The Supernatural Peter Green

While today would have been the 70th birthday of the inventive, very prolific composer-bandleader-arranger-guitarist Frank Zappa - and that merits a trip over to Wolfgang's Vault for some Mothers Of Invention shows - it's apparent that on these shortest days of the year, my mind frequently gravitates to that guitar geek nirvana, the blues.



Last week the amazing Howlin' Wolf and a guy he inspired, the late, great Don Van Vliet, A.K.A. Captain Beefheart were deeply rooted in moi's consciousness. This week: the London-born master of blues and rock guitar, Peter Green.



First off, if you don't know who Peter Green is, drop everything you are doing, turn off your television, cell phone or PDA, get the hell off Facebook (unless you're on FB's Peter Green Tribute page) and listen to this guy play.



Check out these soulful pieces from Peter's stretch with John Mayall's Blues Breakers.



And enjoy Peter's guitar wizardry with Fleetwood Mac (Note: blog readers who do not, in any way, shape or form, enjoy the essential sound of non-metal/punk style electric guitar or the blues are excused).







Peter could also write gorgeous introspective ballads. This one, "Man Of The World", is particularly beautiful and, sadly, more than hints at the serious personal problems that would meet the gifted guitarist just around the corner:



The lush, ambient instrumental "Albatross", co-written by Green and Danny Kirwan, was a big hit in England for Fleetwood Mac.



Unfortunately, the 1967-1971 Fleetwood Mac, arguably up there with The Who as the greatest of British rock bands, would be stalked by tragedy (mostly caused by extended over-use of LSD-25).



Fortunately, the Peter Green-led version of Fleetwood Mac recorded prolifically enough to leave many hours of remarkable music behind, especially on the Live At The Boston Tea Party recordings and the April 9, 1970 BBC performance on CD 2 of the Show Biz Blues set.

Alas, the story for the incendiary, passionate, hard rocking version of Fleetwood Mac ended abruptly and not at all well. Slide guitarist, Elmore James aficionado, cutup and specialist in Elvis-Buddy Holly-Eddie Cochran style rockabilly Jeremy Spencer went AWOL to join the Children Of God cult, while Green and co-lead guitarist Danny Kirwan, after dropping copious quantities of acid in Munich, subsequently suffered decades of severe health problems.




Green and Spencer have resurfaced in recent years, still playing the blues after the heavy dues. After making his last recording at the age of 28, Danny Kirwan dropped as far out of sight as Syd Barrett did (and, unfortunately, for the same reasons); by all accounts, Mr. Kirwan is still living, but has been in and out of mental institutions in London. If Danny plays the guitar or writes songs, it's strictly for himself - and that, dear blog readers, is one incalculable loss to the world of music.

Meanwhile, the founders and rhythm section mates who the group was named after, bassist John McVie and percussionist Mick Fleetwood, would be the only original Fleetwood Mac members still in the band after its transformation from British blues-rock-psychedelia juggernaut to hit-making commercial pop powerhouse.

After leaving Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green recorded The End Of The Game, a progressive rock album with improvisational jazz leanings, then disappeared due to health problems through much of the 1970's until the release of the solo record In The Skies. He would re-emerge in the 1990's leading Peter Green's Splinter Group.

Big Eyed Beans From Venus

Some folks like the syrupy smarm of Kenny G - just why I don't know! Mr. Blogmeister likes Captain Beefheart.



Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, merged protean elements from a dozen musical genres and collaborated with the brave musicians of his Magic Band to create brilliant, uneasy, startling, seething, challenging, jagged, complex, melodic while cacophonous, polyrhythmic, powerful and most of all, original music from 1965 to 1982; at that point he abandoned the pothole-filled roads of showbiz - in the Captain's words, "there ain't no Santa Claus on the evening stage" - to pursue a less stressful (and very likely much happier) career as a visual artist.



The Revenant Records five-CD Beefheart box set, Grow Fins, compiles amazing aural artifacts while including a 112 page history of The Cap'n And The Magic Band which is better and stranger than fiction.







Here's the excellent 1997 BBC documentary on this innovative auteur of paint, pencil and sound.




We shall close with a few paintings by Mr. Van Vliet. The same imagination, boldness and originality rampant in his music animates his work on canvas. There's a approach to color unlike anyother visual artist.

