A meditation on a troubled genius, the Blues and Fleetwood Mac
Playlist links
Playlist Peter Green finds his peace of mind youtube
Playlist Peter Green finds his peace of mind pandora
Playlist Peter Green finds his peace of mind spotify
Searching for Peter Green!
Who is Peter Green? It turns out probably one of the greatest and most influential blues rock guitarists of all times. BB King is quoted as saying “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” You always have to ask yourself in what context the King spoke these words. Was he just being kind, as humble of a person as he has always been. Did he really mean them or was he just trying to be polite considering that BB King after all, along with Buddy Guy, basically drew the blueprint for all rock lead guitar to come. If the Blues is the big bang of American music then BB and Buddy are the big bang of that clear and precise yet heavy emotional jamming style adopted by many a Rock’n’Roll guitarrero from the mid 60ies all the way up to this day and age. So why would he heap such praise on a young British blues student who was 21 years his youth and obviously trying to emulate his style?
Peter Green’s Sound & Style
Upon listening to his extended instrumental The SuperNatural from his time with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers it kind of becomes clear why. Matt Blackett in Guitar Player Magazine rated his tone on this song as one of the 50 greatest of all time. He went on to explain that it “is characterized by a shivering vibrato, clean cutting tones and a series of ten-second sustained notes. These tones were achieved by Green controlling feedback on a Les Paul guitar” ( if you want to get a feel for what Matt is talking about check out Michael Palmisano‘s great analasys of Peter Green’s playing on I’ve Got A Mind To Give Up Living, incidentally a BB King cover). His brilliant lead is underscored by an early latino style groove of hammond b3 organ and percussive drumming which would later be refined with Black Magic Woman. If you listen closely you can hear tiny elements of this later hit being born in his improvisations. Santana made Black Magic Woman famous with their masterly recording of it in combination with Gipsy Queen from Gabor Szabo on their record ABRAXAS. There is an earlier live recording of a concert at the Fillmore West in 1968 before Carlos and his gang would release anything from a studio and go on to blow everyones mind at Woodstock. They do not play Black Magic Woman but the underlying groove of that song and The SuperNatural are quite audible as an influence of style on much of the music played that evening.
Accolades
Both Rolling Stone and Mojo magazine have listed him in their greatest guitarists of all times lists, John Lennon referenced him in writing Sun King, Rich Robinson picked him as his favorite guitarist in Guitar World’s “30 on 30: The Greatest Guitarists Picked by the Greatest Guitarists” (2010) and Judas Priest even played his Green Manalishi ( with the 2 pronged crown) at Live Aid sandwiched between their hits Living After Midnight and You’ve Got Another Thing Coming. So why is he still such an insider tip and rarely mentioned in the same breath with the other 3 british guitar gods of the time Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page?
John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac & the Blues
Now John Mayalls & the Bluesbreakers were always kind of an insider tip, mostly due to them being strict interpreters of the Blues and not really venturing off into the Rock’n’Roll sphere. I was well aware of what an incredible judge of talent John Mayall was and how he helped many a young british musician on his way to bigger and better things. It truly is amazing how much unbelievable talent first cut their chops under his guidance. But straight blues was never my thing, at least not until recently, with that meaning the last 10 to 15 years. Anyone developing their musical taste from the late 70ies on really only associated Fleetwood Mac with the Stevie Nicks / Lindsay Buckingham / Christine McVie era and for me that was basically 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and Rumors. Tried to listen to Tusk and failed, and from the earlier tracks I was only aware of the two Bob Welch songs Sentimental Lady and Hypnotized. From the British Blues Invasion I really only knew of John Mayall, the Yardbirds, Cream, Jeff Beck Group, and then of course Led Zeppelin. It seemed early Fleetwood Mac was never part of the topic in all the compilations and literature I could get my hands on . Either that, or I just didn’t notice them consciously, possibly because of them being considered straight Blues much as John Mayall. I finally had a chance to see Fleetwood Mac in 1991 in one of the University Auditoriums of Raleigh, Durham, Chapell Hill. Lindsey Buckingham wasn’t along for the ride, being replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette. Somewhere during the show someone made the announcement they were going to play a song from when Fleetwood Mac was a blues band and blasted into a blistering version of Oh Well, a song I had heard numerous times before on FM radio and on an earlier TV broadcast with Lindsey wailing on the guitar. Kind of forgot about the blues reference and moved on still seeing the Mac for what it was at the time.
