FLEETWOOD MAC: THE PIOUS BIRD OF GOOD OMEN
- All Things Music Plus+
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
THE COMPILATION THAT PLAYS LIKE AN ALBUM.
ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ ★★★★★ 5/5 — ATMP+ MUST-HAVE!
Before Fleetwood Mac became one of the biggest rock bands in the world, they were something very different: one of Britain's finest blues bands, led by guitarist Peter Green.
Released in August 1969, The Pious Bird of Good Omen gathered some of the most important recordings from that first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac.
It wasn't simply a collection of tracks from the band's first two albums. At its core were their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, supplemented by material from Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful and two Eddie Boyd recordings featuring members of the band.
That makes Pious Bird an unusually valuable snapshot of just how quickly Fleetwood Mac were developing.
And three recordings tell much of the story.
“Need Your Love So Bad” showed Peter Green's ability to move beyond hard Chicago blues into something restrained, vulnerable and deeply melodic.
“Black Magic Woman,” written by Green, would become vastly better known after Santana transformed it into an international hit in 1970. But the original Fleetwood Mac recording belongs to a very different world — darker, leaner and unmistakably rooted in the blues.
Then came “Albatross.”
The dreamy Green instrumental was unlike almost anything else Fleetwood Mac had recorded. Released as a single in late 1968, it reached #1 in the UK, demonstrating that the band could move well beyond conventional blues without abandoning its identity.
Even the compilation's unusual title points directly toward it.
The Pious Bird of Good Omen comes from a gloss attached to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, referring to the albatross as the “pious bird of good omen.” The title and cover therefore provided a literary wink toward the band's biggest British hit.
Elsewhere, the collection goes directly back to Fleetwood Mac's blues foundations. “I Believe My Time Ain't Long,” “The Sun Is Shining” and “Comin' Home” draw heavily from Elmore James, while “Stop Messin' Round” and “Rambling Pony” showcase Green's own writing.
There are also two performances with American bluesman Eddie Boyd — “The Big Boat” and “Just the Blues” — drawn from Boyd's 7936 South Rhodes, on which members of Fleetwood Mac backed him.
The result isn't merely a convenient compilation.
It's an excellent portrait of a Fleetwood Mac that many listeners who discovered the band through Fleetwood Mac and Rumours would barely recognize — and of Peter Green at the center of one of the most remarkable early chapters in British blues.
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REVIEW EXCERPT
Mike DeGagne, AllMusic
DeGagne calls The Pious Bird of Good Omen a strong introduction to Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green years and the band's mixture of Chicago and British blues. He singles out “Albatross,” “Black Magic Woman” and “I Believe My Time Ain't Long” as essential early Fleetwood Mac recordings and recommends the collection as a starting point for listeners exploring the band's origins.
His assessment of the music itself is stronger still: “some of the best British blues music ever made.”
TRACKS:
Side one:
1. "Need Your Love So Bad" (Little Willie John, Mertis John Jr.) - 3:50
2. "Comin' Home" (Elmore James) - 2:38
3. "Rambling Pony" (Peter Green) - 2:40
4. "The Big Boat" (with Eddie Boyd) (Eddie Boyd) - 2:35
5. "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" (James) - 2:55
6. "The Sun Is Shining" (James) - 3:10
Side two
1. "Albatross" (Green) - 3:10
2. "Black Magic Woman" (Green) - 2:46
3. "Just the Blues" (with Eddie Boyd) (Boyd) - 5:35
4. "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" (Danny Kirwan) - 1:33
5. "Looking for Somebody" (Green) - 2:50
6. "Stop Messin' Round" (Clifford Adams, Green) - 2:18
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