Gary Moore didn’t set out to become a blues guitarist. In the late 1980s, he was still operating inside the hard rock machinery that had defined much of his career. But a shift was already forming that would take him toward his solo breakthrough album, Still Got the Blues and, eventually, toward a very different legacy.

The idea, Moore recalled in a 2003 interview with this writer, didn’t arrive as a grand revelation. It came instead through a series of small, repeated suggestions from an unlikely source: bass guitarist Bob Daisley.

It was Daisley who had already helped shape another major career turn with his support for Randy Rhoads as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in 1980. In 1986, after joining Thin Lizzy very briefly, Daisley was working alongside Moore and continuing to make similar kinds of quiet interventions.

“Every time I was in the dressing room,” Moore recalled, “I’d be on my own playing some blues and Bob Daisley would come in and go, ‘You know, you should make a blues album, as it would probably be the biggest thing you ever did.’

“We both laughed when he said that. But it turned out that he was right.”

Moore didn’t act on the advice immediately. The idea lingered while he continued moving through the rock circuit.

“Eventually I thought, ‘I’d love to make a blues album, but I don’t think the record company would wear it,’” he said. “That was one of those occasions where I was getting really sick of the whole rock metal scene, and I just had to get away from it.”

When he finally did make the move, the response from Virgin Records was unexpectedly receptive.

“They were right behind it when they heard what I was trying to do because it wasn’t straight blues,” Moore said. “They heard a couple of songs and went, ‘Yeah, that could be good.’”

What became Still Got the Blues was recorded quickly, often in loose, exploratory sessions with a wide cast of collaborators. Daisley was involved, along with Ozzy keyboardist Don Airey, Rolling Stones pianist Nicky Hopkins and former Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey. Blues legends Albert King and Albert Collins also appeared, and George Harrison contributed to the session outtake “That Kind of Woman.”

“We went in and made the album and it didn’t take too long,” Moore said. “The tracks ‘Still Got the Blues’ and ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ were actually done the same day while we were just trying out the studio room.

“And then we got Albert King to come over and play with me, and as Albert Collins was in town too, someone got him to come down, and it all just worked out really great.”

Released March 26, 1990, the album enjoyed slow and steady growth as it climbed the charts to its peak at number 83 in February 1991.

“The plan was to do a three-week tour, but six months later we were still touring,” Moore said. “It just got bigger and bigger.”

For Moore, part of the record’s impact came from its spontaneity.

“I did ‘Still Got the Blues’ in one take,” he said. “Those moments usually happen because you’re relaxed, or it’s the end of the day, or you’re just trying out the studio. You’re not even aware it’s going to be a master recording. You just play without caring — and you’re lucky if you can capture that.”

The experience also reshaped how he viewed his own career trajectory, proving that stylistic risk could pay off commercially as well as artistically.

There were moments, too, that crystallized what the record had achieved in real time.

“There was one night during the Still Got the Blues tour when I was playing the Hammersmith Odeon and I looked across the stage toward the end of the show and there’s Albert King standing there, and next to him is Albert Collins too,” Moore recalled. “That was a pretty special night.”

Still, Moore remained slightly conflicted in hindsight.

“I was very proud of it at the time, though I’m not too sure about some of it now,” he said. “But at the time I was just so pleased that you could do something exactly how you wanted and people would like it at the same time. That gave me a lot of faith in music again.”

Years later, Moore extended that blues thread further with Blues for Greeny, a tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and to Greeny, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard Green had once owned and passed on to him — an electric guitar that would become central to Moore’s sound for decades.

Moore first encountered Green during a difficult period in the guitarist’s life, shortly after his departure from Fleetwood Mac.

“Peter was going through this very strange thing at the time where he had just left Fleetwood Mac and wanted to get rid of all his material possessions,” Moore said. “He came to me because he wasn’t playing at the time and said, ‘Do you want to borrow my guitar for a while?’ And I said, ‘Oh please, that’d be great.’”

What began as a loan quickly became something more permanent.

“We had become friends, so I went down to his parents’ house to pick up the guitar,” he said. “A few days later he called me up and said, ‘Do you want to buy it?’ I thought he was joking. I said, ‘Sure, but I can’t afford it.’ He said, ‘Just sell your guitar and whatever you get for it, give me that — it’ll be like swapping guitars.’”

Moore sold his Gibson SG for around £150, passing most of the money to Green, who kept only a portion. Green’s motivation, Moore later reflected, was not financial.

“He just wanted it to have a good home,” Moore said.

Moore would later be forced to sell the guitar in 2006 due to financial pressures, and it was eventually acquired by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett in 2014.

Although Moore is often credited with helping inspire Peter Green’s return to music in the 1990s, he downplayed that role.

“People say that, but I don’t agree with that,” he said. “Peter had come to one of my Blues for Greeny shows, and it was nerve-wracking because I hadn’t played for a while and we were being filmed as well. And Peter sat on my side of the stage. It was really strange.”

Moore instead credited guitarist Nigel Watson and the Peter Green Splinter Group for Green’s renewed activity.

“So it was around the same time as my Blues for Greeny, but I don’t know how much influence I really had,” he said. “I did it because I loved his music and as a way of thanking him for all those years of great music.”

In the end, Moore’s blues identity is often traced to Peter Green through the guitar, the tribute record, and the mythology that followed.

But in Moore’s own telling, the first nudge came much earlier, and far more quietly: not from legend or legacy but from Bob Daisley, who simply suggested a different path — and happened to be right.

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith has become the latest big-name player afforded a chance to play Kirk Hammett’s fabled “Greeny” Les Paul, and like others before him, he’s fallen in love with it.

The guitar, first made famous in the hands of Fleetwood Mac’s founding guitarist, Peter Green, has been enjoying a renaissance with Metallica’s chief shredder. Green gifted the guitar to Gary Moore after he left Fleetwood Mac, making Hammett its third high-profile owner. Since he purchased it in 2014, the electric guitar has regularly featured onstage with Metallica.

But in a show of generosity, Hammett has been happy to let others take her for a spin, and Smith is just the latest to check out the guitar. His opportunity came when Iron Maiden were touring in Canada.

“Kirk's a great guy. I bumped into him in a hotel in Canada,” Smith tells eonmusic. “We were just checking in, and Metallica were there. The first thing I said to him was, ‘Oh, you bought Greeny.’ He goes, 'Yeah, I've got it. You want to play it?’

“So I went to his room, and he gave me the guitar and a little practice amp, and of course, I played ‘Oh Well’. He and Ross [Halfin, photographer] were doing photos, so I took it to my hotel room, and I had a little practice amp in there. I played it all afternoon.”

Just like Jake E. Lee, who played Greeny backstage at Back to the Beginning, Smith had a hard time letting go of the guitar.

“It plays great; it's the intonation, the feel, the sound,” he says. “There's no doubt about it, that is a special guitar. The mojo is off the charts. I mean, Peter Green and Gary Moore? The classic middle position, the out-of-phase neck pickup, and there it is, the sound!”

“I'm glad somebody's using it, and it's not on a wall in somebody's climate-controlled guitar locker,” he adds. “It's out there being played, as it should be.”

From "Black Magic Woman," to "Rattlesnake Shake," "Oh Well," and "Albatross" — which is believed to have inspired the Beatles to write "Sun King" — Greeny was heard on many classic early Fleetwood Mac tracks..

Gary Moore recorded the entire Blues for Greeny tribute album with the guitar, as well as "Parisienne Walkways" from his seminal Still Got the Blues record, proving the instrument still had magic in other player's hands.

Meanwhile, Smith has been talking about a prized guitar from his own collection that he got for free, and still uses decades later, and has reflected on the two lucky breaks that led to him penning two massive Maiden anthems.

And original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell has looked back on the time he played "Whiskey in the Jar " with Metallica, and why he went on to call them “a pack of bastards.”

Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are among the most famous musicians to emerge from Britain's 1960s blues scene. Remarkably, each of them rose from the ranks of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

Although he was never as celebrated for his guitar playing as he was for helping to launch the careers of his sidemen, Mayall was an undeniably key figure in the history of rock, blues and even pop — it was he who turned Paul McCartney on to the charms of the Epiphone Casino, a guitar that his fellow Beatles guitarists John Lennon and George Harrison adopted as well.

On the one-year anniversary of his death, on July 22, 2024, Guitar Player celebrates Mayall's life by republishing our classic interview with him from our December 1970 issue.

John Mayall was an elder statesman of English blues who'd been transported to a life in Los Angeles when Guitar Player caught up with him for an interview in the December 1970 issue. By then his group the Bluesbreakers had been the breeding ground for Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, each of whom was among the most celebrated electric guitar players of the day.

Contributing editor Fred Stuckey, who conducted the interview and wrote it up for the magazine, noted the irony of Mayall’s position in that first year of the new decade.

“In the middle of 1969, while the rock world was spewing out countless copies of Eric Clapton and the Cream’s hard rock sound, Mayall dropped the organ and drums for the harp and guitar and a subdued, low-volume blues. He hired Jon Mark on acoustic guitar and Johnny Almond on flute, tenor and alto. The end product was a much lauded tour, two record albums — The Turning Point and Empty Rooms — and a hit single, ‘Room to Move.’”

Mayall's restrained sound at the start of the decade revealed a more thoughtful approach to the blues and a propensity to continue evolving his music's sound and style. At the time of the interview, he had released USA Union, on which he retained the format and music direction but changed up his band to include Harvey Mandel on guitar, Larry Taylor on bass and Sugar Cane Harris on electric violin.

Stuckey found Mayall a willing interview subject — “choosing his words carefully and pausing to formulate his thoughts” — and noted his modesty:

“By his own admission, Mayall lacks the technical mastery of the guitar shared so uncommonly by the musicians he has worked with in the past. But he plays with the unpretentious, spirited air of a man who knows his idiom. Mayall knows 12-bar blues as well as Renoir knew nineteenth century French impressionism. And Mayall, while not particularly a guitarist, has influenced blues guitarists as much as anyone else in music.” This interview has been edited for brevity.

