Peter Green (musician)
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| Peter Green | |
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 Peter Green in concert with Fleetwood Mac, 1969.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Peter Allen Greenbaum |
| Born | 29 October 1946 in Bethnal Green, London |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Blues-rock, blues, rock, hard rock |
| Occupations | Guitarist |
| Instruments | Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica |
| Years active | 1966 - present |
| Labels | Epic Reprise PVK Creole |
| Associated acts | John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers Fleetwood Mac Peter Green Splinter Group Gass |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul Fender Stratocaster Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion |
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Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, 29 October 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac.
A major figure and bandleader in the "second great epoch"[1] 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." [2] [3] Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page have both lauded his guitar playing as well. Green's playing was marked with "idiomatic string bending and vibrato[1] and economy of style. Though he played other guitars, he is best known for deriving a unique tone from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul. [3] [4]
Green was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."[5] His tone on the seminal song "The Super-Natural" was hailed as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player.[6]
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[edit] Biography
[edit] 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. In an interview with Guitar Player in 2000, Green acknowledged Clapton's influence, stating "I followed him to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. I loved his playing. At the time he did everything on a Telecaster. It sounded absolutely fabulous."
Green made his full album debut with the Bluesbreakers with A Hard Road. It 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. Like Clapton, whose playing inspired the "Clapton is God" graffiti around London during his time with the Bluesbreakers, Green would earn the nickname "The Green God" for his interpretation of the blues.
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).
[edit] 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 comprised Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, both of whom, like Green, had played most recently in Mayall's band. Initially this was a straight-up blues-rock band playing blues classics and some original material, but in the mid 1970s the band topped the charts with mainstream pop/rock. Green wrote "Black Magic Woman", which was later covered by Santana. Green was the leader of the group throughout its initial period of success in the late 1960s, with hits including "Oh Well", "Man of the World", "The Green Manalishi" and the #1 British chart hit "Albatross". Green remains ambivalent about his songwriting success, telling Guitar Player "Oh, I was never really a songwriter. I was very lucky to get those hits. I shouldn't have been distracted from my fascination with the blues... I have been known to come up with the odd bit, but I'm not all that wild about the big composer credit."
Following the release of "Albatross" and his consequent fame, Green struggled with success and the spotlight. His personality changed drastically after incidences of LSD abuse: he began wearing a robe, grew a beard, and wore a crucifix on his chest. His abuse of LSD may have incited his schizophrenia.[citation needed] While touring Europe, Green binged on LSD in Munich. In his own words: "I went on a trip, and never came back."[citation needed]
Communard Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier met Green in Munich, where they invited him to their "High-Fish-Commune", but their real intention was for Green to contact Mick Taylor, with the aim of organizing a "Bavarian Woodstock", and trying to arrange for Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to perform as the leading acts for the festival. Langhans and Obermaier persuaded Green to contact the Rolling Stones via Mick Taylor.[citation needed]
Green quit Fleetwood Mac in 1970, performing his final show as a member on 20 May 1970. He recorded a jam session and released it as the album The End of the Game and faded into obscurity, taking on a succession of menial jobs. During this period Green sold his trademark 1959 Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard to Irish guitarist Gary Moore and recorded with Bobby Tench's band Gass on their eponymous album.[7]
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". He also appears on the track "Brown Eyes" from 1979's Tusk.
