Danny Kirwan
Encyclopedia
Daniel David "Danny" Kirwan (born 13 May 1950 in Brixton
, South London
) is a British
musician best known for his role as guitarist
, singer and songwriter
with the blues-rock
band Fleetwood Mac
between 1968 and 1972.
to go and watch Boilerhouse rehearse (in a London basement boiler-room), and Vernon then informed Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green
of his discovery. Green was impressed and Boilerhouse began playing support slots for Fleetwood Mac, allowing Kirwan and Green to jam together and get to know each other. Fleetwood Mac had been constituted as a quartet
, but Green had been looking for another guitarist to share some of the workload, in view of slide guitar
ist Jeremy Spencer
's unwillingness to contribute much to Green's songs. Drummer Mick Fleetwood
, previously a member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
, suggested to Green that Kirwan could join Fleetwood Mac, and although neither Green, bassist John McVie
(both also former Bluesbreakers), nor Spencer were entirely convinced, Fleetwood asked Kirwan to join the band in August 1968. Kirwan's arrival expanded Fleetwood Mac to a five-piece with three guitarists. He played his first gig with the band on 14 August at the Nag's Head Blue Horizon Club in Battersea
, London.
In an interview with Mike Vernon in June 1999, Green described Kirwan as "a clever boy who got ideas for his guitar playing by listening to all that old-fashioned roaring twenties big band stuff." He added that in those early days, Kirwan "was so into it that he cried as he played".
". Green later stated that, "I would never have done "Albatross" if it wasn't for Danny. I would never have had a number one hit record." The B-side of the single was Kirwan's first published tune, the Django Reinhardt
-inspired instrumental "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues". This was an old clarinet
piece that Kirwan had worked out on guitar for himself and Green to play. But Green remembered, "I couldn't do it properly... My style wasn't all that satisfactory to Danny, but his style wasn't all that satisfactory to me." So Kirwan played all the guitar parts himself.
Kirwan's skills came further to the forefront on the mid-1969 album Then Play On
where he split the songwriting and lead vocal duties almost equally with Green, many of the performances featuring their dual lead guitars. Since Spencer hardly played on the album, Kirwan had a significant role in the recording. In fact, his "Coming Your Way" opened Side 1, and his varied musical influences are in evidence throughout, from the flowing instrumental "My Dream" to the 1930s-style "When You Say", which Green had earmarked to be a single until his own composition, "Oh Well
", took shape and was chosen instead.
The UK release of Then Play On featured two extra, slightly older, Kirwan recordings—the sad blues "Without You", and the heavy "One Sunny Day". The US-only release English Rose
from the same era included these two songs, plus the tense blues "Something Inside of Me" and the aforementioned "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues", both also dating from earlier sessions.
When the US track listing of Then Play On was reordered to allow the inclusion of the full version of Green's hit single "Oh Well", two of Kirwan's songs ("My Dream" and "When You Say") were dropped. Only "Coming Your Way", the wistful "Although the Sun Is Shining", and his duet with Green "Like Crying" appeared on all the later non-UK vinyl releases. On the CD release, Kirwan's two dropped songs were reinstated, although "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" were now absent from releases in all territories, including the UK.
Archival packages from this era, such as the Vaudeville Years
and Show-Biz Blues
double sets, include many more Kirwan songs, showing blues influences as well as the more arcane tastes that led to songs like "Tell Me from the Start" which could have been mistaken for the 1920s-style group The Temperance Seven
. Such unusual musical interests prompted band leader Green to dub Kirwan "Ragtime Cowboy Joe".
Although Fleetwood Mac's hit singles from 1969 to 1970 were all Green-penned tunes, Kirwan's style showed through thanks to Green's increasing desire not to act as the band's main focus. He joined Green in the dual guitar harmonies on "Albatross", and took the solo on "Oh Well Pt. 1". The final hit single from this line-up, "The Green Manalishi
", was recorded in a difficult session after Green had announced he was leaving the band. Producer Martin Birch
recalls Green growing increasingly frustrated at the results of the session, but that Kirwan reassured him that they would stay there all night until they got it right.
The B-side of "The Green Manalishi" was the instrumental "World in Harmony", the only track ever to receive a "Kirwan/Green" joint songwriting credit. Jeremy Spencer recalled that Kirwan and Green had begun to piece their guitar parts together "almost like orchestrally layered guitar work", something which Spencer was not interested in. Kirwan and Green had already worked on melodic twin guitar demos that sparked rumours in the music press in late 1969 of a duelling guitars project, which ultimately never came to fruition.
Despite the closeness of their musical partnership, Kirwan and Green did not always get on well personally, with Kirwan's short temper being a problem. Although Kirwan had high musical standards and concentrated more on rehearsing than the other members, with Green recalling that Kirwan always had to arrive anywhere an hour early, Green was far more talented when it came to improvisational skills. Roadie Dennis Keane suggested that the success of "Albatross" and the follow-up single "Man of the World" went to Kirwan's head, and he became more confident, to the point of trying to pressure Green and compete with him. However, others, like producer Martin Birch, remember that Kirwan was often seeking reassurance from Green, and that he was always in awe of him: "I often got the impression that Danny was looking for Peter's approval."
