,

I kind of agree. I always place Pet Sounds, The White Album, Exile, and Tusk in a class of their own as outlying artistic statements from bands expected to simply fire up another collection of radio hits. (It's easy to forget how deliberately outré the White Album sounded on first listen.) Obviously, Tusk has a special place in my heart, given my own quirky fascination with FM. I'd personally be a little kinder to the previous two FM albums (taken on their own terms, both shone IMO) but I'd also be the first to acknowledge that Tusk is braver and more ambitious than either of them.

IMO, Tusk a great record largely because it eschews the mass appeal of the previous two mega-hits. To really appreciate it, however, I believe that it must be heard live. As good as the record is, I also believe that (along with Say You Will), Tusk is the anomalous FM record in that the power of one writer's songs (Buckingham's in the case of Tusk and Nicks' in the case of SYW) is diminished in the tracking - very unusual for FM which is usually expertly recorded IMO.

When I first heard it performed live, Tusk just astonished me. The rockers became absolutely ferocious and the range of the band as they move from ballad to pop hit to stripped down rock was pretty incredible. FM did a mini-set from Tusk on the last tour and I thought it was the highlight of the show. Sadly, I suspect they won't go there again this time out, simply because they have a large catalog and like to change it up.

I'm glad you're enjoying the record, I hope that you do get an opportunity to hear it at its best -live, live, live- one day.