Customer Reviews

Mr Wonderful

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Following only 7 months after their explosive debut and afforded the luxury of a gatefold sleeve, Fleetwood Mac's second studio album "Mr. Wonderful" was released in September 1968 on Blue Horizon Records S 7-63205 in the UK (in stereo only). The American equivalent was issued in February 1969 on Epic Records BN 26446 and was called "English Rose" - it had different artwork and a much-altered track run. This CD version reflects the UK LP - and is slightly expanded.

Here's the breakdown - the original 12-track album track list ran as follows (41:51 minutes):

1. Stop Messin' Round (Peter Green and C.G. Adams song) [2:21 minutes]

2. Coming Home (Elmore James cover) [2:41 minutes]

3. Rollin' Man (Peter Green song) [2:54 minutes]

4. Dust My Broom (Elmore James cover) [2:53 minutes]

5. Love That Burns (Peter Green and C.G. Adams song) [5:04 minutes]

6. Doctor Brown (William Glasco cover) [3:46 minutes] (End of Side 1)

7. Need Your Love Tonight (Jeremy Spencer song) [3:29 minutes]

8. If You Be My Baby (Peter Green & C.G. Adams [3:53 minutes]

9. Evenin' Boogie (Jeremy Spencer song) [2:42 minutes]

10.Lazy Poker Blues (Peter Green & C.G. Adams song) [2:36 minutes)

11. I've Lost My Baby (Jeremy Spencer song) [4:18 minutes]

12. Trying So Hard To Forget (Peter Green & C.G. Adams song) [4:51 minutes] (End of Side 2)

This 16-track 2004 reissue at 56:27 minutes is "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967-1969" version from the 1999 6CD Box Set - now issued as a stand-alone disc. The additional bits are that Track 1 has some studio chatter before the take [extended to 2:36 minutes], tracks 2 to 12 are exactly the same, while the following are BONUSES added on...

13. Stop Messin' Round (Takes 1, 2 and 3 with False Starts/Previously Unissued) [4:32 minutes]

14. Stop Messin' Round (Take 5 - Master Single Version/Remix) [2:47 minutes]

15.I Held My Baby Last Night (Elmore James/Jule Taub cover) [4:26 minutes]

16. Mystery Boogie (Jeremy Spencer song) [2:51 minutes]

Note: Track 14 is longer than and different to the album version of "Stop Messin' Round" that opens the LP

Musically, "Mr. Wonderful" only half works for me - it feels like a poor-man's version of the debut (the USA "English Rose" compilation LP has a far better track run). Also over half the album - tracks 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 11 do 'not' feature Peter Green at all (and suffer for it), while the others appear to be hijacked by Jeremy Spencer's obsession with Elmore James to a point where "Doctor Brown" and "Need Your Love Tonight" sound exactly like the same song repeated literally one after another. It's not that the album is bad - it just somehow lacks something. The last song, however, redeems things a bit - it's "Trying So Hard To Forget" and has Peter Green on Guitar with label mate DUSTER BENNETT on Harmonica - just the two of them - and it's a peach.

The bonuses turn out to be excellent too - especially the two previously unreleased Jeremy Spencer tracks - the very slow blues of "I Held My Baby Last Night" and the jaunty boogie-guitar instrumental of "Mystery Boogie". And as with the box set, the remastered sound is exceptionally good - blasting out of your speakers with all the power of the band live in the studio.

As a stand-alone disc, it's great value for money - I'd say BUY IT! And then go for numbers 2 to 5 listed below as well...they're all magical in their own way. Or just buy the Complete box set - it's got so much great stuff on it anyway - 99 tracks, 33 of which are previously unreleased- and it will allow you to sequence both "Mr. Wonderful" and "English Rose" as separate albums.