How have you been?
Just fine. It is sort of strange that Guitar Player would want to interview me, because the magazine is usually reserved for people who play the guitar. I can hold one in my hands and pluck a few notes, but it’s very hit and miss. I have no knowledge of music, you know.

That doesn’t seem to bother your fans. How did you happen to get into the business?

I heard a lot of music through my father’s record collection. He was a guitar player, and most of his records were of people like Django Reinhardt. I started playing the piano and the guitar around the same time, around age 13.

You see, I’ve always had different bands on different occasions long before I went into London to do it with professional interest. I had a band in Manchester, and when the R&B boom hit London, I moved there. I formed a band of London musicians, and it was just the same as usual. You ferret around to see who is available, and if anybody knows anybody who plays such and such an instrument. You get in touch with the musicians, report to the gig, and start playing.

When did you do your first recording?

The first album I made wasn’t released in the United States. They might release it again at some later date, because I’m no longer with that label, and the usual trick is to release everything you’ve got. It was done with Decca about a year before we did the record with Clapton, which is generally thought of to be the first album in the United States.

The one with Decca was a loser. It sold a thousand copies over one year — five hundred the first six months and five hundred and two the second six months. It was a live recording done at a place called Klooks Kleek, which was one of the places where I used to work when I first came to London. It was called John Mayall Plays John Mayall Live at Klooks Kleek, a very ungainly title.

How do you explain a young Englishman’s interest in blues even before it was appreciated on any scale in the country of its origin?

I don’t try to explain that at all. Music knows no geographical boundaries. Records have always been the property of every country. It is through records that you come into contact with music.

Why is it that Europeans, and particularly Englishmen, picked up the blues while the bulk of Americans weren’t even aware of the tradition of that form of American music?

That was always the case, and that is probably why the whole blues revival as such seemed to come from England. We never had the direct contact with the music as it was being played. We only had the records. As a result, Europeans are much more into record collecting and the research behind records. There is just greater interest over there.

This is a big place, and you tend to miss things that are on your own doorstep. French radio in particular has always had a lot of programs on jazz. An illustration is the fact that bluesmen like Memphis Slim have ended up living in France, because they were better received in Europe, and they actually could get work there. American Black blues singers have gone over there to get a name and then bounced back over here.

I remember reading the liner notes of the Crusade album. You made a plea for greater recognition of Black blues artists.

Yeah. That was primarily based upon the situation in England at that time. A great many of the bluesmen were being missed even though there are a lot of blues fans in the country, but individually they felt they were a minority group. They didn’t feel that they were being acknowledged as an audience by radio stations or the papers. They didn’t feel they were a large enough audience to make their point.

That over-exaggerated, inflammatory stuff was put on the back deliberately to get them to write into the musical papers and ask to hear more about “so and so.” They did that and people started to wake up until it reached the point where Melody Maker had a blues page every week.

Do you think that circumstance has dealt a bad deal to American Black bluesmen?

You can say that. If you feel something for the music and your own particular favorites, you do tend to think they have had a bad deal. And a lot of them have.

But the thing I’ve learned is that you really can’t make anybody like someone. It’s a bit disheartening to realize that you can introduce somebody who you think is good, but if people won’t go to the clubs to support them and buy their records, even though they’ve had every chance, there is nothing you can do about it. What it means is that their music, their particular style, doesn’t appeal to as many people as you would like it to. You can’t just decide that people should like a particular guy; they just won’t. Everything really depends on the merits of the guy’s music.

Do you remember when black records were “race” records?

Oh yeah, up until the late '40s. You know the Presley era was really the start of the first black performers coming out — Little Richard, Fats Domino and the rest. You know that thing in part grew out of the Presley thing. He was influenced by Black records and Black artists and he even did their tunes, but people didn’t pay any attention to those records until the Presley thing.

Why is it that sometimes Black blues recordings are less exciting or less appealing than white, rock blues?

Because that in essence is what they do; that is them. There are exceptions like B.B. King, people who have a style of their own. But they themselves can limit their market if they don’t progress — if they don’t break away from doing the same old thing. Some of the Black blues players who have made it, say 10 or 15 years ago, play the same numbers that made them famous and think that doing that will make them a star forever. You have to change because the generations, the people who buy the records, turn over so fast.

Do you credit your survival in the business with the fact that you’ve been willing to change?

Probably. It’s part of my character anyway. I don’t really like to do the same thing all the time. Besides, I don’t really consider myself to be a part of the music industry in certain respects. I don’t go along with the way the music business is —all the jive, the hype, and the commercial aspect of the thing. I don’t regard myself as being a part of that. I can separate myself from it and think how meaningless it is.

The structure of the rock business stinks. But most of the performers in the business seem to like it that way, and fair enough. That’s good for them. I’m not exactly an unknown when I come onstage, but I sort of inwardly treat the whole thing like that — that they haven’t heard me, and I’ve got to prove myself onstage from scratch. If you do make a name, when you walk out onstage you get a lot of appreciation, and half of the time they don’t understand what it is they’re supposed to appreciate.

But you’re supposed to be good, and that’s that. It’s a help in my case because it gives me the confidence to try something new, knowing that it won’t hit them that cold.

How did you run across Eric Clapton?

I hadn’t heard of him before we got together. You see, all bands in London are known to each other, but perhaps not the individuals that play in the bands. The Yardbirds were more popular on the club circuit than I was. They came up with a hit record, "For Your Love," which put them on the front page and the top of the charts. But it wasn’t a blues record that did it. Eric was working with them, and I guess wanted to stick to blues playing. The Yardbirds weren’t blues musicians as far as he was concerned. He got fed up and walked out on a big money-making thing.

Around the same time I heard that Yardbird record, and on the other side was a title called "Got to Hurry," with guitar by Eric Clapton. I was looking for a more satisfying guitarist, so I got his telephone number, and rang him up, and asked him to join. He said yes, and that was it. He was with me for nearly a year.

You never made it to the States with Clapton, right?

Yeah, Peter Green was with me after Eric. The first time I came to this country was with Mick Taylor in 1968. The first time we played Winterland in San Francisco was with Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. The lineup of the band then was the same as on The Diary of a Band and Crusade albums, except without John McVie. What happened was that when we were over here for the first time, the Clapton album [1966's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton] had just been released. There was a confusing time lapse of over a year. That album was released a year after he had left me, and he was already in the Cream by then. People who had heard of Cream then found about this other one. They bought it and probably became aware of me through Eric.

How do you feel about the Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton album?

I feel about it like I feel about all the other albums. They’re just on wax or whatever. They’re just a representation of what the band was at the time. I like to listen to all of them. They all have good stuff on them. They show how the musicians played that I worked with, which is what I enjoy, otherwise they wouldn’t have been in the band.

Had Clapton reached a high point during the Bluesbreakers days?
He had reached a high point in comparison to his Yardbirds stuff. But I don’t think it’s anybody’s right to say that he is better or worse than what he did afterwards. It’s a matter of opinion. By the time he was finished with me he wasn’t playing very well at all, because he didn’t feel like it. He wanted to do something else. After a year with me he had developed his style to a point where he wanted to go still further but in another direction. His style was different with me than it was with the Cream, because he was responding to different sounds. He was influenced by different people.

That applies to most every musician. If you put them in with different people, they sound different because they’re playing different. The course of everyone’s development needs that. Otherwise, they go stagnant. I think that it’s really nice that you can get a musician who can be really satisfying in one band, and then he can develop in another band. You can hear another side of him. All good musicians are like that.

What do you think of the Eric Clapton album [Clapton’s 1970 self-titled debut featuring Delaney & Bonnie and Friends]?

To me it sounds like a Delaney and Bonnie album. That’s not to downgrade them; they do some nice things on records. And it’s not really surprising since Blind Faith was working with them. Even though the album is in his name, it’s really not his whole thing coming out. It’s got somebody else’s thing superimposed on it. He’s got a little outfit on the road now. And that’s the first time he’s taken it on his head to throw out all the superstar categories, get a band together, and play gigs for small money just for the sake of playing in small clubs. It is really commendable.

Clapton made the transition to a hard rock blues sound.

At that time Cream was totally original, so it was really an accomplished thing. But then everybody started to copy it, so everything you heard after that was a Cream copy. He couldn’t stand all that, being written about and everything.

Why didn’t you get into a harder sound?
I don’t want to get my ears blasted. I want to hear my musicians; I want to hear what they play. If you can’t hear who you want to listen to onstage, you don’t ask him to turn up; you ask everyone else to turn down. That way you get a listenable level. Just say that I didn’t want to join in. I took the risk and went the other way.

How did you run across Peter Green?

Peter is very funny. By the time Eric left we were getting known; the Clapton cult as such had started. So there were a lot of prospective guitarists. Actually, Eric left twice, so that was sort of a complication. He got the wanderlust. He went off to Greece with some friends of his to play over there. I had to find another guitar player. So I found one [Jeff Kribbett], and we were playing the same clubs, and it was known that Eric wasn’t with us anymore. The new guitarist wasn’t nearly as good, and he didn’t have that extra thing to make him a great guitarist.

Peter, this cockney kid, kept coming down to all the gigs and saying, “Hey, what are you doing with him; I’m much better than he is. Why don’t you let me play guitar for you. Why, he’s no good at all.” He got really nasty about it, so finally, I let him sit in. Peter worked about three gigs with me, and Eric came back. That really made Peter mad; he was just getting into it. Eric stayed another six months, and during that time Peter was in a band with Mick Fleetwood and Rod Stewart.

When Eric left again, I went straight away to Peter. But he didn’t really want to do it, because it had fallen through before. But eventually he did join. He really came in for a lot of bad things. At gigs people would say things like, "Where’s Clapton?" He had to have a lot of guts and determination to stick it out. He knew he wasn’t as good as Clapton, but he could be, you know.

How did Green happen to go his separate way?

The same way that everybody else did. They decide they’ve learned all they could or developed as far as they could in that structure, and it gives them the inspiration to take it further.

