Peter Green Has Died

[munchmemory]

Just read that original Fleetwood Mac guitarist, the great Peter Green, passed away at age 73.  RIP.

"Solicitors acting on behalf of his family said in a statement: "It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep.

"A further statement will be provided in the coming days."

Blues rock guitarist Green, from Bethnal Green in east London, formed Fleetwood Mac with drummer Mick Fleetwood in 1967.

Green left the band after a last performance in 1970, as he struggled with his mental health. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in hospital in the mid-70s.

He was among the eight members of the band - along with Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Christine McVie, Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer - who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Paying tribute, Whitesnake's David Coverdale said Green was an artist he "truly loved and admired". In a tweet, he said: "I supported the original Fleetwood Mac at Redcar Jazz Club when I was in a local band... he was a breathtaking singer, guitarist and composer. I know who I will be listening to today. RIP"

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53539989

[munchmemory]

 

[munchmemory]

 

[pdxgreen]

Went to see him play once in a gig featuring John Mayall.  He was trying to make a comeback... but was pretty much done.  And no one ever played better then he could wringing those notes from a Les Paul.  At least not in the rock.  Amazing talent that comes along once in a blue moon.

[munchmemory]

48 minutes ago, pdxgreen said:

Went to see him play once in a gig featuring John Mayall.  He was trying to make a comeback... but was pretty much done.  And no one ever played better then he could ring at wringing those notes from a Les Paul.  At least not in the rock.  Amazing talent that comes along once in a blue moon.

Nice sentiment and very true.    A B.B. King quote about Green says it all and mirrors your comment: "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." 

[munchmemory]

 

[munchmemory]

Fellow Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood said in a statement to Rolling Stone, "For me, and every past and present member of Fleetwood Mac, losing Peter Green is monumental! Peter was the man who started the band Fleetwood Mac along with myself, John McVie, and Jeremy Spencer. No one has ever stepped into the ranks of Fleetwood Mac without a reverence for Peter Green and his talent, and to the fact that music should shine bright and always be delivered with uncompromising passion!!!" He also added, "Peter, I will miss you, but rest easy your music lives on. I thank you for asking me to be your drummer all those years ago. We did good, and trailblazed one hell of a musical road for so many to enjoy. God speed to you, my dearest friend."

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/peter-green-tributes-from-mems-of-black-sabbath-deep-purple-peter-frampton-cat-stevens-more/

[Drums]

Just heard. One of my favorite guitarists 

 

[Drums]

**** yeah

 

[JustInFudge]

Very sad.  Love Fleetwood, saw them in the Garden last year. 

RIP

[GATA]

I can literally listen to Fleetwood mac all day and not get tired. 

This breaks my heart. 

RIP / SIP !

[Snell41]

His signature out of phase tone was amazing and damn near impossible to reproduce which is funny because it really was a stroke of luck that it worked for him. They don’t make guitars like they used to, at least Gibson doesn’t. Without a guitar that has great sustain and resonance it just sounds fizzy. You need a heavy walnut guitar with very natural wood (ie no grain filler) and minimal coats of lacquer. If the guitar isn’t perfect it just won’t work.... but when it does it’s amazing.


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[kelticwizard]

On 7/25/2020 at 12:51 PM, munchmemory said:

Green left the band after a last performance in 1970, as he struggled with his mental health. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in hospital in the mid-70s.

The result of someone slipping a  huge dose of acid into him.  Never the same since.  The last few years he was performing, one of his followers was playing his leads and Peter played rhythm mostly.  But the folks still showed up to watch him play.

[Snell41]

The result of someone slipping a  huge dose of acid into him.  Never the same since.  The last few years he was performing, one of his followers was playing his leads and Peter played rhythm mostly.  But the folks still showed up to watch him play.

