C.Hjort new book

[Mario]

Hello from sunny Italy, folks..

This new book (out in February) should be a very
interesting reading.....

Stay Green,

Mario.

[dansven]

From amazon.com:
Book Description

This definitive look at the British blues explosion centers around three guitarists: Peter Green, Mick Taylor, and especially Eric Clapton. Describing the groups they played in from 1965 to 1970, including John’s Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Blind Faith, and The Rolling Stones, the book is presented in an engaging day-by-day format. With a wealth of illustrations and never-before-published details, the book reveals the way the musicians behind the blues boom worked together, influenced each other, and pushed one another to ever greater achievements

Oooo, I like it!!! Thanks for posting, Mario!

[sharksfan2000]

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Mario. Sounds like it could be interesting. Guess we'll have to wait and see about the "never-before-published details" the description promises.

Mario, do you have any info on what sources the author relied on for his writing about Peter?

The subject of this upcoming book seems similar to the book that Bob Brunning wrote a few years ago -
"Blues: The British Connection: The Stones, Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and the Story of Blues in Britain"
Has anyone here read that book? I've never read it, as I've had questions about its value due to the inaccuracies in Brunning's book on Fleetwood Mac.

[sharksfan2000]

Has anyone gotten the "Strange Brew" book yet? Just curious to find out if it's good.

[BklynBlue]

I've read the Brunning - I would not recommend it for those whose interest in British Blues does not extend much beyond the Mayall / Clapton / Green axis -
The information on these artists is all available elsewhere and often in greater detail -
He does devote pages to under recognized performers such as the Groundhogs, the Pretty Things and Rory Gallagher, but unfortunately the information never delves too deep and leaves huge gaps in their stories -
It is unfortunate that most books on "popular" music are denied the resources, (time, money, editorial help) from the publishers to really do justice to their subjects -
Exceptions would be anything by Peter Guralnick, the late Robert Palmer, Charlie Gillett's "The Sound of the City", Elijah Wald's "Searching For Robert Johnson", Robert Gordon's "I Can't Be Satisfied" (a bio of Muddy Waters) and Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom's oral history of the life and music of Michael Bloomfield, "If You Love These Blues"

[sharksfan2000]

Thanks for the info on the Brunning book, BklynBlue. I suspected it wouldn't be all that interesting. I'll have to see if the Hjort book shows up in any of my local bookstores and take a look through it.

[Karl-Heinz]

The book arrived yesterday.

It's like a "Diary of Bands" .. eh, guitarists, Clapton, Green and Taylor and the bands they played with. So you get info on studio sessions, concerts, TV and radio broadcasts etc

Not so many news on Peter or FM but it is interesting anyway

[bill]

my copy of the Strange Brew came from Amazon yesterday and if you want to know about where the bands were and who was in them and see some of the promotional posters of the time then it is excellent. If you want to find out anything new about Peter Green then forget it. It is highly Clapton-focused which is a pity.

There is an early bit on the early Bluesbreakers (before Clapton) backing an English tour of T-Bone Walker and you get the impression that the maestro
was a little underwhelmed by the 'loud' English players.

The best (later) section is that covering the equipment they used and there you read about Peter Green's toying back and forth between LP and Strat. That section is interesting.

best wishes
bill

[Mario]

Originally Posted by bill

my copy of the Strange Brew came from Amazon yesterday and if you want to know about where the bands were and who was in them and see some of the promotional posters of the time then it is excellent. If you want to find out anything new about Peter Green then forget it. It is highly Clapton-focused which is a pity.

There is an early bit on the early Bluesbreakers (before Clapton) backing an English tour of T-Bone Walker and you get the impression that the maestro
was a little underwhelmed by the 'loud' English players.

The best (later) section is that covering the equipment they used and there you read about Peter Green's toying back and forth between LP and Strat. That section is interesting.

best wishes
bill

I really can't agree 100% as far as Peter Green is concerned.

I think the book just cover well the second part of 1970, after Greeny quit Fleetwood Mac.

In particular at page 315:"Guitarist-singer Bobby Tench is an old acquaitance og Green and is still playing with Gass, essentially the same group that supported Peter B's Looners way back in the early months of 1966.Besides Tench, the group now consists of drummer Godfrey McLean (whom Peter borrowed for his solo session in June), keyboardist Derek Austin, bass player DeLisle Harper and guitarist Michael Piggott.

