As I have said elsewhere this album was sent to me by Wil a guy who happened to drop by this blog and notice that I didn't have these albums up here. Thanks Wil!
This was the last album by Danny Kirwan, his third overall, which was released in 1979. Danny didn't even play guitar on here, he was not really in a fit mental state to be doing so, or even releasing an album. Ex-Mac guitarist Bob Weston provides some guitar on here.
All in all its not a bad album, especially when you have waited so long to hear it!
It has to be said that there probably isn't a sadder case in Fleetwood Mac history. Poor Danny, so young, so much talent, all gone. On a final note, Danny now lives in a shelter for homeless men and drinks away what royalties he gets.
Source: CD Rip from Japanese reissue
Bitrate: 192kbps
3 comments:
Sweet prop my friend. Great to see Danny Kirwan getting his chops. He was no doubt the most under appreciated member of the Mac, considering what he delivered!
In fairness though, Mick Fleetwood (in particular) went out of his way to give Danny every chance to "redeem" himself when his personal demons were increasingly taking root, and affecting his musical output and steadiness. Bob Welch, ever the professional, simply couldn't take his erratic behavior any longer, and in exasperation, basically made it clear to the band it was either Danny or him. The others all signed on, they too having hit their limits, and Mick finally - albeit reluctantly - cut him loose.
A sad demise to one of the Mac's principal stars, a true child prodigy of rock n roll and the third in a string of burned out frontmen for the Mac.
BTW and for what it's worth, Danny did play guitar on this production, adding riffs on both electric + acoustic rhythm guitars. It was up to Kirby Gregory and ex-Mac axe Bob Weston (on two tracks) to provide the lead fills however.
Big ups and greetings from SoCal - ciao m8 :)
Yes you are right, Danny was so under-appeciated, sadly Fleetwood Mac fans tend to focus on Peter Green or Lindsey Buckingham and ignore the others.
Thanks for the info about Danny playing on the album!
Under-appreciated, but not by Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green in particular, who took Danny under his wing at age 18 and allowed him to join their already well established band. Fact was, Peter got on much better musically with Danny than Jeremy Spencer, the band's slide guitarist (so much so that Jeremy isn't even featured on Then Play On, that's all Green + Kirwan on those layered axes). The most Spencer provided during that project was a few flourishes on the piano!
Recall that until Lindsey Buckingham came along, the Mac were famous for their twin (or multi) axe attack, and in this regard Kirwan was basically unrivalled. Think back on all those great early albums: English Rose (Green, Spencer + Kirwan), Then Play On (Green + Kirwan), Kiln House (Spencer + Kirwan), Future Games (Kirwan + Welch), Bare Trees (Kirwan + Welch), Penguin (Welch + Weston), and finally Mystery To Me (Welch + Weston).
In fact it wasn't until Heroes Are Hard To Find that Fleetwood Mac resorted to a single guitarist. Welch was so strung out trying to carry so much of the weight on that heady project that Mick was gunning keenly for a second guitarist for their follow-up production.
Enter Lindsey Buckingham, his would-be solution. Mick and John tried everything they could to convince Welch to stay on board, pointing to the newly discovered Buckingham as inspiration, but BW was too burned out by that point. Of course Buckingham also hinted fairly broadly that he and Stevie were meant to be a twin package. In any case, it quickly became a moot point when Welch declined the offer to continue leading the band. But still, who knows if Buckingham would have caved in eventually should Welch have decided to stay aboard! The thought of Welch + Buckingham as a tandem, wow! :))
For all of Stevie Nicks' talent, charm and appeal, she was never slated to be part of the band initially. Lindsey pretty much made that happen, and as we all know, the Mac have never looked back (though Welch did have a great run of his own with French Kiss and Three Hearts).
A few final thoughts, since you have provided such a nice share for Mac diehards. ;)
Jb (reprised), in hazy SoCal
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