I honestly don’t know that I buy that theory. Schizophrenia is not induced, you’re born with it. Anxieties and depression can stem from drugs for sure, but a diagnosed schizo, bipolar, manic depression... drugs don’t help it but it also doesn’t cause it. As for his playing, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in their 70’s shredding away. I’m 43 and already I wake up needing about 30 minutes to fully close my left hand.


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[munchmemory]

4 hours ago, Snell41 said:

 

I honestly don’t know that I buy that theory. Schizophrenia is not induced, you’re born with it. Anxieties and depression can stem from drugs for sure, but a diagnosed schizo, bipolar, manic depression... drugs don’t help it but it also doesn’t cause it. As for his playing, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in their 70’s shredding away. I’m 43 and already I wake up needing about 30 minutes to fully close my left hand.


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At least in his mind, Green believed his schizophrenia was a result of his use of LSD.

Dec. 1996) After years of battling schizophrenia brought on by drug use, the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist is beginning a major British tour. 

LONDON--We live in the era of the comeback, but few have been more emotional than the return of Peter Green, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. 

Once one of the most feted guitarists in British rock, Green became the ultimate acid casualty and spent time over a period of years in mental hospitals and clinics undergoing electroconvulsive therapy. He gave away much of his money. His wildly unpredictable behavior was splashed across the tabloid press, and he acknowledges that his illness was brought on by hallucinogenic drugs that his delicate mental equilibrium could not handle. 

Today, Green is 50 and lives in semirural Surrey in southern England, with caring friends who have helped him inch his way back toward normalcy. His behavior is no longer frightening, although he remains endearingly eccentric. Last summer he began a tentative comeback with a festival appearance in Guildford and a few low-key dates in Germany. Now he is embarking on a major tour of Britain for the first time in nearly two decades. 

The first thing you notice on meeting Green is the delicacy of his handshake. "I have to look after my fingers because I'm supposed to play a bit," says the man B.B. King once described as the only white guitarist--Eric Clapton included--who sent shivers up his spine. 

Green's modesty is genuine. He complains that promoters insist on billing "the legendary Peter Green" above his band, the Splinter Group, and he looks forward to renewed success so that his name can be dropped. "That's what happened before. It was originally called Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac but when we made it big, my name disappeared." 

And they were big. By 1969, after a string of such hits as "Black Magic Woman" and "Man of the World," Fleetwood Mac was voted Britain's best band by readers of the pop music weekly New Musical Express. But by May of the next year, it was not only Green's name that had disappeared. "It was a freedom thing. I wanted to go and live on a commune in Germany. In the end I never did, but I had toget away. Acid had a lot to do with it." 

The drugs tipped Green over the edge into what was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. He stopped making music, gave his guitars away (many of his most treasured possessions ended up in an Oxfam shop) and went into a steep and rapid decline. He was eventually committed to a hospital, but today he tells the harrowing story dispassionately. "I was throwing things around and smashing things up. I smashed the car wind screen. The police took me to the station and asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said yes because I didn't feel safe going back anywhere else." 

What followed was a nightmare. "They gave me tranquilizers, and I didn't really know much about it. It was a struggle just to stay awake. You don't know what you are doing. You don't feel alive." 

Michelle Reynolds, in whose house Green now lives, says: "Sometimes he would stand in the garden with me for hours and not say a word. The hospital had him on 17 pills a day.

Green knows that he will never be what most people would describe as completely normal. "I still hear voices in my head," he says. "It is only one voice, a woman I met in the hospital. There were some scary people there, and she is pretty heavy, but I haven't heard her for a bit."   

When he made it back from the brink, he started to play the guitar for the first time in years. "It hurt my fingers at first, and I am still relearning," Green says. "What I have discovered is simplicity. Back to basics. I used to worry and make things very complicated. Now I keep it simple." 

  The next step was a band. Among others,the veteran session drummer Cozy Powell and guitarist Nigel Watson, Reynolds' brother, were enlisted. Now, Green seems to be as contented as a man who has been to hell and back can be. He is affable and clearly enjoys playing again. "It isn't work," he says. "Work and music don't mix. It has to be pleasure or else I can't do it." 

