Peter Green in memoriam

[LeoL]

The memorial pages dedicated to Peter Green are like tombstones on the internet, and as time goes by, flowers are placed on them less and less often.
But while the memory of us ordinary people fades away forever, Peter Green's memory is to be discovered again and again.

Perhaps Peter Green's most beautiful song is about death and tombstones:

"I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
I say, I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
To pick up me a tombstone, and be pronounced dead.

When I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
And that's when I decided, that I would be better off dead.

It read, there is no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Oh, there's no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Yes, because it's all over now, and baby you can bet on that…."

I've got a good mind to give up living
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1XW...&start_radio=1

[LeoL]

Peter Green's appreciation is based on those few years with Fleetwood Mac. Without those years, no one would know about him. Can we honestly say whether he achieved anything great musically in his later years?

The key work to understanding this is Martin Celmins's meritorious biography "Peter Green - Founder of Fleetwood Mac" - especially its new updated edition.

The book shows the point at which Green's drug use had done its job - destroying him as a uniquely masterful creative musician.

Green's brother Mike says that he was shocked when he met his brother at the airport when Peter returned to London in March-April 1971, how bad Peter had fallen on this trip - and from which he never recovered.

After this, Peter Green's musical genius only burst forth from time to time in small drops, as if brought out by the automation of finger motion memory.

[LeoL]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjoSfR70we8

[Villavic]

Coincidentially I was reading Peter recorded his last song with Fleetwood Mac this month in 1970 (april ~14), though it is considered he left the band on May 25 after they played London's Lyceum along with the Grateful Dead, or so Mick wrote:

It was Pete's last official appearance with Fleetwood Mac as a member of the band. (There are those who were at this show who remember Pete, crazed on acid, trying to burn the amps backstage, but I don't remember this.) Meanwhile, the press was having a field day with our misfortune.

[LeoL]

The legendary "LSD chef" of the Grateful Dead was Owsley "Bear" Stanley (1935–2011). It was here that the fateful connection that led to the collapse of Peter Green's mental health.

Although Owsley was officially known as the band's sound engineer and "fifth member", he was first and foremost a world-famous underground chemist who produced most of the purest LSD of the mid- to late-1960s.
Owsley Stanley's importance

Massive production: He is estimated to have produced over a million doses of LSD, which were widely distributed through "Acid Tests" and Grateful Dead tours.

"Owsley Blue": The substance he produced was known for its exceptional purity at a time when there was a lot of impure stuff on the market.
Pioneer in sound: In addition to chemistry, he revolutionized the sound of rock concerts. He designed the band's massive "Wall of Sound" speaker system.