Peter Green (musician)
Encyclopedia
Peter Green is a British
blues-rock
guitarist
and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac
. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1998 for his work with the group, Green's compositions have been covered by artists such as Santana
, Aerosmith
, Midge Ure
, Tom Petty
, and Judas Priest
.
A major figure and bandleader in the "second great epoch" of the British blues
movement, Green inspired B. B. King
to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Eric Clapton
and Jimmy Page
have both lauded his guitar playing. Green's playing was marked with idiomatic string bending and vibrato
and economy of style. Though he played other guitars, he is best known for deriving a unique tone from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul
.
He was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the Bluesbreakers
instrumental "The Super-Natural" was rated as one of the fifty greatest of all time by Guitar Player
.
In June 1996 Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo
magazine.
outfit the Muskrats, then a band called The Tridents in which he played bass. In 1966, Green played lead guitar in Peter Bardens
' band "Peter B's Looners", where he met Mick Fleetwood
, the Looners' drummer. It was here that he made his recording début with the single "If You Wanna Be Happy / Jodrell Blues". "If You Wanna Be Happy
" was an instrumental cover of a Jimmy Soul
song.
in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
, for three concerts. Soon after, upon Clapton's departure from the Bluesbreakers, he became a full-time member of Mayall's band.
Mike Vernon, a producer at Decca recalls Peter's début with the Bluesbreakers:
Green made his recording début with the Bluesbreakers on the album A Hard Road
which featured two of his own compositions, "The Same Way" and "The Supernatural". The latter was one of Green's first instrumentals, which would soon become a trademark. So proficient was he that his musician friends bestowed upon him the nickname "The Green God". In 1967, Green decided to form his own blues band, and left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
on guitar was initially called "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
featuring Jeremy Spencer". Bob Brunning was recruited for bass; Green's first choice, Bluesbreakers' bassist John McVie
was not ready to make the move. Within a month of forming in mid '67, they played the Windsor National Jazz and Blues Festival and were quickly signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon
label. Playing a repertoire of blues
covers and blues originals, mostly written by Green but some by slide guitarist Spencer, their first single "I Believe My Time Ain't Long"/"Rambling Pony" did not chart, but their self-titled début album made a significant mark, staying on the British charts for over a year. By September John McVie had reconsidered and joined the band.
Although classic blues covers and blues-styled originals remained prominent in the band's repertoire through this period, Green rapidly blossomed as a writer, contributing many successful original compositions from 1968 onwards, and the songs the chosen for single release showed Green's style gradually moving away from the group's blues roots into new musical territory. In 1968 the Mac scored a hit with Green's "Black Magic Woman
", (later covered more successfully by Santana
) followed by 1969's number one in the British Singles Chart, the classic guitar instrumental "Albatross
". More Green-penned hits followed, including "Oh Well
", "Man of the World
" (1969 both) and the ominous "The Green Manalishi
"(1970). Their second studio album Mr. Wonderful continued the formula of the first album, and for their their third release, the double-LP Blues Jam at Chess, the band made the pilgrimage to the legendary Chess Records
Ter-Mar Studio in Chicago where, under the joint supervision of Vernon and Marshall Chess
, they recorded with some of their American blues heroes including Otis Spann
, Willie Dixon
, J.T. Horton and Buddy Guy
.
In 1970 the group signed with Warner Bros. Records
and recorded their fourth studio album Then Play On, which featured the group's newly recruited third guitarist Danny Kirwan
; he featured prominently on the LP, whereas Spencer made virtually no contribution, due to his reported refusal to play on any of Green's original material, which dominated the album.
Beginning with Man of the Worlds sad lyric, Green's bandmates began to notice changes in his state of mind. He took large doses of acid
, grew a beard, wore robes and a crucifix. Mick Fleetwood recalls Green becoming concerned about wealth: "I had conversations with Peter Green around that time and he was obsessive about us NOT making money, wanting us to give it all away. And I'd say, 'Well you can do it, I don't wanna do that, and that doesn't make me a bad person.'"