At that point, you found your third phenomenal guitarist, Mick Taylor.

Yeah, as it turned out. But at the time it really isn’t like that. You pick somebody you think is okay, and you go play clubs, and nobody pays much attention at first. It’s only a later turn of events that recognizes the talent there. The name comes later, and then it seems phenomenal that you could pick this winner out, you know.

Mick took a lot longer to develop his style than Eric or Peter. Mick is different than the two of them. Peter’s character is very pushy and he’s determined to prove himself. Mick was always a lazy person, not to knock him; he was just an easier-going personality. He took a lot longer to’ reach his peak, but he turned out to be phenomenal. [Like Clapton and Green before him, Taylor played a Les Paul Standard.]

What was it that you listened for when you first heard those three guitar players?

I don’t really know. I just need a guitarist, and I ask someone to do it in all good faith, hoping that they’ll be what I hope they will be. You put them in this loose environment, a very free thing where there are no arrangements and everybody gets to settle in and explore their own thing. Obviously, when you’re playing something different every night and it’s open to do that, then whoever it is is going to develop if he’s got the potential.

Did you direct them at all? Did you tell them what to play?

No more than I direct the musicians with me today. They look upon me as the bandleader, and it’s my responsibility if it goes wrong. They don’t have it hanging over their heads that it’s got to be good. All they’ve got to be concerned with is their own instrument. They’ve got this guy who points to them and says, “Okay, you take it.” And when they get that signal, they can do what they want. Then I’ll nod to someone else, or we will end it, or I’ll start singing.

So I have the control to direct a very loose thing. If something good happens that’s unexpected, or not what I meant, then I let it go that way. It’s really a nice surprise. On the other hand, if something is going on that is a total bore or a disaster, even though the audience might be liking it, then you bring it to a quick finish.

There are no arrangements of the tunes at all?

Not really, no. Sometimes there’s a theme. Mainly they know the key that I call out, and the kind of beat that it is. The tunes are all on a 12-bar structure so there’s no problem there. It’s just a case of how to end it. It doesn’t really matter as long as you play and people hear genuine music coming out. I don’t think audiences are really that much concerned whether it collapses in a disaster or not, as long as they know that you know that it’s a disaster and make the best of it. You know, take it or leave it, and they laugh, and we laugh, and that’s it.

Like in a set the other night, they all came off the stage saying that they thought so and so was supposed to do this and that. What happened was that one of the numbers —a 12-bar sequence —had a middle bit that was all one chord. To get back to the progression again, somebody has to lead it in with the preceding four bars. I was nodding over to Harvey and Larry, and Harvey took it to mean that I wanted him to solo. So it never got out of it, and Harvey’s solo was really good. I thought it was fantastic and we’d keep it going a bit longer because the audience didn’t know it was supposed to end there. Nobody knew because it was good.

Things like that happen all the time. That’s the interesting thing about it. From a situation like that you learn. Something that sounded good you will use the next time where it hadn’t occurred to you before it happened. There are no patterns; it changes all the time.

How committed are you to the blues?

All I’m committed to is playing what I want to play and making sure that it is different. I try to force myself into new areas that are a challenge. Blues is the only thing I know, so it would have to be through that.

Do you have any musical training?

No. I wish I could play musical instruments with a bit of technical ability sometimes. But I don’t think it’s really important. I can’t change it; I couldn’t learn music, you know. It’s the best that I can do, and the spirit is there.

From what you said earlier, you don’t seem to have much faith in the taste of audiences.

Oh, I do. What I said about audiences was that they don’t realize how unrehearsed and how dangerous it all is. They assume that what they’re hearing has been worked on and arranged. But actually it isn’t. I just get on the phone to somebody, and say that we start work on such and such a date, and I’ll see you at the gig. That’s all it is.

What about you as a guitarist? You’ve been playing a Gibson Les Paul. Is that your favorite guitar?

Well, no. I didn’t choose it. The guitar I had before that was a Fender, and it went out of tune. So I told my road manager to get me a new one. So he got me a Les Paul, because he could get one cheap or something. I don’t know anything about those things.

You don’t worry about strings and all that?

Just as long as they’re not rusty. If they’re rusty and you do a slide up the neck, you’ve got a torn finger. I don’t really worry about instruments, because they’re just tools. I’m not proficient enough on them to think that matters. Stick an axe in me hand and I’ll see what I can do with it. It’s as simple as that.

By the summer of 1965, Eric Clapton’s reputation was so lofty that one fan had spray-painted "Clapton is God" onto a North London wall. Following his roughly one-and-a-half-year tenure in the Yardbirds, Clapton had proved his blues-rock bonafides in John Mayall’s Bluesbeakers, a band Classic Rock calls “a finishing school for some of the U.K.’s finest blues musicians.” But when Clapton took a leave of absence that summer and absconded to Greece, his role in the band suddenly came up for grabs.

Peter Green was ready.

In a rare 2012 interview with Classic Rock from 2012, eight years before his death, the reclusive Green explained how he managed to talk his way into the band to become Clapton's replacement. The move would not only establish him as a guitar great in his own right — it would also serve as a springboard to launch his own group, Fleetwood Mac.

When Clapton went AWOL, John Mayall tapped Jeff Kribbett to stand in for their aloof deity. Green, having blagged his way into the band’s show at London’s Marquee, didn’t feel Kribbett was the best man for the job. As Mayall later recalled, "He kept coming down to all the gigs and saying: ‘I’m much better than him.' " Green's persistence paid off. He talked his way into the job and deputized for Clapton over three shows. In the process, he earned Mayall's respect.

“John Mayall paid me a great compliment,” Green told Classic Rock. “He said I was the best guitarist he’d heard since Eric Clapton. I tried to float on that. But I used to drink before I went on. It seemed to be the thing where everyone went to the pub. I couldn’t play properly. Most of them [gigs] I flunked.”

Yet Mayall never voiced any disappointment over Green's performances. Indeed, even Clapton, once back on British soil, was impressed by Green’s talents.

“He was a real Turk,” he later said of his understudy. “A strong, confident person who knew exactly where he was going.”

When Clapton left the Bluesbreakers for good in the summer of ‘66, Green would reclaim the post he so briefly and tantalizingly held the year before. In the interim, he hsd auditioned for keyboardist Peter Barden's band, Peter B’s Looners, which would foreshadow a key part of his future.

“They had funny clothes on. Hipsters with big belts and fancy buckles," he recalled. "It might have been Carnaby Street stuff, but it blew my mind."

Barden, who would later find success in prog stalwarts Camel, had a gangly drummer who, at six foot five, towered over his bandmates. His name was Mick Fleetwood.

Greeen landed the gig but didn’t match his colleagues’ fashion sense, dressing in denim jeans and sporting “riverboat captain” sideburns. “Bardens would say to me: ‘You look like a dustman,” Green said. Unlike the Looners, Green was all about the music.

The guitarist made his recording debut with the single "If You Wanaa Be Happy," an organ-led instrumental that recalled something Booker T. & the MGs might have played. There wasn't much for Green to do on the track other than comp chords.

It soon wouldn't matter though. Before Green could settle into life in the band, Mayall came calling. The landmark Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton album had been released in July 1966, but by then Clapton had already departed to form Cream. Mayall, however, wasn’t one to sit and mope. By October he and the group were back in the studio, having kept news of Clapton’s departure a secret. Producer Mike Vernon was among the first to know.

“As the band walked in the studio, I noticed an amplifier which I never saw before,” he said. “So I said to John Mayall: ‘Where’s Eric Clapton?’ Mayall answered: ‘He’s not with us anymore. He left us a few weeks ago… Don’t worry, we got someone better.’”

Vernon didn’t believe anyone could be "better than Clapton," but Mayall was proud of his new secret weapon. He told the producer: “In a couple of years he’s going to be the best”.

The result of those sessions was the album A Hard Road. It featured two original Green compositions, including the instrumental The Supernatural, a pre-cursor to the classic cut ""Black Magic Woman" that he would later create with Fleetwood Mac.

“I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be worried about having to follow Eric,” Vernon offered. But Green’s slow and measured solos found legions of Claptonites embracing him. “Peter had a deftness, a more melodic style," Vernon offered ."Deeper blues.”

Tellingly, the praise never sat well with Green, whose ambivalence about fame would eventually be his undoing. The guitarist said he wrestled with nerves and insecurities during those early shows.

“Sometimes I’d feel confident. Other times I feel like I’m going too fast,” he said. He noticed a clear correlation between the speed of his playing and the audience’s adoration for it, but he condemned what he called the “7,541 notes a minute” guitar hero movement that would soon follow, in part thanks to Clapton’s shredding with Cream.

“I don’t like people to say to me: ‘Oh, you’re better than Eric Clapton,’ all this kind of thing. People used to do that, and I didn’t know where to put myself.”

Head to Louder Sound to read the interview in full.

Peter Green’s 1965 Fender Duo-Sonic, used prominently on the solo album In The Skies and beyond, is set to be sold at auction. Its sale is the headline act of Gardiner Houlgate’s latest sale of prestigious pre-loved guitars.

It follows Eric Claption's prototype Martin 000-28EC, Ian Bairnson's expectation-surpassing Wuthering Heights Les Paul Custom, and Johnny Marr's The The-era '62 American Vintage Strat reissue to Gardiner Houlgate's auction block, with the trio of instruments having been sold this year.

The Fleetwood Mac guitarist is most closely associated with his “Greeny” Gibson Les Paul Standard, which he later sold to Gary Moore, and is now in the hands of Kirk Hammet.

But Green’s love affair with the Fender was hardly fleeting. As per the auctioneer, the Duo-Sonic became a key part of the bluesman’s collection in the late ‘70s, playing a key role in 1979’s In The Skies, which featured Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy guitarist Snowy White.

Notably, it was his first release after eight years of obscurity following his departure from Fleetwood Mac. Its follow-up, Little Dreamer, arrived a year later, and the Duo-Sonic remained by Green’s side.