PS: For those wishing for more, the Blue Horizon label Fleetwood Mac UK albums are:

1. Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (1968)

(original album, known as "Fleetwood Mac" in the USA)

2. Mr. Wonderful (1968)

(original album, as above)

3. The Pious Bird Of Good Omen (1969)

(compilation of non-album 7" singles, their B-sides, collaborations and other rarities)

4. Blues Jam At Chess (1969)

(original 20-track 2LP set often referred to as a Various Artists compilation.

Its full credit is to: Fleetwood Mac, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Shakey Horton, J.T. Brown, Guitar Buddy

(Buddy Guy), Honey Boy Edwards, S.P. Leary. Originally a 2LP set on release, it was broken into 2 volumes

for the "Complete" box set and renamed "Blues Jam In Chicago Volume 1" and "Blues Jam In Chicago

Volume 2". It is ONLY these singular re-sequenced releases that are available today.)

5. The Original Fleetwood Mac (1971)

(although released in '71, this LP has recordings from August 1967 through to October 1968, all of which

were previously unreleased at the time)

PPS: I've reviewed about 20 of the excellent Blue Horizon CD reissues - see LISTMANIA for a full list

Many people felt dissappointed by "Mr. Wonderful" after the sublime first album. But in interviews Peter Green has stated the purpose of the album was to recreate the sound of a south side chicago blues club.Raw and rough, the album does just that. Some fantastic guitar(surprised?), and some great off-color lyrics too.The horns are sloppy and perfect for the songs done on this album. What would "love that burns" be without the subtle horns riffing away in the background? The same can be said for the rocking "stop messing 'round".And it's easy to see why BB KIng himself thought so much of Peter Green. His economical playing is spot on. I still get chills listening to this. Jeremy Spencer does his Elmore James thing to perfection and you just want to get up and dance to this. And a beautiful acoustic "trying so hard to forget" lets you down easy at the end.Not subtle, but it wasn't supposed to be.

Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green in the time they played good blues. Alternating lively songs with slow ones they are good and have feeling. This album is one of the titles I like most.

Well, I have to say that I was disappointed in this album. I agree with one reviewer, that it's hard to say in a lot of the tunes, that Peter Green is involved in this. Sorry, but I feel that there is no comparison in Peter Green's singing and Jeremy Spencer's. There's just something about Peter Green and his blues, and the way he comes across, that nobody can come close to. Sorry, Jeremy. I was disappointed that so many of the songs had Jeremy in the spotlight. It takes time to find some of Peter's great work, but check him out, and look at reviews, and get some of the really good stuff. Try "Blues by Green", live "Boston Tea Party" (that one IS with FWM), which I have Vol 1 of, and haven't heard the others...I think there are two others. And I did get "Peter Green. the anthology, 4 CD deluxe Box set" which I would recommend. Also "Shrine 69"..Great. I guess it just depends on what you want to hear. Me....I'm a Peter Green hog, and I just want it all green. What a versatile guy. Some tunes that are favorites...[years ago someone made me a casette, and the songs on the first side are:"In the skies, carry my love(maybe my favorite), Promised land, Lost my love (oh, god, this one moves), fallin' apart, same old blues, I could not ask for more, baby when the sun goes down (oh,man), walkin' the road, cryin' won't bring you back, bandit, Little Dreamer." The 2nd side has these: " You need love, Sweet little angel, merry go round,if you be my baby, need your love so bad, worried dream, first train home, don't know which way to go, if you let me love you, jumpin' at shadows". this side is good as well, but the songs on the first side of that cassette are some killers.] He's just so good that to me Peter should have always been in the spotlight. I'm not sure what albums these cassette songs are on, but I'm sure they are out there. It's funny that I am not really a hard-core blues fan, but when I heard Peter Green years ago, I knew what kind of blues he was singing. Straight from the heart.

Mr. Wonderful at the time of it's release was stone cold blues-period. NOBODY on the British side and I dare say in the states put out this kind of raw blues album. It sounds like it's live in a club and the sheer force of Peter Green is overwhelming. Listen to- Stop Messing Around-If You be My Baby- Love That Burns- Lazy Poker Blues- Rollin Man-and you will find the BB King influence done on steroids. Fleetwood, McVie and the horn section are spot on perfect to achieve the atmosphere- a superb band with Christine Perfect sitting in on the piano- and she is subtle -yet present in every tune.