While touring Europe in late March 1970, Green binged on LSD at a party at a commune in Munich—an incident cited by Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis as the crucial point in his mental decline. Communard Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier
met Green in Munich, where they invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune. Their real intention was to persuade Green to help arrange for Jimi Hendrix
and The Rolling Stones
to perform as headline acts at a Woodstock
styled festival, in Bavaria
. Fleetwood Mac roadie Dinky Dawson remembers that Green went to the party with another roadie, Dennis Keane, and that when Keane returned to the band's hotel to explain that Green would not leave the commune, Keane, Dawson and Mick Fleetwood travelled to the commune to fetch Green. By contrast, Green had fond memories of jamming at the commune when speaking in 2009: "I had a good play there, it was great—someone recorded it, they gave me a tape. There were people playing along, a few of us just fooling around, and it was... yeah it was great." He told Jeremy Spencer at the time "That's the most spiritual music I've ever recorded in my life." After a final performance on 20 May 1970, Green left the band that he founded.
entitled The End of the Game
; it would be 9 years before his next album release. In 1971 he had a brief reunion with Fleetwood Mac helping them to complete a USA tour when Jeremy Spencer
left the group. Other than two 1970 tracks with Bobby Tench
's band Gass
(featured on Juju
)
, 2 singles as Peter Green and Peter Green's "Beast of Burden", a gig at B. B. King
London
sessions in 1972, an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac's "Penguin" LP in 1973, Green succumbed to mental illness, drug use and professional obscurity from which he only began to emerge in 1979. During this period he sold his signature 1959 Gibson Les Paul sunburst guitar to Northern Irish
guitarist Gary Moore
.
and he spent time in psychiatric hospital
s undergoing electroconvulsive therapy
during 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 shotgun, but the exact circumstances are the subject of much speculation, the most popular being that Green wanted Davis to stop sending money to him. However, in the BBC documentary on Green titled "Man Of The World" Green said that at the time he just returned from Canada and needed money, upon calling up his accounts manager in the course of the conversation he alluded to the fact that he had brought back a gun from his travels; this person promptly called the police whereby the house (where Green was staying) was surrounded by police. After this incident he was sent to a psychiatric institution in London.
In 1979 Green began to re-emerge professionally. With the help of his brother Michael he was signed to Peter Vernon-Kell's PVK label. He made an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac's double-LP Tusk
, released that year.
In 1981, he contributed to "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Super Brains" on Mick Fleetwood
's solo album The Visitor
. He recorded various sessions with a number of other musicians notably the Katmandu
album A Case for the Blues
with Ray Dorset
(Mungo Jerry
), Vincent Crane
(The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
) and Len Surtees (The Nashville Teens
). Despite some attempts by Gibson
to start talks about producing a Peter Green signature Les Paul guitar, his instrument of choice at this time was a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion. In recent years Green has often been seen playing this guitar at live performances.
, with the assistance of fellow musicians including Nigel Watson
and Cozy Powell
. The Splinter Group released nine albums between 1997 and 2004. It was in the latter part of this period that he began to play his ebony coloured Gibson Les Paul guitar again. Green signed and sold this guitar, which had been tweaked
to sound similar to his green burst model of the same guitar and is now owned by a UK guitar enthusiast.
Early in 2004, a tour was cancelled and the recording of a new studio album stopped, when Green left the band and moved to Sweden. Shortly thereafter he joined The British Blues All Stars, for a tour scheduled for the next year. However, this tour was cancelled after the death of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith
. At the time, Green stated that the medication he was taking to treat his psychological problems was making it hard for him to concentrate and sapped his desire to play guitar.
In February 2009 he began playing and touring again, this time with Peter Green and Friends
. In May 2009 he was the subject for the BBC Four
documentary "Peter Green: Man of the World", produced by Henry Hadaway
. Green and the band subsequently played a tour of Ireland, Germany and England. The band has gone on to play several dates in Australia in March 2010, including the Byron Bay Bluesfest
. The band were supported by Andrew Morris (singer-songwriter)
on several of their UK tour dates in December 2009 and March 2010.
Green remains ambivalent about his songwriting success and more recently stated to Guitar Player magazine:
. This song demonstrates Green's control of harmonic feedback. The sound 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.
, a cheap hollow-body guitar, but quickly started playing a Les Paul with The Bluesbreakers and Green's guitar was often referred to as his "magic guitar". In 2000 he told Guitar Player
magazine : "I never had a magic one. Mine wasn't magic...It just barely worked.". In part, his unique tone derived from a modification to the neck pickup
which was reversed and rewired, a modification made after 1967. On stage with Fleetwood Mac
, he used an Orange amplifier without any effects. However, there is concert footage of the band standing in front of a wall of Fender
amplifiers, which appear to be Dual Showman Reverb heads with the matching two by fifteen cabinets.