Green’s beloved Fender has a stunted 22.5” scale length, rosewood fingerboard, and an Olympic White finish. All the wear and tear that can be seen on the guitar – particularly around the bottom of the body – are the result of Green’s playing.

The guitar has a hardtail three-saddle bridge and two slider switches to alter the tone of its two single coil pickups, which are full of chiming and biting tones.

This particular instrument – a Duo-Sonic II – had seen some choice changes made from its first production run, with those sliders, usurping a three-way toggle switch, one such tweak.

An all-plastic pickguard also gave way to a metal control panel, a lá the Fender Mustang.

The Fender Duo-Sonic hasn't quite lived the test of time like the Mustang. Yet while many were quick to dismiss the three-quarter-sized “kid's guitar,” it had and has fans in Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Walter Becker, and Dweezil Zappa.

A major figure in the late-1960s British blues boom, Green was considered one of the best electric blues guitarists of the era. For a few years, it seemed he would stand among an elite cast of guitarists to shape the direction of blues rock for years to come, having risen to prominence alongside Eric Clapton, another famous Les Paul user at the time.

However, for a period Green stopped playing Gibsons altogether, and it was at this time that his Duo-Sonic, alongside several Stratocasters and Telecasters, got plenty of mileage.

He once even claimed he'd never play a Les Paul again. Asked by Guitar Player in 2003 why he'd made such a statement, he said: “In some ways, I regret ever buying a Les Paul guitar. I sort of overshadowed Eric [Clapton]'s breakthrough.”

Its auction will take place on September 3, with a humble estimate of $4,000 touted.

Visit Gardiner Houlgate to learn more.

When the guitarist known as the King of the Blues says, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard. He was the only one who gave me cold sweats,” you know it’s high praise. And that’s exactly what B.B. King said about the late Peter Green, who passed away on July 25, 2020.

A major figure in the late-1960s British blues boom, Green was considered by many to be the best electric blues guitarist of his time. “Peter in his prime in the ’60s was just without equal,” said John Mayall, who hired him as the Bluesbreakers’ guitarist when Eric Clapton left to form Cream.

For a few years it seemed Green would be among a small group of guitarists to shape the direction of blues-rock. He formed Fleetwood Mac in ’67, but their success was short-lived for the young guitarist.

By 1970, his mental health had begun to deteriorate, fueled by excessive drug use. By the decade’s end, he was a casualty of the rock era. “I was very critically ill for a while there, you might say,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1998. “I’m not really back yet.”

He was born Peter Allen Greenbaum on October 29, 1946, in Bethnal Green, North London. When he was 10, an older brother brought home a guitar, and Green had found his calling. He developed quickly on the instrument, becoming a formidable player. He was just 19 in 1966, when Mayall hired him.

Despite Clapton’s legendary status, Green proved a very worthy successor both onstage and on record, contributing stellar guitar work with his iconic 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard fed through a Marshall amp on Mayall’s revolutionary A Hard Road album. (The guitar, dubbed Greeny, was purchased by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett in 2014 for an undisclosed sum.)

Green made his vocal debut on two of the album’s tracks, You Don’t Love Me and The Same Way, and was featured on a pair of instrumentals: a cover of Freddie King’s The Stumble and his own composition, The Super-Natural. The latter track demonstrated not only Green’s distinctive tone with his ’59 ’Burst but also his beautifully quivering vibrato and ability to sustain notes for up to 10 seconds using harmonic feedback.

But his time with Mayall was short. In 1967, he formed his own band, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, featuring Jeremy Spencer (a brilliant 19-year-old guitarist many considered Green’s equal), bassist Bob Brunning, and drummer Mick Fleetwood, who had been fired by Mayall.

The lineup solidified when John McVie, another Mayall alumni, replaced Brunning. With the addition of Danny Kirwan the following year as a third guitarist, the band’s name was shortened to simply Fleetwood Mac.

A series of British hits soon followed: Black Magic Woman, Oh, Well, The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown), Man of the World, and Albatross, which George Harrison acknowledged was the inspiration for the Beatles’ Abbey Road track Sun King.

Remarkably, that year, 1969, Fleetwood Mac sold more singles in Britain than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined. But amid the group’s rise, Green began consuming prodigious amounts of LSD and mescaline.

He grew a beard, performed in long white robes with a crucifix, and expressed disillusionment about fame and money, while his behavior on- and offstage became increasingly erratic. After a May 1970 concert, he walked away from the band that he had started.

Things went from bad to worse over the next years. In 1977, when Fleetwood Mac’s most commercially successful lineup was enjoying massive popularity with Rumours, Green, suffering from schizophrenia, was in a psychiatric hospital undergoing electroconvulsive shock therapy.

Following his release, the guitarist was never really able to get his career back on track, even after his old friend, guitarist Nigel Watson, convinced him in 1997 to join forces in a new band they called the Peter Green Splinter Group.

The band released eight albums in less than seven years, but received little attention. It was readily apparent to anyone attending the band’s shows that promoters were only using Green’s name to sell tickets. Watson, in addition to doing all the singing, was providing the lead guitar work, with Green not contributing much musically.

When I spoke with Green for this interview in 2003, around the release of his record Reaching the Cold 100, he expressed regret for his drug use and spoke vividly of one harrowing incident.

“I was still taking LSD one night before I left my house and smashed a car windscreen with a jar,” he said. “I was hearing voices. I wanted them to stop, but they wouldn’t stop. I blamed the drugs for what I did. That’s what happens when you take LSD. Your mind plays tricks on you when you’re hallucinating. But that’s all in the past now.” Despite his years in the wilderness, Green was never forgotten.

When Mick Fleetwood launched an all-star tribute concert for him at the London Palladium on February 25, 2020, prominent musicians and longtime admirers of his playing and music – including Pete Townshend, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Bill Wyman, and Mayall – turned out to pay homage to the guitarist, who had done so much for blues. Sadly, Green was too ill to attend.

Reading this unpublished interview again after so many years reminded me of Peter Green’s innate ability to charm and give generously, qualities that were equally obvious in his music.

Peter, what was the first music you heard as a boy that really inspired you?

“My brother used to bring home these skiffle records. One that we really liked was Freight Train by Chas [McDevitt] and Nancy Whiskey, but Lonnie Donegan was the real king of skiffle. I loved the way he played his guitar and thought I should have a go at it. My brother gave me a guitar, an old Spanish hand-me-down. I didn’t know any chords. I was just strumming the thing open.

“I didn’t even know how to tune the guitar properly. I would just tune it in some way that appealed to my ear. Just made up my own chords. I played the strum over with my right hand, and with my left hand would just hold the neck someway comfortably, but I wouldn’t put my finger on the fretboard yet. I first learned how to strum, or ‘jang,’ as I used to call it.”

At what point did you feel accomplished enough to play out where people could hear you?

“When I got a little older, my family moved to Putney, which I was very pleased about, because it was a big upgrading from the flats we used to live in. Here, there were orchids around the building, and apple and pear trees that we could eat off of.

“Most days I’d go down the street, and I would take my guitar and stand on the pavement side of the roadside of the building, just ‘janging’ – just standing there with a big smile on my face.”

You’ve cited Hank Marvin of the Shadows as a big early guitar hero of yours. What was it that most appealed to you about his guitar playing?

“That slinky sound. He had this gorgeous Fiesta Red Stratocaster, and he would get this very special Stratocaster sound from it. What I especially liked was the way he was very gentle with the tremolo arm. It was the coming of the use of the tremolo arm.”

When did you start learning to play the electric bass?

“At the time I was a young man, maybe only 17, if that, and I was still working part-time in the daytime as a French polisher, but in the evenings I was playing bass guitar with a group called the Muskrats. The guys lived halfway towards Richmond, in Sheen, so that’s where we would hold our rehearsals.

“I would also go watch the Yardbirds rehearse, and I started copying and learning from Paul Samwell-Smith, who was playing bass for the original version of the Yardbirds that Eric Clapton was in. I soon discovered that I could hold my bass the way the Yardbirds used to hold their guitars. This got me into some sort of really strange moods.”

Do you recall an early meeting with John Mayall?

“Yes. One day I went over to John’s house to apply for the job in such a way as to get it. John set his guitar aside and started playing the piano, while I played along with him. We recorded it, played it back, and it sounded fantastic. Absolutely lovely. The blues sounded absolutely gorgeous.”

There must have been a lot of pressure on you when you replaced Eric Clapton in Mayall’s group, especially when people were going around London scribbling things on walls like “Clapton is God.” Did you feel intimidated following in his footsteps? I mean, those were pretty big shoes to try to fill.

“No, because it was me who said he was God. [laughs] I was the one who kind of found him in my God-sort-of dreams. God was causing it. Someone said to me, ‘Clapton’s not God.’ I said, ‘Yes, he is, and that’s a guarantee!’ Then I saw the God quotes in the paper and thought, ‘Well, it didn’t come from me, from my discovery, from my sort of confession.’ I suppose I was destined to follow in Eric Clapton’s footsteps. A lot of people were saying that at the time.”

This seems like almost a very clichéd question, but people have debated over the years whether a white musician can play the blues with the same authenticity as a black person.

“I’m an honorable guy, so I would say I’m not really playing blues myself. If there is any discrepancy or debate about what you’re asking, I went to a club in New Orleans once with someone who wouldn’t allow what his privilege was, and he made me remember that blues is brown-skin music.

“He was a very clever bloke, very, very good with words, and he said to me, ‘When I go out to see blues played, I know what color skin I want to see doing it.’ I said, ‘Well, of course, obviously,’ so perhaps that’s the ultimate answer.”

Back in the ’70s, you lost a lot of time from your career when you were hospitalized. What memories do you have of that period?

“It wasn’t my idea. I was tricked into going into the hospital and then being forced to take these tranquilizers, which was my most hated thing. I would say, ‘Look, I’m just trying to stay awake,’ but you ain’t gonna be able to do that. You’re left half asleep, with a sudden drop in identity, what I call ‘falsely complimented.’ They also tricked me into having the ECT [electroconvulsive therapy].

