Wednesday 12 October 2011

Peter Green: Man of the World

(Updated edit: if you came by earlier, you might have noticed the first piece of music was missing. Oops. I blame it on posting too long after bedtime.)

I'm in a bluesy sort of mood, been listening to old blues, Peter Green and Danny Kirwan...
Peter Green  founded Fleetwood Mac. He wanted to start his own band , and recruited Mick Fleetwood and John MacVie, who he'd come to know when he took over Eric Clapton's place in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.



However, this song was almost his last before he left his own band, which later became something else altogether.
The Fleetwood Mac of "Albatross" is Peter Green's, the Fleetwood Mac of "Rumours" is altogether a different creature. Peter Green, unfortunately, was shipwrecked by LSD, he became unreliable, disappeared for days at a time, tried to give all the band's money away, and at the height of his success, left the band, and music altogether.
Recently, he's returned. He doesn't want to be a star, but he still loves the music.

9 comments:

  1. I like Man of the World, but its lyrics are kind of sad .... :(

    xxx

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  2. rdg: The lyrics are indeed sad. Peter Green's story is a strange one.
    But to cut it short, we can simply say that in early 1970, he started tripping on LSD, and his personality changed, he lost his grip on reality, alienated his friends, left the band...
    Then it got really bad.
    He ended up being committed to a mental hospital. He lost almost a decade of his life. He had a daughter, but he hasn't seen her since she was a baby.
    I think 'Man of the World' was prescient, there he was, successful musician, crowd adulation, loads of money, but empty inside.

    He's back making music, but life's still a struggle. Inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, he was characteristically surprised.
    He's played with Hendrix, Santana, Clapton, but he speaks of his own playing very humbly. (Santana's hit,'Black Magic Woman' was a Peter Green song).

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  3. Adullamite: I'm listening to loads of it now... I remember buying "The Green Manalishi' 45, way back... going to friends houses, swapping music, listening to Hendrix, with my friend's mother yelling at us to turn that disgusting racket off!

    Well, she was right, of course. A nice bit of Bach was what we really needed.

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  4. He should have stuck to weed - much healthier!

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  5. hi soubriquet,
    thanks for posting, it's a beautiful song... i missed this guy somehow, i'll have to look up some of his music

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  6. My pals in Fort Worth, Buddy and Mouse. Buddy plays over there in Europe a lot. I don't think this one has me dancin'.
    click here

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  7. like RDG said, too sad. Couldn't listen to it all.

    I remember LSD though, if there are any points for that.

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