In the 1990s he played a 1960s Fender Stratocaster
and his Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion with a Fender Blues DeVille
and a Vox AC30
amplifier.
The modification on the neck pickup was the reversal of one of the magnets,which put it out of phase.
, Aerosmith
guitarist Joe Perry
, Steve Hackett
, and Wishbone Ash
guitarist Andy Powell
.
Green was Black Crowes' Rich Robinson's pick in Guitar World's "30 on 30: The Greatest Guitarists Picked by the Greatest Guitarists" (2010) In the same article Robinson cites Jimmy Page, with whom the Crowes toured: "...he told us so many Peter Green stories. It was clear that Jimmy loves the man’s talent."
In an interview with Dan Forte from Guitar World
magazine, which was reprinted in Guitar Legends in 1993, Eric Clapton
acknowledged Green's skills as a guitar player when recalling a chance meeting with him in the mid 1980s:
In an interview with Guitar Player in 2000, Green acknowledged Clapton's influence, stating
Enduring periods of mental illness and destitution throughout the 1970s and 1980s, punctuated by efforts at comeback, in 1991/92 he moved in with his eldest brother Len and his wife Gloria, and his mother in their house in Great Yarmouth, where a process of recovery began.
He married Jane Samuels in January 1978; the couple divorced in 1979. They have a daughter, Rosebud Samuels-Greenbaum (born 1978).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1998 for his work with the group, Green's compositions have been covered by artists such as Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
, Midge Ure
Midge Ure
James "Midge" Ure, OBE is a Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter...
, Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
, and Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
.
A major figure and bandleader in the "second great epoch" of the British blues
British blues
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s and which reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of...
movement, Green inspired B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
and Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
have both lauded his guitar playing. Green's playing was marked with idiomatic string bending and vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
and economy of style. Though he played other guitars, he is best known for deriving a unique tone from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
.
He was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and 1967, but then dropped it for some fifteen years. However, in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and...
instrumental "The Super-Natural" was rated as one of the fifty greatest of all time by Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
.
In June 1996 Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
magazine.
Early years
Green first played in a band called Bobby Denim and the Dominoes which performed pop chart covers and rock 'n' roll standards. Later he joined a rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
outfit the Muskrats, then a band called The Tridents in which he played bass. In 1966, Green played lead guitar in Peter Bardens
Peter Bardens
Peter Bardens was a keyboardist and a founding member of the British progressive rock group Camel. He played organ, piano, synthesizers and mellotron and wrote songs with Andrew Latimer...
' band "Peter B's Looners", where he met Mick Fleetwood
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...
, the Looners' drummer. It was here that he made his recording début with the single "If You Wanna Be Happy / Jodrell Blues". "If You Wanna Be Happy
If You Wanna Be Happy
"If You Wanna Be Happy" is a song recorded by Jimmy Soul, written by Frank Guida. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 18, 1963, as well as the R&B singles chart. The song is based on the calypso "Ugly Woman" by Roaring Lion. It was issued on Guida's S.P.Q.R. label and distributed by...
" was an instrumental cover of a Jimmy Soul
Jimmy Soul
Jimmy Soul was an American vocalist. He is best remembered for his 1963 million selling recording, "If You Wanna Be Happy."...
song.
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
After three months with Bardens' group, Green had the opportunity to fill in for Eric ClaptonEric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and 1967, but then dropped it for some fifteen years. However, in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and...
, for three concerts. Soon after, upon Clapton's departure from the Bluesbreakers, he became a full-time member of Mayall's band.
Mike Vernon, a producer at Decca recalls Peter's début with the Bluesbreakers:
As the band walked in the studio I noticed an amplifier which I never saw before, so I said to John Mayall, "Where's Eric Clapton?" Mayall answered, "He's not with us anymore, he left us a few weeks ago." I was in a shock of state (sic) but Mayall said, "Don't worry, we got someone better." I said, "Wait a minute, hang on a second, this is ridiculous. You've got someone better??? Than Eric Clapton???" John said, "He might not be better now, but you wait, in a couple of years he's going to be the best." Then he introduced me to Peter Green.
