''The Pious Bird of Good Omen'' is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

, two other tracks from their previous album '' Mr. Wonderful'', and two tracks by the blues artist

Eddie Boyd Edward Riley Boyd (November 25, 1914 – July 13, 1994)Dahl, Bill. Eddie Boyd: Biography AllMusic. Retrieved October 13, 2016. was an American blues pianist, singer and songwriter, best known for his recordings in the early 1950s, including the ...

with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These two tracks came from Boyd's album ''7936 South Rhodes''. The title of the album is a phrase found in an 1817 gloss (marginal note) to

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

's 1798 epic poem ''

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'') is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of ''Lyrical Ballad ...

''. The phrase refers to the albatross killed in the poem ("The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen"). Its use as an album title as well as the album art is a sly wink to the featuring of the band's number 1 UK hit " Albatross". The US-only compilation '' English Rose'' was a similar package, sharing four songs with this album, and was released earlier in 1969. In 2002, the tracks from this album were repackaged by Sony BMG and released as a new collection with cover art very closely resembling the ''Greatest Hits'' album (1971), but with the addition of " Shake Your Moneymaker" and "Love That Burns".

Reception

Reaction to the album has been highly positive. It was described as "excellent" by the ''Rolling Stone Album Guide''. ''TeamRock'' ranked the album in the "20 Greatest Blues Albums: 1967-70".

Track listing

2004 release

::''* Bonus track''

Credits

Fleetwood Mac *Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica *Jeremy Spencer – vocals, slide guitar *Danny Kirwan – vocals, electric guitar (on side 2, tracks 1 and 4) *

John McVie John Graham McVie (born 26 November 1945) is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fle ...

– bass guitar *

Mick Fleetwood Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of t ...

– drums Additional musicians *

– vocals, piano (on side 1, track 4 and side 2, track 3) Technical staff * Mike Vernon – producer *Mike Ross – engineer

2004 release

Fleetwood Mac *Peter Green – vocals (except on tracks 3, 4, 5, and 7), guitar (except on tracks 3 and 4), harmonica (on tracks 2 and 3) *Jeremy Spencer – vocals (on tracks 3 and 4), guitar (on tracks 3 and 4), piano (on track 4) *Danny Kirwan – vocals (on track 8), guitar (on track 5, 7, and 8) *John McVie – bass guitar (except on track 2, 3, and 8) *Mick Fleetwood – drums (except on track 8) *

Bob Brunning Robert Brunning (29 June 1943 – 18 October 2011) was a British musician who was, as a small part of a long musical career, the original bass guitar player with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac. Career Fleetwood Mac When Peter Green left ...

– bass guitar (on track 3) Additional musicians * Mickey "Guitar" Baker – string arrangement (on track 1) * Steve Gregory –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(on track 10 and 11) *

Christine Perfect Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as keyboardist and one of the vocalists of the band Fleetwood Mac. McVie was a member of several bands, nota ...

– piano (on tracks 9, 10, and 11) *

Terry Noonan Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albrit ...

– director of unidentified strings and horns (on track 1) Technical staff *Mike Vernon – producer *Mike Ross – engineer

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pious Bird Of Good Omen, The Albums produced by Mike Vernon (record producer) Fleetwood Mac compilation albums 1969 compilation albums Blue Horizon Records compilation albums