by Robert Wilkinson
October 29th was the birthday of one of the greatest guitar heroes of all time, the legendary Peter Green. This guitar genius founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 and wrote some of the most haunting songs ever recorded, including "The Supernatural," "Black Magic Woman," "Oh Well," and the amazing "Green Manalishi." Today we launch our concert early, so enjoy these great videos celebrating the birthday of this Master of electric blues!
Peter Green (29 October 1946 - 25 July 2020) is the blues player about whom the legendary BB King said, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." No small praise from one of the greatest blues guitarists in history! Another from the great BB: "Peter Green has more talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body." John Mayall, who immediately hired Peter after Clapton split, said Peter was better than Eric. Some backstory:
Peter Green replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and recorded the early Mayall masterwork A Hard Road. He then went on to found Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac with other alumni of Mayall's English blues incubator. This was a different Fleetwood Mac than most know, since they were the height of hard core British electric blues, and not the pop rock and roll group of the mid-70s.With 3 guitars including Danny Kirwin and the amazing slide work of Jeremy Spenser they forged an entirely different sound altogether. The band was (and are) considered one of the greatest electric blues band ever to come out of the UK. In 1969 Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac sold more records in Great Britain than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Yes, they were THAT good!
I had the incredible experience of seeing Peter play in Austin in December 1969 when Fleetwood Mac opened for Jethro Tull on the latter's Stand Up tour, complete with wildman Ian Anderson leaping on stage high kicking in his chequered coat complete with long tails.
It was truly one of the most amazing concerts I've ever seen. That night, Peter was a very long hairy creature in a long white robe, looking like some kind of ancient biblican figure playing a screaming version of electric blues-rock that was stunning in its impact.
For a time I considered Peter the ONLY guitarist who could stand equal to Jimi. As I've shared in years past, I almost wound up on the road with him. I went to Germany and London in the Summer of 1969. My parents had been there a few months before, and given me the name of a guy they'd met who ran a taxi service and "had something to do with the music business."
After my boat-train to London was delayed - can't remember why - I finally got to his flat. He wasn't there but several of his friends were and they let me in to wait for his return. When he came back, I found out he was Fleetwood Mac's manager, and they had been looking for a road manager for their Autumn 1969 US tour!
My jaw dropped, and I asked him if they still needed one. He said, yes, but they had left about two hours earlier to catch the plane to the US. So the train delay prevented me from becoming Fleetwood Mac's road manager for that 1969 tour! I suppose it was all for the best, since Peter melted down on that tour, and I improbably wound up in Austin, Texas via one of my many Twilight Zone experiences. Sometimes destiny seems to work its magic in some very strange ways!
He checked out 4 years ago, and I felt like I lost a friend. I’ve known his music for over 56 years, and it’s still as good today as it was then. His tone was unique, his playing was awesome, and he’s one of the best of all. For your enjoyment, the quintessential guitar playing of Peter Green!
This one is GREAT dancing music! We’ll begin our celebration with an awesome performance of Fleetwood Mac doing an infinitely danceable delivery of the Otis Rush classic "Homework" from 1968 in France. Very kinetic!
From the same show, "My Baby Sweet" ("My Baby's Good to Me") and "Please Find My Baby" (written by Elmore James, it's a reworked version of his legendary "Dust My Broom." The slide work is magnificent!)
Here's an 11 minute clip of the entire performance! Fleetwood Mac Live in Paris New Year's Eve 1968
Here are even more great live performances from one of the greatest blues bands in history. Enjoy!
An historic live show of "Rattlesnake Shake" by Peter and Fleetwood Mac at the Playboy Club probably late 1969. (Hef's sounding erudite!)
Another great live performance of "Rattlesnake Shake" in Helsinki, 14 Sept. 1969.
Since this clip and the next one share the same host, this performance must be from the BBC Monster Music Mash, probably recorded in late 1967 or early 1968 since they were still a 4 piece outfit. For your enjoyment, some hard electric blues! "Heart Beats like a Hammer" & "Shake your Money Maker"
A truly great live delivery of the legendary "Oh Well" from the BBC Monster Music Mash in 1969. Here’s another version of ”Oh Well”
A good live performance of "Need Your Love So Bad" probably also from Spring or Summer 1968 since they were still a 4 piece outfit.
