What Would You Recommend?
 

I have gone to several music stores lately and have seen many pre-BN CDs- (much to my surprise). I bought Bare Trees and I think it's just awesome. So I was wondering what to get next. I saw Future Games, Penguin, Mystery To Me, Then Play On, HAHTF, Kiln House, and a few others. Should I do this chronologically? What do you think?

Shamus :)

I would buy them chronologically. But, in my opinion, Mystery To Me is the best. It's one of my 2 favorite Mac albums from any era.:)

Re: What Would You Recommend?
 

Ok, you have Bare Trees...I suggest that you next get Future Games since it is the same lineup as BT. After that, get Mystery To Me. THEN I would suggest getting the rest in chronological order:

Then Play On
Kiln House
Penguin (which has the same lineup as MTM + Dave Walker)
Heroes Are Hard To Find

The pre-TPO albums are REALLY good if you like blues (they were heads above any other white blues band)...a really good way to get all those is to get the Complete Blue Horizon Sessions box...6 discs for less than the price of 3. In that box you get:

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (aka "Dog & Dustbin")
Mr. Wonderful
Pious Bird Of Good Omen
Blues Jam At Chess, Volumes 1 & 2
The Original Fleetwood Mac


The thing about Fleetwood Mac, ALL their albums are great...to have less than a handful of tunes that would rate as "stinkers" in a 35+ year span is really amazing.

Thanks everyone. I took ChiliD's advice for now. I bought Future Games, and I was told by someone that The Complete Blue Horizons Session box set is in a nearby Best Buy. I think I'll be looking into that next. Thanks again. (I love Morning Rain)

Shamus:)

You won't regret your purchase of Future Games for the title track alone. It's as close as the mac will ever get to the big, anthemic, 8 minute rock tune kind of thing.

Morning Rain is also excellent and may be Chris's best and most rocking song with the band, and the R&Bish Lay It All Down is also pretty excellent, though the alternate version on The Chain boxset is worlds better. The rest of the album is so-so, I'm kind of indifferent to the rest although nothing on it is necessarily bad.

I'd say in order of Welch stuff get

Mystery To Me, which is as close to a Rumours as this lineup got, it's a difficult CD to skip tracks on when I have it in

Heroes Are Hard To Find-has a couple heavier tunes and even a little psychedelia in the form of the proggish "Coming Home"

then
Penguin, which is just a laid back, fun album. Great McVie tunes and Bob's "Night Watch" are fantastic.

This is the only period of the band I'm actually semi-familiar with so I'm glad you brought this up. LOL Penguin isn't bad at all, it just seems like a good album to save for last. To be honest I actually think it's more consistant than Future Games, even though that album has a couple of songs I really, REALLY like.

For me, they could've just released Future Games as an EP with "Woman Of A 1000 Years", "Morning Rain", "Sands Of Time" & "Future Games" and I would've been satisfied. BUT, getting "Sometimes", "Lay It All Down", "Show Me A Smile" & "What A Shame", too, was a bonus.

My "Best of Bare Trees/Future Games" album: (heavy pot smokers would LOVE this one! :laugh: )

Morning Rain
Sands Of Time
Sentimental Lady
Woman Of 1000 Years
Lay It All Down (The Chain box version)
Spare Me A Little Of Your Love
Child Of Mine
Homeward Bound
Dust
Future Games
Sunny Side Of Heaven
Show Me A Smile


Hmmmm...throw in "Oh Well", "Station Man", "Rattlesnake Shake" & "Green Manalishi" in random places and I wonder how close to their live set that list is?

For some reason, this incarnation's live set intrigues me to no end...probably because there really hasn't been any bootlegs circulated from this era...I have no idea how they sounded, what their sets comprised of, etc. It really IS the "dark ages" of Fleetwood Mac history to me.