...and on guitar - The Book (2023)

Now that I've posted what could turn out to be the final entry in the '...and on guitar' series, here's something that I've been thinking about doing this for quite a while. When the number of posts in the series reached over 75 then I thought that now was the time to put them all together in one place, almost like a book. So what you have here are all the write-ups for the '...and on guitar' series, presented in alphabetical order, so that they can be dipped into as you are listening to the albums, or just read as a history of the lives of all these great guitarists. 

Soulseek hint      book aiwe

Peter Green - ...and on guitar (1971)

Just heard the sad news that the day after I posted this, Peter Green passed away aged 73. I hope that this post will serve as a fitting tribute to one of the greatest guitarists and songwriters of all time . R.I.P.

Peter Allen Greenbaum (aka Peter Green) was born on 29 October 1946, and by the age of eleven he was teaching himself guitar, playing professionally by the age of fifteen. He first played bass guitar in a band called Bobby Dennis and the Dominoes, which performed pop chart covers and rock 'n' roll standards, after which he went on to join a rhythm and blues outfit, the Muskrats, then a band called The Tridents in which he played bass. By Christmas 1965 he was playing lead guitar in Peter Bardens' band Peter B's Looners, where he met drummer Mick Fleetwood, and it was with Peter B's Looners that he made his recording debut with the single 'If You Wanna Be Happy'/'Jodrell Blues'. In October 1965, before joining Bardens' group, Green had the opportunity to fill in for Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for four gigs, and so when Clapton left the Bluesbreakers he became a full-time member of Mayall's band. Green made his recording debut with the Bluesbreakers in 1966 on the album 'A Hard Road', which featured two of his own compositions, 'The Same Way' and 'The Supernatural', but by 1967 he wanted to form his own band, and so left the Bluesbreakers to found Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. The original line-up, alongside Green, was former Bluesbreaker Mick Fleetwood on drums, Jeremy Spencer on guitar, and Bob Brunning on bass, and they were quickly signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label, with their eponymous debut album making a significant impression on the British blues boom, and actually remained in the UK charts for over a year. 
By September 1967, John McVie had replaced Brunning on bass, and although classic blues covers and blues-styled originals remained prominent in the band's repertoire, Green rapidly blossomed as a songwriter and from 1968 contributed many successful original compositions which moved away from the group's blues roots, such as 'Black Magic Woman', 'Oh Well', 'Man Of The World', 'The Green Manalishi', and the classic guitar instrumental 'Albatross', which reached number one in the British singles charts in 1969. By this time Danny Kirwan had joined the band as a third guitarist, and the band recorded their 'Then Play On' album, which reportedly had virtually no contribution from Spencer, who refused to play on any of Green's original material. Around this time Green's band-mates began to notice changes in his state of mind, with him growing a beard and beginning to wear robes and a crucifix, and also taking large doses of LSD. While touring Europe in late March 1970, Green took LSD at a party at a commune in Munich, and later refused to leave to rejoin the tour until Mick Fleetwood traveled there to fetch him. After a final performance on 20 May 1970, Green left Fleetwood Mac, but a few months later he appeared at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music with John Mayall, Rod Mayall on organ, Ric Grech on bass and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. That same year he recorded a jam session with drummer Godfrey Maclean, keyboardists Zoot Money and Nick Buck, and bassist Alex Dmochowski of The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, which Reprise Records later released as 'The End Of The Game', Green's first post-Fleetwood Mac solo album. While still with Fleetwood Mac, Green played with some of his blues heroes, Eddie Boyd and Otis Spann (and later also with Memphis Slim), as well as with label-mate Duster Bennett, and in 1969 Fleetwood Mac's manager Clifford Davies decided to record a single, and invited Green to help him out. Former Mac bassist Bob Brunning had by now formed his own band, and asked Green to play on their 'Trackside Blues' album, and in 1970 his old Peter B's Looners' band-mate Peter Bardens invited him to play lead guitar on several tracks of his solo album 'The Answer'. Also in 1970 he recorded two tracks with Bobby Tench's band Gass for their 'Juju' record, and contributed to Toe Fat's second album 'Toe Fat 2'. 
In 1971 he added guitar to Dave Kelly's second, eponymous album , but after recording sessions with B. B. King in London in 1972, and having an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac's 'Penguin' album in 1973, Green's mental illness and drug use had become entrenched and he faded into professional obscurity. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric hospitals undergoing electro-convulsive therapy during the mid-1970's, but by 1979 he began to re-emerge professionally, signing a record deal with Peter Vernon-Kell's PVK label, and producing a string of solo albums, starting with 1979's 'In the Skies', and later with his Splinter Group, recording nine albums up to 2004. If there's one thing that you can pick up from the selection of tracks on here, it's Green's loyalty to his friends, as nearly all the tracks that he played on were from former band-mates (Brunning, Bardens, and he added banjo to Jeremy Spencer's solo album), label-mates (Boyd, Bennett, Spann, and he played harmonica for Gordon Smith in 1968), associates (manager Davies, Gass drummer Godfrey Maclean played on 'The End Of The Game', and Bob Brunning was Dave Kelly's bassist for the 'Dave Kelly' album), or friends, such as Toe Fat leader Cliff Bennett, and in every case his playing undoubtedly enhanced their music.