“This doctor kept saying to me, ‘Let me first give you a little injection,’ and I said, ‘No, no, no!’ but he did it anyway. The whole time I was there, I was just trying to survive and routining. No pleasures, no luxuries, just going on the food lines, walking around and around, and watching television.”

I know your many fans are delighted seeing you back onstage.

“Well, when I first started doing shows again, it felt really strange, but I’ve since experienced the joy of feeling what it’s like playing with other people again.”

It must be great having Nigel with you.

“Believe me or not, it’s really him having me with him, even though he’s more of a worldly person. He’s more of a realist who conducts matters over cold ground.”

When you’re performing, is it much easier having Nigel doing all the singing?

“Yes, it is easier, because I can concentrate more on guitar. I do like to sing, but I’d hardly consider myself a vocalist. I would hope to be considered a guitarist.”

Do you have any particular favorite blues guitarists?

“Well, I would start off with Skip James. And who’s the one who did the song about a candyman?”

I think you’re referring to Mississippi John Hurt.

“Yes, a great fingerpicking style, that right hand of his. What I’m into now is more the right hand of a player.”

Of course, you made a terrific tribute album to Robert Johnson [1998’s The Robert Johnson Songbook].

“You’re talking about a really great guitar player. Went through some very troubled times, but a great player. Absolutely.”

What type of gear are you currently using, starting with amps?

“Right now I’m using a [Fender] Prosonic with 10-inch speakers and 18-inch speaker cabinets. I’ve got a Vox that I don’t use any more, except sometimes in the studio. I used to have a Vox bass amp with a lot of treble settings that I used for my first guitar playing, and also a Fender Blues DeVille that went to my guitar tech.”

What about guitars? Are you still mainly using Stratocasters and your Howard Roberts Fusion?

“The Howard Roberts is still settling in nicely onstage, and I have two Stratocasters, one of which I use for slide. I never thought I would do that, but the pickups sound so good. It sounds like Hawaiian guitar pickups.”

And the Harmony Meteor?

“Oh, yeah, I’m still using that too. It’s a fabulous guitar, and I also have an Epiphone. I was using them both onstage together, which was interesting.”

And for guitar strings, nine or 10 gauge?

“I would never touch a nine or a 10. I actually prefer 11s or 12s, and at one time used 13s. Especially for slide, I prefer really heavy strings. And I also prefer playing without a pick, because I don’t want to have to think about it.”

Which guitars do you find work best for slide?

“I have a pink Stratocaster with a lovely suede case that was given to me as a birthday present from one of the boys at Fender. I use that mostly for rhythm. For the lead parts onstage I like to use my Seafoam Green Stratocaster.”

Are there any particular guitars that you find are better suited to studio work, and vice versa?

“No, I’m usually in the dark about things like that, so we try getting a balance between different ones, and if something doesn’t sound right, we’ll try something else. We do try using different guitars in the studio, so sometimes I find myself playing something that’s really strange to me.”

Do you find as much enjoyment using acoustics in the studio as electrics?

“Whatever the tune is, I’ll have a go at it, and we’ll figure out what it needs. I do get nervous playing acoustics in the studio, because it’s very hard to get a good sound. Many times the sound comes out flat.”

You once said you’d never play a Les Paul again. What made you say that at the time?

“Well, l don’t know. It was an interesting thing to have, but a bit too heavy for me. The other day, I saw one and kind of liked it, so I might keep an eye out for another one. Sometimes when you’ve got something really perfect, you don’t realize it. I once had a mahogany one with an ebony finish and three pickups [a Les Paul Custom].

“I felt like buying it and sending it to Eric Clapton, but he’s probably already got one. In some ways, I regret ever buying a Les Paul guitar. I sort of overshadowed his breakthrough. I still feel sort of unaccomplished though, so I bought an electric piano to have in my house. I fiddle around with it. It’s quite nice, you know.”

When you saw the massive success Fleetwood Mac was having with the Rumours album, did you ever regret leaving and not being a part of it?

“Once or twice I felt if I was to go back with them, or just do something like a guest appearance at a few shows, that would be okay, but I guess I just needed a lift.”

How did it feel being with the group at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction [in 1998]? Was that really a special thing for you?

“Nobody understands what that whole thing is all about. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… Inducted? Vinducted? Theraducted? I don’t really accept anything like that. I’ll have to think more about it and tell you the next time we talk.”

Is it harder now coming up with the inspiration for new songs?

“Not harder, but I’m always studying the development, or lack of development, in the old songs that I do. Always studying. That’s where my sort of creative forces of energies would be applying themselves to. It can be found there on the old songs that we do – see if we can improve on them in any way.”

Looking back on the troubled times you’ve been through, do you have any personal regrets?

“No, I think it’s better to have suffered in life and been uncomfortable than comfortable. If you’re comfortable in life, I think the blues might evade you. Suffering is something holy, something very sad. If you grow up a rich kid with no problems, you miss a lot.”

When you left Fleetwood Mac, you felt that it was wrong for rock stars to make massive sums of money. Do you still think that’s true?

“No. Back then, the acidheads had a different opinion, but I have no proof that rock stars have any money. They’ve never given any to me or taken me to any lavish restaurants! It could be interesting to say that rock stars have a lot of money, to take away the original sin; if the rock star keeps on rocking, he’s going to be repeating himself. They all do seem to have something I haven’t got, but they can keep it. It’s something I don’t want. [laughs] It gets to be more than a curse.”

“Do you remember when you got your magic Les Paul?”

So asked Andy Ellis of Peter Green in the November 2000 issue of Guitar Player. The guitar in question was none other than Green’s 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, a legendary instrument that the Fleetwood Mac founder used to write and record many of the group’s seminal blues cuts, including “Black Magic Woman,” “Oh Well” and “The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown).”

Green’s Les Paul was considered “magic” for its out-of-phase sound, a nasal tonality missing from the typical Les Paul repertoire. 

Oddly, Green didn’t think much of the assessment.

“I never had a magic one,” he replied to Ellis. “Mine wasn’t magical... It might have looked similar to others from a distance, but it was an old-fashioned one with a funny-shaped neck – a kind of semicircle neck. It just barely worked. The pickups were strong, but I took one of them off. I copied Eric [Clapton]. 

"I heard him play one night, and he was on the treble pickup all night long. It sounded so good, I thought I’d take my bass pickup off altogether. Try and wait for the same luck. As if it was luck! It takes a lot of genuine practice and worry to get a sound like that.” 

ELLIS: But judging from all the Fleetwood Mac photographs, you must have put the pickup back on your Les Paul.

GREEN: I put it back on the wrong way around so that the poles – the pickup screws – were facing in the opposite direction. People would say to me, “You got that special out-of-phase sound.” I don’t know what out-of-phase is. Phase for what? Phase – it sounds like a good name for a group. 

Mind you, it didn’t make any difference to me. People would say that I got a special sound and try to force me to agree, but I don’t think so.

As it happened, Ellis already knew the “secret” behind the sound of Green’s Les Paul. In 1994, he’d approached Jol Dantzig, then with Hamer Guitars, to have him build a custom dual-humbucker guitar inspired by Green’s Les Paul. Ellis told the story in the same issue in which his Peter Green interview appeared. 

By the time of his visit to Dantzig, Green’s Les Paul had long been the main instrument of Gary Moore, who had befriended Green in the late '60s and purchased the guitar from him a few years later, in the early '70s. 

“As we discussed the wiring possibilities,” Ellis wrote, “Dantzig recalled that Gary Moore stopped by the Hamer factory in the early '80s with Green’s Les Paul.

“I asked if I could check out the wiring," remembered Dantzig, "and I carefully examined the pickups and their controls. Everything looked totally stock – the pickups were wired in phase – but I knew they didn’t sound stock when played together. 

“I used a compass to measure the pickups’ magnetic polarity. I discovered that one magnet was oriented north-to-south while the other was oriented south-to-north. The pickups were magnetically out of phase – this was the secret we’d all been searching for!"

“Dantzig agreed to incorporate magnetically out-of-phase pickups and reverse the neck pickup in the custom Hamer,” Ellis continued. “I sent a pair of Antiquity humbuckers to Seymour Duncan, requesting that he flip the magnet on one. Before I could explain why, Duncan said, ‘Ahh – you want the Peter Green mod.’”

So did the wiring replicate Green’s nasal tone? The answer, Ellis said, was an unequivocal yes. 

“In a dual-pickup setting where each humbucker has its own volume pot, you can bleed the relative phase shift to create timbres ranging from a piercing howl to a subtle treble boost.”

But as Ellis points out, the resulting tone isn’t the same that you get from wiring humbuckers out of phase. It seems that magnetically out-of-phase pickups are responsive to pitch, creating an entirely different sort of sound. 

“Oddly, the resulting sound is sweeter and more musical than what you get from wiring humbuckers out of phase,” Ellis writes. “Magnetically generated phase shift seems to respond to pitch changes – the higher the note, the more pronounced the effect. Chords and bass notes don’t have the thin, shrill sound of out-of-phase wiring, yet high notes played on the top strings have a pronounced hollow cry.”

In the years since Ellis wrote his story, Green’s guitar changed hands several times. Moore sold the guitar in 2006 for financial reasons. It eventually ended up in the hands of Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, who purchased it in 2014. 

I don’t want to rock the boat, but to me Fleetwood Mac never meant Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham or the tedious media fascinations with the band members’ relationship conflicts. To me, Fleetwood Mac meant one thing: Then Play On – one of the greatest blues-rock records ever made. 

Then Play On was the group’s third album, released on the Reprise label in 1969. This gatefold record is hard evidence of Fleetwood Mac’s growth from an excellent blues band to a blues-based act that defied description. 

The group at this point featured Peter Green and Danny Kirwan, each on guitar and vocals, Jeremy Spencer (whose only contribution here is piano on “Oh Well”), and the world-class rhythm section of bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood.

“Coming Your Way” opens the record with McVie and Fleetwood’s trademark jungle beat. 

