Peter Green influence on contemporary musicians?
 

ChiliD and Dino mentioned in another thread about Jimi Hendrix being influenced by Peter Green. From one of Dino's posts:

Hendrix was a major Greeny fan. I've never though about "Pali Gap" being inspired by Peter. Interesting...I think you're right. He did jam on the riff from "Oh Well (part 1) in concert, an example is during (I think) "Voodoo Child" from his last concert at Fehmarn, Germany.

I hadn't heard about that before - pretty interesting. I'm not that familiar with Hendrix interviews, etc. - did he mention Peter in any? I've read many times about the Beatles' song "Sun King" being modeled on the sound of "Albatross". Found this 1987 quote from George Harrison:

"At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac... but that was the point of origin."

Are there other examples of contemporary '60s musicians (or later ones) doing original songs that were directly influenced by Peter's music?

B.B. King, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton are three contemporaries who have praised Peter's playing over the years. Artists who have aknowledged his influence include Aerosmith, Gary Moore, and Black Sabbath.

Don't know if Hendrix ever mentioned Peter Green in any interview. But then most
journalists just asked him about his sex life, fashion, politics and stuff. Mick Fleetwood
has said that Hendrix was a major Greeny fan, and they did play together a few times.
Funnily enough, Peter was confused by Hendrix's playing...which you can maybe understand if you compare their styles (at least up to 1969). Both very innovative, but in different ways.

Although not direct lift (as so many of their songs were) I would say that Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" the lead track of the untitled fourth album owes a huge debt to the structure and guitar stylings of "Oh Well Part I"

"Influence" and "inspiration" seem to get used interchangeably, in books, articles and liner notes and yet there are subtle distinctions -
"Influence" - a performer could have a profound impact on another artist's work without any overt similarities being readily apparent.
The impact could just be in the way the artist sees and approaches his work, which I would define, for lack of a better term, as "inspiration".
Sometimes the influence is plain to see, such as B. B. King's style on Green's playing (even at times his singing) - following that line backwards, T-Bone Walker's influence on King is also quite obvious.
Compare this to Green's, or even Mayall's frequent mentioning of someone like J. B. Lenoir - it is all but impossible to hear any traces of Lenoir's playing, singing or writing style in their work, and yet he is cited by both men, (Mayall in particular)as a huge inspiration.
Interestingly, Lenoir was beginning to incorporate "African rhythms" into his music in his last recordings - he died in 1967 - and Green may have picked up this thread in mid-'69, although it is just as likely that at the time he was being influenced by the music Santana was then making as Santana was influenced by Green's earlier work.

Writer's (professionals) frequently allude to the "influence" of Hendrix and the Grateful Dead on Green's later work with Fleetwood Mac - again, specifically during 1969 - 1970 - but listening to the work of these artists, it seems apparent that for Green, it was more of what the other two represented, the freedom to improvise, to not have to play the same songs, the same way, night after night, that intrigued him.
The music that he and the band played sounded little like the music of Hendrix or the Dead.

another player influenced by peter in early 70's was billy gibbons of zztop. i've forgotten the song titles and i'm away from my collection, but there are a number of songs and solos on the early top records that are totally 'peter green'.

a bit off topic, i ran across this recently: http://www.gritz.net/subscribers_are...ddy_miles.html

apparently pete is buddy miles' all time favorite guitarist. i'm not much of a buddy-fan but considering he played a lot with bloomfield, hendrix, santana, that's something.

you all have come up with some great topics in the past few weeks. i'm enjoying the pre-rumors and pg threads more than ever.

zero

"Blue Jean Blues"
"Asleep In The Desert"
"Just Got Back From Baby's"
"Brown Sugar"
"Just Got Paid"
"Bar-B-Q"
"Sure Got Cold When The Rain Fell"
"Hot, Blue & Righteous"

There are more, but, those are off the top of my head.


And, let's not forget that ZZ Top covered "Rattlesnake Shake" on their 1975 World Wide Texas tour.

I wouldnt mind hearing that. SOunds like it'd be pretty good coming from them.

