Customer Reviews

Live at the Marquee

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(4)
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This was my first experience with the Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac. The sound quality on this disc is so awful, I felt cheated. Fortunately I didn't give up and found "Then Play On". Gets one star for actually playing in the CD player, the other because Peter Green is the baddest white boy on the gitfiddle this side of Stevie Ray Vaughan. (though it doesn't show on this disk, at least that which I could hear). For completists only.

If you are looking for a great Live Mac album, check for the Recall - import double CD issue of the Fleetwood Mac "Boston Blues." These are the sets from which the "Live at the Boston Tea Party" re-issues were issued, and you won't be dissappointed. Plus you get two of those three discs for the price of one-and-a-half.

I just picked up this new issue of the 1967 Live at The
Marquee recordings of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
I am a collector of all Peter Green era recordings
and was really hoping to find something along of the
lines of Dinky Dawson's excellent Shrine '69 on Ryko.
Unfortunately, this CD can't compare. The sound
quality on Live At The Marquee is extremely poor.
The performance is good especially considering that
the band had been together for a very short time at
this point. Peter Green's guitar playing is tentative
at the beginning of the set but he seems to quickly
gain confidence. By the time they start "Watch Out",
he is clearly in control but again, the recording
quality is so poor that only a true Green-o-phile
will stick it out long enough to find out. There
is some kind of disclaimer about the sound inside
the brief booklet but even that doesn't prepare you
for how bad this sounds. It claims that the recording
stems from a sound board source but I would be very
surprised if that were true. The only thing I can
compare this to is 12/31/62 Star Club recordings of
The Beatles. That night was captured by an alleged
friend of the band on unprofessional recording equipment.
Fleewood Mac Live At The Marquee sounds to me like
it has similar origins. Original Mac bassist Bob
Brunning supplies some interesting notes inside (first
published with the 1992 of this release) and the
period photos from the band are nice (although familiar

to Green fans). If you need all of the available
Peter Green material out there, you will need this
but newcomers to this amazing band would be much
better served by the aforementioned live "Shrine '69"
or the even better three disc "Live at the Boston Tea
Party" (Red Snapper edition-remixed) and the very
reasonable priced six disc Blue Horizon Years box set
(essential for any blues collection).

It is a neverending search to try to find good quality recordings of early Peter Green and this is not the end of that search. The sound quality is fair, at best, and Green stays in the background too much for my taste. This maybe due to Danny Kirwan not being on this one, leaving too much Jeremy Spencer. I am glad I have this recording though as Mean Woman Blues is GREAT despite the sound quality. Green is dynamite at the end of it. So far, I still think you're better off with the Live at the Boston Tea Party discs.

As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" and a former radio disc-jockey, I am often asked to write and or discuss various music supplies and recordings from the 60's and 70's.

Live at the Marquee, 1967 because of the limited sound quality (People will grade it a C or C-) unfortunately will only end up on the CD players of Fleetwood Mac completists and Peter Green collectors.

It seems repeatedly when the record company reaches into the vaults and picks out a treasure the words "Thank you" never resonate only a cry about quality.

Those of you that made it to this point obviously know of the way Peter Green plays the blues. The guitar echoes his own emotions. There is significance behind every note. Live at the Marquee, 1967 is consistent throughout. The opening track "Talk To Me Baby" has you keeping time with the band. The blues are on display in an upbeat fashion but don't get too comfortable. The following track "I Held My Baby Last Night" shows you the other side of the tracks. The pure sorrow and pain is evident. "No Place To Go" is powerful and right in your face. The band's energy is abundant. If listening to "Dust My Blues" doesn't make up for the poor fidelity, you are in the wrong end of the Fleetwood Mac aisle. What better way to end the festivities then with "Shake Your Moneymaker." The blues as told by Peter Green forty years ago!


Enjoy the music and be well,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"

When one is shopping for arhival music, one has to balance sound quality with performance quality (one assumes you already have a passion for the artist...). Not including the rockabilly throwback Green and Spencer loved to perform, there are a little over 250 officially released unique Fleetwood Mac w/ Peter Green tracks available off and on in the market place. This recording is for the completist only - while the performance is a rare glimpse of the very first formal incarnation of Fleetwood Mac (Bob Brunning on bass, not John McVie), and a view into the famed Marquee club atmosphere, the sound quality is at the bottom of the aforementioned 250+ tracks one can collect. BTW, while Green would always play backup to Spencer, the reverse was rarely true. Much Peter Green listening requires attention to subtleties.