RIP Peter Green

Blueingreen

He was huge for me as a teenager.  Temperamentally I'm not given to hero worship but if I didn't hero worship Peter Green it was close.  My musical interests wandered away from blues in my early 20s but he's still probably in the top ten of musicians who've mattered most to me. 

JezWynd

Had my first full blown trip to side 2 of Oh Well on constant repeat many, many years ago. Quite blew my mind; kinda ironic in retrospect. Although he's mainly revered as a blues player, he had a breadth of styles, sometimes treating the guitar as an orchestral type instrument.

HAL9000

Just been listening, this pm, to Alexa shuffling Peter Green. Apart from the usual comments about phrasing and economy, there's also a delicacy of touch that very few have.

tone1

Just driven 3 hours to Basingstoke listening to Radio 6’s tribute....Perfect drive up 

Strangefan

Always a shame when someone dies, how'ver I just can't see the appeal of him (just my opinion) wasnt he just another drug casualty who ruined his chances of a decent  career... ( please correct me if that's wrong) 

beed84

I fully discovered and genuinely appreciated Peter Green quite late on as guitarist, and having listened to him recently he's definitely my kind of player. He'll be on tomorrows playlist in tribute. RIP. 

EricTheWeary

Strangefan said:

Always a shame when someone dies, how'ver I just can't see the appeal of him (just my opinion) wasnt he just another drug casualty who ruined his chances of a decent  career... ( please correct me if that's wrong) 

I think the story goes that he was encouraged to take part in an acid trip whilst at a party and was never the same again. 

Fairly short career ( if you ignore the occasional comeback, although I think he was more encouraged to do that than motivated to do that) and not everything is everybody’s cup of tea and to some extent you do have to sift through what was recorded ( as it’s not necessarily his voice or playing that’s at the forefront of everything) but if you have an ear for it an absolute master of what he did do. 

KKJale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOAdaBLLb-o&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1Y-pHMlsw-DHt1p2aGcKsdz26rcrv1CSVhS9i9GV8E1Lz4q0vinxPx4E4

Funkfingers

Bridgehouse said:

Short answer - the mods are annoyed at wasting a big chunk of our day moving 27 different posts and merging them here simply because some people can’t follow simple instructions. 

Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite. 

richman6100

EricTheWeary said:

Strangefan said:

Always a shame when someone dies, how'ver I just can't see the appeal of him (just my opinion) wasnt he just another drug casualty who ruined his chances of a decent  career... ( please correct me if that's wrong) 

I think the story goes that he was encouraged to take part in an acid trip whilst at a party and was never the same again. 

Fairly short career ( if you ignore the occasional comeback, although I think he was more encouraged to do that than motivated to do that) and not everything is everybody’s cup of tea and to some extent you do have to sift through what was recorded ( as it’s not necessarily his voice or playing that’s at the forefront of everything) but if you have an ear for it an absolute master of what he did do. 

From what I've read about PG (a fair amount, though I'm not claiming to be an expert), the story of the infamous Munich acid trip is overplayed. He was starting to show mild symptoms of schizophrenia prior to this and many people saw him several times after Munich and he appeared normal. It's certainly possible that LSD exacerbated a condition that he already had, but to assume it was the sole cause, and he was just another rock star who threw his career away on drugs, is an over-simplification. His mental health issues may have been less pronounced had he not done these drugs, but it's likely they would have affected him anyway. I'm just glad that he managed to produce the great music that he did. He influenced many people, myself included. RIP PG.

benmurray85

I've found myself really upset by this news over the weekend. I'm not normally a guy who's prone to the out pouring of affection on social media and all that but I've always found PG's story really upsetting and he's always been a source of inspiration since I started playing as a teen.

I'll kindly delete this if it isn't acceptable or not the right time but I was playing along to a Jumping at Shadows inspired loop this morning and decided to upload a quick snippet as a tribute. The playing isn't great by any means but I'm going to buckle down again after this news to up my game. 

hotpickups

EricTheWeary said:

Strangefan said:

Always a shame when someone dies, how'ver I just can't see the appeal of him (just my opinion) wasnt he just another drug casualty who ruined his chances of a decent  career... ( please correct me if that's wrong) 

I think the story goes that he was encouraged to take part in an acid trip whilst at a party and was never the same again. 

Fairly short career ( if you ignore the occasional comeback, although I think he was more encouraged to do that than motivated to do that) and not everything is everybody’s cup of tea and to some extent you do have to sift through what was recorded ( as it’s not necessarily his voice or playing that’s at the forefront of everything) but if you have an ear for it an absolute master of what he did do. 

I think that's the problem with drugs one doesn't always know what the effect will be on an individual. It's not the drug itself necessarily but like in Peter's case I read that he probably had an underlying mental health problem already that wasn't undiagnosed in those days and the drug he took amplified it. 

benmurray85

benmurray85 said:

I've found myself really upset by this news over the weekend. I'm not normally a guy who's prone to the out pouring of affection on social media and all that but I've always found PG's story really upsetting and he's always been a source of inspiration since I started playing as a teen.