Thanks for that list of songs, chiliD. I knew that Billy Gibbons has said he's a big Greeny fan. I'm not that familiar with ZZ Top's work though, so now I know which songs I'll have to check out! :)

And thanks for the link to that Buddy Miles interview, mzero. Too bad the interviewer didn't follow up at all on his mention of Peter being his favorite guitarist. But then in the same interview he says that Billy Gibbons is his favorite guitarist. And that Michael Bloomfield was the best white blues guitarist he ever saw. And Lonnie Mack. And Roy Buchanan. :laugh: Lots of "favorites"!

You know, for someone like myself who knows about Peter and listens to his stuff, but doesn't have a great depth of knowledge of overall music, hearing comments like these musicians about Pete really deepens my appreciation for his talent.:nod:

Carlos Santana cites Green as one of his biggest influences in an interview I heard a few years back. I remember reading about a Splinter Group gig a few years ago in San Francisco, Carlos came up and jammed with the band, and of course Peter joined him onstage at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame when Fleetwood Mac and Santana were both inducted back in 1998.

Gary Moore released an album full of Peter Green covers using Pete's old Les Paul for a lot of them. Rick Vito has of course done a few tributes to Peter too..

Noel Gallagher, believe it or not, is a big fan of Green's talents too.

He has influenced my own playing greatly, not in a technical sense but in the emotive sense. I think Peter can say more with one note or one bend than any guitarist in history personally.

Very true. Also sometimes it can be assumed that there's an influence when there isn't - you do get uncanny similarities in two artists' work that is totally accidental. For example, when Mike Vernon first heard Danny Kirwan playing, he thought he sounded just like Lowell Fulson. Vernon told Peter Green, who agreed. Later, once Danny was in Fleetwood Mac, Vernon asked him what he thought of Fulson, and Danny said, "Who's Lowell Fulson?" :laugh:

i second that thanks. zztop covered a lot of ground from the beginning until now so you have to look around a little. anymore i don't hear much of any pete in billy g. but in the the early days it was clear. and these days billy g. is still one of my favorite guitarists.

heck sf2k i'd advise you to just get the whole top catalog. i think there is there's lots of good stuff even in their most recent releases. zero's opinion- cD may think otherwise.

funny! i guess consistency and integrity are not buddy's strengths.

hey we forgot david gilmour. pete a big influence there too.

and of course bernie marsden. whitesnake!!

zero

Of course Peter, David Gilmour and indeed Mark Knopfler too were all inspired by Hank Marvin. :nod:

Thanks for all the responses - some great info here. I agree that I hear Greeny's influence in some of Mark Knopfler's work (or at least I think I do).

What I was more interested in with my original question - and I realize I didn't state it very clearly - was whether there are specific songs by other artists that seem to be influenced on specific songs or playing by Peter. I mentioned the Beatles' "Sun King" since that one is well-known and admittedly inspired by "Albatross", and Hendrix's "Pali Gap" (which I haven't heard) since a couple of people here mentioned that they felt it may have been influenced by some of Peter's work - specifically "Underway", "Albatross", and "World In Harmony". ChiliD's suggestions of checking into some of Billy Gibbon's early ZZ Top work sounds promising, and I'll have to do that.

But to rephrase my question, what specific songs by other artists can you think of that may have been directly inspired by a specific song, or a specific piece of guitar work, by Peter Green? As an example of the distinction I'm trying to make, it's often been pointed out that Carlos Santana must have been strongly influenced by "The Supernatural" in his guitar style (though I wonder what Santana's guitar playing sounded like before he'd heard that - anyone know?) - but are there any specific Santana songs that seem directly inspired by "The Supernatural"? Hope that clarifies my question somewhat.

(And apologies to BklynBlue for not being very rigorous in my use of "influenced" and "inspired" :) )

"World In Harmony" was mostly written by Danny Kirwan of course - Danny was stuck for a solo, Peter contributed one, and Danny gave him a co-writing credit for it.

I knew if I didn't point that out in my post, someone else would! :laugh: Good for you, bretonbanquet!

