Quote:
Originally Posted by sharksfan2000
Every source I checked (including Vernon himself, in the liner notes for Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967-1969) agrees that the first album was recorded at CBS Studios.
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Thanks for checking your sources sharky. Where Mick got that Decca recollection is anyone's guess (again, possibly confusing things as they were once constituted in their Mayall world origins). If anyone knows of something we're missing here, kindly speak up!
You're right that Mick Fleetwood's recollections of events are not always a reliable source, but in this case he's backed up on at least part of his story. Huw Pryce, the band's first roadie, is quoted in Martin Celmin's biography of Peter Green "...it was Jeremy who had the idea to play through the PA to get a live blues sound in the studio. The first album was mostly DI'd [direct input into the tape deck] but for Mr. Wonderful we had speakers and amps all over the studio and Mike Vernon positioning microphones."
Jeremy for the win! Interesting concept, no?
No further info on how long the sessions lasted, but Peter Lewry's book "Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Recording Sessions 1967-1997" shows the Bare Trees recording as being done in "early 1972" at De Lane Lea. Interestingly, it looks like the album was released in the US before the UK - March in the US and not until August in the UK.
Lewry's book states that Future Games was recorded in June-August 1971 at Advision Studios in London. Is that the same as what you've heard about these sessions, snoot? What we really need here is for Bob Welch to join in the discussion here...are you out there, Bob? 
Yes Bob, please don't be shy! lol Welch would set us all on our heads I'm afraid, then double back and slap us around some more for good measure (all the while lovin' it, but then, so would we).
As for Bare Trees initially being released stateside, this is true as by that point that's where everything mattered in Macland. The Brits and continental Europeans had largely turned their back on FM by FG, finding it hard to let go of the PG era sound. The Yanks had a far easier transition however, most having been weaned on the post-TPO sound, where the fusion of blues, folkish-rock, psychedelia and rock n roll all sort of came together in the evolving Mac machine. In the US, most went
backward to discover those early Mac blues releases. Recall they barely charted here, with only TPO nearing Top 100 status (and doing no better than +Top 100 territory remains a far cry from commercial bragging rights).
As for Future Games, yes I have always had it as being recorded between June through July 1971 at Advision, and August for the trailer. The trailer in this case being the instrumental What A Shame that the band quickly threw together at the insistence of the blue suits at Reprise who felt that seven tracks was low-balled and inappropriate. To show you how relatively meager that production was in terms of plentitude, they had nothing else to hand over! So back to the studio they went to cut that 2 minute ditty, which imo basically shows its 2 minute worth. That's also why that track got the band's complete authorship, since it was basically done on the fly in the studio in (relatively uninspired) jam fashion.
This to me is but another reason Bare Trees seems so remarkable, in that it came but 6 months after FG (whereas FG came a full year after Kiln House), and was recorded remarkably quickly. Be that as it may, FG + BT make really nice bookends to the Kirwan era, and showcase what potential that 21 year old lad with Boilerhouse origins had to offer.
First Green, then Spencer, and soon Kirwan in their wake. *sigh*