Green made his recording début with the Bluesbreakers on the album A Hard Road
A Hard Road
A Hard Road is a 1967 electric blues album recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers featuring Peter Green on lead guitar, John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh...
which featured two of his own compositions, "The Same Way" and "The Supernatural". The latter was one of Green's first instrumentals, which would soon become a trademark. So proficient was he that his musician friends bestowed upon him the nickname "The Green God". In 1967, Green decided to form his own blues band, and left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Fleetwood Mac
Green's new band, with ex-Bluesbreaker Mick Fleetwood on drums and Jeremy SpencerJeremy Spencer
Jeremy Cedric Spencer , is a British musician, best known as one of the first guitarists in Fleetwood Mac.Spencer was born in Hartlepool, County Durham. He grew up in South London and was educated at Strand School, where he became known for hilarious impressions of the headmaster and several of his...
on guitar was initially called "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
featuring Jeremy Spencer". Bob Brunning was recruited for bass; Green's first choice, Bluesbreakers' bassist John McVie
John McVie
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleetwood, was the inspiration for the band's name...
was not ready to make the move. Within a month of forming in mid '67, they played the Windsor National Jazz and Blues Festival and were quickly signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon
Blue Horizon was a British blues record label founded by Mike Vernon in the mid 1960s.Its roots lay in Vernon's mail order label Purdah Records, which released just four 7" singles; including "Flapjacks" by Stone's Masonry ; and another by John Mayall and Eric Clapton "Bernard Jenkins", and...
label. Playing a repertoire of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
covers and blues originals, mostly written by Green but some by slide guitarist Spencer, their first single "I Believe My Time Ain't Long"/"Rambling Pony" did not chart, but their self-titled début album made a significant mark, staying on the British charts for over a year. By September John McVie had reconsidered and joined the band.
Although classic blues covers and blues-styled originals remained prominent in the band's repertoire through this period, Green rapidly blossomed as a writer, contributing many successful original compositions from 1968 onwards, and the songs the chosen for single release showed Green's style gradually moving away from the group's blues roots into new musical territory. In 1968 the Mac scored a hit with Green's "Black Magic Woman
Black Magic Woman
"Black Magic Woman" is a song written by Peter Green that first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1968, subsequently appearing on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose and The Pious Bird of Good Omen . In 1970, it became a classic hit by Santana, as sung...
", (later covered more successfully by Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
) followed by 1969's number one in the British Singles Chart, the classic guitar instrumental "Albatross
Albatross (composition)
"Albatross" is a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac, released as a single in 1969, later featuring on the compilation albums The Pious Bird of Good Omen and English Rose...
". More Green-penned hits followed, including "Oh Well
Oh Well (song)
"Oh Well" is a song recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1969, and composed by vocalist and lead guitarist Peter Green. It first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1969, subsequently appearing on the Greatest Hits album in 1971...
", "Man of the World
Man of the World (song)
"Man of the World" is a song recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1969, and composed by vocalist and lead guitarist Peter Green. It first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1969, subsequently appearing on the Greatest Hits album in 1971...
" (1969 both) and the ominous "The Green Manalishi
The Green Manalishi
"The Green Manalishi " is a song written by Peter Green and recorded by Fleetwood Mac. It was released as a single in the UK in May 1970 and reached #10 on the British charts. The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had...
"(1970). Their second studio album Mr. Wonderful continued the formula of the first album, and for their their third release, the double-LP Blues Jam at Chess, the band made the pilgrimage to the legendary Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
Ter-Mar Studio in Chicago where, under the joint supervision of Vernon and Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess is the son and nephew of the founders of Chess Records, the Chicago-based independent record label that first recorded an unprecedented list of African-American, blues and early rock and roll artists such as: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy...
, they recorded with some of their American blues heroes including Otis Spann
Otis Spann
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....
, Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
, J.T. Horton and Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
.
In 1970 the group signed with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
and recorded their fourth studio album Then Play On, which featured the group's newly recruited third guitarist Danny Kirwan
Danny Kirwan
Daniel David "Danny" Kirwan is a British musician best known for his role as guitarist, singer and songwriter with the blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac between 1968 and 1972.-Early career:...
; he featured prominently on the LP, whereas Spencer made virtually no contribution, due to his reported refusal to play on any of Green's original material, which dominated the album.
Beginning with Man of the Worlds sad lyric, Green's bandmates began to notice changes in his state of mind. He took large doses of acid
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
, grew a beard, wore robes and a crucifix. Mick Fleetwood recalls Green becoming concerned about wealth: "I had conversations with Peter Green around that time and he was obsessive about us NOT making money, wanting us to give it all away. And I'd say, 'Well you can do it, I don't wanna do that, and that doesn't make me a bad person.'"
