The fateful connection between Peter Green and Brian Wilson

[LeoL]

Reading the memoirs ("I Am") of the recently deceased Brian Wilson (founder of The Beach Boys) reveals striking parallels with his kindred spirit, Peter Green. The common thread in their fates is LSD.

Brian Wilson is certain that he lost his sanity as a result of experimenting with LSD. He curses the day he first took the drug. From that moment on, he was accompanied by voices in his head that tormented him for the rest of his long life. The voices appeared to haunt him even after the very first trip. Unfortunately, Wilson continued using LSD, and with each experience, the voices grew stronger, eventually driving him into psychosis and psychiatric hospitalization.

Wilson recounts how the voices in his head intensified, especially before performances, and they never had anything good to say to him. Crippled by this internal auditory terror, he withdrew from performing at the peak of his fame for nearly a decade. The Beach Boys continued without their founder, Brian Wilson.

Though the voices caused by LSD never left Wilson in peace, he learned to live with them. The psychiatric treatments did not destroy his musical abilities, and he continued working in music in various ways until the end of his life—though he never again reached the heights of his youthful masterpieces, such as Pet Sounds.

Peter Green’s collapse was deeper. In Britain, harsh old-school methods were still used to treat schizophrenia. These robbed him of his ability to play and even his voice. For about ten years after his breakdown, his fingers retained some muscle memory, allowing him to mimic—almost like a copy—the playing of his younger, healthier self. But gradually, even that ability faded, and he became a "gnome" sitting in the corner of the stage while his friends tried their best to recreate his youthful virtuosity by playing his old songs—inevitably failing. The result was a pale shadow of the original brilliance—"The Feel" never returned.

Here is Peter Green's life, repeating the fates of Brian Wilson, in a nutshell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1cVHg2C2sA

[sleepless child]

I've always felt that Lindsey has followed the path of Brian Wilson. Hearing different sounds in your head. Wanting to work alone. That kind of thing. Misunderstood maybe.

[HomerMcvie]

Makes you wonder how much they took. I mean, I did it probably 20 times in total, but I never took more than one hit, each time. I can see how doing 20 hits in an evening might permanently screw you up.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Makes you wonder how much they took. I mean, I did it probably 20 times in total, but I never took more than one hit, each time. I can see how doing 20 hits in an evening might permanently screw you up.

i think i read that peter said he did LSD or acid (are they the same thing??) about 4 times? maybe the stuff he had in germany was super strong? i don't know much about this stuff. sad decline for a brilliant musician.

--Lis

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus

i think i read that peter said he did LSD or acid (are they the same thing??) about 4 times? maybe the stuff he had in germany was super strong? i don't know much about this stuff. sad decline for a brilliant musician.

--Lis

Same thing. LSD is lysergic acid.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD

You know, when you're young, I'd recommend that anyone do it a couple of times(I was probably 30 before I even tried it). But the first couple of times are TRULY a..... self awakening. Almost a religious experience. For the first time, you see things about yourself that you'd never seen before. WHY you're the way you are. More of your life makes sense after the experience. But after about 35, I no longer had the desire to do it(even one hit lasts about 8 hours- and you're ready for it to be over, and go to bed, but you can't, because it's not done with you). I did it one last time about 10 years ago, with some young friends. It was fun, but I knew then that I'd outgrown that part of my life.

[LeoL]

According to his contemporaries, Peter Green first used LSD in 1967.

At the time, Green was still a member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers (before forming Fleetwood Mac later that year). The psychedelic drug culture was flourishing in London, and many musicians, including Green, experimented with LSD.

Peter Green and Brian Wilson's brain structure was apparently so sensitive that LSD produced symptoms of schizophrenia in both of them, such as voices heard in their heads for the rest of their lives. It may be interesting to note that without LSD, the symptoms of schizophrenia would never have erupted - at least that was Brian Wilson's opinion. (Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett can be counted among them)
Most LSD experimenters survived with fewer or no symptoms.

[Villavic]

I've read it too. That the LSD he did in Germany was a bad one (I think the word I read was bad, not strong, but I'm not sure). And that bad LSD may cause schizophrenia or mental damage of that kind. And I think it was similar in Brian's case.

[LeoL]

https://www.facebook.com/ernesto.gevalia

One important photo is missing from Peter Green's family album. Here it is:
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south...eless-30045191

[LeoL]

This Facebook page has a lively discussion about Peter Green topics that you can see and participate in after becoming a member.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/112169888895628

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by LeoL

https://www.facebook.com/ernesto.gevalia

One important photo is missing from Peter Green's family album. Here it is:
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south...eless-30045191

ugh i hate to see stuff like that. why can't peter's family just buy Liam a little studio flat somewhere?? poor guy shouldn't be homeless. I mean the DNA tests showed he's peter's son. he never had a relationship w his dad. this is the least the family should do, imo....

