The guitarist Ian Anderson placed at “the top of the tree”
Any guitarist looking to hone their chops in the 1960s had to speak the language of the blues.
Even though The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix had started showing the world different textures of what could be done in rock and roll, there were always going to be thousands following the model that people like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards laid out for the world when they started following in the footsteps of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
Although Ian Anderson took things in a different direction, he knew a true master at work whenever they reared their head in the rock and roll scene.
Then again, there were parts of the blues that had started getting played out by the time that Jethro Tull started making their own masterpieces. Anyone could start playing a typical bluesy shuffle and done alright in the clubs, but Anderson knew the best bands gave the people what they didn’t realise they wanted, which may or may not have included a massive flute solo interpretation of Bach’s ‘Bouree.’
Even the biggest names in music had started to get into heavier territory by the end of the 1960s like Led Zeppelin, but there was still much more to do with the medium that hadn’t been tapped into yet. And whereas most people cited Jimi Hendrix as the true legend behind the fretboard, Peter Green also opened up different textures on the instrument no one had conceived of in Fleetwood Mac.
While Green already had the unenviable task of having to replace Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, his take on the blues was always perfectly tasteful, always playing the right notes to suit the moment and even managing to play a few impressive runs that could give the greatest guitarists and a run for their money. Once he formed Fleetwood Mac, there was still a wealth of music left to explore for him.
Outside of playing traditional blues licks on ‘Oh Well,’ a track like ‘Black Magic Woman’ had a moody atmosphere behind it, and when he started working on tracks like ‘The Green Manalishi,’ he had begun tapping into something that felt almost demented compared to everyone else. When all the effects were stripped away, though, Anderson knew he was listening to something beautiful whenever he heard Green.
“I always rated [Peter Green] at the top of the tree. He was the best of the bunch.”
Ian Anderson
Despite all of the other blues legends out at the time, Anderson knew that Green was miles better than anyone, saying, “I always rated [Green] at the top of the tree. He was the best of the bunch. I rated him more so than Eric Clapton just because Peter Green had a more beautiful and thoughtful tonal quality to his playing, and his phrasing was very precise and felt very natural.”
Christine McVie witnessed his magic firsthand during his days in Fleetwood Mac. She said he “was like Jesus, playing out-of-this-world guitar”. Yet, he also heralded an almost proto-prog-like band-led approach to the music with McVie also recognising that the finest facet of the band at the time was “Chemistry. Kick-ass chemistry. It was phenomenal.”
In this regard, Green was far from the sort of indulgent shredder many associated with classic rock iconography. However, despite his more nuanced and ensemble approach, BB King would still famously say, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats”.
And listening to some of Green’s leads, some pieces could have predicted where some progressive rock bands could have gone. His note choices were always a bit abnormal compared to the typical scales everyone focuses on, and considering how much people took from Clapton, there was a more eccentric way that Green played that lent itself well to more artsy playing.
While Green’s tone has influenced everyone from Noel Gallagher to Kirk Hammett across multiple generations, there’s no replacing what he did for the instrument. Like many progressive artists who came after him, Green knew that the importance of being an artist was being able to take the foundation that he learned from and build on it every time he made a new, innovative record.
