Peter Green (1946 - 2020)

Peter Green is not an artist/guitarist that I gave much thought to over the past decades. Looking back it is shocking to notice how short the man's career really was: 1968 - 1970. After that it was basically over. But what an enormous legacy. Several of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac hit singles are hits for eternity. With my current hobby/cover band we play two of his Fleetwood Mac's songs: 'Need Your Love So Bad' and 'Black Magic Woman'. Just like the band I was in before that.

I'm someone who can say that I did and did not know Fleetwood Mac's first single at the time. The song became a hit twice within a year's time and I can't remember it from 1968 but do from 1969. My first conscious single was the instrumental 'Albatross' that climbed the Top 40 early in 1969. 'Oh, Well, Part 1' was the first Alarmschijf and the band's number 1 hit in The Netherlands. To me the song still sounds so great. The final hit was 'The Green Manalishi', although I'm sure I only got to get to know the song a few years later.

At the time I'm sure I did not know who Peter Green was, really. The blues was not really for me as a boy. Despite the fact that most of the band's singles are in my possession today, they never inspired me to delve in deeper. Hence I do not own a single album of Fleetwood Mac's first (and second) era. In fact, I only got to listen to an old Fleetwood Mac album for the first time just a few weeks ago, coincidentally. I do know that I'm on the look out for 'Mr. Natural' if I see it second hand. The blues and I relate quite well these days. Getting to play 'Need Your Love So Bad' as a lead guitarist is quite satisfying to do. The song was a staple in my high school years, to dance to with the girls in semi-lit conditions, not being able to sleep for hours afterwards. Just to listen to the song still works totally. It is so subtle and full of feeling.

Coming back to that extremely short period of activity of Peter Green (and the other two guitarists of the band Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer). The story of Peter Green losing the way in his head due to excessive LSD (ab)use is well known. The question I can't answer but for always will be asked is, what would have happened had Peter Green been able to continue? For one we may never have heard the great hits with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, but what would Peter Green have been capable of?

To go on the two last hits of Fleetwood Mac with Green, 'Oh, Well' and 'The Green Manalishi', they suggest that Green was able to grow beyond the blues, as he would have had to do as blues was being left behind by bands and audience in 1970/71. 'The Green Manalishi' of course can also be seen as the manifestation of a man who was losing his mind fast. There are not that many songs sounding this haunting/haunted. It may well be Green became to scared of his own writing and had to step away from it. At the same time it is clear that the world missed out on several great songs that may have followed. Someone who can write songs of this quality would most likely have become better at this trade. We will unfortunately never know. It's always is a shame when a talent goes to waste and that certainly happened here.

I own one, maybe even two of his solo records released around 1980, but they do not stand up to what he presented the world with before. The magic was gone. What remains for me is a small oeuvre to discover and I intended to do so soon.

The fact the band continued with the rhythm section and namegivers of the band is also amazing to conclude. Three guitarist leave in a matter of months under ever strangers circumstance. Usually meaning the end. The more amazing it is that Fleetwood Mac soared to even higher peaks in the second half of the 70s. So different and also there forever. Go your own way indeed.

Wo.

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