While touring Europe in late March 1970, Green binged on LSD at a party at a commune in Munich—an incident cited by Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis as the crucial point in his mental decline. Communard Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier
Uschi Obermaier
Uschi Obermaier is a former fashion model, actress and is associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. In the latter she is considered an iconic sex symbol of the so-called "1968 generation"....
met Green in Munich, where they invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune. Their real intention was to persuade Green to help arrange for Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
to perform as headline acts at a Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
styled festival, in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. Fleetwood Mac roadie Dinky Dawson remembers that Green went to the party with another roadie, Dennis Keane, and that when Keane returned to the band's hotel to explain that Green would not leave the commune, Keane, Dawson and Mick Fleetwood travelled to the commune to fetch Green. By contrast, Green had fond memories of jamming at the commune when speaking in 2009: "I had a good play there, it was great—someone recorded it, they gave me a tape. There were people playing along, a few of us just fooling around, and it was... yeah it was great." He told Jeremy Spencer at the time "That's the most spiritual music I've ever recorded in my life." After a final performance on 20 May 1970, Green left the band that he founded.
Post-Fleetwood Mac
In late June 1970, Green appeared at the Bath Festival with John Mayall, Rod Mayall (organ) and Larry Taylor (bass). The same year he recorded a jam sessionJam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
entitled The End of the Game
The End of the Game
The End of the Game is an album by British blues rock musician Peter Green, who was the founder of Fleetwood Mac and a member from 1967–70...
; it would be 9 years before his next album release. In 1971 he had a brief reunion with Fleetwood Mac helping them to complete a USA tour when Jeremy Spencer
Jeremy Spencer
Jeremy Cedric Spencer , is a British musician, best known as one of the first guitarists in Fleetwood Mac.Spencer was born in Hartlepool, County Durham. He grew up in South London and was educated at Strand School, where he became known for hilarious impressions of the headmaster and several of his...
left the group. Other than two 1970 tracks with Bobby Tench
Bobby Tench
Robert Tench , also known as Bob Tench, Bobby Tench and Bobby Gass is a British vocalist and guitarist. Originally a bass player he began singing with Gass influenced by artists such as Sam Cooke and Ray Charles...
's band Gass
Gass (band)
Gass was a rock band formed in May 1965 by Robert Tench, Godfrey and Errol McLean. They were managed by The Active Management Group. The band fused inspired melodies with soul, Latin influences, blues and progressive rock often employing complex rhythms....
(featured on Juju
Juju (Gass album)
Juju was the first album recorded by the rock band Gass and featured guitarist Peter Green, who had just left Fleetwood Mac at this time...
)
, 2 singles as Peter Green and Peter Green's "Beast of Burden", a gig at B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
sessions in 1972, an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac's "Penguin" LP in 1973, Green succumbed to mental illness, drug use and professional obscurity from which he only began to emerge in 1979. During this period he sold his signature 1959 Gibson Les Paul sunburst guitar to Northern Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
guitarist Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
.
Illness and first re-emergence
By this time Green had been diagnosed with schizophreniaSchizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
and he spent time in psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
s undergoing electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
during 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
Clifford Davis (musician)
Clifford Davis is a British musician and music manager, chiefly known for his time as manager of successful blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, from 1967 to 1974.He also used the pseudonyms Clifford Adams and C.G...
, with a shotgun, but the exact circumstances are the subject of much speculation, the most popular being that Green wanted Davis to stop sending money to him. However, in the BBC documentary on Green titled "Man Of The World" Green said that at the time he just returned from Canada and needed money, upon calling up his accounts manager in the course of the conversation he alluded to the fact that he had brought back a gun from his travels; this person promptly called the police whereby the house (where Green was staying) was surrounded by police. After this incident he was sent to a psychiatric institution in London.
In 1979 Green began to re-emerge professionally. With the help of his brother Michael he was signed to Peter Vernon-Kell's PVK label. He made an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac's double-LP Tusk
Tusk (album)
Tusk is the 12th album by the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1979, it is considered experimental, primarily due to Lindsey Buckingham's sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of punk rock and New Wave on his production techniques...
, released that year.
In 1981, he contributed to "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Super Brains" on Mick Fleetwood
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...
