Sunday, May 13, 2018

Peter Green with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road - Alternate Peter Green Version (1967)

I think it's safe to say that most Fleetwood Mac fans fall into one of two camps: those who love the Peter Green-led blues group of the late 1960s, and those who love the pop-rock group of the "Rumours" and after. Most fall into the second camp and probably don't even know or care about the Green years.

Personally, I like both phases of the group's career a lot, and I plan on featuring a lot of their music here. It makes sense to begin at the beginning, which in my opinion is a year before Fleetwood Mac was even formed.

Peter Green was the lead guitarist and sometime singer for John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers for most of 1967, while bassist John McVie was in that group too. Drummer Mick Fleetwood also joined and was with the other two in that group for about three months. Then all three of them left and formed Fleetwood Mac.

John Mayall's blues music has a limited appeal even among blues fans due to his voice. I'm afraid to say I'm one of those people who have a hard time listening to his albums because of that. He gives it his all, but he simply wasn't genetically gifted with a voice to sing the blues, in my opinion.

If you like Mayall's voice and all the rest, then great, please listen to the version of the 1967 "A Hard Road" album that already exists. But if you're like me and your real interest in this material is Peter Green, that try this album out. I gathered up all the songs that either were song by Green or were instrumentals featuring his guitar playing. There were only four songs like that on the album proper. But luckily there was a lot of other material recorded by the group while Green was in it. If you add that material in as well, it's enough for an album.

On top of that, there are some decent sounding live recordings from the Green era. (By the way, these are from the tail end of that era when Fleetwood had become the drummer as well.) I've included a couple of those songs that weren't the same as any of the studio tracks. Luckily, most of the sound issues with these live tracks had to do with the vocals, and these extra tracks are instrumentals.

If you add it all up, it comes to 51 minutes, which would have been too long for an album in that era.  But if we imagine the two live instrumentals as bonus material, it comes to 36 minutes, which was ideal for an album length back then.

This is a very unusual album for me. I believe it's the first and only time I've ever made an album specifically to avoid the main lead singer. But if you take away the Mayall-sung songs, what's left is  the first de facto Fleetwood Mac album!

Green should be considered one of the best British blues guitarists of all time, certainly up there with the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. If you don't believe it, give this album a listen. And if you are fine with Mayall's voice, check out Green's work on all the other songs, especially more of the live versions.

01 You Don’t Love Me (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
02 The Stumble [Instrumental] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
03 The Same Way (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
04 The Supernatural [Instrumental] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
05 Evil Woman Blues (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
06 Out of Reach (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
07 Alabama Blues (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
08 Curly [Instrumental] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
09 Rubber Duck [Instrumental] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
10 Greeny [Instrumental] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
11 Missing You (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
12 The Stumble [Instrumental] [Live] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)
13 San-Ho-Zay [Instrumental] [Live] (Peter Green with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers)

Soul Dressing [Instrumental] (Peter B's with Peter Green)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15115556/FleetwodMc_1967a_PeterGrnwithJhnMayallHrdRdAlternate_atse.zip.html

The cover art was tricky for me to make. I took the "Hard Road" cover and rearranged the words to highlight Green and downplay the others. I wanted to use a photo that emphasized Green in a similar way, with the rest of the group in the background. But finding any color pictures of the group from the Green era was really tough, and I much prefer color photos. I found one of Green alone, so I used that. But if anyone has a better photo to use, please let me know.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. I believe I have all of this on other albums, but I downloaded it for convenience to just here Greeny. I also like what I term; "The Interim Fleetwood Mac" with Danny Kirwan still in the group and Bob Welch. I prefer them to the Buckingham - Nicks era, even though I like them too. Check out the albums; Future Games, Bare Trees and Mystery To Me. I like them better than the later stuff. Thanks for this.

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    1. You're welcome. I don't know what you think of Mayall's singing, but even if you don't mind that, I think it's nice to have the Peter Green focus here.

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  2. A great idea here and a welcomed one! I have no issues with Mayall's vocalization, but as Buzzcut9 said, it's nice to have the focus on Greeny and his future counterparts in Fleetwood Mac. Thanks! BTW - New to your site. I look forward to poking around a bit.

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    1. Thanks. I'm very happy with this album. There were just enough Peter Green-centric songs for it to work.

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