Fleetwood Mac - The Complete Warehouse Tapes 1970 [Prof. Stoned 2020]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************** Part I: 30 January 1970 ************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------

01. Intro
02. Before the Beginning
03. It Takes Time
04. Like it this Way
05. Only You
06. Madison Blues
07. Oh Baby
08. Albatross
09. The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)
10. World in Harmony
11. Stranger Blues

Time: 00:53:57

All Tracks are Stereo

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************** Part II: 31 January 1970 ***********************
------------------------------------------------------------------------

01. Sandy Mary
02. I Gotta Mind To Give Up Living
03. Only You
04. World In Harmony
05. Stranger Blues
06. I Can't Hold Out
07. Oh Well
08. Rattlesnake Shake {sequels into 'Searching for Madge' & 'Underway', cuts out/in near the end}
09. Coming Your Way {cuts out halfway}

Time: 01:02:39

All Tracks are Stereo

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************** Part III: 1 February 1970 **********************
------------------------------------------------------------------------

01. Like It This Way {cuts in near the end}
02. I Gotta Move
03. Madison Blues
04. Albatross
05. Doctor Brown
06. Talk With You
07. The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)
08. Coming Your Way {patched together from 2 audio sources}
09. Tiger
10. Twist and Shout
11. Sandy Mary

Time: 01:03:52

All Tracks are Mono

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Recorded live at "A Warehouse", New Orleans, LA on 30 & 31 January & 1 February 1970
Recording to 2-track by Owsley Stanley
Remastered by PS

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source:

- Master Reel > Cassette 1# > DAT > CDR > EAC > FLAC (Part I+II, Part III: Tr 08-10)
- Master Reel > ? > Var. 320kbps (Part III except Tr 09-10)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note:

Fleetwood Mac was part of a triple bill: The Flock, Fleetwood Mac and The Grateful Dead on 1/30/70 and 1/31/70. The Dead famously got busted by the New Orleans cops in the night of February 1, while Fleetwood Mac narrowly escaped by getting lost on the way to the hotel (although they were probably not the target anyway). The Grateful Dead members (minus two) and hanger-on’s were released after a couple hours jailtime, but not before having to pay a huge amount of bail money. So, the next day, a benefit concert was organized at the Warehouse and Fleetwood Mac agreed to open for the Dead once more, since they had a day off. The concert attracted a pretty large crowd through sheer word-of-mouth.

Supposedly, the drinking water was spiked with LSD by the Dead's notorious soundman/guru on all three occasions. If Peter Green drank of it, this would certainly have been noticeable on the first set as his speeches are unhinged and lacking coherence. He sounds more together on the 2nd set, even though his announcement to 'I Gotta Mind To Give Up Living' is sort of disturbing. His mood seems best during the third set. Green's playing and singing, however, is first-class throughout as always.  

Much has been written about Peter Green's rise and especially his demise. As sad as his passing is, to me the artist Peter Green died about 50 years ago. The personal trauma he suffered that eventually led to his departure from FM in May 1970 was not something that started overnight. The initial signs of a mental breakdown already came in 1968, when he first encountered LSD in the States (again, courtesy of Owsley) and began to feel the pressures of the industry when the group had a surprise hit with 'Albatross', both of which he did not respond particularly well to. However, as erratic as his behavior became, the music just got better and better. The group's third album 'Then Play on' (Sept. 1969) was a commercial and artistic success and by being one of the first bands with the asset of having two master lead guitarists, Fleetwood Mac were an unbeatable force as a live-act.

This document captures the group at the height of their powers and it has the added benefit of the band not being under any "recording stress", unlike the Boston shows from a couple days later. The late Grateful Dead's archivist Dick Latvala was responsible for leaking the first two sets to the public in the 90s. On cassette, but still a holy grail by all bootleg standards and reportedly Owsley was really pissed off about it. The third set comes mostly from Wolfgang's vault and circulates only as a lossy source (please correct me if I'm wrong). It has lesser fidelity than set 1+2, but the band is smoking and it's easily the most energetic performance.

For those wondering why 'Coming Your Way' on set 2 cuts after three and a half minutes; I discovered that the second part of this song, which is tacked-on on all Warehouse bootlegs, does NOT BELONG there. That second part comes from the version played on 1 February, so that's where I put it. Same goes for 'Tiger' and 'Twist and Shout'; these songs are from 1 February and not one day earlier as commonly believed. I suspect Latvala put those three bits there on the tape he sent out.

The source material here may not be able to compete with a multi-track recording and there are various tape flaws, but it really is a jewel for the greatest part. I'm not sure if any of this is ever gonna come out on an official release from the mastertapes but if not, this compilation might be an acceptable alternative. It's still a bootleg but about as good as they get.

So here it is; for the first time all three sets together in correct order and everything newly remastered for an optimal listening experience.

PS (July 2020)

P.S.: Peter Green is a musical hero of mine, especially as a young adult his music resonated with me like nothing else. He had the best guitar tone ever, and played with the utmost intensity. I hope his soul has found peace.

P.P.S.: Avoid the Before The Beginning 3CD set (2019) on Columbia; it is a grab-bag of whatever bootleg stuff they could find with atrocious mastering and fake applause. It's so bad, it could have been one those expired copyright releases.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt from an interview from 2014 with Sandra Elsdon, Peter's Girlfriend from 1967 to 1971:

"I first met Peter Green at a club called the Cromwellian, where I also first saw Hendrix play. Peter wrote ‘Black Magic Woman’ about me (his nickname for me was Magic Mamma) as well as ‘Sandy Mary’ and ‘Long Grey Mare’. For me, it was the deepest and most soulful relationship of my youth. He was a very dedicated, brilliant, soulful musician, and a very kind and humble man. But he had some pretty deep issues.

I think he’d suffered a lot as a child. He once opened up to me about the pain of the discrimination and bullying he’d suffered as a Jewish boy living in the East End. I think he drew heavily on that pain in his music. He was a sensitive soul, and shouldn’t have messed around with mind-altering drugs. That’s what really activated his psychosis. I remember, when he came home from Fleetwood Mac’s first US tour, how the drugs were starting to have a bad effect on him. I begged him not to experiment more."