's solo album The Visitor
The Visitor (Mick Fleetwood album)
The Visitor is an album by Mick Fleetwood and was released on the RCA Records label in 1981. All the songs were recorded in Accra, Ghana, West Africa, between January and February 1981 at the Ghana Film Industries, Inc...
. He recorded various sessions with a number of other musicians notably the Katmandu
Katmandu (band)
Katmandu were a shortlived British blues band, formed in 1983, featuring Peter Green, Ray Dorset and Vincent Crane. After releasing one album, the group split the following year.-Formation:...
album A Case for the Blues
A Case for the Blues
-Credits:*Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums*Ray Dorset – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica*Vincent Crane – keyboards*Len Surtees – bass guitar*Greg Terry-Short – drums*Jeff Whittaker – vocals, percussion, drums...
with Ray Dorset
Ray Dorset
Ray Dorset is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founder of Mungo Jerry...
(Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry is an English rock group whose greatest success was in the early 1970s, though they have continued throughout the years with an ever-changing line-up, always fronted by Ray Dorset. They are remembered above all for their hit "In the Summertime". It remains their most successful and most...
), Vincent Crane
Vincent Crane
Vincent Crane was a self-taught pianist, who studied theory and composition at Trinity College of Music, and graduated in 1964...
(The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...
) and Len Surtees (The Nashville Teens
The Nashville Teens
The Nashville Teens are a British pop band formed in Weybridge, Surrey in Summer 1962.-History:Arthur Sharp began his career in music as the manager of Aerco Records in Woking, Surrey...
). Despite some attempts by Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
to start talks about producing a Peter Green signature Les Paul guitar, his instrument of choice at this time was a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion. In recent years Green has often been seen playing this guitar at live performances.
Peter Green Splinter Group
A late 1990s comeback saw Green form the Peter Green Splinter GroupPeter Green Splinter Group
The Peter Green Splinter Group were a band led by the blues guitarist and singer, Peter Green.Green was the leader of Fleetwood Mac until he suffered a mental breakdown during the 1970s. He was rehabilitated with the aid of Nigel Watson, the late Cozy Powell and other friends, and then began...
, with the assistance of fellow musicians including Nigel Watson
Nigel Watson (musician)
Nigel Watson is a British blues-rock guitarist best known for his work with ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.-Career:After Green left Fleetwood Mac in 1970, he worked with Watson on two solo singles, "Heavy Heart" and "Beasts of Burden", the latter being credited to both musicians...
and Cozy Powell
Cozy Powell
Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...
. The Splinter Group released nine albums between 1997 and 2004. It was in the latter part of this period that he began to play his ebony coloured Gibson Les Paul guitar again. Green signed and sold this guitar, which had been tweaked
Tweaking
Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system....
to sound similar to his green burst model of the same guitar and is now owned by a UK guitar enthusiast.
Early in 2004, a tour was cancelled and the recording of a new studio album stopped, when Green left the band and moved to Sweden. Shortly thereafter he joined The British Blues All Stars, for a tour scheduled for the next year. However, this tour was cancelled after the death of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith
Dick Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
. At the time, Green stated that the medication he was taking to treat his psychological problems was making it hard for him to concentrate and sapped his desire to play guitar.
In February 2009 he began playing and touring again, this time with Peter Green and Friends
Peter Green and Friends
Peter Green and Friends is the name of a touring band of musicians led by Fleetwood Mac founder, singer and guitarist Peter Green.-History:The group was formed in 2009, after Green had been out of the limelight for several years, having previously toured with the Peter Green Splinter Group. They...
. In May 2009 he was the subject for the BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
documentary "Peter Green: Man of the World", produced by Henry Hadaway
HHO Multimedia
HHO Multimedia, headquartered in Great Britain, where it has operated for forty years, is the largest independent licensor of audio and visual material in the world. Originally the Henry Hadaway Organization, HHO Multimedia now has operations in Europe, Australasia and North America...
. Green and the band subsequently played a tour of Ireland, Germany and England. The band has gone on to play several dates in Australia in March 2010, including the Byron Bay Bluesfest
East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival
The East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, also known as Byron Bay Bluesfest, is an annual music festival held for five days over the Easter long weekend at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia...