I'll kindly delete this if it isn't acceptable or not the right time but I was playing along to a Jumping at Shadows inspired loop this morning and decided to upload a quick snippet as a tribute. The playing isn't great by any means but I'm going to buckle down again after this news to up my game. 

Of course, it always helps to include the link 

springhead

hotpickups said:

EricTheWeary said:

Strangefan said:

Always a shame when someone dies, how'ver I just can't see the appeal of him (just my opinion) wasnt he just another drug casualty who ruined his chances of a decent  career... ( please correct me if that's wrong) 

I think the story goes that he was encouraged to take part in an acid trip whilst at a party and was never the same again. 

Fairly short career ( if you ignore the occasional comeback, although I think he was more encouraged to do that than motivated to do that) and not everything is everybody’s cup of tea and to some extent you do have to sift through what was recorded ( as it’s not necessarily his voice or playing that’s at the forefront of everything) but if you have an ear for it an absolute master of what he did do. 

I think that's the problem with drugs one doesn't always know what the effect will be on an individual. It's not the drug itself necessarily but like in Peter's case I read that he probably had an underlying mental health problem already that wasn't undiagnosed in those days and the drug he took amplified it. 

He was struggling before the Munich dodgy acid incident, including trying to get the others in the band to give their earnings away.  I think he signed over the royalties for Black Magic Woman to a charity or school possibly?  By all accounts though the Munich experience was a major contributory factor in the decline of his mental health.

Philly_Q

Around 1985 I was on a college course in Shepherds Bush and someone told me Peter Green was homeless and could often be seen wandering round that area.  They also said - odd little details - he was overweight and had really long fingernails.

I have no idea if that was true, I never saw him although strangely I have quite a strong mental image of what he might have looked like!  Thinking back, I'm surprised whoever told me - I can't remember who it was - would even know the name Peter Green.  It would have been around the end of his solo career, long before Splinter Group, but he was hardly a household name. 

Emiel

True... if you watch the (excellent) documentary 'Man of the World' and read through the lines, he seemed alright in 1970, 1971 but he really 'changed' in the years after that. Drug use or not, I guess the electroshock treatment he received in those psychiatric hospitals didn't help much either...

rlw

Philly_Q said:

Around 1985 I was on a college course in Shepherds Bush and someone told me Peter Green was homeless and could often be seen wandering round that area.  They also said - odd little details - he was overweight and had really long fingernails.

I have no idea if that was true, I never saw him although strangely I have quite a strong mental image of what he might have looked like!  Thinking back, I'm surprised whoever told me - I can't remember who it was - would even know the name Peter Green.  It would have been around the end of his solo career, long before Splinter Group, but he was hardly a household name. 

A work colleague of my wife used to see him a lot in the Twickham to Teddington area.  Always looking a state and behaving oddly.  Such a shame.

westford

Philly_Q said:

Around 1985 I was on a college course in Shepherds Bush and someone told me Peter Green was homeless and could often be seen wandering round that area.  They also said - odd little details - he was overweight and had really long fingernails.

My late father-in-law was a bus driver and often saw him on his Richmond route, he said the same about his fingernails.

springhead

First time I saw him was at the end of Gary Moore's Blues For Greeny gig in Shepherds Bush, 1995.  Wonderful gig of Gary playing Peters songs all evening using 'that' LP, and then after the encore Peter walked out on the stage, just to wave.  Place went nuts!  Didn't think I'd ever see him.  Then saw him twice with Splinter Group, including their second ever gig which was at Guildford Folk and Blues festival, with local boy Clapton hanging out backstage with him.  There were moments where the Peter of old came out in the playing but mostly he didn't want to go there and left most of the work to Nigel Watson.

goldtop

Emiel said:

True... if you watch the (excellent) documentary 'Man of the World' and read through the lines, he seemed alright in 1970, 1971 but he really 'changed' in the years after that. Drug use or not, I guess the electroshock treatment he received in those psychiatric hospitals didn't help much either...

It's hard to say. But ISTR the lyrics of Green Manalishi (1970) were born out of a particularly harrowing hallucination. I read Celmins' biography about 10-15 years ago, and it's clear that PG was already a very sensitive person way before rock-n-roll got hold of him. It's not just the alcohol/drugs, it was also how showbiz treated 'talent'. He was also completely freaked out by hero worship, replacing Clapton and fans' interest in which guitar/amp he was using to get his sound.

He had a very mischievous sense of humour: "too Parisienne" when asked if he wanted the Greeny LP back; and "sorry about that" when the interviewer told him that "The Supernatural" inspired Carlos Santana.

I saw him twice with Splinter Group, and on both occasions it looked like he wanted to be anywhere else other than up on that stage. It made me feel uncomfortable and actually a bit guilty for being part of the demand that dragged him up there.