--Lis

[LeoL]

Martin Celmins takes in the latest updated edition of his book a far more level-headed approach and less hyperbolic approach than most when analysing the events in Germany and dismisses the idea that this was the trigger for Peter Green’s decline as “a conspiracy theory, no less”. There is no dispute that Peter was feted by the German Underground, most famously by the glamorous hippie couple Uschi Obermaier and Rainer Langhan, and that he was invited to a party at a commune in a huge house where he ended up taking acid and playing at a very abstract open-ended jam session in the basement.

The author sets out the facts as they appear from a number of protagonists, that Peter was not kept against his will or force-fed drugs and that, most of all, he was really happy with the way that the music turned out. So happy, in fact, that he kept a tape of the session for years that he would play for friends until he misplaced it. The show the following night was a success and a photo included in the book shows Peter appearing quite normally in a street scene the day after, so much for what John McVie called “The Great Trauma”!

Martin Celmins does not believe that the Munich incident triggered his illness, but rather that the use of LSD and other hallucinogens had already begun during Fleetwood Mac's first tour of America. The band members were introduced to LSD by the chemist wife of one of the Grateful Dead's managers, who was known for her skill in making LSD.

Perhaps the most comprehensive review of the latest update to Celmins' book:
https://louderthanwar.com/peter-gree...s-book-review/

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by LeoL

Martin Celmins takes in the latest updated edition of his book a far more level-headed approach and less hyperbolic approach than most when analysing the events in Germany and dismisses the idea that this was the trigger for Peter Green’s decline as “a conspiracy theory, no less”. There is no dispute that Peter was feted by the German Underground, most famously by the glamorous hippie couple Uschi Obermaier and Rainer Langhan, and that he was invited to a party at a commune in a huge house where he ended up taking acid and playing at a very abstract open-ended jam session in the basement.

The author sets out the facts as they appear from a number of protagonists, that Peter was not kept against his will or force-fed drugs and that, most of all, he was really happy with the way that the music turned out. So happy, in fact, that he kept a tape of the session for years that he would play for friends until he misplaced it. The show the following night was a success and a photo included in the book shows Peter appearing quite normally in a street scene the day after, so much for what John McVie called “The Great Trauma”!

Martin Celmins does not believe that the Munich incident triggered his illness, but rather that the use of LSD and other hallucinogens had already begun during Fleetwood Mac's first tour of America. The band members were introduced to LSD by the chemist wife of one of the Grateful Dead's managers, who was known for her skill in making LSD.

Perhaps the most comprehensive review of the latest update to Celmins' book:
https://louderthanwar.com/peter-gree...s-book-review/

Green's decline was apparent during some of the Then Play On promotion, where he began to increasingly talk about God, getting to a point where it was excessive. In interviews discussing "Closing My Eyes", he mentioned that he frequently attempted to engage in conversations about God and expressed his disappointment that few people were receptive to what he had to say. While being passionate about a religious deity does not alone indicate mental unwellness, his obsession over the matter certainly raised some red flags.

[LeoL]

Music is a mood enhancer - the more melancholic a blues tune is, the more effective it is at easing feelings of sadness - In some mysterious way, it eases the listener's own grief. Has there ever been anyone better at expressing melancholy through music than this master of the slow blues?

This song shows Green's worsening pathological sadness - a happy man doesn't sing like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04zT...&start_radio=1

[LeoL]

Mick Fleetwood is Peter Green's biggest admirer and still mourns his fate - how he wouldn't have needed any drugs to increase his creativity - he had it ready and a huge talent of which we only saw a drop - so much was missed when LSD destroyed his sensitive mind.

Mick Fleetwood at 6.00 min. "He (Peter Green) was already there…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reGWi20eLJY

[LeoL]

There are two Peter Greens: the Peter Green of his prime (1968-71) and the later Peter Green who never rose to the musical level of his prime. His performance had lost the "highs" and "lows" that had made him special.

When the greatest descent into "ordinariness" occurred, a clue is given by Peter's brother Michael, who met Peter at Heathrow Airport on his return from the USA in the spring of 1977.

An excerpt from Martin Celmins' book, page 194, where Michael describes his feelings when he sees his brother:

"… When Peter's brother Michael went to pick him up at a hotel near Heathrow, he wasn't at all prepared for the shock that was in store: 'When I first saw my brother, I had to go downstairs and have a drink, because it just wasn't the same person. His voice sounded very weird, muffled, and the first thing he managed to say to me was, "I look like Barry White." It broke my heart. I don't know what had happened to him over in the States but he'd just gone backwards: he had absolutely let himself go.'…"

Of these two performances, which are about 10 years apart, the difference between the first and the original and later Peter Green is very noticeable.

Worried Dream (Recorded 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31N4...&start_radio=1

Fool No More (Recorded autumn of 1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsKn...&start_radio=1