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Peter Green (musician)

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Template:Guitarist infobox Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, October 29 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founding member of the band Fleetwood Mac.

Widely hailed as one of the best ever blues guitarists from Britain, Peter Green inspired the great B. B. King to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Although Green's playing was not as fast or flashy as his Bluesbreakers peers Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor, it was marked with a distinctive keen vibrato and economy of style. He produced a unique sharp tone with a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.[1] It has been rumoured that Green got his nasaly tone when he accidentally took the guitar apart and put it together with the neck pickup attached the wrong way around and wired "out-of-phase", causing the guitar's nasal sound. It has been proven that the guitar was wired out of phase when originally made by Gibson.[citation needed] Green originally took his guitar apart to remove his rhythm pickup after seeing Eric Clapton play on his treble pickup all night. The guitar was owned by Gary Moore for many years, and featured on many of his records until it was sold in 2006.

Biography

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

Green played lead in Peter Bardens' band, Peter B's Looners, in 1966. After a three month stint, he had the opportunity to fill in for Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for three gigs. Upon Clapton's permanent departure not long after, he was hired full-time. Since Clapton already had a very good reputation, Green was under pressure to fill the vacuum that Clapton's departure created. But sceptical fans were soon won over to Green's unique haunting and melancholy style.

Green made his full album debut with the Bluesbreakers with A Hard Road. If featured two compositions by Green, "The Same Way" and "The Supernatural". The latter was one of Green's first extended instrumentals, which would soon become a trademark.

In 1967, Green decided to form his own blues band, and left Mayall's Bluesbreakers after appearing on just one album (just as Clapton had done).

Fleetwood Mac

The name of Green's new band was Fleetwood Mac. Originally billed as "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac"; it originated from the band's rhythm section that consisted of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. In the late 1970s the re-organised band topped the charts with mainstream pop/rock, but initially it was a straight-up blues-rock band playing blues classics and some original material — just like Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Green was the leader of the group throughout their initial period of success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when their hits included "Oh Well", "Man of the World" and "Albatross". He wrote the song "Black Magic Woman" that was eventually picked up by Santana.

Following the release of "Albatross" and consequent rise in fame, Green struggled spiritually with the band's success and being in the spotlight. While touring Europe and after a gig in Munich, Germany, Green went on a three day LSD fuelled binge. In his own words, he "went on a trip, and never came back". Green's personality changed drastically after the episode: he began wearing a robe, grew a beard, and wore a crucifix on his chest. His use of LSD may have been a contributing factor to his mental illness, schizophrenia.

He quit Fleetwood Mac in 1970, declaring money to be evil and giving it away to charity. He performed his final show as a member on May 20, 1970. He recorded an experimental and extremely uncommercial album The End Of The Game and faded into obscurity, taking on a succession of menial jobs.

Green had a brief reunion with Fleetwood Mac when Jeremy Spencer left the group (Green flew to the USA to help them complete the tour) and he was also an uncredited guest on their 1973 Penguin album on the track "Night Watch".

Mental illness

Green has been institutionalised in the past with psychological problems and he underwent electroconvulsive therapy in the mid-1970s. Many sources attest to his lethargic, trancelike state during this period. In 1977, he was arrested for threatening his accountant, Clifford Davis, with a rifle, but the exact circumstances are the subject of much speculation. After this incident he was sent to a psychiatric institution in London. This was prior to his re-emergence as a recording artist with PVK Records in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Resurgence

Urged by friends to resume playing, he resurfaced in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a series of albums, including In the Skies, Little Dreamer and White Sky. Although of inconsistent quality, these albums nevertheless contained glimmers of Green's unique blues styling and signature sound. He was also an uncredited guest on "Brown Eyes", from the Fleetwood Mac album Tusk; contributed to "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Super Brains" on Mick Fleetwood's solo album, The Visitor. A 1990's comeback saw Green form the Peter Green Splinter Group, with the assistance of fellow musicians including Cozy Powell. The Splinter Group released nine albums between 1997 and 2003.

A tour was cancelled and recording of a new studio album stopped in early 2004, when Green left the band and moved to Sweden. Shortly thereafter he joined The British Blues All Stars, but their tour in 2005 was also cancelled. A possible reason for these changes could be a planned reunion of the original Fleetwood Mac, as announced by Mick Fleetwood on March 14, 2005.

Discography

See also Fleetwood Mac#discography.

Albums

Solo Compilations

  • Blue Guitar
  • Promised Land
  • Legend
  • Green And Guitar
  • The Clown
  • Alone With The Blues

Splinter Group albums

A Hard Road

Guest Contributions

With John Mayall

File:Eddie-Boyd-1.jpg
Eddie Boyd

With Eddie Boyd

With Duster Bennett

With Gordon Smith

With Otis Spann

With Brunning Sunflower Blues Band

With Clifford Davis

  • Come On Down And Follow Me/Homework (1969 single)
  • Man Of The World/Before The Beginning (1970 single)

With Jeremy Spencer

With Peter Bardens

With Gass

With Memphis Slim

With B. B. King

With Dave Kelly

With Country Joe McDonald

With Toe Fat

  • 2 (1971 album)

With Richard Kerr

With Fleetwood Mac

With Duffo

With Mick Fleetwood

With Brian Knight

With SAS Band

With Dick Heckstall-Smith

With Chris Coco

With Peter Gabriel

  • Up (2003 album)

References

  1. ^ Bacon, Tony. Electric Guitars:The Illustrated Encyclopedia. Thunder Bay Press. pp. pg. 124. ISBN 1-59223-053-9. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  • Celmins, Martin (1995). Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac. Castle Communications. ISBN 1-898141-13-4.
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