Man Of The World: The story of Peter Green, the founder of Fleetwood Mac

Well it is Tuesday everyone, and you know what that means -- it’s time again for you to be enlightened by a Deep In The Grooves music discussion. So last Wednesday, My beautiful girlfriend Marissa celebrated her 17^th birthday, and to show her my love and gratitude, my father and I bought her tickets to see one of her favorite bands of all time, Fleetwood Mac. I’d be rather surprised if you guys are not familiar with Fleetwood Mac, but if the name doesn’t ring a bell, then head over to YouTube and listen to “Landslide” or “Go Your Own Way” and I can guarantee you’ll say to yourself “Ohhhhh, that band”. 

Their music is always on the radio, so even people who are not typically fans of classic rock are quite familiar with their music. But a majority of people associate the band with what fans call “The Nicks-Buckingham era” because band members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were the two primary songwriters in the group when they released their 1977 album “Rumors,” which turned the group into international stars.

Believe it or not my friends, Fleetwood Mac was not always the pop group that we know so well today. They actually began as a little British blues band, founded by a guitarist named Peter Green, the man who this entire post is based around. I’m writing this post about Green for two reasons: He is one of my favorite guitarists of all time and has had an immense impact on me as a guitarist; second, so many people know Fleetwood Mac, but few people know who in the blazes Peter Green is, and that’s exactly what I want to change. Green deserves to be better known because he is one of the greatest men to ever play the blues.

So let me provide you all with the history of Mr. Green’s life.

Peter Greenbaum was born on October 29^th, 1946, in the working class end of London, England. Peter began taking an interest in music at the tender age of 10 when his older brother brought home a crappy little Spanish guitar. Eventually, Green’s brother passed it on to him, and he began to practice religiously. Like every guitarist, Peter started learning generic chords, but he soon started to be highly influenced by blues artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and BB King, and he soon had a dream of becoming a blues musician.

By the age of 15, Peter started playing in several groups with his friends from high school, but it wasn’t until he was 19 that he became serious about his musical career. He joined a group called “Peter B’s Looner’s” for a few years, but also played few gigs with a British blues band called John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers, whenever their lead guitarist was away. You know what’s really cool though? The lead guitarist of the band that Green temporarily substituted for was Eric Clapton, who got his star in The Bluesbreakers, which made him famous in England. But within a few months of Green playing with the Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton left the group for good to form the group that we know now as “Cream,” and Green was instantly filled in as the lead guitarist of the Bluesbreakers. The problem was that fans of the Bluesbreakers were outraged because they wanted to hear Clapton play and not Green. However, soon enough, Green proved that he was a forced to be reckoned with when he recorded an album in 1967 with the Bluesbreakers called “A Hard Road.”  One song on the album, “ The Supernatural,” was an instrumental written by Green that proved that he was one hell of a guitarist, and this was one of the songs that has highly influenced me as a guitarist. Not only that, but Green showed the world he could sing the blues on “The Same Way” so suddenly, the fans who trashed Green at first were gaining respect for him. 

(The first Bluesbreakers album to feature Peter Green)

Green started to form a strong friendship with the rhythm section of the Bluesbreakers, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood and the three of them decided to leave the Bluesbreakers and form their new band “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”. The “Fleetwood” Part obviously came from Mick, while the “Mac” part came from McVie’s last name.  Peter’s name was mentioned at the very beginning, primarily for the fact that he was the singer, lead guitarist, and primary song writer, and that position never changed for him while he was with the group. Green asked for another guitarist, so Mick Fleetwood introduced Green to his friend Jeremy Spencer, who joined the group as well.

The band made its first public appearance on August 13^th, 1967, at the Windsor Jazz and Blues festival, and the audience had an excellent response to their music. By 1968, they had recorded and released their first album titled “Fleetwood Mac,” which peaked at Number 4 on the charts in the UK. Not bad for a first record if you ask me! Overall, I’m a fan of the album; “Long Gray Mare” and “The World Keep On Turning” are some of the greatest songs that the group recorded while with Green. 

(An ad for Fleetwood Mac's performance at the Windsor Blues and Jazz festival) 

(Fleetwood Mac's First Album Cover) 

Later that same year, the group released yet another studio album “Mr. Wonderful” which was an exclusive to the UK.  After the release of this album, Green felt that the group could benefit from yet another guitarist, so they recruited 18 year old Danny Kirwan. Green and Kirwan worked very well together, and during the first few weeks of his arrival, they released singles of the group’s two biggest hits “Albatross” and “Black Magic Women”. With these two new singles as well as some other new material, they released the album “English Rose” in North America, which featured all of the new material at the time, as well as half of the songs from “Mr. Wonderful.” In my opinion, “English Rose” is the quintessential album during Peter Green’s time with Fleetwood Mac; Songs like “Black Magic Women” “Jigsaw Puzzle Blues” “Love That Burns” and “Albatross” had a huge impact on me, and I consider it to be one of my favorite albums of all time.  You may be familiar with Santana’s cover of “Black Magic Women” because it was such a hit, but people often don’t realize that Peter Green was the original writer of the song. 

