How did you get in Peter Green’s music?

[Muddy]

I’m sure this thread was made before, but it’s a classic topic and hopefully there’s a long time from the last one. If is not the case, please, anyone feel free to point me to the appropriated thread.

Anyway, in my case, it all began around 1993, when I started dating my wife. I made friends with my soon to be brother in law and with one of his friends as well. This guy had lent the 68’s Fleetwood Mac LP to my brother in law and we three would listen to it time and again.

The funny thing is that none of us knew anything about the band. We love the sound, but there’s no info available. The original album cover was long lost and the LP was inside AC/DC’s High Voltage album cover. More on that later.

Around the same time I was developing a taste for blues music, especially Chicago Blues as my nickname betrays, so The Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac sound clicked just nicely. I made a tape of the recording that I would carry everywhere. It was part of the sound track of many parties, barbecues and the like.

In that period, the CD format was in the imminence of totally replacing the LP and the internet was becoming popular. In both cases I resisted a bit before jumping in the bandwagon, but made it eventually around 1995. That’s when I started learning about the band, who are the musicians, what happened to Peter etc..
It was also when I bought my first FM CD’s, the 1971’s “The Original Fleetwood Mac” and soon after a compilation called “The Hits Of Fleetwood Mac”, which was basically “The Pious Bird of Good Omen” with a reordered track list, missing a couple of Danny Kirwan songs and including two Chicken Shack songs, “I’d Rather To Go Blind” and “Crazy bout You Baby”. I also bought a compilation album titled “British Blues Invasion” with some FM tracks, notably the live versions of “Green Manalishi” and “Black Magic Woman” that blew my mind.

It would take a couple of years more before I could find a CD version of the album that started it all for me, the aforementioned 68’s FM. Something I was eager to have. Once again, it was my brother in law’s buddy that helped. Some time ago we talked each other that whoever finds a CD of this particular album would buy a copy for the other. My friend found it in a big department store. Seems some recording company was selling a lot of obscure albums in a cheap promotional Christmas edition, with some Xmas tree-like blinking red lights in the CD pack (lol). The rest, as they say, is history. Since then I was able to get a lot of albums from the original line-up Mac and Peter’s solo efforts.

The LP I mentioned before has a good history behind it. It was originally bought by a woman from my hometown that has a love for classical rock and blues. I was told that this lady, whom I never met, had a huge LP collection. Seems that her house was invaded by water in a flood and a lot of albums were damaged or lost. Probably that’s why the album cover went missing. I was told one could see a lot of LPs being carried by the flood. Just to imagine this scene pains my heart. Oh well… This lady was dating with my friend’s older brother and gave him some of the LP’s that survived, including the cover-less FM. When he started to date another woman, older brother gave the albums to my friend and that’ how eventually I came to know Peter’s music.

So, in a sense, my love for Peter’s music was originated by a flood.

[zoork_1]

I began listening to Mac in the late sixties, just a kid then you know. In the middle of the seventies innocence was gone, we drank beer and made noice (played, sang, etc.) while listening to Dr Brown and other Mac songs. In the early eighties (when I started to play semi profesional) it struck me like a ton of led - my god this band swings devinely, they are doing it for real....

Since then I listen to, and play along with, mac recordings almost daily ....


/z

[doodyhead]

My friend louie was a Clapton fan and had the then new "Fresh Cream" He we all shared music back then and when he found the Mayall "Beano" album with eric clapton we were extatic. As soon as I could save up enough money I went back to the record store to buy it and there was the second Mayall Bluesbreakers album. I had to be 15 then and it took time to save money and there were not a lot of record stores that even carried this stuff. I had the money so I bought it. even though Clapton wasn't on it. I was a fan of Peter Green ever since. He remained in my pantheon of five guitarists I idolized for the longest time

Eric Clapton
Jefff Beck
B B King
Peter Green
Michael Bloomfield.

it did not change much for a long time but the order was never the same

doodyhead

[sharksfan2000]

Muddy, I'll add a link to a past Ledge discussion along the same lines - well over 7 years ago, so it does seem like it's time to pick up the subject again:
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=12845

My story is in the linked thread (which was the first thread I participated in on the Ledge). Always interested in reading how others got into Peter Green's music.

