This year saw the debut album of Fleetwood Mac, the ‘Dustbin Album’.
The members of the band were Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and Jeremy Spencer. They had no bass player as John McVie declined Green’s invitation to join. They advertised and Bob Brunning applied and got the job on the understanding that he would be replaced by McVie if he joined. As it happened, McVie decided to join just as the recording was finished. Brunning’s tracks were replaced by McVie’s newly recorded lines apart from on one song.
The album was a set of songs written and sung by Green, mainly blues-rock and a set of blues numbers sung by Spencer, some of which he wrote or adapted from Elmore James. It is the last Fleetwood album not to include Christine Perfect McVie.
The album was produced by Mike Vernon on his incipient label Blue Horizon.
It is considered by many to be the album which kick started wider popularity for British blues than was enjoyed by The Bluesbreakers from whom Fleetwood Mac was a breakaway. The ‘Dustbin album’ remained in the British charts for most of the year and eventually sold over a million copies. Blue Horizon grew into a stalwart home for British blues and several American artists joined the label including Champion Jack Dupree, Otis Span and BB King.
From this album I nominate ‘Long Grey Mare’ as an early Green composition which preserved Brunning’s baseline.