We finish out the performance videos with a few more Fleetwood Mac live performances from the late 1960s,
Last year I had the full 2 hour audio-only clip of FM at the Carousel Ballroom in 1968, but it’s disappeared. However, I did find this link to their first set there, which autoloads 9 more from that show. For your enjoyment, 10 videos adding up to about an hour of Fleetwood Mac Live at the Carousel Ballroom in 1968
From September 1968 at the Bank Holiday Bluesology Festival in England, "Shake Your Moneymaker"
Undated, probably late 1968 or early 1969. "Shake Your Moneymaker"
From Oslo in 1969, "Like It This Way" This year I found the entire 19 minute video! For your enjoyment, Fleetwood Mac Live in Norway – November 1969 (Set list: “I’m Worried,” “Like it This Way,” “The World Keep on Turning,” “Rattlesnake Shake.”)
From 1969, a “live in the studio” version of "Albatross"
A great live video of Fleetwood Mac doing Danny Kirwin's "Like Crying" in 1969.
Their performance of “Albatross” From the 1969 Essen Pop & Blues Festival has disappeared.
From 1969 on Top of the Pops a smoking version of part 1 of the amazing "Oh Well"
The 1970 Top of the Pops television performance of “Albatross” is nowhere to be found this year.
4 minutes of live Fleetwood Mac.
We finish this section of live performances by the original band with a 43 minute compilation. I’ve given you most of these as single clips already, but if you want to put it on and not have to shift gears after every song, enjoy! Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mack 1968-1970
This year a new album of outtakes from this period surfaced. For your enjoyment, from The Vaudeville Years, here’s a 17 minute clip of “Madge Session #1”
As we move into his solo years, this year I found a BBC video from 1971 of Peter performing “Heavy Heart” released just after his first solo album in 1970, The End of the Game
It took 7 years before he recorded his next album, and two more years after that to release it. From the 1977-79 period, here’s In the Skies
From December 1982, the entire 51 minute Kolors performance on the German TV show Rockpalast featuring "Peter Greenbaum" (his true name) at the Markthalle, Hamburg. for your enjoyment, Kolors featuring Peter Green at the Rockpalast.
If you don't have time to view the entire show, here's the opening number, a reggae influenced version of Peter doing "Black Magic Woman."
After many years in the proverbial desert, Peter came back to create the Peter Green Splinter Group. Though much different than Fleetwood Mac, and his voice suffered from many years of not performing, they're definitely worth checking out!
This one's really good! From Germany in 1998, here's the Peter Green Splinter Group performing an incredibly beautiful live version of his first classic, The Supernatural.
We continue that show with the Splinter Group doing another of Peter's major hits from his Fleetwood Mac days, a song that inspired Carlos Santana to do his own hit version, "Black Magic Woman."
We’ll close that 1998 show with the Peter Green Splinter Group performing his last masterwork, "The Green Manalishi."
From Poland in 1996, here's Peter and the Splinter Group doing "The Green Manalishi." I found several more fantastic versions of this harrowing self-confessional as done by the original group. They’re at the end of the article.
For your enjoyment, from Amsterdam in 2009, another version of Peter Green and friends doing "Black Magic Woman."
Live in 2009 from Hamburg, Peter Green doing his version of the BB King classic, "The Thrill is Gone."
Here's Peter and friends doing the awesome "Oh Well." at the Bluesgarage in 2009. Here's Peter and friends doing "Oh Well" and "Albatross" at the Cornbury Festival 2009. From the same festival, here's more. Here's even more.
From Cork in May 2010, Peter Green and Friends doing a great live performance! I found a few clips, so please enjoy these, since it's pretty much his latest work. Here's the opener, "Pretty Woman." (No, it's not the Roy Orbison song!)
Here they are doing Peter's song on Mayall's Hard Road album, "The Stumble."
We close this set with "Sitting In the Rain / Black Magic Woman"
I found it again! Here’s the great live 1 hour 22 minute audio only performance called Peter Green & Splinter Group – The Soho Session 1998
Here’s a 1 hour 40 minute album titled Peter Green Splinter Group – Reaching the Cold 100
Their live 1 hour 37 minute video of Peter and the Splinter Group in Vancouver 1998 is still gone, but I found these individual clips of the whole show!
