the greenius of Peter

Every decade or so, I have another go with the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, to see if I can hear what Greil Marcus hears in that incarnation of the band.

Well, the soloing on e.g. "Love That Burns" is uncommonly piercingly lyrical, but there's an awful lot of twelve-bar trudge.

Overall, it's not my bag, unlike the later Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac which is supremely my bag and has been since nearly forever (which reminded me: I'm shocked, shocked, by the non-appearance of "Beautiful Child" in this list).

However the Green-FMac relistening ritual reminded me of something that I always forget, which is that the band were vastly more successful as a singles act in 1969 than they were circa Rumours. 

Vastly more so in the UK, I suppose I should add. But even in the USA, as Rumours was selling multi-plat, and the songs were on the radio constantly, only "Dreams" got to the top of the charts and "Don't Stop' got to #3.  There's nothing like the 1, 2, 2, 10 sequence Green's Mac scored in the UK (and "Albatross", rereleased in 1973, got to UK #2 for  a second time). 

                                                           
check it out
(first vertical row of chart placings is UK, second is US)

"Albatross"[b]/"Jigsaw Puzzle Blues"		1		—	12	45	19	5	1		BPI: Silver[16]
"Man of the World"/"Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite"	1969	2	—	—	—	100	—	23	5	13	—		non-album singles
"Oh Well (Parts 1 and 2)"		2	55		—	19	54	5	5	1	—
"Rattlesnake Shake"			—		—	—	—	—	—	—			Then Play On
"The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)"	1970	10	—		—	—	—	16	14	6	—		non-album singles

versus

                                             

Over My Head"		20		32		9	—
"Rhiannon"[e]	1976	46	11		33	13	4			16		BPI: Silver[16]
"Say You Love Me"		40	11		12	38	29
"Go Your Own Way"[f]		38	10		45	20	11	11	95	1	23	BPI: Platinum[16]	Rumours
"Dreams"[g]	1977	24	1		11	19	1	33	88	8	16	BPI: Platinum[16] RIAA: Gold[15] RMNZ: 3× Platinum[37]
"Don't Stop"		32	3		22	30	1	41		4		BPI: Silver[16]
"You Make Loving Fun"		45	9		28	65	7	—		22	26	BPI: Silver[16]
"Tusk"	1979	6	8		—	3	5	7	15	10	4	BPI: Silver[16]	Tusk
"Sara"		37	7		13	11	12	44		14	12

I guess rock values and "heavy" were so in the ascendant in 1969-70 that "Oh Well" and "Man of the World" and "Green Manalishi" were hit material, unlikely as that might seem to contemporary ears

shows how "pop" as a notion is very context-determined and historically fluctuates 

but then again, Iron Maiden would have to be deemed one of Britain's most successful pop groups, if you go by the chart placings of singles

talking about heavy-as-pop, this is pretty undeniable



but generally I like the pretty slow stuff with the Green Mac