[Muddy]

Originally Posted by sharksfan2000

Muddy, I'll add a link to a past Ledge discussion along the same lines - well over 7 years ago, so it does seem like it's time to pick up the subject again:
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=12845

My story is in the linked thread (which was the first thread I participated in on the Ledge). Always interested in reading how others got into Peter Green's music.

Thanks for the link, sharksfan2000. Very interesting reading.

On a side note, it mildly amuses me the fact that most people associates FM with the Rumours line-up. Because to me at last, Fleetwood Mac is all about the PG era. Just a matter of perception I suppose.

In the seventies I was too young to know about FM. I began to have a real interest on music in my teens, on the 80’s. And I started with hard rock and heavy metal (I know, I know, but I was just a 14 years boy that didn’t know better) and eventually expanding to classic rock, psychedelic, progressive, blues and the like.

So, tough I remember seeing Tango In The Night in records stores and watching the Big Love video on TV, the pop sound FM wasn’t on my agenda. Many years later I would check some of the Rumours line-up best know songs and notice that they weren’t completely stranger to my ears. Guess I already had heard many of them along the years, probably on radio, but they never really had caught my attention.

As I told in the first post, the first FM album that hooked me was by sheer chance their very first one, the “dog & dustbin”. And until now, I hardly paid attention to the post Green FM. I know they are supposed to be greats in the pop area and I have nothing against it. But pop just isn’t my cup of tea.

As I write this, I remembered when I shared an apartment with work colleagues some years ago. One of those colleagues, a girl, saw my Fleetwood Mac CD’s and told me how she loved the band. I offered to lend her the CD’s, but explained that they didn’t sound very much like what she probably was expecting from a FM album. She returned me the albums a few days later. When I asked if she liked them, she looked a little embarrassed. She told me that found it a little “strange” and “too different” of the FM she was accustomed. Oh well, not HER cup of tea I guess…

[dino]

Originally Posted by Muddy

On a side note, it mildly amuses me the fact that most people associates FM with the Rumours line-up. Because to me at last, Fleetwood Mac is all about the PG era. Just a matter of perception I suppose.

As I write this, I remembered when I shared an apartment with work colleagues some years ago. One of those colleagues, a girl, saw my Fleetwood Mac CD’s and told me how she loved the band. I offered to lend her the CD’s, but explained that they didn’t sound very much like what she probably was expecting from a FM album. She returned me the albums a few days later. When I asked if she liked them, she looked a little embarrassed. She told me that found it a little “strange” and “too different” of the FM she was accustomed. Oh well, not HER cup of tea I guess…

It's exhausting to explain everytime to people that you like the original line-up, not the Eagles version. In general, mildly music-loving folks only know the Nicks line-up. I have had similar experiences to you; people borrowing PG era cds from me and returning them with a confused expression!

[chiliD]

As then as it is now...

Originally Posted by chiliD

The VERY short version:

An older cousin, who lived in Boston (I live in California), introduced me to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers back in 1966. Became a big Clapton fan (I hadn't known he was in one of my favorite bands, The Yardbirds then). When I read he left Mayall to co-form Cream, I didn't think there would be anyone who could step into his shoes. Enter Peter Green. Later, I read he'd left to form his own band. I DID hear "Black Magic Woman" early on...but then didn't hear anything by Fleetwood Mac again until "Oh Well". That hooked me; been a Mac fan ever since, through good times & bad, and all the personnel changes.

For quite a while...and somewhat even today, looking back...I've been discovering how other artists/guitarists (even his contemporaries who've also been crowned as "guitar Gods") have SEEMINGLY been influenced by Peter Green.

After I had gotten the Hard Road album, I discovered that the Peter Green penned or sung tunes ("The Supernatural", "The Same Way", "You Don't Love Me") were my faves...when the Allman Bros Band's Live At The Fillmore East album came out with a version of "You Don't Love Me", it deepened my appreciation of theirs since I figured that either Duane Allman or Dickey Betts (or both) were also Peter Green fans (I didn't know at the time that Fleetwood Mac had played on the same bill with them back in the day).

