Traffic singles

Trying to figure out which Traffic singles were released can be a nuisance. The first three singles were recorded as such by the band, but after that the local representatives of Fontana / Island took over by picking album tracks and releases differed from country to country. This is a mishmash of UK, Dutch and German releases:

Paper sun / Giving to you {Fontana, 278 301 YF}

Hole in my shoe / Smiling phases {Island, WIP 6017}

Here we go round the mulberry bush / Coloured rain {Island, WIP 6025}

No face, no name, no number / Forty thousand headmen {Fontana, 269 378 YF}

Feelin’ alright? / Withering tree {Fontana, 269 387 TF and Island, WIP 6041}

You can all join in / Withering Tree {Fontana, 260 163}

Shanghai Noodle Factory / You can all join in {Island, ALSO WIP 6041}

Medicated goo / Shanghai Noodle Factory {Island, WIP6050}

Medicated goo / Pearly Queen {Island, 269 394 TF}

Empty Pages / Stranger To Himself {Island, 6014 021}

Although there are picture sleeves of "Feelin’ alright?" / "Withering tree" with release number Island WIP 6041 there are also UK labels of "Shanghai Noodle factory" with release number WIP 6041. Even the Traffic fansite doesn't shed a light on this. "Medicate goo" was released with "Shanghai Noodle Factory" as the B-side as Island WIP6050, but in The Netherlands the flipside was "Pearly Queen". To confuse matters even more "Withering tree" (flipside of "Feelin' alright") was also B-side to a French (?) "You can all join in" single.
Anyway: great band, nice collection!
Rating:*****

"Albatross" b/w "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" by Fleetwood Mac (Blue Horizon 3145)

The beginning of the end? Not really. We already knew Peter Green sometimes stepped out of the 12-bar format. "The Supernatural" and "The Same Way" on the Bluesbreakers' "A Hard Road" album were points in case. Besides, "Albatross" was a wonderful tune and we weren't blues purists. We were happy that 'our' band was finally making it big, which was always a sign that we had been 'right' all along. Fact is that Fleetwood Mac were steering away from the blues and wonderful singles like "Man of the world" and "Oh well" were to follow.
We were sorry to miss the second Fleetwood Mac concert we were about to witness on Sunday 2 March, 1969. Mac's touring schedule was ridiculous: they played an evening show in Rotterdam and then a post-midnight show in Amsterdam on Friday (so in Amsterdam actually on Saturday in the early hours). Two Dutch blues bands opened for them (Livin' Blues and Cuby + Blizzards), so the Mac must have come off-stage close to 3 in the morning. Then on Saturday there was a notorious concert at De Korenbeurs in Groningen (up north). This gig was ended early when the janitor pulled the plug............. On Sunday afternoon they had a show in the village of Schaijk at about 110 km from Amsterdam. And on Saturday night there was a gig planned in the village of Rijen, another 50 km west.
When we arrived at the church hall (!) in Rijen Livin' Blues was playing. Great band with future Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk. Then we heard an elderly woman tell the band (as it turned she was manager of the band and the guitarist was her son, Ted Oberg) to play on as there were problems with Fleetwood Mac: John McVie had collapsed and had been taken to hospital. Knowing of McVie's drinking habits we feared the worst. Strangely enough when Livin' Blues got off-stage all of Mac's new Orange equipment and the new blue drum kit were built up. Then Mick Fleetwood took the stage and said he was sorry they couldn't play as "John is a very sick man". It was the first time I noticed Mick Fleetwood was the leader of the band and not Peter Green. Fleetwood would hold the Mac together until this day. But we were very disappointed on that day. We got our money for the tickets back, but had to pay for the petrol our driver had used with his father's Volkswagen Mini Bus. And we missed the opportunity to see the Green God again. About one year later he would announce he was leaving Fleetwood Mac and things would never be the same again.
Rating: ****

"Need Your Love So Bad" b/w "Stop Messin' Round" by Fleetwood Mac (CBS 3139)

This was the single that had just been released when I saw Fleetwood Mac in De Weerwolf in the village of Leersum, The Netherlands on Saturday 16 November, 1968. The gig was supposed to have taken place the night before, but Mac (travelling with two Ford Transits) had been unable to cross the North Sea by ferry due to the bad weather (rain and storm). As I had travelled about 35 kilometers on moped in the same weather with two schoolmates I was heavily disappointed that the Friday gig was cancelled. But we went back the next night by car (having an older pal with a driver's license was quite handy at the time). So the wet suit of the previous night was soon forgotten.
De Weerwolf was a disused farm converted into a kind of youth club / hippie center. Surprisingly the Mac didn't play any of the songs from their first three singles live. On this brief visit they also filmed a TV-clip (where, I don't know) in which they wore the same clothes and played the same instruments as on the show I witnessed: no Gibson Les Pauls here, only Fender Stratocasters! The clip helped make this Mac's first Dutch hit. Imagine: a blues single in the Top 10? Well, Mac had reportedly had a #1 in Norway with "My heart beat like a hammer".
Flipside was a rousin' Peter Green shuffle. I always preferred this take to the one used on the "Mr Wonderful" album which was also used on all subsequent releases up to the 1990s. It wasn't until the 1999 "Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" cd box that the single version became available again.
Rating: *****

"Black Magic Woman" b/w "The Sun Is Shining" by Fleetwood Mac (CBS 3138)

Never understood why this single wasn't a hit and a few years later Santana's inferior cover was. I tried and tried for hours to copy the riff that ended each verse, but I didn't manage. It wasn't until a few years ago I found out that Peter Green used Dropped-D tuning: the low E string of his guitar was tuned down a full step, making the low note of the riff a D............. Green later admitted this song was heavily influenced by Otis Rush. He had of course played several Rush songs in The Bluesbreakers. The starting lick of the solo sounds like the solo of "All your love".
Flipside was one of Jeremy Spencer's better Elmore James covers. But apart from the tempo it was the same old song.
Rating: ****

"I Believe My Time Ain't Long" b/w "Rambling Pony" by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (CBS 3051)

I loved the first Fleetwood Mac album, mainly because of Peter Green's contributions. So when I stumbled upon Mac's first single I immediately bought it. Strange sensation: "I believe my time ain't long" was "Dust my broom" revisited and "Rambling Pony" was a carbon copy of "Rollin' and Tumblin'". Little did I know at the time of Elmore James' numerous re-recordings for different companies of "Dust my broom"(Dust my blues, I believe, etc.) nor of the use of Hambone Willie Newbern's "Roll and Tumble Blues" by just about everyone from Robert Johnson ("If I had possession over judgment day") to Cream ("Rollin' and Tumblin'"). But this was not the debut people had expected from the new band of a guitarist who had audiences spellbound with his extended solos, no Green-fretwork to be heard here. Great harmonica playing by the Green God on the flipside, though. The A-side featured Jeremy Spencer in a 12-bar he would re-record with different titles about ten times ("My heart beat like a hammer", "Doctor Brown", "I need your love tonight", etc.).
Notice the band was billed as "PETER GREEN's Fleetwood Mac", much to Green's dismay.
Rating: ***