Track listing

01 The Big Boat (from '7936 South Rhodes' re-issue by Eddie Boyd 1968) 
02 Trying To Paint It In The Sky (from 'Smiling Like I'm Happy' by Duster Bennett 1968)
03 My Love Depends On You (from 'The Biggest Thing Since Colossus' by Otis Spann 1969)
04 Before The Beginning (single by Clifford Davis 1969) 
05 If You Let Me Love You (from 'Trackside Blues' by The Brunning Sunflower Band 1969)
06 The Answer (from 'The Answer' by Peter Bardens 1970)
07 Wind Gonna Rise (from 'Blue Memphis' by Memphis Slim 1970)
08 A New Way (from 'Toe Fat 2' by Toe Fat 1971)
09 Juju (from 'Juju' by Gass 1970) 
10 Green Winter (from 'Dave Kelly' by Dave Kelly 1971)

John Mayall - Alabama Blues (1968)

Following the departure of Peter Green, Mayall once again needed a new guitarist, and his first choice was 18-year-old David O'List, guitarist from the Attack. O'List declined, however, and went on to form The Nice with organist Keith Emerson, so Mayall placed a 'musicians wanted' ad in Melody Maker and also conducted his own search, and eventually found three other potential guitarists for his Bluesbreakers, Terry Edmonds, John Moorshead (later to join The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation), and 18-year-old Mick Taylor. The latter made the band quickly, but Mayall also decided to hire Edmonds as a rhythm guitarist for a few days. In the meantime, he assembled a studio album to showcase his own abilities, with former Artwoods drummer Keef Hartley drumming on half the tracks, and everything else being played by Mayall himself, with 'The Blues Alone' coming out in 1967. 
A six-piece line-up consisting of Mayall, Mick Taylor as lead guitarist, John McVie still on bass, Hughie Flint or Hartley on drums, and Rip Kant and Chris Mercer on saxophones, recorded the album 'Crusade' in 1967, and following it's release the band spent most of the year touring abroad, with Mayall taping the shows on his portable recorder. At the end of the tour, he had over sixty hours of tapes, which he edited into an album in two volumes: 'Diary Of A Band Vol 1' and 'Diary Of A Band Vol 2', released in February 1968. Meanwhile, a few line-up changes had occurred: McVie had departed for Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, and was replaced by Paul Williams, who soon quit to join Alan Price and was himself replaced by Keith Tillman, with Dick Heckstall-Smith taking over the saxophone spot. Following a US tour, there were more line-up changes, starting with the troublesome bass position. First Mayall replaced bassist Tillman with 15-year-old Andy Fraser, but within six weeks Fraser left to join Free and was replaced by Tony Reeves, previously a member of the New Jazz Orchestra. Hartley was required to leave, and he was replaced by New Jazz Orchestra drummer Jon Hiseman, and Henry Lowther, who played violin and cornet, joined in February 1968. 
Two months later this line-up of The Bluesbreakers recorded 'Bare Wires', before Hiseman, Reeves, and Heckstall-Smith moved on to form Colosseum. Mayall managed to retain Mick Taylor and added drummer Colin Allen bassist Stephen Thompson, and in 1968 the new quartet recorded the superb 'Blues From Laurel Canyon'. The final post of this series collects the remaining tracks from 'Raw Blues', some previously unreleased tracks featuring Peter Green, Taylor's first single with the band 'Suspicions', and topped off with two great unreleased tracks from the 'Bare Wires' sessions. Despite the unbelievably turbulent history of the Bluesbreakers, I hope that these posts show that in their many incarnations they produced some of the best British blues ever recorded. 

