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Fleetwood Mac: Future Games

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Reprise Records
Released: 1971.09.03
Time:
 42:22
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Fleetwood Mac
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.fleetwoodmac.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2013
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Woman of 1000 Years (D.Kirwan) - 5:28
[2] Morning Rain (Ch.McVie) - 5:38
[3] What a Shame (B.Welch/D.Kirwan/C.McVie/J.McVie/M.Fleetwood) - 2:20
[4] Future Games (B.Welch) - 8:18
[5] Sands of Time (D.Kirwan) - 7:23
[6] Sometimes (D.Kirwan) - 5:26
[7] Lay It All Down (B.Welch) - 4:30
[8] Show Me a Smile (Ch.McVie) - 3:21

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Danny Kirwan - Guitar, Vocals, Producer
Bob Welch - Guitar, Vocals, Producer
Christine Mcvie - Keyboards, Vocals, Producer
John Mcvie - Bass Guitar, Producer
Mick Fleetwood - Drums, Percussion, Producer

John Perfect - Saxophones

Martin Rushent - Engineer
John Pasche - Sleeve Design
Sally Jesse - Cover Photo
Edmund Shea - Group Photos

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at June-August 1971 at Advision Studios, London, England.



Future Games is the fifth studio album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1971. It was their first album with American guitarist Bob Welch and the first to feature Christine McVie as a full member. Without the 1950s leanings of departed guitarist Jeremy Spencer, the band moved further away from blues and closer to the melodic pop sound that would finally break them into America four years later. After the band completed the album and turned it in, the record label said that it would not release an album with only seven songs, and demanded that they record an eighth. "What a Shame" was recorded hastily as a jam to fulfill this request. A heavily edited version of "Sands of Time" was an unsuccessful single in the United States and some other territories. However, the album did get airplay on FM radio. The title track "Future Games" was later re-recorded by Bob Welch for his 1979 solo album The Other One. There is an early version of "Morning Rain" with the title "Start Again", as recorded in a BBC session on 5 January 1971.

The song timings listed here are not as indicated on all CDs since the timings on some releases are inaccurate, in a few cases very inaccurate. On some versions of the album (depending on the country of issue), the notes state that the track "Woman of a 1000 Years" runs for 8:20 when in fact it runs for 5:28. Similarly, "Morning Rain" is listed as 6:22 and runs for 5:38, while the track "Sometimes" is listed to run for 6:25 and only runs for 5:26.

Early UK releases of this album, and some non-UK issues, have a yellow background to the picture of the two children and cover text. All subsequent releases have a green background. The 2013 vinyl reissue by Warner/Rhino available in the Fleetwood Mac: 1969 to 1972 4 LP box set restores the original yellow background to the album artwork.

wikipedia.org



By the time of this album's release, Jeremy Spencer had been replaced by Bob Welch and Christine McVie had begun to assert herself more as a singer and songwriter. The result is a distinct move toward folk-rock and pop; Future Games sounds almost nothing like Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. Bob Welch's eight-minute title track, featuring lead guitar from Danny Kirwan, has one of Welch's characteristic haunting melodies, and with pruning and better editing, it could have been a hit. Christine McVie's "Show Me a Smile" is one of her loveliest ballads. Initial popular reaction was mixed: the album didn't sell as well as Kiln House, but it sold better than any of the band's first three albums in the U.S. In the U.K., where the original lineup had been more successful, Future Games didn't chart at all; the same fate that would befall the rest of its albums until the Lindsey Buckingham-Stevie Nicks era.

William Ruhlmann - AllMusic.com



Back in the Bar-Mitzvah days of the drug culture the British music scene was shaken by what came to be known as The Blues Boom. Beginning with a small corps of dedicated musicians in the early Sixties, blues bands proliferated at a feverish pace until by 1968 nearly every person in the British Isles between the ages of 16 and 35 was in a blues band. But by its very popularity the blues boom insured its own destruction. After all with so many people in unsuccessful blues bands how could anyone afford to buy anyone else's records? So the boom subsided as the less accomplished musicians in the lot went on to find some measure of economic stability as light bulb designers, pop artists, members of hard rock groups, or what have you.