When a few of the early posthumous LPs from Jimi Hendrix were released (Cry Of Love, Rainbow Bridge & War Heroes), I noticed a change in his sound and thought it had taken on a very "Peter Green-ish" feel as compared to his work with "the Experience". Especially on tracks like "Pali Gap", "My Friend", "Belly Button Window", etc.

Not until I heard Jimmy Page's version of "Oh Well" with The Black Crows did I finally "hear" what he'd said in an old interview about "stealing the riff" to use for "Black Dog". Sure enough, I went back & listened again and if it didn't hit me over the head like Thor's hammer that, sure enough, it was definitely "more than just coincidence" that the riff of "Black Dog" was similar to the "Oh Well" riff.

Upon hearing ZZ Top's first album, there are many places (too numerous to mention each) where Billy Gibbons seems to be channelling Peter Green's tone & feel. (also, later, during "Blue Jean Blues" off their Fandango album)

And, of course, it wasn't until the Anthology that both Lennon & Harrison FINALLY copped to out & out STEALING "Albatross" for Lennon's "Sun King". (you could probably add "Don't Let Me Down" to that, too, since it has almost the identical chord pattern during the choruses)

[Muddy]

Originally Posted by dino

It's exhausting to explain everytime to people that you like the original line-up, not the Eagles version. In general, mildly music-loving folks only know the Nicks line-up. I have had similar experiences to you; people borrowing PG era cds from me and returning them with a confused expression!

I was talking about PGFM to a friend of mine who's a heavy metal fan. I explained how the original line-up was different of the subsequent incarnations. But he seemed not to be much convinced. When I told him “The Green Manalishi” isn’t a Judas Priest original, but a FM cover, he looked at me as if I am an alien or something.

[Evan Morris]

I became a fan of the Rumors incarnation first. I heard the White Fleetwood Mac album in 1975, a short time after it was released, but I became an even more enthusiastic fan after first hearing Rumors. I thought this band was quite unique, with two women, three lead writers and singers, backed by this killer blues trio. However, I stopped listening after the Tusk album, it seemed to me that they were mailing it in somewhat after that record.

I had heard about the original version of Fleetwood Mac here and there over the years, but it wasn't until 1985 or so that a friend introduced me to the Then Play On album and my interest in Fleetwood Mac changed direction. After hearing that album I couldn't get enough of the Peter Green version of the band. I found it quite annoying that there was so little music available from the original band at that time. I started collecting bootlegs on tape out of desperation, and listening to those tapes opened up a whole new world for me. They not only made me a huge fan of the blues but opened my eyes to all music. Those tapes, especially Green's music, taught me how to look at and listen to music as a whole, not just as a specific genre, from a specific era, etc...

I'm still a fanatic. When I listen to music now, I always play other music from other bands before I play Peter's music. The reason for this is that if I listen to Peter's music first, I won't want to listen to any other.

[sjpdg]

I don't recall exactly when it was that I first heard "Oh Well", but that was the song that hooked me to PG. I've always loved that song. The entire song, not just what is sometimes called "Part I". That for me at least, is one of the greatest riffs in recorded history!! I just love it,a s you can tell from my signature line below!!

I was but a young lad when I first heard that song, but it opened the gates and while I was originally a fan of the Rumours line-up first, it didn't stop me from going to my local record store (when such a thing still existed) and buying all the FM CD's they had available at the time. I got "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac", "English Rose", "Pious Bird of Good Omen", and "Then Play On". The first three of those are imports of some kind as they liner notes are all in what I think is Korean!!!! "Then Play On" is in English thank God. Some years later I was in Santa Barbara and wandered into a record store there and found "Fleetwood Mac in Chicago" (an anniversary packaging of the "Blues Jam at Chess"), which I fell in love with immediately!! "Sugar Mama" is one of my favourite FM Peter era tunes! While on my honeymoon in London, I got to the Virgin store and found "Mr. Wonderful".

