| Many bands are subject to line-up changes over the years but the departure of guitarist and vocalist Peter Green shortly after Live in Boston Vol. 1 was recorded changed Fleetwood Mac forever. Forget stadium friendly pop-rock; back then they were part of the blues boom elite, playing long, drawn-out jams in a manner that secured Peter Green's reputation as one of the greatest British guitarists of all time. The set opens with "Black Magic Woman", a song that sounds more at home with Santana, but this gentle blues version does possess a certain special something, in particular Green's blue-eyed soul vocal. "The Green Manalishi" closes the set with its thunderous slabs of noise sounding as big live as they do on the original recording, but it's the 24-minute "Rattlesnake Shake", heralded by the introduction "If we're gonna get loose, it'll be in this number", that steals the show in a perverse yet strangely pure version of the blues. Fans of Rumours and latter day Fleetwood Mac may be surprised by Live in Boston, pleasantly or not, but this and the subsequent volumes 2 & 3 tell a tale of a band millions of miles away from where they are today. --David Trueman |
