Page 1 of 1

R.I.P. Peter Green

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 16:04
by Benvolio
We have lost one of the true all time greats of rock today. The soundtrack of my early teens is basically this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIh2xuTOn28

Re: R.I.P. Peter Green

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 16:08
by Tormentor667
What did he produce?

Re: R.I.P. Peter Green

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 16:25
by Benvolio
Peter Green was born to a Jewish family in Bethnal Green, East London. His career commenced when he demonstrated his gift for blues guitar in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers on their album A Hard Road (1967). The Bluesbreakers also essentially were the springboard for the careers of Eric Clapton and of Mick Taylor, the latter I would hope people would know well as guitarist for the Rolling Stones for their creative peak in the years 1969 to 1974. A standout track from Green on "A Hard Road" was "The Supernatural", essentially a slow and melodic guitar solo.

But Peter Green then went on to co-found Fleetwood Mac and though just their first 3 LPs featured him, he was a key player in blues-based hard rock in the classic era at the end of the 60s. Though Fleetwood Mac is now remembered primarily for its output after he left, Green's incarnation of Fleetwood Mac was genuinely a very famous band at that time. Most people will know of "Albatross", as well as "Black Magic Woman", though the latter is more known as covered by Carlos Santana. A number of other singles from Peter Green era 'Mac are also highly famous including the excellent "Man of the World" which I first heard when an emotionally wrenching road safety ad aired in Ireland in the late 90s featuring the opening lines of what was already a melancholy song. To my ear, "Man Of The World" really contains a lot of the ingredients of alternative rock as one might have heard decades later from Nirvana or Radiohead.

The greatest Fleetwood Mac recording is an extensively recorded concert in Boston 1970, from which I linked above an incredible 24 minute jam containing a number of pieces from their last album with Green, melded together in a dreamlike and quite psychedelic piece of blues rock. The Boston concert never enjoyed a heavily commercially promoted release (such as Get Yer Ya Yas out or Rock n Roll Animal did, for instance). What a shame as it would have very much stood shoulder to shoulder with those records. Fortunately for me we had an early 90s supermarket type compilation of some of the key recordings from that concert. I couldn't recommend it enough.

Sadly, in 1970, Green left Fleetwood Mac permanently - and the band's creative direction changed markedly (for the worse in my opinion) from that point. His mental health is well known to have suffered immensely for numerous decades since then, and it is usually thought that he had severe ill effects from drugs including LSD taken in large quantities whilst a rock star. His behaviour rapidly became bizarre and he essentially disowned materialism and aborted his career. He remained involved in music for the rest of his life but never really achieved commercial or critical success again.