Of the many second generation British blues musicians who remained active Peter Green was among the most promising. During his tenure with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Green had distinguished himself as a fine singer and guitarist and a worthy successor to Eric Clapton. Indeed, on much of Mayall's second American album. A Hard Road, Green was the dominant personality. It came as no surprise when in 1967 Green left the Bluesbreakers to form his own band. Fleetwood Mac.

The other band members were Mick Fleetwood, a comically attenuated drummer; John McVie Mayall's longest lasting bass player: and Jeremy Spencer, a fanatical admirer of Buddy Holly and Elmore James, whom Mike Vernon had discovered playing piano at a seedy blues bar in a seedy British town. Not long after releasing their first album the band was augmented by guitarist Danny Kirwan, a mere slip of a lad, who if he progressed at the expected rate seemed well on his way to becoming God Jr. The band's second album. English Rose, most certainly rates as one of the best British blues albums, handily fulfilling everyone's expectations. One of the album cuts, "Albatross," was released as a single and rose to the top of the world charts.

It was not long before the band left Columbia and the tutelage of Mike Vernon and after nearly signing with Andrew Oldham's Immediate Label found a home with Reprise. This event was marked by the release of a single, "Oh Well," which had been quite successful in Europe, but flopped in the US, followed shortly by an album entitled Then Play On.

With Then Play On and increasingly in their live performances the band began to show rather disintegrative tendencies, torn between Green's hard-driving intense style. Spencer's imitations of old rock stars, and Kirwan's growing predilection for mush-mouthed balladry.

Green quit and the happy balance of English Rose was lamentably short-lived. Kiln House was released and Christine Perfect (Mrs. John McVie) formerly of Chicken Shack joined the band. While Fleetwood Mac was often very good at this stage, with Green's departure they had suffered a discomforting loss of intensity. Last year while on tour in California. Jeremy Spencer quit, defecting to one of the many strange religious cults so popular in Southern California. (I have some sympathy with Spencer. If I had to go to Los Angeles again I might join some strange religious cult). Spencer's place was filled, more or less, by American singer-guitarist Bob Welch.

So, it is with a lineup of Kirwan, McVie, Welch, Fleetwood, & McVie that Fleetwood Mac is heard on Future Games. For my taste, the album has little to commend. Danny Kirwan is out front on most of the cuts and sadly his singing and playing appear to have lost their edge. His voice drones, innocuously, he plays almost aimlessly, and the songs he writes are just too long. One of them, "Sometimes," might have been good but it lingers on purposelessly and painfully for six and a half minutes. Only once, on "Morning Rain" does his playing briefly equal his past performance and his tough, rather disjointed style almost re-emerges. Christine McVie puts in far and away the best performance of the album, but this too is disappointing in the light of her past achievements and potential. Her voice sounds surprisingly weak and emotionless here. Her piano playing too is not up to her known capabilities. Still one of her songs, "Morning Rain" does have its moments. While Fleetwood and McVie handle their rhythm chores competently they have usually been heard to be much better. As for Bob Welch his talent appears to be notable only in its lack of distinction, but perhaps he too has the ability to do better.

Future Games is a thoroughly unsatisfactory album. It is thin and anemic-sounding and I get the impression that no one involved really put very much into it. If Fleetwood Mac have tried to make the transition from an energetic rocking British blues band to a softer more "contemporary" rock group, they have failed. If they have simply lost interest, I hope they regain it in time to salvage what was once a very promising band.

Lloyd Grossman - December 9, 1971
RollingStone.com
 

 L y r i c s


WOMAN OF 1000 YEARS

Woman of a thousand years
How are your sons of a time ago
Do they still admire your silvered ways
As you go down
To the sea and golden sand
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
Woman of a thousand years
He waits to see you...
You may be seen up in the sky
And from the land
Or floating by, a fisherman's day
Flying down from a high
She is gone, and then appears
From the water's edge
He waits to see you
For it has been long since you left him
On his own to wander
Woman of a thousand years
How are your sons of a time ago
Do they still admire your silvered ways
As you go down
To the sea and golden sand


MORNING RAIN

Clear as the morning rain
Seeing it very plain
We've got to start again
What's that you do
What's that you say
There's no use complaining
It's the only way
There's no use feeling dissatisfied
Cause how can you know until you've tried
Clear as the morning rain
Seeing it very plain
We've got to start again
Everthings going around in my head
The futures new and the past is dead
Pull out the stops, turn on the light
Cause away from the darkness everything seems bright
Clear as the morning rain
Seeing it very plain
We've got to start again
Do do do do do
do do do do do do do
Do do do do do
do do do do do do do
Do do do do do
do do do do do do do
Do do do do do
do do do do do do do...