[edit] Illness and first re-emergence
Green was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental illness commonly characterised by hallucinations and paranoia, and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals undergoing electroconvulsive therapy in the mid-1970s. Many sources attest to his lethargic, trancelike state during this period.[8] 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.[9] After this incident he was sent to a psychiatric institution in London. He re-emerged as a recording artist with PVK Records in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Green suffered a relapse in 1984 and effectively lived the life of a tramp-like recluse for six years until he was rescued by his brother Len and his wife, going to live with them in Great Yarmouth and regaining some of his former health and strength.[10]
[edit] Resurgence
Apart from his solo work in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he contributed to "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Super Brains" on Mick Fleetwood's solo album, The Visitor, and recorded various sessions with a number of other musicians. Despite some attempts by Gibson at a German trade show to start talks about producing a Peter Green signature Les Paul, Peter's instrument of choice at this time was in fact a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion (a semi-hollow guitar first made in 1979 for jazz guitarist Howard Roberts[11]), very often seen accompanying him on stage in recent years.[citation needed]
A late 1990s comeback saw Green form the Peter Green Splinter Group, 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 picked up a black Gibson Les Paul again. Green signed and sold this Les Paul, which had been tweaked for Peter to sound like the famous 'green burst' and is now owned by a UK enthusiast.[12]
A tour was cancelled and recording of a new studio album stopped in early 2004, when Green left the band and moved to Sweden.[citation needed] Shortly thereafter he joined The British Blues All Stars, but their tour in 2005 was also cancelled after the death of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith. At the time, Green said that the medication he takes to treat his psychological problems was making it hard for him to concentrate and sapped his desire to pick up a guitar.[citation needed]
Green, with a new band "Peter Green and Friends", began playing concerts again in February 2009.[citation needed] He was the subject of the BBC 4 documentary Peter Green: Man of the World, produced by British music impresario Henry Hadaway and broadcast in May 2009. Green and the band subsequently played a tour of Ireland and are currently (late 2009) playing dates in Germany and England.
[edit] Style, tone, and instruments
Green is praised for his "swinging shuffle grooves" and "soulful phrases," and favored "the minor mode and its darker blues implications."[1]
His trademark tone is exemplified on "The Super-Natural," an instrumental Green composition on the second John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers record, A Hard Road (1967). Played on the 1959 Les Paul sunburst, the song shows off Green's "uncanny control of harmonic feedback."[1] The sound is characterized by "shivering vibrato and clean, cutting tones," and a "series of 10-second sustained notes"; "to this day, these haunting tones define controlled feedback on a Les Paul."[6]
Early in his career he played a Harmony Meteor, a cheap hollow-body guitar, but quickly started playing a Les Paul with the Bluesbreakers. The Les Paul came to be referred to as Green's "magic guitar" but Green told Guitar Player in 2000 that "I never had a magic one. Mine wasn't magic...It just barely worked."[citation needed] 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. When he returned in the 1990s he played a 1960s Fender Stratocaster and the aforementioned Gibson Howard Fusion; his on-stage amplifiers are a Fender Blues DeVille and a Vox AC30.[1]
Many rock guitarists have cited Peter Green as an influence, most notably Gary Moore, [13][14] Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry [15] and Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell. [16]
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Marshall, Wolf (September 2007). "Peter Green: The Blues of Greeny". Vintage Guitar magazine 21 (11): 96-100.
- ^ "Fleetwood Mac • Peter Green • The Band • The Music • The Legacy". http://www.fleetwoodmac.org/peter-green.php. Retrieved 23 Sept.,2009.
- ^ a b "15 Iconic Les Paul Players". http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/15-Iconic-Les-Paul-Players. Retrieved 23 Sept., 2009.
- ^ Bacon, Tony (2006). Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. Portable. p. 124. ISBN 978-1592230532.
- ^ "38: Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac". The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937559/the_100_greatest_guitarists_of_all_time/24. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
- ^ a b Blackett, Matt (October 2004). "The 50 Greatest Tones of All Time". Guitar Player 38 (10): 44-66.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Guinness. p. 947. ISBN 9781882267026.
- ^ Celmins, Martin (1995). Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac. Castle. pp. 143. ISBN 1-898141-13-4.
- ^ Celmins, Martin (1995). Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac. Castle. pp. 145. ISBN 1-898141-13-4.
- ^ Celmins, Martin (1995). Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac. Castle. pp. 169. ISBN 1-898141-13-4.
- ^ "1996 Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion". Archtop Guitars. http://www.archtop.com/ac_96hrf.html. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ www.vintageaxeman.com
- ^ http://www.watchmojo.com/music/rock/guitarists/gary_moore.htm Gary Moore Biography
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Moore#Connection_with_Peter_Green Wikipedia: Gary Moore
- ^ http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/Joe-Perry/biography Joe Perry Biography
- ^ http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/andy-powell-id-do-a-wishbone-ash-reunion/ Classic Rock Magazine: Andy Powell Interview
[edit] External links
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