After rumours in the music press in early 1970 that Kirwan would leave Fleetwood Mac, it was Green who left in May of that year, and Kirwan later said that he was not surprised at his departure: "We played well together but we didn't get on. I was a bit temperamental you see."
's blues album The Biggest Thing Since Colossus
, along with Green and McVie. After Then Play On had been completed, Kirwan worked on Christine McVie
's first solo album, simply titled Christine Perfect
as she was still using her maiden name at that time. She recorded a version of Kirwan's "When You Say
" which was chosen as a single, and Kirwan arranged the string section and acted as producer as well.
Kirwan also worked on the first solo album from a then-current member of Fleetwood Mac, when Jeremy Spencer released his eponym
ously titled album
in 1970. Kirwan played rhythm guitar and sang backing vocals throughout. The album was not commercially successful but Spencer discovered that he and Kirwan worked well together without Green: "In retrospect, one of the most enjoyable things was working with Danny on it, as it brought out a side of him I hadn't seen."
Kirwan was also asked to contribute as a session guitarist with the blues band Tramp
on their album Tramp (1969). After he left Fleetwood Mac, Kirwan worked with Tramp again on their second album, Put a Record On (1974), and also with Chris Youlden
of Savoy Brown
on his solo album Nowhere Road
(1973).
. Kirwan and Spencer handled the guitars and vocals together on the Kiln House
album, released in the summer of that year, and they were able to continue the working relationship they had started whilst recording Spencer's solo album the previous year.
Kirwan's songs on the album included "Station Man" (co-written with Spencer and John McVie) which became a live staple for some years, stretching into the post-1974 Buckingham
-Nicks
era. His other songs were "Jewel-Eyed Judy", dedicated to a friend of the band, Judy Wong; the energetic "Tell Me All the Things You Do", and "Earl Gray", an atmospheric instrumental which Kirwan largely composed while Peter Green was still in the band. Kirwan could also be heard providing distinctive backing vocals to some of Spencer's numbers, such as the 1950s-flavoured album opener, "This Is the Rock".
Other Kirwan compositions from the second half of 1970, such as those that eventually surfaced on the 2003 Madison Blues CD box set, included "Down at the Crown", with lyrics centring on a pub down the lane from the communal band house 'Benifold' in Headley
, Hampshire
. The unsuccessful single "Dragonfly
", recorded late in the year, was also written by Kirwan, and included lyrics adapted from a poem by W. H. Davies
. Peter Green said of "Dragonfly", "The best thing he ever wrote... that should have been a hit." This was not to be the last time Kirwan used a poem as lyrics for a song, and may have been a solution to Kirwan's apparent occasional lack of inspiration when writing lyrics. The B-side of the single, "The Purple Dancer", was written by Kirwan, Fleetwood and John McVie and uniquely featured Kirwan and Spencer duetting on lead vocals.
, and was later discovered to have joined the religious cult the Children of God. After an uncomfortable time finishing the tour, during which Peter Green was asked to come back and help out, Californian Bob Welch
was recruited to replace Spencer, without an audition as such, after a brief period getting to know the band. Welch's contrasting attitudes towards Kirwan, on the one hand their difficult personal relationship, and on the other, Welch's respect for Kirwan's musicianship, was a point of focus during the 18 months they were together in Fleetwood Mac. In 1999, Welch stated: "He was a talented, gifted musician, almost equal to Pete Green in his beautiful guitar playing and faultless string bends." In a later interview, Welch said: "Danny wasn't a very lighthearted person, to say the least. He probably shouldn't have been drinking as much as he did, even at his young age... He was always very intense about his work, as I was, but he didn't seem to ever be able to distance himself from it... and laugh about it. Danny was the definition of 'deadly serious'."
The last two Fleetwood Mac albums to feature Kirwan showed an increasing maturity in his songwriting and playing, his songs taking up about half of each album. His guitar work also showed noticeably in several songs written by Welch and McVie, as they developed their own songwriting techniques. Future Games
, released in 1971, was a departure from its predecessor with the clear absence of Spencer and his 50s rock 'n' roll parodies. Welch brought a couple of new songs, notably the lengthy title track, which featured both guitarists playing long instrumental sections. Kirwan contributed the opener "Woman of 1000 Years" which, according to one unknown critic at the time, "floated on a languid sea of echo-laden acoustic and electric guitars". His other songs were the melodic "Sands of Time" which was chosen as a single in the USA, and the country-flavoured "Sometimes" which suggested the route he would take during his solo career. Kirwan's influence can also clearly be heard on the two Christine McVie songs, "Morning Rain" and the laid-back and gentle "Show Me a Smile".
The following year, Bare Trees
was released, containing five Kirwan songs including another instrumental, "Sunny Side of Heaven", and the album-closer "Dust" with its lyric taken from a romantic poem by British war poet Rupert Brooke
, although Brooke was not credited. "Danny's Chant" featured heavy use of the wah-wah guitar effect and was effectively an instrumental piece but for Kirwan's wordless scat
vocals. "Child of Mine", which touched upon the absence of Kirwan's father during his childhood, and "Bare Trees" opened each side of the LP
and showed funk
and slight jazz
leanings. An unissued Kirwan track, "Trinity", was played live for a period during 1971–1972 and the studio version was eventually released on the 1992 box set 25 Years – The Chain.
