I was recently tipped off about a possibly previously “unknown” Green guest session with a link to a Wikipedia page about a song called, ‘Cowman, Milk Your Cow’.
Recorded by Adam Faith, it was written by, and contains backing and harmony vocals from the Brothers Gibb (The Bee Gees).
Recorded and released in 1967, the number is what is now called “popsike”; a pop music ballad with lightly psychedelic overtones. It is actually not that bad, for what it is.
What does Peter Green have to do with any of this? Listening to the number, I would say absolutely nothing, yet according to the Wiki page, quoting from another website, which in turn got the information from the liner notes to an out of print CD, Green plays guitar on the track.
The CD in question is “Songbook – The Gibb Brothers by Others (Connoisseur Collection 1993). This disc has apparently been replaced by “The Bee Gees Songbook” (Music Club 2004). Where the earlier collection contained twenty songs, the new one is has only seventeen, with Faith’s number among the missing.
I’d love to see the liner notes to original CD as the recording information provided for the song (found on another website) is as follows:
Adam Faith — vocal
Russ Ballard — guitar
Pete Salt — guitar
‘Mod’ Rogan — bass
Bob Henrit — drums
possibly Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb — vocal
engineer: ?
producer: ?
July or August 1967, London
Ballard, Rogan and Henrit were The Roulettes, Faith’s backing band – the other guitarist listed, “Pete Salt” was not then, or ever was, a member of that band. If there was a second guitarist brought in for the session, he also wasn’t named “Pete Salt”, as I can find no other information concerning anyone with that name.
The Wiki page also has the number being recorded in Denmark.
Further research shows that the person posting the page confused the information found in a book on the Bee Gees “The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb” by Hector Cook, Melinda Bilyeu & Andrew Mon Hughes about the song being recorded in a “little studio” off of Denmark Street in London (the Regent Sound Studios).
The recording information found in “Complete Faith” 6CD Adam Faith set has recording date as August 22, 1967, and the session being done at Abbey Road Studios. (Faith’s records were released by Parlaphone in the U.K., an EMI subsidiary. EMI artists recorded at Abbey Road Studios)
The credits also only list Russ Ballard on guitar.
Okay, so the question remains: how did the author of the liner notes came to the conclusion that “Pete Salt” was a pseudonym for Peter Green?
I have no idea!
July and August of 1967 was when Green was putting together Fleetwood Mac, and while he did do a session with Aynsley Dunbar and Jack Bruce around that time, that was a “one-off” put together by Mike Vernon. As far as I know (which admittedly isn’t very far), he never had any connection to anyone involved in the Faith recording, or at EMI or had even ever recorded anything at Abbey Road, or Regent Sound Studios.
More importantly, I cannot hear Green’s guitar on the finished track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uWtF1E0Otc
If (by some miracle) anyone has the original “Songbook” CD and if the liner notes provide any further information about this, please share.