(The entire original lineup of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) 

For the rest of the decade, Fleetwood Mac released two more albums; “Live in Chicago” which was a compilation album of various groups preforming live, so it doesn’t technically count as their full album, and “Then Play On,” which was quite a popular record. “Then Play On” featured the song “Oh Well” which is considered to be Green’s best song, and it is the only song of Peter Green’s that was covered (and still is covered) By Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

(Peter Green Performing "Oh Well" Live)

But the 60’s came to and end, and the 70’s saw a dark future for the band. Fleetwood Mac had become an extremely popular band in Europe, and everyone knows what comes next after fame -- drugs. Green started to experiment with LSD while the band was playing a show in Munich, Germany, and since he was already mentally unstable to begin with, it greatly affected his mental health. When they returned to England four days later, Green had already began to completely transform. Luckily for Fleetwood Mac fans, Peter managed to record two of his greatest songs before he began to develop Schizophrenia, many say as a result of using too much LSD. The first song is “The Green Manalishi (With the two-prong crown)” which is a reflection of Peter’s final descent into utter insanity, and how he has struggled with the use of drugs. The second being “Man Of The World” which is a beautiful song about Green’s struggle for companionship, and how he seems to have everything in the world but a women to love. In my opinion, these are two of the most important songs recorded by the band during Peter’s era with the band, and I’d highly suggest that you all check them out.

(The original single of "Man of the world") 

Then, the group came tumbling down when Peter made possibly the strangest suggestion that completely outraged the rest of the band. He claimed that he saw an angel that was holding a starving child, and the angel supposedly said that Peter must donate all of his money to charity. Oh I know, the man was crazy at this point, I mean come on! That was the last straw; Peter left the group after the group completely bashed his idea.

Peter did actually continue to play music after he left Fleetwood Mac.  He recorded a few solo albums (which I admit I have not listened to) and he actually appeared on a few Fleetwood Mac through out the 70’s, as well as Mick Fleetwood’s solo album in 1981. In 1990, Peter did began to recreate his musical career when he formed the band “Peter Green’s Splinter Group’’ and they recorded nine albums over the course of the decade. Again, I have not listened to any of this material; I only know Peter through his work as the leader of Fleetwood Mac.

So there you have it guys, the story of the rise and fall of one of the greatest British blues musicians of all time. I hope you all have learned a valuable lesson from Green’s story – don’t do hard drugs! (Not that any of you would). But seriously, it’s tragic how one drug could destroy such a brilliant talent. Peter rarely plays the guitar anymore; he supposedly is on medication that just makes him not want to play at all. So there is a chance that he will never play live again for the rest of his life, which is devastating to fans like me.

Despite Peter’s mental state, his impact on the world of blues music was monumental. Guitarists such as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton have expressed their love for Green, and even legendary guitarist BB King had great things to say about Green: "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Green was also ranked as the #38 on the greatest guitarists of all time in Rolling Stone magazine in 2011, so it just goes to show that he was truly amazing.

(Peter Green and BB King) 

I hope you all feel enlightened enough to go and listen to Peter’s work with Fleetwood Mac. Green has been a huge influence on me as a guitarist, and I am still learning various songs that he wrote in his life such as “Black Magic Women” and “Love That Burns.” I prefer Peter Green’s work with the band as opposed to their pop faze, because his guitar work is so beautiful and influential, and I just love it.  Like I said, one of my favorite albums of all time is “English Rose.” So if you are looking for a place to start, I highly suggest you check that one out. I’m really looking forward to seeing Fleetwood Mac with Marissa on the 26^th of October, but I can’t deny that I will be thinking about Peter Green the entire time as the group plays. It will always be his band in my mind.

Various information found at the following sites:

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/peter.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_(musician)

images found at the following sites:

http://guitarpornography.tumblr.com/post/13492922144/100-favorite-guitarists-87-peter-green-peter

http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-hard-road-mw0000193554

http://www.allmusic.com/album/7th-national-jazz-blues-festival-windsor-aug-1967-plus-live-at-the-marquee-mw0000492356

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac_(1968_album)

http://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/peter-greens-fleetwood-mac/

http://therecordshopnashville.com/orange-rockverb-50-mki/