; stories abound of Kirwan not eating for several days at a time, subsisting largely on beer. He gradually became estranged from the other band members, and things came to a head during the autumn of 1972. Before a concert on that year's US tour, Kirwan and Welch rowed over tuning and Kirwan flew into a rage, smashing his guitar and refusing to go onstage. Instead he watched while the rest of the band struggled through without him, and offered unwelcome criticism afterwards. Kirwan had to be sacked by Fleetwood, who had hitherto been the only other member still speaking to him. Fleetwood later said: "It was a torment for him, really, to be up there, and it reduced him to someone who you just looked at and thought 'My God'. It was more a thing of, although he was asked to leave, the way I was looking at it was, I hoped, it was almost putting him out of his agony."
Kirwan's reaction was initially one of surprise, and it seemed he had little idea of how alienated from the other band members he had become, but shortly afterwards he met up with his replacement Bob Weston
. Weston described the meeting: "He was aware that I was taking over, and rather sarcastically wished me the best of luck—then paused and added, 'You're gonna need it.' I read between the lines that he was pretty angry with the band."
, joined forces with keyboardist Paul Raymond
, bassist Andy Silvester
and drummer Mac Poole to form a short-lived band called Hungry Fighter. This group played only one gig, at the University of Surrey
in Guildford
, England, which was not recorded. According to Walker, although Kirwan's playing was "superb", the band did not function properly because "perhaps we were not focused enough musically, and in addition, Danny Kirwan's problems were just starting and this made communication extremely difficult."
Guided by ex–Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis
, Kirwan later recorded three solo albums for DJM Records
, showing a gentler side as opposed to the blues guitar dynamics of his earlier Fleetwood Mac days. The first of these, Second Chapter
(1975) was filled with various musical influences, including a style close to that of Paul McCartney
late in his Beatles career. Many songs were very simple musically, with little more than infectious melody and basic lyrics to carry them along. Lyrical themes rarely ventured beyond love
.
1976's Midnight in San Juan featured a reggae
-inspired cover of The Beatles
' "Let It Be
", which was released as a single in the USA. Otherwise, Kirwan tended towards the simple tunes and they arguably benefitted from the absence of the slightly cloying production on the previous LP. Lyrically the subject matter still largely dwelt upon love, but apparently less cheerfully than before, with growing themes of loneliness and isolation, such as on the closing track "Castaway". There was also a song, "Look Around You", written by another Mac refugee, Dave Walker, with whom Kirwan had worked in Hungry Fighter a couple of years previously.
Kirwan's last album, Hello There Big Boy!, ironically featured guitar contributions by his Fleetwood Mac replacement, Bob Weston
. Kirwan was not well at this time and it is not clear how much guitar work he contributed to the recording, though he did sing on all the tracks. Far fewer of the songs were self-penned, and there was one song dug up from his Fleetwood Mac days. There were also backing vocalists for the first time, and musical style was much less distinct. Producer Clifford Davis added the contribution of 87 musicians to the final recording, and later described the album as "so bad".
None of Kirwan's solo releases was commercially successful. This can be largely attributed to his total reluctance to perform live. Kirwan did not play any live gigs after a few shows with Tramp and the single performance with Hungry Fighter, all in 1974, leaving all three of his solo albums completely unsupported by any form of extra exposure or active promotion apart from an irregular string of equally unsuccessful singles. None of his singles saw release in continental Europe, which might have been a source of success given Peter Green's resurgence there, particularly in Germany.
Kirwan was married in 1971, but was divorced a few years later, and he has one son.
living in London
.
In a 2009 BBC TV documentary about Peter Green, Clifford Davis blamed Kirwan's deterioration on the same incident that damaged Green's mental stability, i.e. a reaction to LSD
taken at a party at a commune in Munich, Germany in late March 1970. Davis stated:
However, other sources do not concur that Kirwan was present at the house in Munich. Fleetwood Mac roadie Dinky Dawson remembers that Green was at the party with another roadie, Dennis Keane, and that Kirwan did not go. Dawson also states that when Keane returned to the band's hotel to explain that Green would not leave the commune, neither Kirwan nor Davis travelled to the commune to fetch Green, leaving that job to Keane, Dawson and Mick Fleetwood.
in 1998 for his work as part of Fleetwood Mac, although he did not travel to the induction ceremony.
His three solo albums were given a belated CD release in February 2006, but only in Japan. A limited edition of 2,500 copies of "Second Chapter" was issued by Repertoire Records in early 2008. The rights/royalties situation regarding these releases is currently such that it is not commonly known if Kirwan will see any income from them. Prior to this, only Second Chapter had been available on CD, for a brief period in Germany
in 1993.
During the past couple of years, there have been rumours of a reunion of the early line-up of Fleetwood Mac, involving Green and Spencer. Whilst these two guitarists apparently remain unconvinced of the merits of such a project, Kirwan has remained as silent as ever on the subject. In April 2006, during a question-and-answer session on the Penguin Fleetwood Mac fan website, bass player John McVie said of the reunion idea:
1959 Les Paul Standard, Cherry Sunburst, no pickguard.
1959 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Sunburst, no pickguard.
1956 Les Paul Custom, 3 pickup Black Beauty, no pickguard.
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musician best known for his role as guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, singer and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
with the blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
band Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
between 1968 and 1972.
Early career
Danny Kirwan's guitar skills started attracting attention at an early age, and he was still only 17 when he came to the attention of established British blues band Fleetwood Mac, while he was playing in London with one of his first bands, Boilerhouse. He persuaded Mac's producer Mike VernonMike Vernon (producer)
Mike Vernon is an English record producer. He produced albums for British blues artists and groups during the late 1960s, working with the Bluesbreakers, David Bowie, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John Mayall, Christine McVie and...
to go and watch Boilerhouse rehearse (in a London basement boiler-room), and Vernon then informed Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
of his discovery. Green was impressed and Boilerhouse began playing support slots for Fleetwood Mac, allowing Kirwan and Green to jam together and get to know each other. Fleetwood Mac had been constituted as a quartet
Quartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
, but Green had been looking for another guitarist to share some of the workload, in view of slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
ist Jeremy Spencer
Jeremy Spencer
Jeremy Cedric Spencer , is a British musician, best known as one of the first guitarists in Fleetwood Mac.Spencer was born in Hartlepool, County Durham. He grew up in South London and was educated at Strand School, where he became known for hilarious impressions of the headmaster and several of his...
's unwillingness to contribute much to Green's songs. Drummer Mick Fleetwood
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...
, previously a member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and 1967, but then dropped it for some fifteen years. However, in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and...
, suggested to Green that Kirwan could join Fleetwood Mac, and although neither Green, bassist John McVie
John McVie
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleetwood, was the inspiration for the band's name...
(both also former Bluesbreakers), nor Spencer were entirely convinced, Fleetwood asked Kirwan to join the band in August 1968. Kirwan's arrival expanded Fleetwood Mac to a five-piece with three guitarists. He played his first gig with the band on 14 August at the Nag's Head Blue Horizon Club in Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
, London.
In an interview with Mike Vernon in June 1999, Green described Kirwan as "a clever boy who got ideas for his guitar playing by listening to all that old-fashioned roaring twenties big band stuff." He added that in those early days, Kirwan "was so into it that he cried as he played".
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
Kirwan's first recorded work with the band was on the huge instrumental hit single "AlbatrossAlbatross (composition)
"Albatross" is a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac, released as a single in 1969, later featuring on the compilation albums The Pious Bird of Good Omen and English Rose...
". Green later stated that, "I would never have done "Albatross" if it wasn't for Danny. I would never have had a number one hit record." The B-side of the single was Kirwan's first published tune, the Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
-inspired instrumental "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues". This was an old clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
piece that Kirwan had worked out on guitar for himself and Green to play. But Green remembered, "I couldn't do it properly... My style wasn't all that satisfactory to Danny, but his style wasn't all that satisfactory to me." So Kirwan played all the guitar parts himself.
Kirwan's skills came further to the forefront on the mid-1969 album Then Play On
Then Play On
Then Play On is the third studio album by blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac, first released in September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan and the last with Peter Green. Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things"...
where he split the songwriting and lead vocal duties almost equally with Green, many of the performances featuring their dual lead guitars. Since Spencer hardly played on the album, Kirwan had a significant role in the recording. In fact, his "Coming Your Way" opened Side 1, and his varied musical influences are in evidence throughout, from the flowing instrumental "My Dream" to the 1930s-style "When You Say", which Green had earmarked to be a single until his own composition, "Oh Well
Oh Well (song)
"Oh Well" is a song recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1969, and composed by vocalist and lead guitarist Peter Green. It first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1969, subsequently appearing on the Greatest Hits album in 1971...
", took shape and was chosen instead.
The UK release of Then Play On featured two extra, slightly older, Kirwan recordings—the sad blues "Without You", and the heavy "One Sunny Day". The US-only release English Rose
English Rose (album)
English Rose is a compilation album by Fleetwood Mac, released in January 1969. It was originally a US-only compilation, combining six tracks from the UK release Mr. Wonderful, three UK non-album single sides, two not-yet-released songs from the UK version of Then Play On and one other previously...
from the same era included these two songs, plus the tense blues "Something Inside of Me" and the aforementioned "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues", both also dating from earlier sessions.
When the US track listing of Then Play On was reordered to allow the inclusion of the full version of Green's hit single "Oh Well", two of Kirwan's songs ("My Dream" and "When You Say") were dropped. Only "Coming Your Way", the wistful "Although the Sun Is Shining", and his duet with Green "Like Crying" appeared on all the later non-UK vinyl releases. On the CD release, Kirwan's two dropped songs were reinstated, although "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" were now absent from releases in all territories, including the UK.
Archival packages from this era, such as the Vaudeville Years
The Vaudeville Years
The Vaudeville Years of Fleetwood Mac 1968 to 1970 is an album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1998. It was a compilation of outtakes and unreleased tracks from the band's early line up, none of which had previously seen the light of day officially...
and Show-Biz Blues
Show-Biz Blues
Show-Biz Blues: Fleetwood Mac 1968 to 1970 is an album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 2001. It was a compilation of outtakes and unreleased tracks from the band's early line-up, none of which had previously seen the light of day officially...
double sets, include many more Kirwan songs, showing blues influences as well as the more arcane tastes that led to songs like "Tell Me from the Start" which could have been mistaken for the 1920s-style group The Temperance Seven
The Temperance Seven
The Temperance Seven is a British band specializing in 1920s-style jazz music.- Career :The Temperance Seven were founded at Christmas 1955, although it has been alleged they first "saw the light" in the Pasadena Cocoa Rooms, Balls Pond Road, North London, in 1904...
. Such unusual musical interests prompted band leader Green to dub Kirwan "Ragtime Cowboy Joe".
Although Fleetwood Mac's hit singles from 1969 to 1970 were all Green-penned tunes, Kirwan's style showed through thanks to Green's increasing desire not to act as the band's main focus. He joined Green in the dual guitar harmonies on "Albatross", and took the solo on "Oh Well Pt. 1". The final hit single from this line-up, "The Green Manalishi
The Green Manalishi
"The Green Manalishi " is a song written by Peter Green and recorded by Fleetwood Mac. It was released as a single in the UK in May 1970 and reached #10 on the British charts. The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had...
", was recorded in a difficult session after Green had announced he was leaving the band. Producer Martin Birch
Martin Birch
Martin Birch is a British rock and heavy metal music producer, who became renowned for engineering and producing albums by the British rock bands Deep Purple and Iron Maiden....
recalls Green growing increasingly frustrated at the results of the session, but that Kirwan reassured him that they would stay there all night until they got it right.
The B-side of "The Green Manalishi" was the instrumental "World in Harmony", the only track ever to receive a "Kirwan/Green" joint songwriting credit. Jeremy Spencer recalled that Kirwan and Green had begun to piece their guitar parts together "almost like orchestrally layered guitar work", something which Spencer was not interested in. Kirwan and Green had already worked on melodic twin guitar demos that sparked rumours in the music press in late 1969 of a duelling guitars project, which ultimately never came to fruition.
Despite the closeness of their musical partnership, Kirwan and Green did not always get on well personally, with Kirwan's short temper being a problem. Although Kirwan had high musical standards and concentrated more on rehearsing than the other members, with Green recalling that Kirwan always had to arrive anywhere an hour early, Green was far more talented when it came to improvisational skills. Roadie Dennis Keane suggested that the success of "Albatross" and the follow-up single "Man of the World" went to Kirwan's head, and he became more confident, to the point of trying to pressure Green and compete with him. However, others, like producer Martin Birch, remember that Kirwan was often seeking reassurance from Green, and that he was always in awe of him: "I often got the impression that Danny was looking for Peter's approval."
After rumours in the music press in early 1970 that Kirwan would leave Fleetwood Mac, it was Green who left in May of that year, and Kirwan later said that he was not surprised at his departure: "We played well together but we didn't get on. I was a bit temperamental you see."
Sessions away from Fleetwood Mac
In January 1969, Kirwan made his first non–Fleetwood Mac appearance when he contributed to Otis SpannOtis Spann
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....
's blues album The Biggest Thing Since Colossus
The Biggest Thing Since Colossus
The Biggest Thing Since Colossus is an album by American blues musician Otis Spann, released in 1969 . The album is also notable for the fact that Spann's backing band on this occasion were members of Fleetwood Mac, who were touring in America at the time...
, along with Green and McVie. After Then Play On had been completed, Kirwan worked on Christine McVie
Christine McVie
Christine McVie is an English rock singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Her primary fame came as a member of the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac, though she has also released three solo albums...
's first solo album, simply titled Christine Perfect
Christine Perfect (album)
Christine Perfect is the debut solo album of former Chicken Shack keyboardist/singer Christine McVie née Perfect. The album was released just after Perfect had left Chicken Shack, but before she joined Fleetwood Mac...
as she was still using her maiden name at that time. She recorded a version of Kirwan's "When You Say
When You Say
"When You Say" is a song by British rock group Fleetwood Mac, written by guitarist Danny Kirwan, which first appeared on their 1969 album Then Play On....
" which was chosen as a single, and Kirwan arranged the string section and acted as producer as well.
Kirwan also worked on the first solo album from a then-current member of Fleetwood Mac, when Jeremy Spencer released his eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ously titled album
Jeremy Spencer (album)
Jeremy Spencer is an album by British blues rock musician Jeremy Spencer, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1967-71. Released in 1970, this was his first solo album and the first solo album by a current member of Fleetwood Mac....
in 1970. Kirwan played rhythm guitar and sang backing vocals throughout. The album was not commercially successful but Spencer discovered that he and Kirwan worked well together without Green: "In retrospect, one of the most enjoyable things was working with Danny on it, as it brought out a side of him I hadn't seen."
Kirwan was also asked to contribute as a session guitarist with the blues band Tramp
Tramp (band)
Tramp were a British blues band, active during the late 1960s and early 1970s on an intermittent basis. This on/off activity and the loose, transient nature of the band's line-up were reflected in the group's name....
on their album Tramp (1969). After he left Fleetwood Mac, Kirwan worked with Tramp again on their second album, Put a Record On (1974), and also with Chris Youlden
Chris Youlden
Chris Youlden is an English blues singer; from 1967 until 1970 the singer with the British blues band, Savoy Brown.Since those days he has released several solo albums, as detailed below....
of Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...
on his solo album Nowhere Road
Nowhere Road
Nowhere Road is the first solo album by ex-Savoy Brown vocalist Chris Youlden, released in 1973. The album featured a number of well-known session musicians including Chris Spedding, Ray Fenwick, Roy Babbington and ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan....
(1973).
Kiln House
After Green left in 1970, the band considered splitting up, but they continued briefly as a four-piece before recruiting keyboard player Christine McVieChristine McVie
Christine McVie is an English rock singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Her primary fame came as a member of the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac, though she has also released three solo albums...
. Kirwan and Spencer handled the guitars and vocals together on the Kiln House
Kiln House
Kiln House is the fourth album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1970. This is the first of the post-Peter Green Fleetwood Mac albums, and their last album to feature Jeremy Spencer...
album, released in the summer of that year, and they were able to continue the working relationship they had started whilst recording Spencer's solo album the previous year.
Kirwan's songs on the album included "Station Man" (co-written with Spencer and John McVie) which became a live staple for some years, stretching into the post-1974 Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Adams Buckingham is an American guitarist, singer, composer and producer, most notable for being the guitarist and male lead singer of the musical group Fleetwood Mac. Aside from his tenure with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has also released six solo albums and a live album...
-Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
era. His other songs were "Jewel-Eyed Judy", dedicated to a friend of the band, Judy Wong; the energetic "Tell Me All the Things You Do", and "Earl Gray", an atmospheric instrumental which Kirwan largely composed while Peter Green was still in the band. Kirwan could also be heard providing distinctive backing vocals to some of Spencer's numbers, such as the 1950s-flavoured album opener, "This Is the Rock".
Other Kirwan compositions from the second half of 1970, such as those that eventually surfaced on the 2003 Madison Blues CD box set, included "Down at the Crown", with lyrics centring on a pub down the lane from the communal band house 'Benifold' in Headley
Headley, East Hampshire
Headley is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1.8 miles east of Bordon on the B3002 road.The nearest railway station is 3.6 miles south of the village at Liphook....
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. The unsuccessful single "Dragonfly
Dragonfly (Fleetwood Mac song)
"Dragonfly" is a song written by British musician Danny Kirwan with lyrics taken from a poem by Welsh poet W. H. Davies. It was originally recorded by Kirwan's band Fleetwood Mac in 1970, and became the first UK single released by the band after the departure of their frontman Peter Green. It was...
", recorded late in the year, was also written by Kirwan, and included lyrics adapted from a poem by W. H. Davies
W. H. Davies
William Henry Davies or W. H. Davies was a Welsh poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his life as a tramp or vagabond in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time...
. Peter Green said of "Dragonfly", "The best thing he ever wrote... that should have been a hit." This was not to be the last time Kirwan used a poem as lyrics for a song, and may have been a solution to Kirwan's apparent occasional lack of inspiration when writing lyrics. The B-side of the single, "The Purple Dancer", was written by Kirwan, Fleetwood and John McVie and uniquely featured Kirwan and Spencer duetting on lead vocals.
Kirwan and Bob Welch
A tour of the USA followed in support of Kiln House, but this was blighted by Spencer's bizarre departure from the group, when he disappeared one afternoon in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and was later discovered to have joined the religious cult the Children of God. After an uncomfortable time finishing the tour, during which Peter Green was asked to come back and help out, Californian Bob Welch
Bob Welch (musician)
Robert Lawrence "Bob" Welch, Jr. is a former member of Fleetwood Mac, who had a briefly successful solo career in the late 1970s. His singles included "Hot Love, Cold World", "Ebony Eyes", "Precious Love", and "Sentimental Lady"....
was recruited to replace Spencer, without an audition as such, after a brief period getting to know the band. Welch's contrasting attitudes towards Kirwan, on the one hand their difficult personal relationship, and on the other, Welch's respect for Kirwan's musicianship, was a point of focus during the 18 months they were together in Fleetwood Mac. In 1999, Welch stated: "He was a talented, gifted musician, almost equal to Pete Green in his beautiful guitar playing and faultless string bends." In a later interview, Welch said: "Danny wasn't a very lighthearted person, to say the least. He probably shouldn't have been drinking as much as he did, even at his young age... He was always very intense about his work, as I was, but he didn't seem to ever be able to distance himself from it... and laugh about it. Danny was the definition of 'deadly serious'."
The last two Fleetwood Mac albums to feature Kirwan showed an increasing maturity in his songwriting and playing, his songs taking up about half of each album. His guitar work also showed noticeably in several songs written by Welch and McVie, as they developed their own songwriting techniques. Future Games
Future Games
Future Games is the fifth studio album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1971. It was their first album with guitarist Bob Welch and the first to feature Christine McVie as a full member...