FUTURE GAMES

I did a thing last night
You know those future games
I turned off all the lights
Oh, the future came
You were by my side
Will you explain-oh yeah
Real rhyme or reason for those future games
Now you were there last night
And oh were you afraid
Of things we'd come upon
While playing future games
But baby it's alright and so have faith
Oh yeah, you invent the future that you want to face
How many people sit home at night
Wondering if they will be here tonight
Wondering if children will he bring to the light
Inherit the world, or inherit the night
Wondering if neighbors are thinking the same
All of the wild things tomorrow will tame
Talking of journeys that happen in vain
Well I know I'm not the only one
To ever spend my life sitting playing future games
You better take your time
You know there's no escape
The future sends a sign
Of things we will create
Baby it's alright
And so have faith
Oh yeah, you invent the future that you want to face
How many people sit home at night
Wondering if they will be here tonight
Wondering if children will he bring to the light
Inherit the world, or inherit the night
Wondering if neighbors are thinking the same
All of the wild things tomorrow will tame
Talking of journeys that happen in vain
And I know I'm not the only one
To ever spend my life sitting playing future games
Future games...
Future games...
Future games...
Future games...
I know I'm not the only one...
I know I'm not the only one...
I know I'm not the only one...
I know I'm not the only one...


SANDS OF TIME

The magic of a blackened night
Can go so far, but not seem right

Although my love, will drive away the sunshine
The magic of, a blackened night
And before you go show me
All the words of love

And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and fro the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander

And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and fro the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander

And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and fro the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander

The magic of a blackened night
Can go so far, but not seem right

Although my love, will drive away the sunshine
The magic of, a blackened night



SOMETIMES

Sometimes I get to thinking
About the times we used to have
But now you've gone away and left me so alone
La di da, la di da da, la di da
Although my back is aching
I'll work the whole day through
Although you hear that I've been wasting
All my time
Taking the sun from the sky
Lifting our hearts to the day
Thinking of new revelations
Talking with nothing to say
Sometimes I get to thinking
About the times we used to have
But now you've gone away and left me so alone
La di da, la di da da, la di da
Although my back is aching
I'll work the whole day through
Although you hear that I've been wasting
All my time
Taking the sun from the sky
Lifting our hearts to the day
Thinking of new revelations
Talking with nothing to say


LAY IT ALL DOWN

Let me retell
A story of old
About a man named Moses
Who lived long ago
He prophicied good
He prophicied bad
And now that prophecy's
Coming to pass
Let all your sons, and your daughters
Of the golden calf
Lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
Lay it all down, for paradise here on earth
A whole lot of people, including myself
Thought the story of Moses was just a tall tale
But all of the things that we see going on
Are just what Moses set down
Let all your sons, and your daughters
Of the golden yeah
Lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
Lay it all down, for paradise here on earth
Let me retell
A story I know
About a man named Moses
Who lived long ago
He prophicied good
He prophicied bad
And now that prophecy's
Coming to pass
Let all your sons, and your daughters
Of the golden yeah
Lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
Lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
Lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
I just can't imagine a reason for sorrow
Just can't imagine the hurt
You've got to lay it down
You've got to lay it down
You've got to lay it down
You've got to lay it down
I said lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
Lay down your burden of sorrow
There's just no reason to hurt
You've got to lay down your burden of sorrow
Lay down your burden of hurt
I said
Lay it all down, for paradise here on earth


SHOW ME A SMILE

Take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn't take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don't let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
Soon you'll be a man
My little one
So have fun while you can
Or there'll be none
Everything's going fast around you
There will be things to astound you
You'll be a man in no time
My little one
So take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn't take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don't let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn't take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don't let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
Soon you'll be a man
My little one
So have fun while you can
Or there'll be none
Everything's going fast around you
There will be things to astound you
You'll be a man in no time
My little one
So take everything easy
Show me a smile
It doesn't take much to please me
My little child
Shine me a light from your eyes dear
Don't let me see a single tear
Take everything easy
Show me a smile
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...
Ooooohhhh...

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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