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" :) )