As much as I love Peter Green's guitar work with Fleetwood Mac, I'm also fascinated by some of the solo and session work he did in the early 1970s. Some of that work features a haunting, ghostly sound that seems almost ephemeral, like it could just fade away at any moment. There are hints of that in some of his earlier work, where he sometimes drops down to a tone that's barely audible ("First Time Alone" with John Mayall is an example). But by the early '70s it seems like Green had broken from much of the blues-based convention of the previous years and was exploring some really interesting and different sounds. Not sure I've explained myself very well, but here are a few clips of what I'm talking about
:
"Timeless Time" from
End of the Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ-hM5JpIP0
"Heavy Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjTBUncvhxc
"Only Love Is Worth This Pain" from
Hold On It's Coming with Country Joe McDonald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmrGyP73S0U
"Night Watch" from
Penguin with Fleetwood Mac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xYuBfQkKwU
That style has shown up now and again since that time, but not as often. I get some of it in the guitar work for "A Fool No More" from
In The Skies in the later 1970s (overall my favorite of his post-Mac tracks), and I hear it again on this, from the early 2000s (assuming that is Green's guitar during the last minute of the piece) - "Sky Blue" from
Up with Peter Gabriel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFvwVOX95GY
Even without his famous Les Paul, the tone and phrasing are so distinctive, and I don't know of much else that really explores similar musical territory. Anyone have suggestions on who else I might check out for anything similar to this?