Fleetwood Mac : Albatross......can it sound better?

At this point, I'd rather see Audio Fidelity issue Then Play On. I emailed Mr. Blonstein about it and he told me he's been after that title for about 5 years. He's very much aware that the UK version is as "band intended" and was interested in including Oh Well (parts 1 and 2) also.

If that ever happens, I'd could make my own 2 cd deluxe version

 

"Albatross" sounds pretty damn amazing on the Speakers Corner vinyl of The Pious Bird Of Good Omen.

 

One crucial difference between the 45 & the Pious Lp; the former is in mono and the latter stereo (only).
Since you were there, sir, could you shed some light on whether there was a dedicated mono mix? I've never been able to discern any differences between the 45 mixes of both Albatross and Jigsaw Puzzle Blues & the stereo mixes of those songs played with the mono button ON after extensive comparing.
Same with the Man of the World 45, but there are clear differences between mono and stereo with the 45's that preceded Albatross.
Thank you for reading.

 

Ordered. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Allow me to add that Mr. Mike Ross (who posted the above) not only recorded that one song, but pretty much all the FM (and other) Blue Horizon sessions.
Mr. Ross also recorded the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Dec. 1966 at CBS, Bond Street (Foxy Lady and Red House -UK version- ended up on the first album).
It is a great honour to have you here, sir. You got a great sound out of that small studio.

 

Indeed!!

 

This thread is in need of a bump.

 

'Albatross' was mixed to stereo as it was made using two four-track recorders where we made partial stereo mixes between the two four-track recorders and we then made a final stereo mix to a two track recorder, then we made a mono mix by folding down the stereo with a little more compression and EQ for radio play, so to answer your question there was no dedicated mono mix, only a treated stereo folddown.

 

Thanks, Mr. Ross!

 

Thank you Mr. Ross for sharing. The Peter Green era of Mac is my favorite Mac era, bar none. If I may ask, is there a certain session or recording w/Green you recall as a favorite or being noteworthy?

 

Sorry to sound like a nerd, but having the engineer of these Peter Green albums is just too damn cool. I for one am thankful for any tidbits or stories of sessions etc. Thank you sir for posting.

 

Here! Here!

As well, I'd love to hear what Danny Kirwan's contributions were to "Albatross", as Greeny once said he wouldn't have done the song without Danny.

 

Probably one of the harmony guitar parts? The slide guitar is Peter, Jeremy spencer does not play on it.

Very cool to have Mr Ross on here!

 

When discussing Peter Green's playing, a tribute album (even a well mastered one) should not even be on the radar.

 

It may not be the original 45 per se but I have an orange label UK 45 and it is easily the best sounding version of that track that I own.

Kudos to you sir! You and that band created some amazing work, it's for the ages!

 

Why not? If the tribute is wel performed and a true homage, there's no harm in it. The late Gary Moore's "Blues For Greeny" is a wonderful tribute album.

 

Listen closely and you can hear Danny's trademark tremolo style of playing.

They sure captured the Santo & Johnny feel perfectly.

 

Both the original Blue Horizon 45 and the CBS Orange label re-issue were cut from the same original session master by the same cutting engineer so they should sound very similar.

 

Blue Horizon 573145 was the first and only release of Albatross on Blue Horizon........the CBS UK re-issue should sound the same as they were both cut by the same mastering engineer from the original session tapes

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viqr6KHwJjc

 

Thank you it's great to be here.

Mike Ross

 

One of the wonderful things about recording those early Fleetwood Mac sessions was the fact that Peter Green always sang live with the band and as the New Bond Street studios had such a great acoustic and the bleed from the band on to Peter's microphone was so good that this contributed to the early Fleetwood Mac sound, Albatross was the first recording that was not recorded live and was in fact recorded in stages as we wanted to create a different acoustic for each overdub which is why it sounds so open and clean.

 

Danny played the original rhythm guitar parts on the original rhythm tracks.