Peter Green Live in Vancouver 1998 – Pt. 1
Peter Green Live in Vancouver 1998 – Pt. 2
Peter Green Live in Vancouver 1998 – Pt. 3
Peter Green Live in Vancouver 1998 – Pt. 4
Peter Green Live in Vancouver 1998 – Pt. 5
Here’s another great 58 minute audio-only broadcast in Germany in 1998, titled Cells Alive! - Peter Green and the Splinter Group Live on SFW 3
We now go back to his early career with a bunch of great audio tracks from the 60s, some live!
Here's the original album version of the first song of his I heard, Peter's soaring 1967 composition, "The Supernatural" featuring Peter playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Whether the version above or this one, it's still an extraordinarily haunting blues piece that's consistently voted as one of the best songs of all time!
All these come from the same 1967 album, Hard Road. Here's a surrealistic well done video set to Peter playing his composition "Evil Woman Blues." We follow with Peter playing the JB Lenoir tune, "Alabama Blues," Otis Rush's "Double Trouble," John Mayall's "Another Kind of Love, and the great Marshall Paul blues number, "So Many Roads."
Here's a bit of mastery at a live 1967 show! Peter, John, and the Bluesbreakers doing Freddie King's "The Stumble."
In 1967, after the Bluesbreakers and before Fleetwood Mac, Peter was the lead guitar for a very early incarnation of the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. In case you don’t know who that pioneering blues group was, it included Rod Stewart on vocals, Jack Bruce on bass, and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. Here these 4 legends give us the very bloooozy “Stone Crazy.”
From the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac when it was still a 4 piece band, here’s a November 1967 “Peel Session” recording of the great Elmore James' "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" aka “Dust My Broom”
The legendary Robert Johnson number, "Sweet Home Chicago."
In January 1969, Fleetwood Mac went to the Chess Records studio in Chicago to play with some of the blues greats of all time. Live in the studio, here's Otis Spann and Peter Green doing "Temperature’s Rising." Here they are doing two more, "She's Out of Sight" and "Someday Soon Baby." From the same session, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” and “It Was A Big Thing.” We’ll close this blues duet with "My Love Depends on You."
Here's Fleetwood Mac and blues legend Eddie Boyd doing "Night Time Is The Right Time," followed by "You Are My Love." We now move into 4 greats! First, “Just The Blues," followed by “Too Bad” and “You Got To Reap.” We'll close this brief set with “She’s Real”
This is one of the two albums which came out of that session. Blues Jam in Chicago, Volumes 1 & 2 has entirely different tunes. For your enjoyment, Blues Jam in Chicago, Volumes 1 & 2
I gave you a link to 10 clips of this great live 1968 show without Danny Kirwin in its entirety earlier. If you just want a few pieces, here’s Fleetwood Mac live at the Carousel Ballroom in SF giving us 10+ minutes of an a “Untitled Instrumental.” From the same gig, another 10+ minutes of “Worried Dream.” We’ll close with another from that gig, “Have You Ever Loved A Woman”
Last year I had one clip with 3 tunes from January 1969 live in Southern California, but it’s gone. Instead I found these, which I suspect is that January 1969 SoCal show. From Shrine 69,
“Before the Beginning” “Lemon Squeezer” “Rollin’ Man”Here’s a full hour and 11 from SF in 1969! Fleetwood Mac Live at the Fillmore West 1969
Live at the Fillmore East in 1970, "Stop Messing Around."
In past years I had the full 2 hour and 21 show, but all the clips except this one have disappeared b/c of copyright issues. This is a great audio-only one hour offering of that classic show! From late January 1970, gripping electric blues from the very first note! Fleetwood Mac - Live At The Warehouse New Orleans 1970.
The week after they played N’Awlins, Fleetwood Mac played at the Boston Tea Party in early February 1970. There are several versions out there of the show. We’ll begin with the only video I found, supposedly from that show, a fantastic performance of the iconic "Black Magic Woman."
The rest is audio-only, This one isn’t on the album version just below this section. Though not written by Peter, this song is still a great piece of work. Here's a great version that's totally instrumental! "Coming Your Way" from Live in Boston at the Tea Party. From the same Boston concert, "Jumping At Shadows.”
These two are supposedly a complete version of Fleetwood Mac live at the Boston Tea Party! Fleetwood Mac – Boston Blues – Disc 1 (56 min.) and Fleetwood Mac at the Boston Tea Party – Disc 2 (53 min.)