Finding Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac
The 90ies and early 2000s were a great time for remastered CD releases, compilations, box sets, newly found gems, and extended versions of previous live releases. At my favorite record store these would also come with a short term sale price. For the first month of the re-release the cost of the CD would be somewhere between 5.99 and 9.99 ( and we’re talking Deutsch Marks before 2001) so I was able to pick up many brand new remastered releases with extra songs and extended booklets for close to half price. That was, if I was in town at the right time. Picked up a large part of David Bowie‘s Discography, Queen, Elton John, Deep Purple, all of the Doors, Led Zeppelin and the list goes on and on. I’d walk in with a hundred bucks and would walk out with like 15-18 CDs, many brand new remasters. I trip my shit when I look at how much music costs these days when I have the rare occasion of visiting a record and CD store. No wonder everyone is streaming. I would be flat broke if I had to replenish my music the way I did back in the 90ies and early 2000s. You could also afford to discover things without breaking the bank and one of those discoveries was Then Play On and a set of live recordings called Live at the Boston Tea Party. As so many times before a whole new world opened itself up to me, one that had been hidden from my sight since the year I was born only for me to discover it 25+ years later. Holy cow, couldn’t believe I hadn’t listened to any of this any time earlier due to it having literally been a style I had cherished ever since entering my own little Rock’n’Rollverse.
Peter Green & Splinter Group
I had a chance to see Peter with the Splinter Group in Munich shortly after delving in to all those old recordings. Didn’t really know what to expect having only recently been fully introduced to his sound. I was aware that he had spent quite a while out of the picture due to schizophrenia and other personal issues following years of heavy psychedelics use. His playing turned out to be just as brilliant and inspiring as ever and his voice soulful and smooth, wrapping you warmly in his world of harmony and giving you peace of mind. The show was in one of those venues where they double book the evening to make more money. Due to there being a follow up event there was not much room for the encores. Nobody was leaving, though, in anticipation of what he might play next. That is when you know you are in the middle something special. Usually, when it starts getting late the crowd starts thinning out, especially for a show like this, where the audience was quite a bit older than what was outside waiting to get in. But not this evening. I can’t remember exactly which song he ended the concert with, whether it was one of his own or an old blues standard. It was just him with his harmonica up on the stage for the encore. His mouth harp playing was just as smooth as his singing, putting the audience in a somber yet almost spiritual state, everyone staying quiet enough to hear a pin drop as not to miss a single note being played or sung. And when it all was over we just stood there for a minute breathing in what we had just received, as if we had been in the presence of an angel. Another one of those live experiences I will never forget.
Peter Green’s Feeling for the Blues
What makes Peter Green so great along with many of his British peers of the time was that he studied a truly American music style originating in the pain, suffering and oppression of a people who seemingly could not have been more removed from his existence. Yet he would soak it in to every vein of his body and interpret the feelings he was experiencing with pure understanding of Blues’ very soul. That is why I believe BB King was being sincere. He could hear that in every note. England was not America after the second world war, it had in places been bombed to pieces and there was not a single person not affected by that war, even those who had not been born yet. The youngsters had to grow up in the rubble and dust of the destruction wrought on their land and experienced their own source of suffering. Many found a medium to express their dire situation through the blues. No, they had never been beat down, segregated, and oppressed, and their most recent ancestors had never been slaves, but the original creators of the blues gave hardship and suffering a universal language and by that, every human a way of expressing their plight, whatever it may be, through this musical style. And for Peter this also included his upbringing in the Jewish ghetto of Whitechapel. All you have to do is listen to and watch him play his World Keeps On Turning to understand. The song is about the pain of love but the feeling is much more universal than what the lyrics alone might make you believe. He switches between world weariness and frustration with his mastery of volume and intensity, in one minute lamenting his situation and in the next swinging his fists to break free only to resign himself to the cards which fate has dealt him.