Spectacular tone, phasing, and raw power & hey- Green sings like he means it. He makes sure they are all having a good time.

Jeremy Spencer does overdue the Elmore thingy- but who does it better? I mean really-who? He stays very true to the original spirit and sound. As noted by others the Duster and Pete acoustic song is a beautiful thing. This as a second U.K. released album- places Peter Green as THE Blues Guitarist to be measured by. Nobody since has truly captured what he does on this album. It isn't meant to be a virtuoso performance technically- but for all intensive puposes- it is.

This is hand's down my favorite Fleetwood album. Peter Greene is at the top of his game here. This is a BLUES ALBUM, not some queer prog psychodelic crap. I still get out my guitar and jam along to several tracks on this bad boy every couple of days!

Critics and fans alike have bashed and underrated this album, the follow up to the first of the original Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut. But I deem this unfair. I'm not sure what they don't like. It's everything that made it's predecessor so great, but more focused and hard-rocking. For those who are unfamiliar with the Mac before Nicks and Buckingham, the Peter Green-led band sounded like a prototype for George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers-- rangy vocals, thumping beat and loud, blues-based licks. The first album, which is greatly praised (and rightfully so), has the weakness of an over-abundance of studio chatter, obvious mistakes and unfinished tracks. It's strengths lie in the fact that it features inspired playing, live studio recording and a couple of stand-out cuts that hint at later, less blues-based material.

In Mr. Wonderful, what seems to put people off the most is the lack of those stand-out tracks, as well as the fact that it's even more blues-influenced, complete with a roadhouse style horn section. (This tends to add to the gritty-ness rather than detract from it.) This makes me wonder if the people so entranced with the first album actually only liked the non-blues tracks. Do they really appreciate the blues? Mr. Wonderful is an even better album because it full out rocks through almost the entire album and doesn't need any "Black Magic Woman" style radio-friendly songs to pull it through. The studio chatter is brought back under control, and the songs are all complete cuts, not developmental conversation pieces that would be better included on a later box set for die hard fans. And, it has the same great live sound from the entire band performing together for the recording. What is there not to like, hmmmm?

I have almost every song, and on one album there are two consecutive songs with exact the same intro, but what else can we say about blues? Every blues song is very similar to another.

BUT FLEETWOOD + PETER GREEN(BAUM) = MAGIC.

1967 the magical year: 3 musicians, Mick FLEETWOOD, Peter GREEN and JOHN MC VIE decide to start a band, again a fantastic guitar player coming from the "breeding place" of JOHN MAYALL. They added a 4th player JEREMY SPENCER a slide guitar player. ONLY THE VERY FIRST ALBUM IS 100% BLUES. The sound started to change and the group expanded with DANNY KIRWAN.

Next album was THEN PLAY ON and yes, blues but also more ROCK with the pearl: oh well.

I am a fan, a big fan having almost everything, but a lot changed when Peter left the band. If you ask on the street: WHO WROTE BLACK MAGIC WOMAN 90% will answer SANTANA. FOLKS KNOW YOUR REAL HEROES

DESERVES 10 STARS! YOU ARE TRULY MISSING OUT IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS ONE, AS WELL AS THEIR FIRST ONE, TITLED FLEETWOOD MAC. BOTH ARE OUTSTANDING BLUES WITH NOT A BAD TRACK ON EITHER.

"Mr. Wonderful" is fairly unexceptional, competent '60s British blues. The overall sound - as might be expected - is extremely similiar to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, with a touch more emphasis on guitars. In addition, the influence of Elmore James is almost too obvious - the album not only features "Dust My Broom," but 2 or 3 other tracks that sound just like it.

Not a bad album, but not essential either.