We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Peter Green was long gone…and Jeremy Spencer had left as well. The two guitarists who had helped found the band Fleetwood Mac as a blues drenched rock band were on to other things. Drugs and a weird religious cult mostly. Mick Fleetwood decided to move the band from the blues idiom to a more pop based form by adding American Bob Welch to the band along with allowing Christine McVie to be a full fledged member. Welch’s dreamy stylings and McVie’s pop songs were a nice addition to the band’s fifth album, “Future Games” that came out in 1971.
McVie, who came from the band Chicken Shack and was married to bassist John McVie, contributed two catchy tunes, “Morning Rain” and “Show Me A Smile” to the record. Welch’s songs ranged from the uptempo rocker “Lay It All Down”, which featured some nice guitar dueling with the other guitarist in the band, Danny Kirwan and the warm, ethereal title track.
That left Kirwan to round out the rest of the LP and his songs are strong. The beautiful “Woman of 1000 Years, which kicks off the album, the dreamy “Sands Of Time” and the surprising country riffs on “Sometimes”.
The record company would not release an LP with only seven songs so the band went into the studio and recorded an instrumental jam they called “What A Shame” which included Christine McVie’s brother, John Perfect, on sax.
The LP didn’t do well with the public or the critics but I think it’s a nice, mellow listen. And mellow doesn’t have to be boring. The Bob Welch years created some good music and showed a band that could make the jump to pop successfully. It would just take a few more years and Welch wouldn’t be around to see it blossom. Enjoy.
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