Last year I had their 1 hour 20 show from March 1970 in L’Olympia in Paris, but it’s disappeared. So instead, here’s 34 minutes of Fleetwood Mac Live at the Paris Cinema April 1970
Here are audios of a concert in Stockholm on my birthday, 1970! These are some great versions!! For your listening pleasure, "Coming Your Way," and "Loving Kind," and then we go to "Albatross."
We pick it up with “The Letter” and close with “Got A Mind To Give Up Living”
Here’s an entire audio-only live show! From the Roundhouse Chalk Farm on April 24, 1970, here's Peter's hauntingly beautiful composition "Before the Beginning." From the same show, "Underway," "Coming Your Way" and "Rattlesnake Shake."
Here are a few more early Fleetwood Mac songs showcasing Peter's guitar mastery:
The original studio version of "Albatross."
Here's a live audio from Jan 1970 in New Orleans of "Albatross."
A great live audio version from 1970 London of "Black Magic Woman."
From Then Play On, the original studio version of "Before the Beginning"
From the 1968 album English Rose, the studio version of Jigsaw Blues by Danny Kirwin.
For the closer to this set of sets, here’s a rare find! 47 minutes of Peter playing lead for John Mayall in this live show from June 1970.
John Mayall with Peter Green performing at the Bath Festival Of Blues And Progressive Music
And now the encore! For your enjoyment, several takes of Peter’s harrowing masterpiece, "The Green Manalishi (with the two pronged crown)," which was its original title.
Here’s a great live performance video from Sweden in 1970 of "The Green Manalishi"
Here’s another live version from the “Boston Tea Party” in 1970 of The Green Manalishi.
Here's the studio version of The Green Manalishi.
Here’s an extraordinary audio-only 16 minute live performance from 1970 of the Green Manalishi where his guitar work is unbelievable! “Green Manalishi”
From there we go to this 12 minute audio-only live performance from New Orleans in 1970 of "The Green Manalishi," and from that same 1970 tour, here they are at the Chalk Farm doing a 14+ minute version of “Green Manalishi" His guitar work is incredible, so definitely check this out if you want to hear some of the best blues guitar ever played!
A couple of years ago I had a great 2 hour 22 compilation of a bunch of unreleased studio work, as well as live sessions and other great material titled Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac – Jumping the Shadows The Blues Years but it’s still not available. However, I found two songs from that album.
“Mind of my Own” and "Uranus.”
For our final musical shows, I have two great albums by the Splinter Group. First, a great 46 minute compilation by the Peter Green Splinter Group titled Peter Green – The Robert Johnson Songbook
Second, a new addition which is great! In 2000, Peter Green and John Mayall did a show together at Symphony Hall in Birmingham which was broadcast on BBC2. It’s a 50 minute “official bootleg” gem which cranks from the first note. This one’s really good! Peter Green & John Mayall - BBC2 Radio (2000) Bootleg
For a brief encore, here’s the original studio version of “Man of the World” For the second encore, here's his 2002 release with the Splinter Group, "Feeling Good"
To find out more about this remarkable band, here's a brief piece from a documentary on Fleetwood Mac: Crazy Fleetwood Mac
This year a new version of this title track popped up. Here’s an amazing 15 minute documentary called "Fleetwood Mac – The Early Years”
Two years ago I had a one hour documentary outlining the history of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, but it’s been pulled, as have all 10 parts previously available. Best of luck next year!
Here’s an extraordinarily touching 13 minute documentary homage to one who the narrator believes is “criminally underrated when people talk about the greatest players of all time.” It was done right after Peter died, and I completely agree that he in fact was one of the greatest of all time. Worth a look, since it gives insights into his background and character and what happened to him.
If Guitars Could Speak #10 – The Life of Peter Green
This year I found a 25 minute UK documentary from 1997 titled Peter Green 1997 Documentary – Neil Rawles
Every so often I find a great 90 minute documentary called Peter Green – Man of the World, in one clip or more, but it’s nowhere to be found this year. Better luck next year!
This is new. If you want a tight 8 minutes on the “infamous LSD party” where Peter flew a little too high, here’s The Munich LSD Party incident And I found this which offers 33 minutes on The Madness of Peter Green – (The Munich Story Explained)
Peter, thanks for showing us all how magical a guitar can be in the right hands! Even though the world lost your body, the Soul of your music will “then play on.” May many more generations find the electric magic of a guitar played by a Master. Infinite gratitude from your countless fans! You were an awesome musician. May you find peace, Blues Master.
Copyright © 2024 Robert Wilkinson
Comments