Peter
Green
The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
Warner Brothers |

Like many blues fans my age, I
came across the blues listening to artists like
Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck,
etc. Iin other words, the guitarists that we had
access to recordings from in the early/mid ’80s,
since there weren’t a lot of blues records in
your local record store. These guys usually
cited their sources, which led me, and others,
to seek out the original sources as best we
could.
During this process, a couple of people a little
further into the music asked me if I’d ever heard of Peter
Green. I had not, so they told me that he was an original
member of Fleetwood Mac, which I thought was nuts because my
history with that group began in the mid ’70s, around the time
of Rumours. I had no idea that a decade before their big
album, Fleetwood Mac got their start as a tough, somewhat
psychedelic blues rock band, consisting of Green and Jeremy
Spencer on guitars, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick
Fleetwood.
McVie was a charter member of John Mayall’s
Bluesbreakers in 1963. Green joined up in 1966 and Fleetwood
followed a year later. The trio never “officially” recorded with
Mayall, but two superb live releases (Live in 1967, Volumes 1
and 2) were issued a couple of years ago just before the
trio left Mayall.
Fleetwood Mac recorded several albums during
that time which were very successful in the U.K., but the band
was pretty much ignored in the states in the beginning. Over
time, they began to move from their blues roots, but Green left
the band in 1970, rarely performing afterward for many years.
After listening to the two live Bluesbreakers
sets, I was really impressed with Green’s guitar work and
beating my head against the wall because I had not tried to
check him out earlier. Late last year, I reviewed Rick Berthod’s
Tribute to Peter Green, and while I was writing it up I
decided to compare the tribute album with the early edition of
Fleetwood Mac.
Even more impressed, I decided to dig deeper
into the original band, tracking down a copy of Warner Brothers’
The Best of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. This 20-song set
was released in conjunction with the six-disc box set The
Complete Blue Horizon Sessions, and captures many of the
band’s finest moments.
The beautiful instrumental “Albatross” opens the
disc, a song you could listen to forever that features Green’s
exquisite fretwork. Next is “Black Magic Woman,” which
subsequently became a huge hit for Santana. Fleetwood Mac’s
version is more understated, but to these ears, it’s just as
good.
There’s also a terrific cover of Little Willie
John’s “Need Your Love So Bad,” and a torrid Elmore
James-inspired original from Spencer, “My Heart Beat Like A
Hammer,” with Spencer on vocals and slide guitar.
The entire set is standout, with now-familiar
tunes like “The Green Manalishi,” which was covered by Judas
Priest, “Rattlesnake Shake” (covered by Aerosmith), “Oh Well
(Parts 1 & 2),” “Something Inside Of Me,” written by later
addition, guitarist Danny Kirwin, and originals penned by Green,
Kirwin, and Spencer that sound for all the world like long-ago
blues standards. There are also covers of B.B. King (“Worried
Dream”) and Elmore James (“Shake Your Moneymaker”) tunes that
hold up well to the originals.
In addtion, there are a couple of tracks that
close out the album, a tune from Chicken Shack featuring pianist
Christine Perfect, who guested on two of Fleetwood Mac’s later
sessions. Her cover of “I’d Rather Go Blind” was Chicken Shack’s
biggest hit and she subsequently joined Fleetwood Mac after
Green, Spencer, and Kirwin departed, married (and later
divorced) John McVie, and was a driving force in the band’s rise
to success. The final song is an updated version of “Albatross,”
recorded by Chris Coco and featuring Green on guitar.
Green battled mental issues and drug use for
many years, occasionally contributing to Fleetwood Mac songs and
appearing on other artists’ recordings, and making a few albums
of his own. He returned to the scene in 1997, forming the Peter
Green Splinter Group, which released nine albums between the
late ’90s and mid 2000s. He passed away in July of 2020 at the
age of 73. Kirwin died in 2018, but Spencer still continues to
perform and record. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie continue to
hold down the rhythm section for the current version of
Fleetwood Mac.
Sometimes, Fleetwood Mac gets lost in the
shuffle in the discussion of the great British blues-rock bands
of the late ’60s, probably due to the band’s later success
dwarfing the impact that the Green-led edition made in it’s
short tenure. If you’ve not experienced their impressive brand
of blues, it’s well worth your time to give The Best of Peter
Green’s Fleetwood Mac a spin or two.
--- Graham Clarke