The song quickly reveals how the group had evolved since its 1968 debut, where it sounded more like a traditional blues band. We can hear its vocabulary expand into a language all its own. It’s still blues, but with a new dialect. The song ends with a dramatic riff-rock passage that sounds like a precursor to the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”

It’s a stunning entrance to this great album.

“Oh Well,” easily the best-known track here, actually entered the Billboard Top 100 chart and is memorable both for its insistent riff and blunt vocal refrain, “I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin.” 

Midway through, it abruptly shifts from a primal rocking blues vamp to a movement with echoes of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack that you might hear as a pair of gunslingers stare one another down in a duel.

“Rattlesnake Shake” is another masterpiece. The guitar tones epitomize evil, in the best possible way. (Isn’t that what we all want?) Again, the rhythm section grinds away. 

The Peter Green vocal is spoken as much as it’s sung, and it’s as laser-direct as the guitars. Some vocalists have chops, but it feels like they’re playing a role, and I don’t believe in them. Green’s vocal performances, on the other hand, always feel like a confession more than a performance.

Being drawn to instrumentals, I was most influenced by “Underway.” The song is basically a vamp using the A major 6 chord on the 2nd fret: Just lay your first finger down and – presto! – you have ‘Underway”!

In high school, I found a live extended bootleg version of this song that changed my life. It’s a reverb-laden sonic exploration, and a performance for the ages that ends with Green playing beautiful, stabbing melodies, long after the entire band has dropped out.

That said, the album version is a nice rendition.

I’m impressed by how Then Play On prioritizes what I assume Fleetwood Mac wanted to show of themselves: their ability to create both taut, vocal-led tracks and stunning instrumental workouts. 

In between beautiful orchestrations and heart-wrenching vocals, performance pieces like “Searching for Madge” and “Fighting for Madge” shoulder their way into our listening experience. These are exciting, dripping-raw one-key jams, but their presence here feels seamless with the rest of the tracks. The group’s commitment makes me believe in them. 

Side two ends with Green’s “Before the Beginning,” and his vocals and crying guitar performance are the perfect ending to an almost-perfect record.

Sure, Fleetwood Mac and Rumours are great albums that served up anthems for an era, but I can usually hear select cuts from those records while waiting at my bank machine, or at the grocery store.

On the other hand, when I want to hear brilliant blues rock that never compromises and demands to be heard, I put Then Play On on my turntable and play it loud.

This interview originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Guitar Player. 

“There’s an Internet radio station based out of London called Planet Rock, and they asked me to host six two-hour blues programs,“ says legendary guitarist and pioneering blues/rock stylist, Gary Moore. “As I was digging around looking for songs to play on the show, I came across some great tunes that I wanted to record myself.“

So when Moore fired up the jets to track his new record, Close As You Get, he composed five originals, and then tore into some Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Son House – whose “Sundown“ closes the record, and features the 55-year-old Moore’s first recorded bottleneck/resonator outing in his 30-plus year career. 

“I used a cheap skinny-bodied thing called an Ozark that’s easy to play because it sits so close to your body,“ he says.

Close As You Get is one of Moore’s most focused – yet varied – blues outings to date. His tones range from the savage to the sublime, and his tunes sport an understated elegance that highlights his vocals, as well as his transcendent guitarcraft.

Did you do anything different during the tracking of Close As You Get as compared to some of your other recent releases?

“I made a couple of rules for myself on this record, and one of them was that I had to track live as much as possible, and not overdub any of my solos. It’s always tempting to say, 'I’ll go back and fix that bit.' So, to make sure I couldn’t do that, I created a situation where there wasn’t much separation between the instruments in the studio. I left the door to my amp booth wide open so my guitar was all over the drum mics!

“My other rule was that I didn’t want to use any pedals. I wanted the tones to be as immediate and in-your-face as possible, and the best way to do that is to eliminate anything extra in the signal path between the guitar and amp. I did, however, use more amps than I typically use on a session. 

“I used a mid-’60s Vox AC30 on the opening track, Chuck Berry’s 'Thirty Days.' That amp, coupled with a Fender Telecaster, gave me a wonderful, rough-edged tone. I also used an Orange Tiny Terror head – a great little amp. I coupled it with a Marshall 2061CX 2x12 on Sonny Boy Williamson’s 'Eyesight to the Blind.' 

“I used a Fender Vibroverb reissue for the spooky reverb sound on 'I Had a Dream,' and for 'Nowhere Fast' and 'Evenin’.' I also used a Marshall DSL head on 'Have You Heard' and 'Checkin’ Up on My Baby.'“

Have you used Fender amps much in the past?

“A little bit. I used a Fender Dual Showman for 'Don’t Believe a Word' on my solo debut, Back on the Streets, from the late ’70s. The Dual Showman was the amp Peter Green was using when I first met him in Dublin. He had two of them – each atop a 2x15 JBL D130-loaded cabinet. But when I tracked 'Don’t Believe a Word,' I ran the Dual Showman through a Marshall 4x12. It softened up the sound beautifully, and took some of the twang out of the stock Fender setup.“

You played Les Pauls early in your career, then you became a Strat guy. The Telecaster is a different guitar for you, isn’t it?

“Oh yeah. I used it on about three tracks on the record. I’m also using it on four songs live, and I’m really enjoying it.

“The Tele was my first proper guitar when I was 14, and the one I’m playing now – a ’68 – is the same year as the one I had as a kid. It’s quite hard to play, but it sounds so good. I mean, it’s fairly easy to coax tones out of a Les Paul, whereas a Telecaster won’t give it up unless you put a lot of physical muscle into it. Strats are the same way, but the tone and dynamics are worth the extra effort. Plus, the Tele tends to lead me into Roy Buchanan territory – which isn’t a bad place to be.“

What types of strings are you currently using?

“I string my guitars with Dean Markleys – sometimes .010-.052, and sometimes a .009-.048 set. Honestly, I only hear the difference in gauge on the bottom strings, not the top. For picks, I use either Gibson or Fender heavy gauges.“

Do you track with onboard amp reverb? 

“A little bit – but since I recorded Still Got the Blues in 1990, I’ve been using an old Alesis Midiverb II on my guitars during mixdown. You can’t even program the thing, but there are a few patches on it that I love. I much prefer the slightly grainier sound of it to expensive studio reverbs – they sound a bit too slick to my ears.“

How do you feel your playing has evolved from Still Got the Blues to now?

“It has changed quite a lot. I feel that if you listen to the new record, and then go back and listen to Still Got the Blues, you’ll almost hear two different guitarists. I think my blues playing has really grown up, in that I’ve learned how to leave more space. And my phrasing – without a doubt the most personal aspect of any guitarist’s playing, regardless of genre – has grown a lot. I’m more conscious about phrasing now than ever, and it has taken me quite a long time to get it where I want it.“

How would you recommend a player work on their phrasing?

“Well, I can tell you what worked for me. The best piece of advice I ever got was from Albert King. He was leaving the studio after we tracked 'Oh, Pretty Woman' for Still Got the Blues, and right as he was walking out the door, he turned to me and said, 'Gary, play every other lick.' That’s all you need to know, isn’t it? 

“It’s quite simple, yet it’s the best thing anyone could ever tell you, because, let’s face it, guitarists are like those guests at a dinner party who think they’ve got the most important thing to say, so they never shut up!'

“So try and leave some big moments of silence in your solos – at least twice as long as what comes to you instinctively. After a while, you get in the habit of hearing those spaces, and the waiting comes naturally. And if you’ve got a good tone, you’ll create this anticipation where the audience can’t wait for the next note. I remember feeling that way when I’d see Peter Green. I was hanging on every note he played. And then, when he would hit the note, it would just go right through me.“

You covered the classic Bluesbreakers/Clapton track “Have You Heard” on your new record, and you were a Peter Green protégé growing up. How deep does the British blues influence run for you?

“Pretty deep. Anyone or anything that influences you that heavily when you’re 14 is going to stick with you throughout your life. I’m not conscious about it, and I think I have my own voice. But if I play, say, a slow minor-key blues, you’ll hear Peter’s influence in both my vocals and my guitar playing. And the Bluesbreaker 'Beano' album with Eric Clapton completely changed my life. 

“I couldn’t afford the album, so I would go over to a friend’s house to listen to it on his little mono record player. Thankfully, he let me borrow it, and I would go home every day after school and drive my mom crazy learning those solos. I didn’t give the guy his record back for six months!“

“When I tracked 'Have You Heard' for the new album, like Clapton, I was using a Les Paul – my ’59. But I would always end up playing the Clapton version because it’s so ingrained in my head. My fingers immediately went to the Clapton licks from that Bluesbreaker record. So, after a few takes, I switched to an ES-335, and that helped me get my own version down.“

Were you a fan of Mick Taylor’s stint in the Bluesbreakers?

“Oh yeah. I saw him when he first joined the Bluesbreakers. He was just 17 years old. He played in Belfast at the same venue where I saw Peter Green for the first time. Belfast had a good blues scene in the late ’60s. 

“I remember watching Taylor standing on the side of the stage right before he was about to go on, and he had a little nail file that he was using to adjust the polepieces on that Les Paul with a Bigsby he used to play. He plugged straight into a 50-watt Marshall and a single 4x12 cab, and he had an absolutely beautiful sound. He did something quite original for the time, as he was always pulling way up on that Bigsby for really wide bends.“

Do you hear your influence on rock players like John Sykes, Vivian Campbell, and Randy Rhoads?

“I do, but they were influenced by one side of my playing – the rock side. I met Randy when he first came to London with Ozzy Osbourne. I really liked that kid. He was so humble. 

“He came to a gig of mine at the Marquee with Ozzy’s wife, Sharon. He loved my tune 'Parisienne Walkways,' and he kept telling Sharon I should release it as a single, even though I already had – and it was a hit! In fact, he liked that track so much he used the melody for the outro solo on Osbourne’s 'Mr. Crowley.' Randy definitely got that from me.“

How objective are you about your playing?

