DISCUSSION: Jeremy's songs from Mr. Wonderful
 

Here is the next discussion thread on Jeremy Spencer's songs from the Mr. Wonderful album.

Songs up for discussion...

1. I've Lost My Baby
2. Dust My Broom
3. Doctor Brown
4. Need Your Love Tonight
5. Evenin' Boogie
6. Coming Home

I got this listing from Amazon and Wikipedia. :eek: Let me know if it is wrong. :shrug:

Also I need to know if English Rose and Pious Bird of Good Omen should be counted as official albums for the "Battle of the Songs."

Thanks for your help, Ledgies.

Actually, I would include English Rose and not Mr Wonderful or Pious Bird...., but that's my own bias. To me, English Rose was a phenomenal album...it's what the US fans got as their second album, we knew nothing of Mr Wonderful or Pious Bird... until much later....similar to US Beatle fans got different albums than what were released in the UK. I loved Yesterday & Today wasn't until much later that we got the UK versions of Beatle albums.

My main criticism of the entire Mr. Wonderful album is the redundancy of the Elmore James sounding tunes ("Dust My Broom", "Coming Home", "Dr Brown")...one, two, ok...three? Gets tedious...HOWEVER, that said, taken on an individual basis, each PERFORMANCE of those Elmore sounding tunes is SPECTACULAR!

I suppose my username gives away my bias here. I understand that having these tunes in one album may be a bit much for some ears but I'd much rather listen to such similar minimalist, yet spirited recordings than a bunch of overproduced songs that end up sounding the same and are also on one album.:sorry:

But at least we agree on the performances themselves. Here, Jeremy captured the persona of Elmore James and made it his own just as he would later do with those of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. He is a master of paying tribute to Elmore James while having fun and perfectly straddles the fence between said tribute and parody.

dr brown
 

absolutely my favorite

A misunderstood album.
 

The Spencer songs overshadow the Green songs because (for some) it's completely redundant. All of Spencer's contributions are great, but it overshadows Green's songwriting vs. the first album. I'll wait for the Peter side of the discussion to comment.

But, see? That's the conundrum...if one were to change the album, WHICH track would you leave off? It's a no-brainer the answer is "none of them". Each song, despite their redundancy is really its own being, and really needs to be considered as such. And that's where Fleetwood Mac was at the time...their albums really weren't meant as a complete statement, but as a collection of individual songs. They wouldn't really start making ALBUMs as a collective statement until Then Play On but, the glaring omission on that one was the LACK of anything "Jeremy". Had the original idea (or what I've READ to have been the original idea) of "Then Play On" being a double album with what became Jeremy's first solo album being the 2nd disc of the 2 LP set, come to fruition, I think it would've been even MORE of a complete musical statement. (but that's for another thread at another time)

I've Lost My Baby
 

:angel:Well, all the "Dust My Broom" incarnations put aside (too obvious EJ clones), I had to choose between "I've Lost My Baby" and "Evening Boogie". So I chose for the heartful one (ILMB). Doesn't mean I dislike the cheerful "Evening Boogie", however.

Love "Evening Boogie". "Dust My Broom" is probably the most "important" of the bunch for its authenticity, etc.

Whenever I listen to Mr. Wonderful, I skip over the Jeremy songs and go straight to the Peter ones, which I think are amazing. Can't wait to discuss those.

To my way of thinking, Jeremy's best work can be heard in abundance on the live BBC sessions (amazing slide on "Preacher's Blues"!) and on Kiln House, where every one of his songs is a treat.

ommisions
 

Just to echo chilD, english rose counts separately because of that stupid us/english record difference that existed back then. The first FM Album I bought back then was Then Play On which also has differences (i had one without "Oh Well"). When I backtracked to get the first two There was a double album release in the states that combined dog and dustbin and English rose. I had no idea Mr Wonderful even existed.

doodyhead

That's funny,
Over here in Holland there was a dubble album combining The Original Fleetwood Mac with English Rose :rolleyes:
The Dutch "Then Play On" also did not include Oh Well, but had two other tracks (One Sunny Day and Without You) that, as I believe, were not included on the USA and/or GB versions. :shrug:
Futhermore, I think you should include Pious Bird as well, since it contains a few tracks that were otherwise only released as singles (Need Your Love So Bad, Jigsaw Puzzle Blues, The Sun Is Shining), or not at all (The Big Boat).:thumbsup:

Those two Danny Kirwan tracks were included on English Rose (along with Danny's "There's Something Inside Of Me"), so that's why they weren't on the original US Then Play On. I seem to recall "When You Say" & "My Dream" were on the original pressing of the US Then Play On, then were dropped when they included "Oh Well".

This is really confusing! :confused: But I think the best thing to do is to combine English Rose and Pious Bird of Good Omen as one "super album", if you will. I would post a discussion thread each for Peter, Jeremy, and Danny's songs from the combined list.

So if somebody wants to work up a tracklisting for this "super album" and post it here or on a new thread, so that other Ledgies can check it out for approval. Just make sure you label each song as either Peter, Jeremy, or Danny. :wavey:

With all respect, why bother with the US releases?
Fleetwood Mac was a British band... the band members recorded songs for the albums they put out in the UK: Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful.
I bet they had no control over what was put out in the USA...

Why Bother?
 

while the USA may no longer be a superpower, they did bother to release albums here. Their manager wanted them to make it here badly. I bet they had no control over what was put out in the UK either.
In the interest of fairness it would seem that if one were going to do an"Album by Album" trivia contest one would have to include the "erata" albums as well. I humbly propose they stand on their own as none of them were true Theme albums except for an album no one here has even mentioned: "Blues Jam in Chicago"

so for albums
Dog and Dustbin
Mr Wonderful
English Rose
Then Play On " I would concede that in that albums case one could put in all the songs in the combined listings of the US/UK/Euro versions
Blues Jam In Chicago

and we are not even going into
Jeremy Spencer or The Biggest Thing Since Colossus
PS
track listings for TPO without OH Well in US
Coming Your Way
Closing My Eyes
Fighting For Madge
When You Say
Show Biz Blues
Under Way
Although The Sun Is Shining
Rattlesnake Shake
Searching For Madge
My Dream
Like Crying
Before The Beginning

doodyhead, Mel and Vinnie

Oh...I think I'll just go & do something else for a while and calm down before I end up posting something that'd get my ass kicked off this site. :mad: