I've been listening to a lot of late-60s white blues bands lately, mostly thanks to the awesome vinyl rips that Prof. Stoned has put together.

First, and the only American band in this set, is the Paul Butterfield Band (later the Butterfield Blues Band). I've been listening to their first two records: "The Paul Butterfield Blues Band" and "East-West". Like all of these bands, they do a lot of very faithful versions of blues standards. These are skilfully done, but I find myself wishing they were grittier, leaner, with maybe a little more swagger. To me, their original tunes are much more interesting, especially the longer improvisational instrumentals on their "East-West" album: Work Song and the title track. In those, they started with traditional electric blues licks and then blended-in jazz, eastern and Latin ideas. And that mix was the obvious predecessor to bands like The Allman Brothers, Santana and even The Rolling Stones.

Here's "East-West". Within 15 seconds, you swear you're listening to an Allman Bros tune. A minute in and you can't help but hear the end jam from the Stones' "Can You Here Me Knocking".

You might recognize that guitar player, Mike Bloomfield. He's the guy tearing it up in back of Bob Dylan in this famous concert:

Next up, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - The Mono Singles Collection (Prof Stoned 2012). These are the A and B sides of the singles released by the band during 1964-67. 23 tracks, all in mono, all from original vinyl. They include tracks with guitar from Eric Clapton, Roger Dean, Bernie Watson, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. John McVie plays bass on most. Jimmy Page produced a few of them (and you can definitely hear his influence). Mick Fleetwood even shows up on drums for a couple; and some of the songs recorded from that particular session would end up on Fleetwood Mac's first album. The songs themselves are almost uniformly great, and the band is always fantastic.

And finally, Fleetwood Mac. Everyone knows the Buckingham/Nicks/McVie version of FM. And people might know a song or two from the Bob Welch era ("Hypnotized", "Sentimental Lady"). But most people probably don't know much about the first era, even before Christine McVie joined, with Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan (all on guitar and vocals). Sure everyone knows "Black Magic Woman", but they probably know it from Santana's cover, not from FM.

Mac was absolutely a blues band then, with not even a hint of the pop that the name "Fleetwood Mac" would become synonymous with. And their first record, "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" (1968 - also from Prof Stoned) is just about perfect. Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green were both great guitar players: Spencer's flashy sizzling Elmore James-style slide leads contrast nicely with Green's spare, stinging and reverb-soaked style. They both sang, too. And while I haven't found a list of who sang which song, I'm assuming each sings on songs that he also did lead guitar on. And based on that, Spencer has a joyful, and just slightly hammy, delivery that always makes me smile. Green's vocals are, like his guitar playing, much darker and spare.

Here's Spencer taking the lead on Elmore James' "Shake Your Moneymaker":

I also picked up a record called "Hey Baby" which has some songs from The Christine Perfect Band - Christine McVie's maiden name is "Perfect", and this was her pre-FM band. They're not fantastic songs, but they do show her distinctive style was well developed even in 1968. The rest of the records are FM songs that McVie played on before she was an official member. Some of them show up on later FM records. Also interesting.

And then, "Then Play On", FM's third record. It's the last one with Peter Green and the first one with Christine McVie (though she's uncredited). Haven't got into this one much, yet. I bought it mostly so I'd have a copy of "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)" - Judas Priest's cover is so awesome I just had to have Peter Green's original - and it is also awesome. Priest just made it louder.

You?