, released in 1971, was a departure from its predecessor with the clear absence of Spencer and his 50s rock 'n' roll parodies. Welch brought a couple of new songs, notably the lengthy title track, which featured both guitarists playing long instrumental sections. Kirwan contributed the opener "Woman of 1000 Years" which, according to one unknown critic at the time, "floated on a languid sea of echo-laden acoustic and electric guitars". His other songs were the melodic "Sands of Time" which was chosen as a single in the USA, and the country-flavoured "Sometimes" which suggested the route he would take during his solo career. Kirwan's influence can also clearly be heard on the two Christine McVie songs, "Morning Rain" and the laid-back and gentle "Show Me a Smile".
The following year, Bare Trees
Bare Trees
Bare Trees is the sixth studio album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1972. This is their last album to feature Danny Kirwan, who was fired during the tour to support this album...
was released, containing five Kirwan songs including another instrumental, "Sunny Side of Heaven", and the album-closer "Dust" with its lyric taken from a romantic poem by British war poet Rupert Brooke
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
, although Brooke was not credited. "Danny's Chant" featured heavy use of the wah-wah guitar effect and was effectively an instrumental piece but for Kirwan's wordless scat
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
vocals. "Child of Mine", which touched upon the absence of Kirwan's father during his childhood, and "Bare Trees" opened each side of the LP
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and showed funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and slight jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
leanings. An unissued Kirwan track, "Trinity", was played live for a period during 1971–1972 and the studio version was eventually released on the 1992 box set 25 Years – The Chain.
Fired from Fleetwood Mac
Kirwan shouldered much of the songwriting responsibility during this troubled and uncertain period for the band, through the changes in both the line-up and in musical style. The pressure showed in his health and he suffered problems with alcoholismAlcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
; stories abound of Kirwan not eating for several days at a time, subsisting largely on beer. He gradually became estranged from the other band members, and things came to a head during the autumn of 1972. Before a concert on that year's US tour, Kirwan and Welch rowed over tuning and Kirwan flew into a rage, smashing his guitar and refusing to go onstage. Instead he watched while the rest of the band struggled through without him, and offered unwelcome criticism afterwards. Kirwan had to be sacked by Fleetwood, who had hitherto been the only other member still speaking to him. Fleetwood later said: "It was a torment for him, really, to be up there, and it reduced him to someone who you just looked at and thought 'My God'. It was more a thing of, although he was asked to leave, the way I was looking at it was, I hoped, it was almost putting him out of his agony."
Kirwan's reaction was initially one of surprise, and it seemed he had little idea of how alienated from the other band members he had become, but shortly afterwards he met up with his replacement Bob Weston
Bob Weston (guitarist)
See Bob Weston for the American bassist and recording engineer.Robert Joseph 'Bob' Weston is a British musician best known for his brief role as guitarist and songwriter with the rock band Fleetwood Mac....
. Weston described the meeting: "He was aware that I was taking over, and rather sarcastically wished me the best of luck—then paused and added, 'You're gonna need it.' I read between the lines that he was pretty angry with the band."
Solo career and beyond
In early 1974, Kirwan and another recently-fired member of Fleetwood Mac, Dave WalkerDave Walker
David Walker is a singer and guitarist for a number of bands; notably Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac. He shortened his name to Dave Walker...
, joined forces with keyboardist Paul Raymond
Paul Raymond (musician)
Paul Martin Raymond is an English keyboardist/guitarist.Raymond began his musical career as a keyboardist/vocalist for the band, Plastic Penny, in 1967. He left after the band split up in 1968. He replaced Christine Perfect in British blues band Chicken Shack when she left to join Fleetwood Mac...
, bassist Andy Silvester
Andy Silvester
Andrew Frederick 'Andy' Sylvester is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist. Sylvester has played in various bands during his career, most notably as co-founder of both Chicken Shack and Big Town Playboys as well as a tenure in the British blues band Savoy Brown and Los Angeles based soft rock...
and drummer Mac Poole to form a short-lived band called Hungry Fighter. This group played only one gig, at the University of Surrey
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...
in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
, England, which was not recorded. According to Walker, although Kirwan's playing was "superb", the band did not function properly because "perhaps we were not focused enough musically, and in addition, Danny Kirwan's problems were just starting and this made communication extremely difficult."
Guided by ex–Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis
Clifford Davis (musician)
Clifford Davis is a British musician and music manager, chiefly known for his time as manager of successful blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, from 1967 to 1974.He also used the pseudonyms Clifford Adams and C.G...
, Kirwan later recorded three solo albums for DJM Records
DJM Records
DJM Records was the record label set up in the 1970s by British music publisher, Dick James, distributed by Pye Records in the UK and various other companies around the world, including the USA...
, showing a gentler side as opposed to the blues guitar dynamics of his earlier Fleetwood Mac days. The first of these, Second Chapter
Second Chapter
Allmusic critic Joe Viglione declared that Second Chapter was a feather in the cap for Kirwan as well as producer Martin Rushent. Drawing comparisons with the music of Lindsey Buckingham, Paul McCartney and America, he highlighted the title track, "Love Can Always Bring You Happiness" and "Silver...
(1975) was filled with various musical influences, including a style close to that of Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
late in his Beatles career. Many songs were very simple musically, with little more than infectious melody and basic lyrics to carry them along. Lyrical themes rarely ventured beyond love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
.