  The man who once horrified his business managers by giving away much of his fortune says that today he has no idea what he is worth; the royalties are still rolling in, but he leaves others to take care of the finances. "I'm told that I have enough, and I have started collecting guitars," he says. "If I want a new one I can go out and buy it, and if I want to buy a new car I can." 

  Sadly, he has not yet resumed his songwriting--"I don't feel I have anything I need to say in a song"--and he is also ambivalent about the handful of his classics that the new band performs. "We do 'Albatross,' 'Black Magic Woman' and 'Green Manilishi,' but I only play the rhythm on 'Albatross,' " he says. "I don't want it to be Fleetwood Mac again." 

His natural diffidence means that Green finds it hard to cope with being treated as a rock legend. "So far it has been OK, but I haven't really been back long enough to say." 

There will be a live album from the new tour, "mostly blues stuff I enjoy doing, things like 'Goin' Down' and a couple of Robert Johnson songs." But Green then resurrects a 1960s chestnut, much debated in student union bars of the time. "White men can't really play the blues," he says adamantly. When pressed, he concedes that Clapton "doesn't do badly" but seems incredulous that his own work should be rated alongside the great black American guitarists. 

Finally, given what he has been through,would he turn back the clock? "There would be no point," he says. "I'd only do the same things all over again."

http://www.schizophrenia.com/newsletter/buckets/newsletter/197/197fmac.html

[The Crimson King]

Peter's voice (slide was Jeremy Spencer, not him)

someone have a good example of his playing?

 

[Snell41]