Sweet & Soulful Instrumentals
Peter had a way of singing with his guitar which enabled him to create some of the most beautiful instrumentals in Blues and Rock’n’Roll history. They tell a story of wonder and majesty, speaking a language everyone seems to understand yet only he can articulate. He plants his words with his guitar strings deep into your imagination and just lets you fly with it. The most famous of this is Albatross which sends you gliding over the waves of a gently flowing ocean with your wings stretched out surfing the wind current / Underway which transcends you into a spiritual realm of magic and wonder, linking the spheres of San Francisco psychedelic rock, the burgeoning sound of the Allman Brothers’ southern style jam rock and the myths and legends of the British isle folklore / World in Harmony, a Kirwan / Green collaboration which catches you strolling through sunny fields and hills barefoot in your overalls, catching a ride in the back of an old Ford pick up truck, and then jumping out to continue again on foot through a cool shadowy forest with sunlight beams streaming through the massive tree trunks / or the majesty of Oh well, Part 2 which places you in the halls of Camelot, transforming you into a knight of the round table on his search for his fair maiden, or the maiden herself strolling through gardens of splendor cuddling the bulb of a rose in your hands given you by your faithful knight and servant. This is a gift that he retained throughout his career creating many more musical themes to day dream by in years to come.
Madness & the Influence on Heavy Metal
Peter Green unfortunately like many a gifted musician of his time fell victim to the cultural rumblings of the late 60ies which ravaged many of his contemporaries and killed a few on it’s way. He would start battling demons and ghosts while being guided by angels and spiritual gurus, questioning his and our very existence and the meaning of it all, only to disappear from the public view after a brief solo venture following his departure from Fleetwood Mac. Maybe that is why he has remained more of a secret until recently. There was no sensational death through overdose, accident or suicide that could capture the mind and imagination of an ever replenishing rebellious self destructive youth, no mythologized mental breakdown that would be immortalized in song and film by his band mates to become part of western musical pop culture and give an identity to the aforementioned young people clawing for that mad piper at the gates of dawn to free them of their mundane sobering glide into adulthood. Yet his influence could still be felt. His song, the Green Manalishi With the 2 Pronged Crown was a sign of things to come. It made enough of an impression on the next great wave of British musicians for it to be transformed into a Heavy Metal anthem by the ascending Gods of Judas Priest. And like many others of my time, that was probably my first introduction to the world of Peter Green without even knowing it. Priest knew how to pick songs to cover and make their own, but none seemed more fit for it to be forged in steel as The Green Manalishi. In hindsight it was one of the most heavy and cryptic songs of it’s time, pointing the way out of the drug fueled love-in hedonism of the late sixties to the brutal yet mystical new world being created by bands such as Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep who were crawling out of the sludge and grime of England’s faltering industrial complex.
Passing the Torch With Pure Rock’n’Roll
His greatest impact on Rock music is most likely Oh Well part 1 which has remained a staple for many guitarists and bands to prove their chops in front of an audience and get the crowd roaring. You can find great versions of this classic from The Black Crowes with Jimmy Page, a blistering one from Kenny Wayne Shepherd, bass heavy and smoking hot one from Billy Sheehan, or a fun romp from Tom Petty. The most recent example are a couple live version from the California pop rock band HAIM consisting of sisters Este, Danielle and Alana, as they kick out the jam at the Glastonbury and T in the Park music festivals. In introducing the song at Glastonbury Este says “ On occasions like this my sisters and I like to Jam…gonna fucking Jam. You Ready? !!“ and kick it into high gear. And Jam is exactly what they do as the crowd goes nuts.That is exactly what this song is meant to do! Kudos to the ladies for bringing a kick ass drummer along for the ride who underscores their more punk in your face version with pounding ferocity, a talent not seen often anymore. In hind sight it is probably one of the greatest pure, straight forward Rock songs of all time. The performance of these ladies just goes to show that Rock’n’Roll ain’t about to die anytime soon.
Tell me your stories
Peter stayed quite prolific in the latter part of his career and has a decent sized trove of music to discover. He didn’t produce any hits after leaving Fleetwood Mac but good music isn’t really about hits. It is about capturing the imagination, spirit, soul, and feeling in one’s mind and life. Tell me your Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac stories, what are your favorite songs, do you know any great covers, is this the first time you have heard (of) him? Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to keep on rocking! Cheers!
really loved the content. been listening to the playlist and hearing quite a few songs or versions I have never heard before. thanx!