Another Under-rated 1960's Rock Band

Behold, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the quintessential British rock-blues-psychedelia powerhouse - Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer, John McVie (electric bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) - in their brief blaze of glory in 1968-1970.













When members of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac appeared as special guests, along with Berry Oakley, Duane and Gregg Allman from The Allman Brothers Band at a Fillmore East concert headlined by the Grateful Dead on February 11, 1970. . . HOO-BOY!!!

The 13th Floor Elevators

After these recent posts about Arthur Lee And Love (in my estimation, the indispensible aesthetic link between the folk, psychedelic and punk eras in rock music), I tried to think of something - anything - comparable.

Well, here's something at least semi-comparable: a rare clip featuring my other favorite short, fast and loud single from 1966, You're Gonna Miss Me by Austin's finest rock 'n' roll band, The 13th Floor Elevators.

There, screaming it out in all his glory, is Roky Erickson, the father of Texas psychedelic grindhouse garage-punk rave ups. Roky will be rocking Dallas' El Grenada Theatre, backed by his current band, The Explosives, this very Saturday, July 14.

Still More Love With Arthur Lee

Enjoy this 2002 Arthur Lee/Baby Lemonade performance of Bummer In The Summer, a classic tune from Forever Changes. Mike Randle contributes the tasty yet economical guitar solo.

The original 1967 recording features Arthur's rap, which pre-dates The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, The Sugar Hill Gang, etc. . . (although its cadence reminds me of Bob Dylan's "talkin' blues" spoken word numbers). Heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, however, may well have beat Arthur - and everyone else, with the possible exception of some 1960's Jamaican reggae vocalists - to the punch on that "first rapper" claim.

Arthur Lee & Love


Arthur Lee & Love: Doggone - Live 1970

Arthur Lee & Love: Love is more than words - Live 1970

More Love With Arthur Lee

While on the topic of Arthur Lee and Love, here's a clip from the Danish television show En gruppe ved navn Love (a group by the name Love), originally broadcast on July 17, 1970.


In this March 12, 1970 performance at Tivoli Koncertsal in Copenhagen, "Doggone", an almost sea chanty-like folk ditty (albeit with lyrics, typically, more reminiscent of Captain Beefheart) from the Out Here album, segues into "August", a very cool slice of improvisational "prog rock". While the considerable talents of singer-songwriter Bryan McLean (who wrote "Alone Again Or") and Johnny Eccols' idiosyncratic lead guitar from the original Love band are certainly missed, this really rocks.

Assembled after the meltdown of the original lineup, this version of Love delves into the hard rock end of psychedelia, at times exploring Hendrix/Cream/Zeppelin/Allman Bros. territory. It is completely different from the band that recorded Da Capo and Forever Changes.

I consider this Arthur Lee And Love lineup underrated, much as the contemporaneous version of The Byrds (featuring the remarkably gifted Kentucky Colonels guitarist Clarence White) was, and for the same reasons: neither group played in the folk-rock style associated with their celebrated 1965-1967 albums.

'Twas a shame that Arthur's friend Jimi Hendrix did not tour incognito with this version of Love. Then again, perhaps it's just as well; the spectacle of Lee, Jimi and Jay Donnellan all playing wild guitar in the same band would have caused way too many Fender Stratocaster fetishists to spontaneously combust.

7 And 7 Is

What can you post on 7-7-07? A tribute to the greatest rock 'n' roll single ever, "7 And 7 Is", recorded in 1966 by the late, great Arthur Lee and Love.



Here's a nice montage of Arthur Lee & Love memorabilia, backed by the original 1966 track.


For a short time in the mid-1960's, the legendary psychedelic-flower-punk-folk band were the kings of the Sunset Strip, following The Byrds and preceding The Doors. Love's 1967 album Forever Changes combines elements of everything from Broadway to L.A folk-rock to flamenco to Hendrix with Lee's cryptic yet poetic lyrics. It is still an amazing piece of work, and, like Brian Wilson's SMiLE, only reveals its multiple layers of artistry after many listenings.

Lee, like Brian Wilson and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green, was a visionary who, after an extended stretch of hard times, re-emerged, revitalized and returned to performing more than three decades after his 1960's exploits. The following clip, from the January 15, 2003 Royal Albert Hall performance (adeptly accompanied by Baby Lemonade and The Stockholm Strings N' Horns), is available on the highly recommended Forever Changes Live DVD