“I live in my own world when it comes to my playing. I think most guitarists do. I’ll walk around thinking, 'I can do this better, or I can do that better' all day long.

“Developing your style and improving is an ongoing process. It’s a lifetime’s work, really. I know the sounds I want, and I know the feeling I want to convey, but it’s a slow process getting that across to the listener. You may not get exactly what you’re hearing in your head, but if you get 75 percent of the way there, then you’re doing pretty good.“

Late Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green played a number of notable electric guitars over the years.

Of course, his most famous guitar is the near-mythical "Greeny" Gibson Les Paul Standard that Green sold to Gary Moore. Later – after first trading hands a number of additional times – the storied guitar ended up in the custody of Metallica's Kirk Hammett.

At the time of his death, though, Green's collection still contained a huge assortment of guitars, 150 of which were put under the hammer as part of a massive Bonhams auction earlier this year. 

One of these choice vintage, Green-owned instruments was a 1962 Silvertone Speed Demon, which – late last week – surfaced once again on Reverb.com, and was quickly snapped up.

It's worth noting that the Reverb listing hiked the price of the Speed Demon by quite a bit – from the £1,536 (~$1,950) it sold for at auction, to $12,999.

Despite the mark-up, the seller – Chris Tapp, from the band the Cold Stares – has reported that the guitar indeed sold, just days after it was first listed on Reverb.

Said by Tapp to be in “amazing” condition, the Speed Demon features a single-cut bound and hollow maple body with a natural finish, and a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard.

The guitar is also armed with a trio of what appear to be original Speed Bump-style soapbar pickups, with a volume knob for each pickup, a pair of tone knobs, and an amazingly retro pickup selector on the upper bout.

Also worth noting are the fretboard's block pearloid inlays, and the swanky vintage tailpiece.

The Silvertone wasn't the only one of Green's guitars that Tapp snapped up from the auction. According to the guitarist's Instagram page, Tapp also purchased Green's stunning 1931 National Duolian Style-O guitar, which the Cold Stares man says he will never sell. 

To see the full catalog of Peter Green-owned guitars that went under the hammer earlier this year, visit bonhams.com.

Ah, the minor pentatonic scale – most likely the first scale you learned to play. Even if it wasn’t, those five notes are probably so ingrained in your head and fingers by now that they might as well be members of your family.

For rock guitarists in particular, this is a good thing, since the minor pentatonic is arguably the fundamental rock scale, an essential component of riffing and soloing in every strain and subgenre of the music for decades.

But just as certain people in your actual family can sometimes be terrible bores, so the five members of the minor pentatonic can become tiresome, always following the same patterns and never seeming to change their mood.

Fortunately, a solution is at hand. You can alter the way you approach the minor pentatonic.

First: Remind yourself that each minor pentatonic scale has five different “box” positions on the guitar. It’s common for players to lean on one or two (usually the ones that fall in line with the most typical barre voicings of the tonic chord, rooted on either the E or A string) and get stuck in a rut.

Second: Break out of scalar routine: skip strings, arpeggiate – whatever it takes to get away from playing the notes in the order everyone expects.

Third: Change up your left- and right-hand attack with bends, slides, pick rakes and so on.

The following examples – each using a different box position of A minor pentatonic and nodding to the style of a different guitarist – will help you in all three areas.

Figure 1 starts out with a pull-off lick made famous by Jimmy Page during Led Zeppelin’s late '60s salad days, but the slides that close out each measure take us somewhere considerably funkier. 

Although the fretted notes all belong to the 2nd-position form of A minor pentatonic, the open strings make this figure a hybrid in terms of hand placement. 

If you like, you can stay more within the standard box by fretting the G and D (on the 4th and 5th strings, respectively) instead of letting them ring open, but you’ve got no such choice with the open E unless you detune your bottom string.

Experiment with how you finger the sliding notes. Playing them with your second finger will put you right back in position at the end of measure 1. 

For this lick, you’ll get the most appropriate tone out of a Telecaster or similar electric guitar loaded with single-coil pickups and plugged into a small combo. Keep the overdrive subtle.

The first bar of Figure 2, inspired by Noel Gallagher’s guitar solo on the Oasis track “Live Forever,” breaks a descending 5th-position pentatonic line into two six-note phrases followed by a four-note closing statement. 

Each section of the line traces around a core note (first A, then E, then C), which creates a cascading effect. The central conceit here is that the guitar part briefly implies a 6/8 time signature over the rhythm section’s steady 4/4. This kind of rhythmic superimposition is a great way to break out of that old minor-pentatonic deadlock.

It’s purely a matter of personal taste which notes you pick here and which you hammer on and pull off. Try it your own way.

Tone-wise, use the same setup as in the last figure, but crank the gain.

With Figure 3, we move up the neck into 7th position and enter the realm of string skipping. 

Intervallic leaps are the norm here, since nearly every note is played on a string that’s not adjacent to the one on which the previous note was played. The result is an angular riff reminiscent of Robert Fripp’s work with King Crimson in the early '80s. Note how the first four notes of bar 2 spell out an A7sus4 arpeggio.

There’s no way to play this properly without a finger stretch. The easiest approach is to play the 4th-string, 10th-fret C notes with your third finger. 

Tone-wise, any type of electric guitar will suit this one. The tone is clean, and you might want to try stomping on a chorus pedal. If you’ve got a Roland JC-120 amp, all the better.

Figure 4 takes us to 9th position with a blues-rock passage out of the Peter Green playbook. 

Hammer-ons and pull-offs organized around a repeated rhythmic motif (two 16th notes tied to an eighth note) generate formidable momentum, leading up to the payoff in the last bar – a quarter-note bend and a nasty downward run punctuated with serious vibrato. For further reference, check out Fleetwood Mac’s Then Play On.

The fingering in the final measure is a little tricky. You’ll need to move your second finger from the 2nd string to the 4th string double quick.

This one falls squarely in the Les Paul zone, but any humbucker-equipped ax will do the trick. It requires some dirt, but should still sound smooth. The neck pickup is recommended.

Eric Clapton’s early tenure in John Mayall’s Blues Breakers produced many a lick like Figure 5. Another arpeggio, this one an A minor shape in 12th position, precedes a dramatic pick rake and whole-step bend. The notes are simple – it’s all in how you play them.

The two notes at the beginning of measure 2 are ghost notes. Rake across them quickly with your pick as you head for the 12th-fret E.

Tone-wise, this is the same as the last figure, but use extra grit, enough to make you feel the sizzle between the notes while still hearing each distinctly.

Peter Green is most famously associated with the legendary 1959 Gibson Les Paul standard known as ‘Greeny’ (formerly belonging to Gary Moore and now owned by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett).

But the late blues guitar hero owned many other instruments in his lifetime, over 100 of which are featured in Bonhams upcoming Peter Green Collection.

Starting at midday (BST) on June 16 and running until June 28, this historic auction comprises a wide range of models. Some, like this 1931 National Duolian, may be familiar to readers already, while other less recognizable items include Turkish lutes and chain-store electric guitars.

Recently, our sibling magazine in the U.K., Guitarist, was granted access to the Peter Green Collection. Having shot some of these fabled axes up close, editor-in-chief Jamie Dickson spoke to restoration expert and author of Famous Frets, Steve Clarke, about just some of the guitars due to go under the hammer next month.

Along the way, Clarke revealed a surprise about the great British bluesman’s preferred setup: “The main thing I’d say on all of the guitars in his collection, which really surprised me, was how high the action was. They were all very high action. He obviously wanted to dig in.”

Additionally, Green had setup work carried out in the nut area. “The nuts of some of his guitars were cut to [give a relatively low action] around those first three frets,” explains Clarke. “But higher up the fretboard, he didn’t want a low action.

“There was a Gibson Firebird I looked at and an Epiphone Explorer that, again, both had really high actions.”

Also among the collection is a 1968 Gretsch White Falcon that was “in a poor state,” according to Clarke. This axe was displayed at the Birmingham Guitar Show in February this year but was unplayable before he got his hands on it prior to the event.

After working his magic on the grumbly old electrics, this flagship Gretsch soared back into action.

However, with Clarke needing to request permission from the estate in order to do so much as change a string, routine maintenance was a decidedly more complicated affair than usual.

One of the lesser-known guitars in the Peter Green Collection is a Gibson ES-325. Introduced in 1972, this semi-hollow thinline features a pair of mini humbuckers and was discontinued by ‘78.

“They’re unusual,” agrees Clarke. “From memory, I think that was a 1972 model. It had the embossed [pickup] covers on it, which I think nails it to around ’72. And I remember now the bridge pickup surround was busted, so what had happened is that the adjustment screw on the bass side was tilting and going into the guitar body.

“But yeah, it was a ’72 with the Epiphone-type pickups on it. It was a lovely thing, though. I got that working, too. It also had a fault on the volume pot for the bridge pickup, which didn’t surprise me, it’d probably been like that for a bit. But yes, got it working again – nice guitar and you’ll not see many of those.”

See these historic guitars and more in the latest issue of Guitarist (number 499).

Visit the Peter Green Collection at Bonhams here.

It was a guitar concert to outshine all others. On February 25, 2020, David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, Pete Townshend and Billy Gibbons gathered with other musicians at the London Palladium to perform a tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green who passed away just five months later.

Arranged by drummer Mick Fleetwood, the show raised funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The other big names onstage included former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, and venerable British bluesman John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers group formed the nesting ground from which Fleetwood and bassist John McVie emerged with Green in 1967 to form Fleetwood Mac, along with guitarist Jeremy Spencer.

Happily, Spencer was on hand for the show, as was Fleetwood Mac keyboardist, singer and songwriter Christine McVie (1943-2022).

Mick Fleetwood’s core band for the evening included himself, drummer Zak Starkey, onetime Fleetwood Mac guitarist Rick Vito, Jonny Lang, Andy Fairweather Low, Fleetwood Mac touring keyboardist Ricky Peterson and bassist Dave Bronze.

Although the evening’s honoree didn’t show up, the night was full of great moments, which were captured in pictures by rock photographer Ross Halfin, who was on hand to shoot both the concert and rehearsals.