Thinking off the top of my head about Santana tracks that are close to the feel of "The Supernatural"......"Samba Pa Ti" comes to mind, but I don't know that I think of it as directly inspired by "The Supernatural". Anyone else care to comment?

thanks for that quote! I can just imagine Kirwan saying that too.
I have a number of Fulson's recordings, covering a number of years, and I personally don't hear anything similar to Kirwan's style - but I have no problem deferring to Vernon and Green on that one - if they say that it who Kirwan's playing reminds them of, who am I to argue!

As to "direct" contemporary influences, I would say that Santana's approach to his cover of "Black Magic Woman" owes more to Green's playing on "I Loved Another Woman" than on "BMW" itself, and since I mentioned Led Zeppelin earlier, the coda on the end of Kirwan's "Coming Your Way" owes a debt, IMHO, to Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" (which they stole from a singer songwriter named Jake Holmes - the song, not the arrangement)

P.S. I realize that Zeppelin's version was not released until January of 1969 and that Kirwan cut "Coming Your Way" at his October 1968 session with Vernon, but Page had been playing "Dazed and Confused" was in the set lists of both the Yardbirds and New Yardbirds.

I read an old article recently where Lindsey Buckingham refers to David Gilmour and Peter Green as big influences.. He mentioned Eric Clapton was too much straight blues but those two had more scope to play within the boundaries.

I agree with you totally on that, but Vernon has also said that once Kirwan had been in the band for a short time, his style seemed to change away from the Fulson-esque sound. So maybe we need someone to unearth some Boilerhouse bootlegs in order to appreciate the comparison :laugh:

As for Santana's "Samba Pa TÃ*", I've always thought I heard hints of Peter Green on that tune. Maybe not directly linked to "The Supernatural", but definitely that kind of vibe.

Now you mention it, I often think there's more of Danny's style than Peter's in Lindsey's playing. Maybe I'm a bit Danny-centric, but I recall other people saying the same thing. Although, I've never heard Lindsey mention Danny at all.

I'd agree with that, I think Lindsey and Danny both played with more flair than Pete too, I would say Pete's connection with the inner emotion or having "the feel" was somewhat deeper than both of them though..

I agree - Pete's playing was all about feel, I think. And Lindsey and Danny had/have great style but with less raw emotion - actually it's hard to think of any player who compares with Peter on that score. Also I would say Danny played with more emotion when he first joined Mac (e.g. "Something Inside of Me" and "Without You"), but that gradually decreased over 1969-70 and onwards.

"Europa".:nod:

Didn't Thin Lizzy do "Oh Well"?

I know Judas Priest, an unlikely torch-bearer of the Green legacy, used "The Green Manalishi" as an integral part of their shows for years and years. It remains the most commerically known version of the song in the US.

I saw Aerosmith in 1984 (couple years before their "Permanent Vacation" comeback) where they performed "Oh Well."

With regards to Lindsey (mentioned earlier in the thread), Mick has noted that "World Turning" from the 75 white album is a conscious reworking of Green's "World Keep on Turning" from the band's first record.

Just saw "Munich," by the way, where a Lebanese band was playing a very exotic instrumental version of "Black Magic Woman." The Green God's everywhere.

Yeah, good call, chiliD. Santana's guitar work on that has some definite similarities to "The Supernatural".

They've also done "Rattlesnake Shake" & "Stop Messin' Round".

The thing is, BOTH Lindsey & Danny sound like they're playing musical instruments...Peter Green's guitar sounds as if it is coming directly from his soul.

That's the best post I've ever read on The Ledge... I shall steal it for my signature.. Oh yes... :blob1: :lol:

Oh and another thing, Lindsey and Danny both played with passion. Peter played with emotion. To me there is a big difference.

To me, Lindsey sounds like his comes more from "angst" than "passion" though. Wheras, Danny's is definitely "passion".

Angst, inner demons, anal retentiveness.. you name it. :lol:

BTW, I think Peter WAS the musical instrument, the guitar just happened to be an extention of his body. The other guys are just very good musicians..

Actually, the latter kind of sums it up. :laugh:

:thumbsup:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

And what a soul.

That is indeed very nicely put chiliD

George Harrison said something very similar on the DVD that came with the Dark Horse Years box set - he was talking about Clapton and and named Jeff Beck, but his point was the same.