At least in his mind, Green believed his schizophrenia was a result of his use of LSD.
Dec. 1996) After years of battling schizophrenia brought on by drug use, the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist is beginning a major British tour. 
LONDON--We live in the era of the comeback, but few have been more emotional than the return of Peter Green, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. 
Once one of the most feted guitarists in British rock, Green became the ultimate acid casualty and spent time over a period of years in mental hospitals and clinics undergoing electroconvulsive therapy. He gave away much of his money. His wildly unpredictable behavior was splashed across the tabloid press, and he acknowledges that his illness was brought on by hallucinogenic drugs that his delicate mental equilibrium could not handle. 
Today, Green is 50 and lives in semirural Surrey in southern England, with caring friends who have helped him inch his way back toward normalcy. His behavior is no longer frightening, although he remains endearingly eccentric. Last summer he began a tentative comeback with a festival appearance in Guildford and a few low-key dates in Germany. Now he is embarking on a major tour of Britain for the first time in nearly two decades. 
The first thing you notice on meeting Green is the delicacy of his handshake. "I have to look after my fingers because I'm supposed to play a bit," says the man B.B. King once described as the only white guitarist--Eric Clapton included--who sent shivers up his spine. 
Green's modesty is genuine. He complains that promoters insist on billing "the legendary Peter Green" above his band, the Splinter Group, and he looks forward to renewed success so that his name can be dropped. "That's what happened before. It was originally called Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac but when we made it big, my name disappeared." 
And they were big. By 1969, after a string of such hits as "Black Magic Woman" and "Man of the World," Fleetwood Mac was voted Britain's best band by readers of the pop music weekly New Musical Express. But by May of the next year, it was not only Green's name that had disappeared. "It was a freedom thing. I wanted to go and live on a commune in Germany. In the end I never did, but I had toget away. Acid had a lot to do with it." 
The drugs tipped Green over the edge into what was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. He stopped making music, gave his guitars away (many of his most treasured possessions ended up in an Oxfam shop) and went into a steep and rapid decline. He was eventually committed to a hospital, but today he tells the harrowing story dispassionately. "I was throwing things around and smashing things up. I smashed the car wind screen. The police took me to the station and asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said yes because I didn't feel safe going back anywhere else." 
What followed was a nightmare. "They gave me tranquilizers, and I didn't really know much about it. It was a struggle just to stay awake. You don't know what you are doing. You don't feel alive." 
Michelle Reynolds, in whose house Green now lives, says: "Sometimes he would stand in the garden with me for hours and not say a word. The hospital had him on 17 pills a day.
Green knows that he will never be what most people would describe as completely normal. "I still hear voices in my head," he says. "It is only one voice, a woman I met in the hospital. There were some scary people there, and she is pretty heavy, but I haven't heard her for a bit."   
When he made it back from the brink, he started to play the guitar for the first time in years. "It hurt my fingers at first, and I am still relearning," Green says. "What I have discovered is simplicity. Back to basics. I used to worry and make things very complicated. Now I keep it simple." 
  The next step was a band. Among others,the veteran session drummer Cozy Powell and guitarist Nigel Watson, Reynolds' brother, were enlisted. Now, Green seems to be as contented as a man who has been to hell and back can be. He is affable and clearly enjoys playing again. "It isn't work," he says. "Work and music don't mix. It has to be pleasure or else I can't do it." 
  The man who once horrified his business managers by giving away much of his fortune says that today he has no idea what he is worth; the royalties are still rolling in, but he leaves others to take care of the finances. "I'm told that I have enough, and I have started collecting guitars," he says. "If I want a new one I can go out and buy it, and if I want to buy a new car I can." 
  Sadly, he has not yet resumed his songwriting--"I don't feel I have anything I need to say in a song"--and he is also ambivalent about the handful of his classics that the new band performs. "We do 'Albatross,' 'Black Magic Woman' and 'Green Manilishi,' but I only play the rhythm on 'Albatross,' " he says. "I don't want it to be Fleetwood Mac again." 
His natural diffidence means that Green finds it hard to cope with being treated as a rock legend. "So far it has been OK, but I haven't really been back long enough to say." 
There will be a live album from the new tour, "mostly blues stuff I enjoy doing, things like 'Goin' Down' and a couple of Robert Johnson songs." But Green then resurrects a 1960s chestnut, much debated in student union bars of the time. "White men can't really play the blues," he says adamantly. When pressed, he concedes that Clapton "doesn't do badly" but seems incredulous that his own work should be rated alongside the great black American guitarists. 
Finally, given what he has been through,would he turn back the clock? "There would be no point," he says. "I'd only do the same things all over again."
http://www.schizophrenia.com/newsletter/buckets/newsletter/197/197fmac.html

I appreciate the article, I had not read this before. I still don’t believe the acid made him that way. I can see how he associated it but mental disorders of that magnitude are already there. The acid more than likely made him aware of it vs the cause of it, which I’m sure was terrifying.


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[Drums]

On 7/29/2020 at 12:17 AM, Snell41 said:

 

I appreciate the article, I had not read this before. I still don’t believe the acid made him that way. I can see how he associated it but mental disorders of that magnitude are already there. The acid more than likely made him aware of it vs the cause of it, which I’m sure was terrifying.


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It doesn’t give you schizophrenia but it does help speed up the decent into the disease if it is in your dna (from what I read a while back). Same thing happened to Syd Barrett (was dosed and was never the same). 
 

Also, iirc, his protégés (both are in the oh well video I posted above) sort of went crazy as well. Damn.  
 

Been a while since I went down the Peter Green rabbit hole so I am a little rusty on my history. 

[kelticwizard]

17 hours ago, Drums said:

It doesn’t give you schizophrenia but it does help speed up the decent into the disease if it is in your dna (from what I read a while back). Same thing happened to Syd Barrett (was dosed and was never the same). 
 

Also, iirc, his protégés (both are in the oh well video I posted above) sort of went crazy as well. Damn.  
 

Been a while since I went down the Peter Green rabbit hole so I am a little rusty on my history. 

In the articles I've read it seemed to be agreed by all that it happened at a party and Green didn't know he was being given a high amount.  This was at a period of time when hallucinogenics were considered therapeutic for what society was supposed to have done to you.