Peter Green, the best guitarist and bluesman I ever saw live, has died age 73. I have seen quite a few guitarists, the good and the great; John Lee Hooker, Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee, Paul Kossoff, Mick Abrahams, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Tony McPhee, Jimmy Page, Roy Wood and more. Greeny I saw many times, onstage his performing was measured, sensitive and mesmerising.
Peter Green formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. This was the original Fleetwood Mac and within a year had a line up of three talented guitarists: Jeremy Spencer whose forte was rock ‘n’ roll and slide guitar, Danny Kirwan, a younger latecomer whose lighter touch marked the bands gradual progress away from pure blues and Peter Green, whose pure, unadorned lead guitar was at times astounding and his sensitive vocals and song-writing made the band great. He wasn’t bad on the harmonica either.
Peter Alan Greenbaum was born in in 1946 in Stepney, in a council flat just off the Mile End Road. He was the youngest of four, with two older brothers and a sister. In 1948 his father, Joe, changed the whole family’s name to Green, in an attempt to put behind them the flagrant racist and anti-Semitic abuse the family received, it didn’t really help. Peter picked up the guitar age 10 and the family moved from Stepney to Putney, which did help, a bit. He was in his first band by 14, with school friends and left school at 15. He became semi-professional with a dance band, playing bass, while working as a trainee butcher.
A couple of bands later Peter Green joined R ‘n B group the Muskrats and was very much into serious blues. After tuning pro he joined the Looners, an instrumental band who had residences at London clubs became Shotgun Express, with Mick Fleetwood as drummer. His big break, with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, nearly didn’t happen. Eric Clapton had been the star of the John Mayall setup and after he left, Mayall had a rapid series of guitarists who wouldn’t do. Peter received an offer from Eric Burden to join the New Animals at the same time as Mayall offered him the Bluesbreakers. John Mayall was the Godfather of the British blues scene in the 1960’s, nurturing and promoting a number of musicians and he encouraged Peter to write, compose and sing as well as to play guitar. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie also joined soon after. Greeny probably made the right choice.
I saw Peter Green, at Tofts Club in Folkestone, with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, before I even knew who he was, just that he was damn good. Then I saw, and more importantly I heard him several times with Fleetwood Mac, where he was phenomenal, played the blues with a sensitivity like no one else. He was the star even though he never actually wanted to be bandleader or be a star, he just wanted to be in a good band. He was in a great band, but he had other issues. He left Fleetwood Mac in 1970.
Was he, as is usually quoted, another victim of the 1960’s love affair with LSD? Maybe, he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. He gave away most of his royalties and though he carried on playing with other artists for much of the seventies, serious mental health problems left him increasingly Out of Reach for many years.
Lastly I saw him on the ninth of June, 2000 at Sheffield City Hall, in Splinter Group, which was a little too much like a Peter Green Tribute act for comfort, although Greeny, who had not aged well, really seemed to be enjoying himself. Glad I saw that.
RIP Man of the World.
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