1976's Midnight in San Juan featured a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
-inspired cover of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Let It Be
Let It Be (song)
"Let It Be" is a song by The Beatles, released in March 1970 as a single, and as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was their final single before McCartney announced his departure from the band...
", which was released as a single in the USA. Otherwise, Kirwan tended towards the simple tunes and they arguably benefitted from the absence of the slightly cloying production on the previous LP. Lyrically the subject matter still largely dwelt upon love, but apparently less cheerfully than before, with growing themes of loneliness and isolation, such as on the closing track "Castaway". There was also a song, "Look Around You", written by another Mac refugee, Dave Walker, with whom Kirwan had worked in Hungry Fighter a couple of years previously.
Kirwan's last album, Hello There Big Boy!, ironically featured guitar contributions by his Fleetwood Mac replacement, Bob Weston
Bob Weston (guitarist)
See Bob Weston for the American bassist and recording engineer.Robert Joseph 'Bob' Weston is a British musician best known for his brief role as guitarist and songwriter with the rock band Fleetwood Mac....
. Kirwan was not well at this time and it is not clear how much guitar work he contributed to the recording, though he did sing on all the tracks. Far fewer of the songs were self-penned, and there was one song dug up from his Fleetwood Mac days. There were also backing vocalists for the first time, and musical style was much less distinct. Producer Clifford Davis added the contribution of 87 musicians to the final recording, and later described the album as "so bad".
None of Kirwan's solo releases was commercially successful. This can be largely attributed to his total reluctance to perform live. Kirwan did not play any live gigs after a few shows with Tramp and the single performance with Hungry Fighter, all in 1974, leaving all three of his solo albums completely unsupported by any form of extra exposure or active promotion apart from an irregular string of equally unsuccessful singles. None of his singles saw release in continental Europe, which might have been a source of success given Peter Green's resurgence there, particularly in Germany.
Kirwan was married in 1971, but was divorced a few years later, and he has one son.
Mental health
During the late 1970s Kirwan's mental health deteriorated significantly and since then he has played no further part in the music industry. During the 1980s and 1990s, he endured a period of homelessnessHomelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
living in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
In a 2009 BBC TV documentary about Peter Green, Clifford Davis blamed Kirwan's deterioration on the same incident that damaged Green's mental stability, i.e. a reaction to LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
taken at a party at a commune in Munich, Germany in late March 1970. Davis stated:
-
- "Peter Green and Danny Kirwan both went together to that house in Munich, both of them took acid as I understand it, [and] both of them, as of that day, became seriously mentally ill."
However, other sources do not concur that Kirwan was present at the house in Munich. Fleetwood Mac roadie Dinky Dawson remembers that Green was at the party with another roadie, Dennis Keane, and that Kirwan did not go. Dawson also states that when Keane returned to the band's hotel to explain that Green would not leave the commune, neither Kirwan nor Davis travelled to the commune to fetch Green, leaving that job to Keane, Dawson and Mick Fleetwood.
Recent developments
Kirwan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of FameRock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1998 for his work as part of Fleetwood Mac, although he did not travel to the induction ceremony.
His three solo albums were given a belated CD release in February 2006, but only in Japan. A limited edition of 2,500 copies of "Second Chapter" was issued by Repertoire Records in early 2008. The rights/royalties situation regarding these releases is currently such that it is not commonly known if Kirwan will see any income from them. Prior to this, only Second Chapter had been available on CD, for a brief period in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1993.
During the past couple of years, there have been rumours of a reunion of the early line-up of Fleetwood Mac, involving Green and Spencer. Whilst these two guitarists apparently remain unconvinced of the merits of such a project, Kirwan has remained as silent as ever on the subject. In April 2006, during a question-and-answer session on the Penguin Fleetwood Mac fan website, bass player John McVie said of the reunion idea:
-
- "If we could get Peter and Jeremy to do it, I'd probably, maybe, do it. I know Mick would do it in a flash. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much chance of Danny doing it. Bless his heart."
Equipment
1952 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Goldtop, P-90 pickups, no pickguard, later refinished to red.1959 Les Paul Standard, Cherry Sunburst, no pickguard.
1959 Les Paul Standard, Tobacco Sunburst, no pickguard.
1956 Les Paul Custom, 3 pickup Black Beauty, no pickguard.
See also
- Sleeve notes for Then Play OnThen Play OnThen Play On is the third studio album by blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac, first released in September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan and the last with Peter Green. Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things"...
, Kiln HouseKiln HouseKiln House is the fourth album by British rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1970. This is the first of the post-Peter Green Fleetwood Mac albums, and their last album to feature Jeremy Spencer...
, Ram Jam CityRam Jam CityRam Jam City is an album by British blues rock musician Danny Kirwan, released in 2000. This release consists of demo recordings for his 1975 debut solo album, recorded after leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1972...
, and Second ChapterSecond ChapterAllmusic critic Joe Viglione declared that Second Chapter was a feather in the cap for Kirwan as well as producer Martin Rushent. Drawing comparisons with the music of Lindsey Buckingham, Paul McCartney and America, he highlighted the title track, "Love Can Always Bring You Happiness" and "Silver...
.