More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac
- Seriously good sound throughout this original UK Blue Horizon pressing, with both sides earning Double Plus (A++) grades – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- The early pressings take the cake on this one, but try to find one in audiophile playing condition – it takes us many years to get one of these shootouts going
- Both of these sides are remarkably big and rich, with correct tonality, punchy energy and wonderfully breathy vocals – this is the way early Fleetwood Mac is supposed to sound
- One of the top Fleetwood Mac compilations – I have it on CD and have never tired of the music
- 4 1/2 stars: “…makes for a terrific laid-back stroll through some of the best British blues music ever made.”
If you’re a fan of Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac — and who in his right mind wouldn’t be? — then you can’t go wrong with this record. “Need Your Love So Bad,” “Albratross” and “Black Magic Woman” are all featured here.
Speaking of “Black Magic Woman,” the better copies of Pious Bird reproduce the bass-heavy drumming on that track much better than the Greatest Hits album we also recommend. It’s very unlikely that you can find better sound for that classic than right here on this very copy.
This vintage Blue Horizon import pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
What The Best Sides Of The Pious Bird of Good Omen Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1969
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
Repeat
I have the CD of Pious Bird in my car and let me tell you I’m more than happy to let it repeat for days at a time. I love the early bluesy Mac on this album, a group that’s about as far from the players on Rumours as you can imagine.
(Actually that’s not true; two fifths of the Mac, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, anchor both eras of the band, but the music made pre-1969 compared to that from 1975 onwards couldn’t be more different.)
Pious Bird is without a doubt the best introduction to the early iteration of Fleetwood Mac. It’s an album that belongs in any right thinking audiophile’s collection.
What We’re Listening For On The Pious Bird of Good Omen
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
The Players
- Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica (left in 1970 after Then Play On)
- Jeremy Spencer – vocals, slide guitar (left in 1971 after Kiln House)
- Danny Kirwan – vocals, electric guitar (left in 1972 after Bare Trees )
- John McVie – bass guitar (still rockin’)
- Mick Fleetwood – drums (still rockin’)
Side One
Need Your Love So Bad
Coming Home
Rambling Pony
The Big Boat
I Believe My Time Ain’t Long
The Sun Is Shining
Side Two
Albatross
Black Magic Woman
Just the Blues
Jigsaw Puzzle Blues
Looking for Somebody
Stop Messin’ Round
AMG Review
With songs taken from Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful, Pious Bird of Good Omen serves as a worthy 12-track compilation of the band’s early Peter Green days… Pious Bird of Good Omen makes for a terrific laid-back stroll through some of the best British blues music ever made.
Further Reading