. The band were supported by Andrew Morris (singer-songwriter)
Andrew Morris (singer-songwriter)
Andrew Morris is a singer-songwriter and composer from Surbiton, EnglandOften performing as a solo artist he also has a backing band. His band comprises drummer Phillipe Castermane, Bassist Daniel Seddon, pedal steel guitar player Steve Honest and keyboard player Matthew...
on several of their UK tour dates in December 2009 and March 2010.
Green remains ambivalent about his songwriting success and more recently stated to Guitar Player magazine:
Playing style
Green has been praised for his swinging shuffle grooves and soulful phrases and favoured the minor mode and its darker blues implications. His distinct tone can be heard on "The Super-Natural", an instrumental written by Green for John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers' 1967 album A Hard RoadA Hard Road
A Hard Road is a 1967 electric blues album recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers featuring Peter Green on lead guitar, John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh...
. This song demonstrates Green's control of harmonic feedback. The sound 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.
Equipment
Early in his career he played a Harmony MeteorHarmony Company
thumb|right|250px|A collection of Harmony guitars:SS Stewart gold acoustic, H73 [[Roy Smeck]], H37 Hollywood, Silvertone 1446, H44 StratotoneThe Harmony Company was an American company that, in its heyday, was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the USA...
, a cheap hollow-body guitar, but quickly started playing a Les Paul with The Bluesbreakers and Green's guitar was often referred to as his "magic guitar". In 2000 he told Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine : "I never had a magic one. Mine wasn't magic...It just barely worked.". In part, his unique tone derived from a modification to the neck pickup
Pickup (music technology)
A pickup device is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar, Chapman Stick, or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal that is amplified, recorded, or broadcast.-...
which was reversed and rewired, a modification made after 1967. On stage with Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, he used an Orange amplifier without any effects. However, there is concert footage of the band standing in front of a wall of Fender
Fender
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to as simply Fender, of Scottsdale, Arizona is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster...
amplifiers, which appear to be Dual Showman Reverb heads with the matching two by fifteen cabinets.
In the 1990s he played a 1960s Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
and his Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion with a Fender Blues DeVille
Fender Amplifiers
Fender Amplifiers have a long history. Leo Fender began building guitar amps before he started manufacturing guitars. The first of these amps were the K&F models, which were produced between 1945 and 1946...
and a Vox AC30
Vox AC30
The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox and known for its "jangly" high-end sound. First introduced in 1958 due to the growing demand for higher-wattage amplifiers, it became an iconic amplifier for British musicians and soon for others....
amplifier.
The modification on the neck pickup was the reversal of one of the magnets,which put it out of phase.
Influence
Many rock guitarists have cited Peter Green as an influence, most notably Gary MooreGary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
guitarist Joe Perry
Joe Perry (musician)
Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...
, Steve Hackett
Steve Hackett
Stephen Richard Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career...
, and Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular records included Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub , and New England...
guitarist Andy Powell
Andy Powell
Andy Powell is an English guitarist and songwriter, and best known as a founding member of Wishbone Ash.-Early life and career:...
.
Green was Black Crowes' Rich Robinson's pick in Guitar World's "30 on 30: The Greatest Guitarists Picked by the Greatest Guitarists" (2010) In the same article Robinson cites Jimmy Page, with whom the Crowes toured: "...he told us so many Peter Green stories. It was clear that Jimmy loves the man’s talent."
In an interview with Dan Forte from Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
magazine, which was reprinted in Guitar Legends in 1993, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
acknowledged Green's skills as a guitar player when recalling a chance meeting with him in the mid 1980s:
In an interview with Guitar Player in 2000, Green acknowledged Clapton's influence, stating
Personal life
Green was born into a Jewish family, the youngest of Joe and Ann Greenbaum's four children. His brother Michael taught him his first guitar chords, and by age 11 Peter was teaching himself, going on to begin playing professionally at 15.Enduring periods of mental illness and destitution throughout the 1970s and 1980s, punctuated by efforts at comeback, in 1991/92 he moved in with his eldest brother Len and his wife Gloria, and his mother in their house in Great Yarmouth, where a process of recovery began.
He married Jane Samuels in January 1978; the couple divorced in 1979. They have a daughter, Rosebud Samuels-Greenbaum (born 1978).
Further reading
- Bacon, Tony. Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. Portable (2006). ISBN 978-159223-053-2
- Celmins, Martin. Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac. Castle (1995). ISBN 1-898141-13-4
- Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Guinness (1992). ISBN 978-188226-702-6