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Old 06-04-2011, 09:20 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
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Default 1991 Review Q Magazine: Rarities, etc.

Peter Green: Rarities, Two Greens Make A Blue and Tramp: Tramp
Andy Gill, Q, May 1991

AS A RULE, old legends might best be left alone to gather mythic dust.

These four offerings all trade on the mystique of the greatest blues guitarist this country ever produced, but none adds to the sum knowledge of Peter Green's talent as depicted in glittering detail on Essential's three-CD compilation of first-generation Fleetwood Mac recordings for Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label.

The Columbia compilation features eight tracks apiece from the early Mac and Christine Perfect. With a few exceptions – notably the hit title track and Green's classic 'Love That Burns' – Mac's seem to consist solely of Jeremy Spencer's endless shoddy reiterations of the Elmore James' 'Dust My Broom' riff, giving a severely lop-sided impression of the band's style and abilities. Perfect's tracks - culled mainly from a long-vanished solo album released around the time of her accession to the Mac's ranks in '69/70 - are flown on the back of her 1969 hit with Chicken Shack, the excellent 'I'd Rather Go Blind', and feature piano backings in preference to the era's guitar domination. Sadly, they reveal little of the gift for writing catchy, comy pop songs she displayed in the later Mac.

The Tramp and Rarities albums, however, don't even have the virtue of being original Mac recordings. Released to "accompany" Bob Brunning's Fleetwood Mac biography, they feature spin-off collaborations by Green. Danny Kirwan and Mick Fleetwood with lesser lights of the British blues boom. The Brunning Sunflower Blues Band and Tramp, both organised by Brunning Green's contributions to the former make up side one of Rarities, though of historical interest, they lack any sense of focus or construction, and are clearly just tossed off as a favour for chums. Kirwan and Fleetwood appear on side two's Tramp tracks all but one of which are also included on the group's self-titled album. Brunning's sleevenote mentions the concept of "a fluid musical framework in which we could utilise the skills of any musicians... in playing material which appealed to us all", which translates roughly as a blues jam. Despite attempts to adapt the blues form to the mundanities of British life in 'Another Day' and 'What You Gonna Do' - talk of mortgages etc - the music is just dull, being simply a series of pedestrian 12-bar lopes and listless boogies lit up by the occasional phrase from Kirwan or pianist Bob Hall.

Compared, in retrospect, to the crackling electric blues coming out of Chicago, one can only wonder at the kind of influence the latter had on the Brit blues boom, so unlike are the styles. This 'blues' is neutral, polite, and almost apologetic for the most part, and rightly so.

The album featuring the post-Mac Peter Green and his former Pirates namesake (along with former Dr Feelgood guitarist Gypie Mayo, amongst others) is essentially a bunch of old rock and blues lags collaborating on a mid-'80s "new wave blues" exercise whose roots are traceable to the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Captain Beefheart, judging by the growled vocals of the chap who calls himself The Raven. Though Green's playing seems to have lost its poignant individuality – to be honest, it's difficult to tell who's who – the overall standard here is impressively high, with Gary Peters' "atonal" guitar offering the most noteworthy moments, sounding like a less clanky Marc Ribot as it squeaks, pings and scribbles along. Unlike the late '60s jams, it also has the virtue of using form and style as a means rather than an end in itself, and as a result is ironically more "authentic" than any of them.
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