Green plays guitar on "Juju" and "Black Velvet" for the group's eponymous first album. Not much is know about this session, but Best Instrumental comments how Peter Green has spent time at De Lane Lea in London recently,ostensibly to finish his own album featuring the coloured group Gass, with whom Pete has been working reguraly"

Then if you listen to the Gass album (recently re-released on cd), the "Greeny" tracks sound quite different to the rest of the album.......

So my idea/question:is it possible that Peter really tried to record his solo Lp using the Gass as his backing band (we know for sure he really liked their drummer Godfrey McLean), but being unsatisfied with the final result, both "Juju" and "Black Velvet" ended to be part of the Gass Lp, rather than of Peter's solo album?

I'm looking forward to hear your point of view folks!

Mario.

[mzero]

Originally Posted by Mario

Then if you listen to the Gass album (recently re-released on cd), the "Greeny" tracks sound quite different to the rest of the album.......

So my idea/question:is it possible that Peter really tried to record his solo Lp using the Gass as his backing band (we know for sure he really liked their drummer Godfrey McLean), but being unsatisfied with the final result, both "Juju" and "Black Velvet" ended to be part of the Gass Lp, rather than of Peter's solo album?

I'm looking forward to hear your point of view folks!

Mario.

mario, what an interesting idea! similar time period but likely very different from 'end of the game'.....

i have a suggestion: you could ask bob tench to see if he has recollections of those sessions. as of a few years back (actually 2001) his email was tench@selectar.net

zero

[doodyhead]

Dear Mario,

of all the turns that may, could have happened, this is would have been an odd/interesting one. After listening to those tracks again, It is almost the antithesis of "end Of The Game". The songs are so controlled and structured. It would seem, however that Peter could work quite fine in this setting, but these songs do not seem to bear his imprint as identifiable to him. Rather than for his solo effort, this could have been like peter working with another version of "peter B's looners" or that other version of the Jeff Beck group.
is there life after FM?


doodyhead

[dino]

Originally Posted by mzero

mario, what an interesting idea! similar time period but likely very different from 'end of the game'.....

i have a suggestion: you could ask bob tench to see if he has recollections of those sessions. as of a few years back (actually 2001) his email was tench@selectar.net

zero

Hope Bob Can answer this!
It' a very interesting theory, but maybe Beat Instrumental just "assumed" that Peter was doing his own album, even the music press tend to
be creative with the truth.

[mzero]

Originally Posted by doodyhead

... After listening to those tracks again, It is almost the antithesis of "end Of The Game". The songs are so controlled and structured. It would seem, however that Peter could work quite fine in this setting...

d- as much as i do like 'end of the game' i never thought that extended improvisation was peter's strength. so it is nice to recall that he hadn't abandonned economy and structure even during his wildest period. his playing on memphis slim's record, which i thought also dates from this time, is disciplined too.

zero

[dansven]

Originally Posted by mzero

d- as much as i do like 'end of the game' i never thought that extended improvisation was peter's strength.

That is quite a statement, mzero!!!
I always thought Peter, Garcia and Allman were the only guitarists really good at long improvisations.

But I respect you for saying it; it's great to have people with different oppinions here at the forum!!
Daniel

[mzero]

Originally Posted by dansven

That is quite a statement, mzero!!!
I always thought Peter, Garcia and Allman were the only guitarists really good at long improvisations.

But I respect you for saying it; it's great to have people with different oppinions here at the forum!!
Daniel

i appreciate the respect! however much a heretic i might be around here. i do think pete was good at the long improvisations, but i prefer his more structured playing and i think he was even better at that. a personal preference i guess.

especially for the time, pete was a economical guitartist (in the early mac and with mayall) before he developed the extended approach. when i hear 'love that burns', 'jumping at shadows', 'watch out', 'albatross', 'hard road', 'the supernatural' those are examples that i go back to when i want to hear peter. the extended soloing, for example the live extension of green mananalishi with the bass solo, coincided with the decline of his health. maybe because of that coincidence i kind of see them as a reflection of the decline. and to me they aren't consistent with his previous 'less is more, more is less' approach.

'end of the game' is even farther removed. for whatever reason i perfer it to the late live mac extended versions (fighting/searching for madge, gm, etc) which sound more like bad live cream than good fleetwood mac to me. maybe i like it because it so purely improvisational and it is so different to anything else pete did? i should also say that when i want to hear post-fleetwood mac pete rather than end of the game i usually listen to 'in the skies' where i hear him finding his bearings again.

and it is true, i'm the anti-dansven (in the way doodyhead said that the gass recordings with pete were the antithesis of end of the game) - i could completely do without all live entended solos involving jerry and duane too.

ok. now you can let me have it!

zero