Peter Green died last night, aged 73.
A founder member of Fleetwood Mac, a band I was privileged to see play live twice, Peter was by anyone's rating one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era, who crossed over from blues to more mainstream popular music. Amazingly for the time, he brought a lot of his dyed-in-the-wool blues fans with him.
The blues ran through his veins but he seemed to yearn to broaden his musical horizons and wanted to step back from his front-man role in what was then "Peter Green's FleetwoodMac" by bringing on board slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and young blues phenomenon "Little" Danny Kirwan. This is the band I heard. Tragically both Jeremy and Danny predeceased Peter, each allegedly dying homeless and penniless and active alcoholics.
Peter had a remarkable singing voice and astoundingly, listening to early recordings, he and Rory Gallagher sounded very alike.. I would venture to suggest that singing blues standards, you'd be hard put at times to tell them apart..
Much abused terms in these superlative dripping times, RIP Peter, a legendary figure and a true superstar. Sleep well and may the ghosts that haunted you in life leave you forever at peace.
A founder member of Fleetwood Mac, a band I was privileged to see play live twice, Peter was by anyone's rating one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era, who crossed over from blues to more mainstream popular music. Amazingly for the time, he brought a lot of his dyed-in-the-wool blues fans with him.
The blues ran through his veins but he seemed to yearn to broaden his musical horizons and wanted to step back from his front-man role in what was then "Peter Green's FleetwoodMac" by bringing on board slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and young blues phenomenon "Little" Danny Kirwan. This is the band I heard. Tragically both Jeremy and Danny predeceased Peter, each allegedly dying homeless and penniless and active alcoholics.
Peter had a remarkable singing voice and astoundingly, listening to early recordings, he and Rory Gallagher sounded very alike.. I would venture to suggest that singing blues standards, you'd be hard put at times to tell them apart..
Much abused terms in these superlative dripping times, RIP Peter, a legendary figure and a true superstar. Sleep well and may the ghosts that haunted you in life leave you forever at peace.