Peter Green biography - page three
The time soon came for the band to cut their first album - simply called "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac". It included their first single "I believe my time ain't long" (which wasn't a hit). Also included were two great songs; "Rambling Pony" and "Long Grey Mare" which featured great bass playing from Brunning. The band were already very polished, and were miles ahead of their rivals. This first album carried a major Elmore James influence, particularly on the songs showcasing the Elvis loving slide player, Jeremy Spencer. This debut album was a major success for the band, peaking at number 4 in the UK album charts.
With the Mac now in fine shape, John McVie started to wish he'd jumped from the Bluesbreakers with Peter and Mick. When at a soundcheck, Mayall called for the band to play free-form, McVie decided he'd had enough. He walked across the road to a public call box, phoned Peter and said "I'm in!"
Shortly after McVie rejoining his comrades, the "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" album was released, staying on the UK album chart for over a year.
Over the year of 1968, Peter had started to befriend a young South London guitar player called Danny Kirwan, who played with the band Boilerhouse. It wasn't lonf before Peter wanted Danny to join Mac. Despite initial hostility to the idea from other band members, auditions were held and when no-one suitable was found to join as third guitarist, Danny got the nod.
This gave Peter a great since of relief, as he had been having the feeling that the madcap antics of Jeremy Spencer was holding the band back. Danny's influence started to move Mac away from the blues towards a more straight ahead rock feel. He often played lead on Peter's compositions, usually at the request of Green himself.
The band's second album was titled "Mr Wonderful". With the addition of Danny Kirwan, Mac became one of the few three guitar bands (alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet).
During sessions for the bands third album "Then Play On", Peter started to become more and more detached from the rest of the band. He was taking large amounts of acid, and also swung away from his Jewish heritage, to Christianity - appearing onstage in long hair, flowing robes and crucifixes. He even stayed more in the background for the guitar parts of the album, pushing bandmate Danny Kirwan forward to take the solo's. Peter's personality change was to the extent that he wanted the band to give their profits to charity. Mick Fleetwood recalls;
I had conversations with Peter Green around that time and he was obsessive about us NOT making money, wanting us to give it all away. And i'd say, "Well you can do it, i don't wanna do that, and that doesn't make me a bad person."
Despite all the problems, a new Peter Green written single, "Oh Well, parts 1 and 2", was released in 1969. It became a hit in the UK and the rest of Europe.
While touring again in the States, the band did a jam-session with some blues legends like Otis Spann and Willie Dixon, a few of Peter's great examples, which was released on an album later as "Blues Jam At Chess".
However, the more successful the band became, the more unhappy and disillusioned Peter became. (bear in mind that in 1969, Fleetwood Mac sold more records than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined) For some time he had become more and more unhappy with the attention and particularly the wealth he was accumulating with the band. He told the others that he had a vision of an Angel holding a starving Biafran child in her arms - it was around this point in his life that Peter started to forcibly argue for his ideal of the Mac becoming a charity band.
"I thought I had too much money to be happy and normal. Thousand of pounds is just too much for a working person to handle all of a sudden, and I felt I didn't deserve it."
Initially, Peter found a half-hearted supporter in John McVie, mainly because John felt there was no reason not to go along with it. However, Mick Fleetwood was dead set against the idea, unhappy at the idea of having to give away all that he had worked for, especially as he didn't consider the band to be that wealthy anyway.
March 1970 saw the release of the final Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac hit single "The Green Manalishi", a song inspired about a nightmare Peter had about (as Robert Johnson said) the hellhounds on his trail. Within weeks, (May 28 1970 to be precise) Peter Green had left the band he formed, plunging the Mac into a musical crisis that took them six years to recover from. Peter was very responsible about the whole thing - he didn't leave the band in the lurch, but played out all his contracted dates.
Peter, at the time, said;
There are many reasons why i'm leaving. The main thing is that i feel it is time for a change. I want to change my whole life, because i don't want to be a part of the conditioned world and as much as possible, i'm getting out of it."
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