Peter Green

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Image - Rolling Stone
News is just out that Peter Green is no longer with us. Possibly the greatest of a clutch of great 1960's blues-rock guitarists, Green has died aged 73.

Although his life is now storied, he was largely unknown during the many years of mental illness that he suffered, disappearing totally from view in the early 1970's and existing as a recluse in limbo far from the limelight of his early fame as a founder member of the original Fleetwood Mac in the 1960's.

To say that he was a musical hero of mine is a gross understatement, and the unfortunately too small a canon of work he produced with Fleetwood Mac featured some of the sweetest and most plangent solos ever put to record; either raising a four-note figure or a beautifully timed and pitched bend to a perfect art form, he rivalled the best of the classical world for sheer quality and beauty.

His solo on the Mac's version of Little Willie John's 1956 song 'Need Your Love So Bad' is a master class of restraint, accuracy and emotion and remains my favourite guitar solo bar none, to this day.

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