Psychedelic Hand Shaking

This next one is just as much your number as much as it is ours. It’s all about the sad case of our drummer Mick Fleetwood having to go two years ladies and gentlemen, two years without a little bit of you-know-which. Two years he went without it and during that time he did indulge in a bit of self-styled psychedelic hand shaking. As I’m sure the men will appreciate that it does always seem to come down to a time when you’ve got to do the rattlesnake shake.

Never mind the wankers and welcome ladies and gentlemen to Fleetwood Mac Live At The Boston Tea Party.

The Mac were captured in their absolute earthy/earthly prime on three dates spanning 5-7 February 1970, which was released in various formats over the years. My copy is the absolute beast/best 4LP version released by Vinyl Lovers, covering 28 tracks with very little duplication.

The line up of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, John McVie and that onanistic drummer is their very finest in my reckoning. The gig is, mostly* brilliantly recorded and amongst a few others it was good to see that 1537-fave Vic Maile was involved in the assemblage.

Okay before we get started I’d just like to say that we are making a live recording here tonight and it should be A-okay. So right now the Boston Tea Party is proud to present to you the one and only, incredible Fleetwood Mac!

Then we are off into a slinky impassioned ‘Black Magic Woman’, its all good until Mr Green** takes the first lead at which point the spaceship enters hyperspace and time, sound and relativity are bent to his will as easily and adeptly as his strings.

You should know, gentle reader, that I love Peter Green, unreservedly. He was by far my favourite British blues guitarist. He has a magic balance between real gentility and utterly incendiary playing. He also looks a lot like my late uncle Chris, so he gets bonus points for that which aren’t available for most guitarists.

They serve us up the first part of ‘Oh Well’ brilliantly, the fiery notes glowing and coalescing over the crowd. ‘The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)’ is played slightly slower and more menacingly here, really heavy stuff; I rather like the way it ends in a rhythmic jam after all the fret fireworks.

Both ‘Rattlesnake Shakes’ could be billed as a ‘slow one off the wrist’ clocking in at 24 and 25 minutes apiece. The first version is a touch too mannered, the second is rougher and more vital, scorching stuff. Both hold my patience, which cannot be said for ‘Encore Jam’ which features Joe Walsh^, preceded by a lengthy quite sweary intro by Mr P Green, which is sadly very much akin, musically, to the act of shaking one’s rattlesnake very vigorously indeed^^.

Elsewhere I really enjoy the gently English ‘World In Harmony’ and the quite touching ‘Jumping At Shadows’^*

Live At The Boston Tea Party runs at about 50% covers, which are split between various blues belters and rock and roll covers – a mix which tells you all need to know musically about this generation of war babies; firstly electrified by the 50’s, then looking for more depth.

I’ll save you about 40 minutes of life, don’t bother with the rock and roll ones; with the sole exception of Ollie Jones’ ‘Tiger’. The whole point of Little Richard’s ‘Jenny Jenny’ is that it is a dragster, not a 7-minute drag.

Needless to say of the bluesier cuts Elmore James wrote about 8 of them and the Mac’s absolutely barnstorming cover of his ‘Stranger Blues’ is my favourite track here by far. Although their supercharged take on ‘Keep On Knocking’ is close behind – was that some very naughty swearing I heard in there?

Too many tracks to write about here, so I will stop.

Live At The Boston Tea Party is a perfect snapshot of a time when even really successful bands played multiple nights at mid-sized venues, things hadn’t been super-sized yet. Fleetwood Mac here are caught slightly gnawing at the stitches of being a blues band, but not quite having enough of their own material to make themselves something else yet.

Live At The Boston Tea Party isn’t a great live LP, it lacks the sequencing and incision for that, but it is a great document of a brilliant band really hitting their straps. I come back to Live At The Boston Tea Party quite regularly, for highlights, almost never for the whole damn thing.

Buy it, you’ll never be short of blues guitar again.

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Live At The Boston Tea Party, despite having a quite terrifying cover (seriously, is that hell doll a real thing?) is a pleasant thing to own. The pressing is great, I am told not always the case on Vinyl Lovers releases and is possessed with a very honest sleevenotes write-up inside, which really isn’t afraid to call it how it is, anonymously.

Plus you have to love a 4LP set don’t you? (that’s a statement, not a real question).

1293 Down.

*a little microphone trouble later in the running order aside.

**I assume.

^occasionally it is also claimed Eric Clapton too, which seems to be unsubstantiated.

^^’On We Jam’ an almost 8-minute coda to the LP is much better and more focused, pretty mean even.

^*which as the writer Duster Bennett was from Powys, I claim for my country. I love the sensitivity and gentility of this track.