Track listing

01 Evil Woman Blues (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)   
02 Missing You (previously unreleased 1967)   
03 Greeny (previously unreleased 1967)  
04 Milkman Strut (from 'Raw Blues' 1967) 
05 Suspicions (Part One) (single 1967)    
06 Suspicions (Part Two) (b-side of 'Suspicions (Part One)')  
07 Mama Talk To Your Daughter (previously unreleased 1967)  
08 Alabama Blues (previously unreleased 1967) 
09 Your Funeral And My Trial (previously unreleased 1967)    
10 Jenny (single 1968) 
11 Picture On The Wall (b-side of 'Jenny')  
12 Knockers Step Forward (previously unreleased 1968)   
13 Hide And Seek (previously unreleased 1968)    

John Mayall - Double Trouble (1968)

While 'Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton' was the album which finally put John Mayall on the map, it was to be a short-lived success, as while the album was still in the charts, it was revealed in the music press that Clapton had teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream, which meant that he would have to leave Mayall's band. This was something of an embarrassment to Clapton, who had not said anything about this to Mayall, and his last gig with The Blues Breakers was in July 1966 in Bexley, south-east of London, and Cream played a warm-up gig just a couple of weeks later. Mayall now needed to find a new guitarist, but luckily for him he succeeded in persuading Peter Green to return to the fold. During the following year, with Green on guitar and using various other sidemen, some 40 tracks were recorded, with the album 'A Hard Road' being released in February 1967. It's another British blues classic, showing that Green was the perfect replacement for Clapton, and a few months later the band released an EP recorded with American blues harpist Paul Butterfield. Also in 1967 the Ace Of Clubs label released a collection of blues tracks called 'Raw Blues', including otherwise unavailable recordings from Mayall, Clapton, Green and Steve Anglo, otherwise known as Stevie Winwood, alongside songs from Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, and Curtis Jones. Soon after the release of 'A Hard Road' Peter Green  gave notice that he was starting his own band with Mick Fleetwood, and later bassist John McVie, who stayed with Mayall for a while after Green left, before teaming up with his former bandmate in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. This second volume of rarities features some of Mayall's contributions to 'Raw Blues', the complete Butterfield EP, and a few stand-alone singles and their b-sides. 

Track listing

01 Sitting In The Rain (single 1967) 
02 Out Of Reach (b-side of 'Sitting In The Rain')
03 Curly (single 1967) 
04 Rubber Duck (b-side of 'Curly') 
05 Please Don't Tell (previously unreleased 1967) 
06 It Hurts Me Too (single 1967) 
07 Double Trouble (b-side of 'It Hurts Me Too') 
08 All My Life (single 1967, with Paul Butterfield))
09 Ridin´ On The L. And N. (b-side of 'All My Life')
10 Little By Little (b-side of 'All My Life')
11 Eagle Eye (b-side of 'All My Life')
12 Burn Out Your Blind Eyes (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)
12 Long Night (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)