Fleetwood Mac - English Rose (US Release Only 1969)

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English Rose is a compilation album by Fleetwood Mac, released in January 1969. It was originally a US-only compilation, combining six tracks from the UK release Mr. Wonderful, three UK non-album single sides, two not-yet-released songs from the UK version of Then Play On and one other previously unreleased track. It was released some months before the UK release of The Pious Bird of Good Omen, sharing five songs with that album. Mick Fleetwood appears in drag on the cover.

"Albatross" is a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac, released as a single in 1969, later featuring on the compilation albums The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK) and English Rose (USA). The piece was composed by Peter Green.

The composition suggests a relaxing sea setting, with cymbals imitating the sound of waves and a dreamy solo from Green's guitar. It contains only two chords, Emaj7 and F#m, and could be seen as an early ambient work. It is often assumed that Green used his Les Paul but he said it was his Fender Stratocaster, as there is subtle use of the vibrato bar. The Les Paul that Green used in Fleetwood Mac has a nasal tone like that achieved in the in-between positions of a Stratocaster, and heard in the song.

Green had been working on the piece for some time before the addition to the band of 18 year old guitarist Danny Kirwan. Slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer was not generally inclined to work with Green, who had felt unable to realise the overall effect that he wanted. With Kirwan's input, Green completed the piece and it was recorded just two months after Kirwan joined, without Spencer present. Kirwan's instrumental "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" was chosen for the B-side in most territories. "Albatross" has been re-released many times as a single in various countries, with many different B-sides.

It has been suggested that the piece is associated with the metaphorical use of the word albatross to mean a wearisome burden. The use of the word "Albatross" to mean an encumbrance around somebody's neck is an allusion to Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). It is unclear whether Fleetwood Mac intended the title to reference this meaning or if it refers to the bird; but the title of the UK compilation album it appears on, The Pious Bird of Good Omen, alludes to and quotes from the Coleridge poem.

This composition is one of only a few tracks by the original lineup of Fleetwood Mac that is included on their later "greatest hits" and "best of" compilations. Many of their compilations only focus on hits from the 1970s and 1980s. However, other compositions from that period have gone on to become classic recordings in the hands of other performers - "Black Magic Woman" as recorded by Santana for example. Another example, "Oh, Well" has gone on to become a classic rock standard. "Albatross" is the only Fleetwood Mac composition with the distinction of having inspired a Beatles song, "Sun King" from 1969's Abbey Road.

One of the earliest uses of the song was on the soundtrack for the Rainer Werner Fassbinder sci-fi virtual reality film Welt am Draht (usually translated as World on a Wire).

The piece was used as the background music to Marks & Spencer's 2005 advertising campaign. In March of that year, Q magazine placed it at number 37 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

The song also appears as part of the soundtrack for the film Man on Wire about Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center.

The distinctive slide guitar motif is a recurring theme on The KLF's 1990 album Chill Out.

The song found even more fans after being remade by a German ambient musical project B-Tribe on their much successful album Suave Suave in 1995.

"Black Magic Woman" is a song written by Peter Green that first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1968, subsequently appearing on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose (US) and The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK). In 1970, it became a classic hit by Santana, as sung by Gregg Rolie, reaching #4 in the U.S. and Canadian charts, after appearing on their Abraxas album, becoming more closely associated with Santana than Fleetwood Mac. In 2005 the song was covered by ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Snowy White on his album The Way It Is. In 1996, the song was also covered by Gary Hoey on his album Bug Alley.

Fleetwood Mac versionAlthough not as popular as Santana's arrangement two years later, "Black Magic Woman" nevertheless became a fairly popular blues-rock hit peaking at #37 in the UK Singles Chart. It was featured in Fleetwood Mac live set-lists even after Green had left the band, when it was often sung by Danny Kirwan, and during concerts in the early 1970s it would form the basis for long mid-concert jams. The song would often be preceded by a band member reminding the audience that it was a Fleetwood Mac song before it became such a big hit for Santana.

01."Stop Messin' Round" (Clifford Adams, Peter Green) – 2:22
02."Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" (Danny Kirwan) – 1:36
03."Doctor Brown" (J. T. Brown, W. Glasco) – 3:46
04."Something Inside of Me" (Kirwan) – 3:57
05."Evenin' Boogie" (Jeremy Spencer) – 2:42
06."Love That Burns" (Adams, Green) – 5:05
07."Black Magic Woman" (Green) – 2:48
08."I've Lost My Baby" (Spencer) – 4:17
09."One Sunny Day" (Kirwan) – 3:12
10."Without You" (Kirwan) – 4:40
11."Coming Home" (Elmore James) – 2:40
12."Albatross" (Green) – 3:09

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