I saw FM for the first time at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on the "Tango" tour and Rick Vito blew my mind with his version of "I Loved Another Woman". It was phenomenal! That sparked my aforementioned trip to my local record store and aquisition of the Korean imports!! It also further solidified my love the band in general and the PG era in particular.

While I'm a fan of just about every era of FM, I've come to appreciate Peter's time with the band above all others.

Thanks for putting out this thread! It's great to read how others came to appreciate Peter's genius.

[chriskisn]

I guess I accidentally got into PG and that era of Fleetwood Mac. I started out as a fan of the Rumours era, and then one day I went into a second hand record store and bought three second hand copies of Bob Welch era albums. I then decided that as I liked all of these albums that I should buy the earlier ones that featured PG.

I remember those albums were very different to the FM I knew up to that point (Time had just been released, my favourite albums were those that featured Bob Welch).

I also managed to buy a copy of In The Skies from a second-hand store, and really liked that, but I didn't buy any other PG albums until the Splinter Group came along.

At the time I was active on the old alt.music.fleetwoodmac newsgroup and there was a lot of talk about Peter coming back and his new band the Splinter Group. I may have even bought the album from the Penguin although I can't remember, I certainly bought later Splinter Group albums from here.

Back in those days (1997) you had to import albums from the US to Australia, which could take weeks, you would walk into the record store, and they would pull out these big catalogues and look up the album and then order it for you. Crazy to think that I would catch the train to the city to order the albums from "Wesley Music" (no longer there unfortunately). I remember getting a $900 tax refund and going up there and spending it all on Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall albums. Imported CDs were so very expensive; I think I bought 16 albums for that $900.

From the moment I heard the Splinter Group I was hooked, I loved every minute of that band, and bought all the albums as they were released, plus all of Peter's back catalogue.

Oh and although I know that I'll get crucified for saying it, in general I still prefer Peter's solo and Splinter Group work to his Fleetwood Mac work.

[Wouter Vuijk]

Originally Posted by chriskisn

Oh and although I know that I'll get crucified for saying it, in general I still prefer Peter's solo and Splinter Group work to his Fleetwood Mac work.

†

Cheers,
Wouter

PS I'll let you know how and when I got into FM

[sharksfan2000]

Originally Posted by chriskisn

At the time I was active on the old alt.music.fleetwoodmac newsgroup and there was a lot of talk about Peter coming back and his new band the Splinter Group.

Your mention of the old newsgroup made me curious - how many people here remember the old "Blues for Greeny" internet board? Nothing to do with the Gary Moore album of the same name, it was my main source for Peter Green discussion and info before I came across The Ledge. That board is long-gone now, can't remember when it shut down.

[Alan Olson]

For me i was living with a group of friends and one of the guys was a music head much like myself. I had always been into the late sixtys and early seventys type of hippy music. I also had a large blues collection of cassettes and CD's and my room-mate was really into the more modern music but his musical tastes were well rounded.

To make a long story short, he had a copy of the Dog and Dustbin album that his older brother had given to him and since he new that I was into the blues and the 60's & 70's music he thought that I already new about the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac era. I did not know anything about Peter. From the moment he started playing it I was hooked. I began collecting everything I could find from the Peter era and have been lucky enough to build a great collection of his recordings from stores, internet sales, bootleg sites, and some great friends that I have made here on the ledge.
-Al

[Muddy]

Originally Posted by chriskisn

Back in those days (1997) you had to import albums from the US to Australia, which could take weeks, you would walk into the record store, and they would pull out these big catalogues and look up the album and then order it for you. Crazy to think that I would catch the train to the city to order the albums from "Wesley Music" (no longer there unfortunately). I remember getting a $900 tax refund and going up there and spending it all on Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall albums. Imported CDs were so very expensive; I think I bought 16 albums for that $900.

I remember doing the same thing here in Brazil around 96. I bought Stevie Ray Vaughn's Live Alive and The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson that manner, among others.

The web was a huge help for all music fans, as it made easier to buy albums and especially to have access to information about bands, musicians, discographies etc.