[sharksfan2000]

Originally Posted by slipkid

The reason I "read into that" is because Mick Fleetwood remembers everything. If you have seen the BBC Peter Green documentary from four/five years ago, Mick Fleetwood, along with Jeremy Spencer is reminding John McVie what actually happened.

Thanks for the clarification, slipkid. I agree with some of your take on the interview but not on other things.

Originally Posted by slipkid

I think deep down Mick Fleetwood is out to protect the FM franchise. Go back in the Ledge archives and read the then recent post 5/70 interviews with MF. Mick practically dismisses Green's "The End of The Game" as another Hendrix copy attempt. Mick was pissed off! Mick Fleetwood has been behind the "Munich incident" hype since 3/70. As you said, we now know the 1971 winter/spring post concerts were not all about "Black Magic Woman". Thanks to the internet, we now have audible proof that Peter Green probably played his best guitar post Munich 3/70. What MF wanted to hide is that Peter Green was just simply "bored". The late Gary Moore has said as early as 1969, Peter Green told him personally that wanted out of Fleetwood Mac.

While it's possible PG's behavior changed from 1967, his life-force didn't switch off over one night in Munich Germany.

I do suspect you're right that Mick Fleetwood has "selective memory" about some things regarding the band, and maybe other things - as I mentioned in my earlier post - are just the way he remembered them. I've expressed my frustration with some of the inaccuracies in his book more than once here on the Ledge. But overall, I still don't see his words in this particular interview as being as harsh as you do.

A lot of people dismissed - and still dismiss - "The End of the Game". Fleetwood would hardly have been alone in that viewpoint. And being so different from Green's work with the band, you can see how Fleetwood might have been particularly disappointed with it, maybe even seeing it as Green being dismissive of his own past with the band. If, as you note later in your post, Fleetwood was "crushed" by Green leaving the band, it's not hard to see how that would have colored his opinion of Green's new album.

We've discussed the Munich incident many times on the Ledge, and what I've said is that although I think it's doubtful that there was any instant transformation to Green from that, I can see where the other band members may have felt that way - since it sounds like it was immediately afterwards that he told them he was leaving the band, though as you correctly note, he'd considered doing that for some time.

Originally Posted by slipkid

So this 1994 interview is MF speaking as if Peter Green is dead musically, and not coming back.

In 1994, virtually everyone would have come to the same conclusion. His comeback not that long afterwards was regarded as a huge surprise.

Originally Posted by slipkid

Jump to the late winter of 2008, FM is about to start on a big US tour, and Mick Fleetwood is interviewed for Sirius radio. All of a sudden, Peter Green is now the god Fleetwood saw him before he abandoned him, and FM in May, 1970. Mick Fleetwood now brags that Green was the "English guy" the Chicago bluesmen respected over Eric Clapton.

Mick Fleetwood was crushed, and very bitter when Peter Green left FM. Here's a scenario; Stevie Nicks , and Lindsey Buckingham agree to join FM New Year's Eve 1974. The next day, Peter Green appears, and admits he misses being in FM, and wants to re-join. I would bet the economies of all countries of the western world that Mick Fleetwood would choose Peter Green over Buckingham/Nicks.

There seems little question that Fleetwood was crushed when Green left the band, and much of what Fleetwood remembers (or chooses to remember) has to be seen in that light.

Would he have chosen Green over Buckingham/Nicks after Bob Welch left the band? I think he would have made every effort to find room for all of them. As you noted, Fleetwood has been the main "protector" of the "FM franchise". At that point in their history, with the band being far more popular in the (much more lucrative) US market, where Green was little-known, going with Buckingham/Nicks would have been the direction that was more likely to carry them further there - that choice obviously turned out all right for the band! And Green might very well have been happier not to have to carry the weight of the band at that point too - integrating his talents with those of B/N might have proved challenging, but not impossible. All speculation, but an interesting scenario.