Danny Kirwan
 

Danny is my hero! Peter's playing seems like too lofty a goal to achieve in it's sublime pinnacle nature, but I feel a certain kinship to Danny's style and unique sound!

Most everyone is familiar with Peter Green and the internationally known superstar band; Fleetwood Mac, that he formed as he ended his stint as the next guitarist in line with John Mayall's Blues Breakers after Eric Clapton...

But not everyone is as familiar with his protege` Danny Kirwan. I believe in 1968 Peter Discovered Danny plahying in a tight little garage blues band called Boilerhouse and took him in and under his wing. Danny was a pretty prolific song writer and guitar player in his own right and really bloomed under the mentoring of Peter Green and wrote hits like "Like It This Way," "Only You," "Something Inside Of Me," and "One Sunny Day" that are some of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs of all time.



Danny was another huge Les Paul playing icon of the late 60's wave of the The British Invasion Blues guitarists, and I'd stack him up against any of 'em! He started-off his Fleetwood Mac career as Peter Green's apprentice at the age of 17...

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During that time he became a British Rock & Roll icon of guitar magic making some of the best music ever that helped propel Fleetwood Mac from another in a long line of good British Blues groups, to out-selling The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined in 1969!

His phenomenal work can be seen and heard on YouTube and I believe most of the leads on their wildly popular "Oh Well" were played by Danny on that '56 GoldTop as can be seen on The BBC's Music Mash from 1969...



I believe to my core that Danny Kirwan deserves more recognition for what he accomplished with both Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and his side projects like Tramp etc. of the era...

On a side note, I honestly believe that Danny Kirwan had simply the best left hand vibrato ever! You can hear his tour-de-force vibrato in the classic Fleetwood Mac Shrine '69 album, especially in this rendition of; "Something Inside of Me."

Midnight in San Juan is one of my all time favorites from him!

Jimi Mac, I couldn't agree more and lately I've been pulling out the old records and wonderful gems that have surfaced on You Tube that show Danny as the first class musician that he is. Someone commented that Danny along with Peter and Jeremy so richly deserve to be household names of the calibre of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton; a truer statement about Fleetwood Mac has never been spoken. Although history gave us the glorious Buckingham Nicks period, I can't help but wonder what Danny could have achieved if he could have gotten his personal life under control and continued to make great music that would've quite literally defined a generation. Woman of a 1000 years, heck just about every song he did with Fleetwood Mac, is right up there in quality and classic status as anything the post '75 band did, and certainly in a class with his contemporaries. He is long overdue for recognition in the classic rock world and his tracks should be appearing with any of the Beatles, Stones and Zeppelin classics. That's how good he is.

I really wish Danny would come out with new stuff! How is he doing anyway?

Not much new info about Danny... :shrug:
From what we've heard over the last years, he's no longer a homeless. I think he's taken care of byhis family. It's known that he's been struggling with alcoholism most of his adult life, but the situation now is unknown.

I read a new interview with Jeremy Spencer from 2013 or 2014. Jeremy said that he last met Danny approx. 10 years ago. So that would be cirka 2003-4.
Jeremy and his wife had dinner with Danny, ex-wife Claire and Danny's son (Dominic?...can't remember). According to Jeremy, Danny was doing ok. He had a room and a guitar that he played regularily. He also read very much. Now I wonder if it's fiction, poetry or science..... ;)

It's nice to know Danny's doing well and he is not homeless

Two truisms have assaulted both Danny and Peter...

Time stands still for no one,

and

Time doesn't heal all wounds...

Once things went off the reservation for both of them, time was their enemy, and it left them both behind.

Sadly I didn't even discover them until I was 42...

Due to American radio air play bias and politics, I didn't even know Black Magic Woman wasn't a Santana song until I stumbled upon the Rattlesnake Guitar CD tribute to Peter Green. And then when I heard the original... OMG!!!

I had been searching for that perfection for all my life!

None of any of that lessens my adoration for Danny Kirwan and his playing, style, and technique. He's simply one of the best ever, and dare I say, Peter was the best ever...

I love Danny. I hope he's got someone there for him. He always had such a sweet face, and his lyrics are some of the most beautiful this band has produced.

The only Dominic Kirwan I can find on the web is an Irish singer. I know he isn't Danny's son because his birthdate is 1960. Danny was born in 1950 so unless he was a real randy kid, this guy ain't his son...

I suppose possibly Dominic (Danny's son, if indeed Dominic is his name) has been sheltered from show business from the tragic consequences that have befallen his father. So it's not surprising to me I cannot find him and from what I can tell he's not in the music business...

Although I must confess I'm rather intrigued because Danny's son would be right around my age possibly just a couple years younger... Can't help but wonder if he plays guitar...

Any one know anything about him...

[Excerpt From a Flavorwire interview]

http://flavorwire.com/487050/flavorw...t-powers-video

Flavorwire Premiere: Holy Sons Channels ‘Lost Highway’ for “Transparent Powers” Video

By Jillian Mapes on Nov 7, 2014 2:30pm

I love the hazy weight of “Transparent Powers,” and I heard you were inspired by early Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan. What’s the backstory behind this song?

EA: My other band Grails had been using Eastern scales for so many years that it made me want to turn back to a much more American style of guitar playing. Ironically, some of the classic reference points for the perfect “American sound” come from the British blues players who helped perfect the electric blues sound we all grew up with. The duo of Peter Green and Danny Kirwan radiates a subtle spiritualism, treating the guitar as a transformative or healing device. Not too dissimilar from when Fugazi plays an open E chord. It just doesn’t sound like anyone else and yet they don’t use any effects. This kind of power of expression comes back to a person’s unique love for music and the purity of their dedication. That clean and very exposed tone Danny Kirwan and Peter Green betrayed has had a huge influence on all the Holy Sons, Lilacs and Champagne, and Grails records for the last few years.

That a really great excerpt!

I can really hear the clear and present influence of Danny & Peter in the playing! They've got that tone down quite well!

Thanks!

I read Mick Fleetwood's biography a few weeks ago, and I've been intrigued about Danny Kirwan ever since. I've ordered a copy of the Second Chapter from Amazon, but does anyone know if Midnight in San Juan is available to buy cheaply anywhere? It's unavailable on Amazon.

well, original vinyl copies are not too rare (check out ebay, gemm, musicstack, discogs, etc.), but a cd version (especially at a reasonable price) is quite hard to find, indeed. good luck!

Cheers for the reply. There's a cheap vinyl copy on eBay that I might buy.

A few years back, someone on this board put the entire Midnight In San Juan recording on Dropbox, or whatever downloading site it was...I can't remember who did this, but I was very grateful. I downloaded the songs and burned a cd of them. If I knew how to create an account on those downloading sites, I'd set up the download for you, but I don't. Perhaps someone else can for you here. If not, send me a pm in a week or so with your mailing address and I'll burn you a cd of it.