“What I really liked about the event was that people did it for the right reasons,” said Halfin. “Bill Wyman turned up on his own, and Pete Townshend was with his driver. There were no entourages. It felt like a party at somebody’s house.

“The nicest thing about the room was that everybody was having their own fan moments.”

And in this intimate live clip from that historic evening there are plenty of fan moments to be had as Noel Gallagher performs a stellar rendition of “The World Keep On Turning.”

This Peter Green-penned blues number appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1968 debut album (also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) and showcases the late guitar legend performing solo with an acoustic.

Order Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac here.

Bonhams has seen many a rock star guitar pass through its doors over the years. With instruments owned by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Jerry Garcia (to name but a few!) having gone up for sale in recent times, you never know what historic guitars might be under the hammer next.

Today, Bonhams has announced the Peter Green Collection. Running June 16-28, this massive online auction comprises 150 guitars, as well as amps, pedals and other gear.

Offered for the first time ever, this historic collection also contains handwritten lyrics and sketches by the late, great blues-rock legend – notably, the lyrics for Fleetwood Mac’s “Man of the World.”

A statement from the Peter Green Estate reads: “Peter’s contribution to the blues and rock music genres as a brilliant musician, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist is well established worldwide. Peter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. His guitar playing was original and unique.

“B.B. King said Peter had the sweetest tone he'd ever heard: ‘He was the only one that gave me the cold sweats.’ We hope that Peter’s guitars and other items included in the auction will be of great interest to his fans and find good homes.”

Highlights from the Peter Green Collection include the following instruments:

• 1968 Gretsch White Falcon 6137 (Estimate: £6,000-8,000)
• 1999 Fender Stratocaster USA Custom Shop Relic in “Sea Foam Green” finish (Estimate: £5,000-6,000)
• Squier Strat Special Edition 20th Anniversary Standard Series in “blue” finish, as seen in the Canvey Island Sessions (Estimate: £2,000-3,000)
• 1995 Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III – Peter Green's “comeback guitar” (Estimate: £4,000-5,000)
• 1931 National Duolian Style-O (Estimate: £3,000-5,000)
• 1980s G&L Strat SC3 in "yellow" finish (Estimate: £1,500-2,000)

“Peter Green was one of the greatest guitarists,” said Katherine Schofield, Director of Bonhams Popular Culture Department. “Even when out of the limelight, the tributes paid to his playing throughout his lifetime continued to highlight his reputation and the esteem his fellow artists held him in.

“This sale is a celebration of his love for the guitar, with a number of different makes and models, for enthusiasts and career musicians. 

"With estimates starting at the accessible price point of £150, this is a unique opportunity to own a piece of Peter Green’s legacy.”

Visit Bonhams for more information.

***The following originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of Guitar Player***

Certain guitar solos are infused with magic. They may or may or may not be technically challenging, flashy, or otherwise virtuoso, but they have that special something that sets them apart from what came before, and they typically alert guitarists everywhere that their world has forever changed. 

What’s more, those magic solos tend to inspire legions of guitarists to attempt to unlock their technical and tonal mysteries, and permeate the six-string community’s collective unconscious, re-emerging later as direct and indirect influences on individual players’ styles. Somewhat paradoxically, however, there is no consensus on which solos have achieved this iconic status.

When we began working on this story, we came up with a lengthy list of solos to include. Our first task was to set up some guidelines. We decided to limit the list to electric rock solos, along with blues and jazz-rock fusion solos that influenced rock. We also set a limit of one solo per artist.

At that point, there were still many more than 40 solos on the list, so we had to make some hard choices. To start, guitarists who were hugely influential overall, but couldn’t be tied to an ultra-influential solo – such as Tony Iommi and George Harrison – were cut. 

We then had to narrow down our selections to just one for each artist, which was difficult for someone like Eric Clapton, whose entries at that point included “Crossroads,” his cover of Freddie King’s “Hideaway” on the Blues Breakers album, and his historic wah workout on “White Room.” Once the smoke cleared, however, we had reached consensus. 

The solos are organized chronologically – including those that fall within the same year – because we thought it would be instructive to see how they relate to each other historically. 

We hope that you like we came up with and perhaps even discover an overlooked gem or two for yourself...

1. Elmore James “Dust My Broom” (1951)

Jimi Hendrix originally called himself Jimmy James and Maurice James in homage to Elmore, and every bluesman since the ‘50s – particularly slide players – owes something to the King of the Slide Guitar. 

Played in an open-D tuning (D, A, D, F#, A, D, low to high), probably on a Kay flattop or Harmony Sovereign with a D’Armond pickup, the slide hook on this tune, and the solo based on it, reappear countless times throughout blues and rock music.

2. Les Paul “How High the Moon” (1951)

The super-syncopated, slap-back soaked runs, chukka-chukka doublestops with bluesy bends, plucky cascading figures, and idiosyncratic ornamentations in Paul’s two solos helped propel this standard up the charts, and further established Paul as the most creative electric guitar player of his generation. 

It was recorded with his “old Epiphone” – a.k.a. “the Clunker” and “the Breadwinner” – with custom-wound hot pickups and other major modifications.

3. Scotty Moore “That’s Alright, Mama” (1954)

Armed with his Gibson ES-295 through a ‘52 Fender Deluxe, Scotty Moore, bassist Bill Black, and their bud Elvis, had no idea what a firestorm they were about to create with this early single. 

Moore’s simple, to the- point style covered the drummer-less bases quite easily with a fat tone and swinging musicality, giving this rather hillbilly ensemble some dangerous sonic heft.

His break on “That’s Alright, Mama” inspired everyone from George Harrison to Keith Richards to Jimmy Page, as well as Danny Gatton, who never missed an opportunity to throw a Moore homage in the middle of one of his famed rockabilly rave ups. 

Moore’s barking double-stops and approximation of a tic-tac bass line on “Mama” are as hooky as it gets, making this solo one of the most important ever.

4. Eddie Cochran “Sittin’ in the Balcony” (1957)

Slinging a 1955 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Hollow Body 'G'-branded guitar with a Gibson P-90 in the neck slot, Cochran, with his iconic presence and echo-drenched tones, hugely impacted early rockers – such as Lennon and McCartney, who bonded over Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” upon meeting in 1957 – and innumerable players thereafter, particularly Brian Setzer. 

The twangy solo on Cochran’s first hit, “Sittin’ In the Balcony,” crackles with the influence of his heroes Chet Atkins, Joe Maphis, and Johnny Smith.

5. Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)

While some people might not consider this song’s intro a “solo,” it might be the most important rock guitar part ever recorded. 

The doublestops essentially usher in the post-Elvis rock era, and the tone and balls of this iconic part would echo in the playing of George Harrison, Keith Richards, Eddie Van Halen, and Angus Young... and that's just one tenth of one percent of the players who have copped these licks. 

Listen to it again. You’ll see.

6. Hank Marvin “Apache” (1960)

A primary influence on nearly every British guitarist of a certain age, Marvin created a dreamy, echo-y sound on this #1 U.K. hit that was achieved by playing his Stratocaster – the first in England – through a Meazzi Echomatic tape delay and a Vox AC30 tube amp. 

Marvin mostly used the bridge pickup, but picked near the neck, and palmed the vibrato arm to impart his trademark twang.

7. Freddie King “Hideaway” (1960)

Freddie (a.k.a. Freddy) King cobbled “Hideaway” out of parts lifted from tunes by Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy McCracklin, Robert Lockwood Jr., and even Henry Mancini. 

Between the breaks where he recycled bits of “The Walk” and “Peter Gunn,” King played stinging solos that he plucked on a P-90 equipped Les Paul using a plastic thumbpick and metal fingerpick. 

Eric Clapton did his own version of the tune on John Mayall’s 1966 album, Blues Breakers, and the success of “Hideaway” made it a launch pad for a number of other King instrumentals that would further his notoriety as one of the top blues guitarists of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

8. James Burton “Hello Mary Lou” (1961)

Having turned pro as a teenager on the Louisiana Hayride, Burton was a seasoned vet by the time he became the lead player in Ricky Nelson’s band, which was featured regularly on the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. 

Burton was a great rock and roll player, as evidenced by his Chuck Berry-style solo on “Believe What I Say,” but he also inspired legions of pickers with his explosively twangy lead break on “Hello Mary Lou.” 

Burton’s playing on Merle Haggard’s early ‘60s hits like “Mama Tried” and “Swingin’ Doors,” inspired the late, great Roy Nichols, who said, “I learned a lot from Burton, and I copied some of his licks, but I couldn’t copy him to a ‘T’.”

9. Jeff Beck “Over Under Sideways Down” (1966)

Along with the Rolling Stones, no band inspired more hard-edged guitar-wielding maniacs than the Yardbirds. Beck’s playing on their classic garage rock anthem is, like much of his playing at this time, inspired by the groovy sounds of the sitar. 

Equal parts spacey modal madness and meth-infused pentatonic fury, it still ranks as some of Beck’s most inspired playing, and that says a lot. 

And not only was Beck’s otherworldly playing inspirational to a generation of guitarists, but his punky stage demeanor and nasty sonic streak (a ‘54 Fender Esquire into a Tone Bender fuzz and AC30), served notice to everyone that a new sheriff was in town, and he was kicking ass.

10. Albert King “Born Under a Bad Sign” (1967)

If Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix lift your licks lock, stock, and barrel, your influence has been spread very far and very wide. In fact, one can make the case that Albert King was the most influential King, just by virtue of the not-so-subtle tributes by his admirers. 

King Albert’s authoritative bends and economical phrasing are required study for anyone who wants to play blues-rock guitar. On this cut, the Velvet Bulldozer lives up to his nickname, making his Gibson Flying V moan, scream, and move mountains with sweeping bends and a stinging tone that delivers all of the nuances in his playing. 

It also proves that, even though SRV and Clapton could “do” Albert, they were never really even close. 

11. Eric Clapton “Crossroads” (1968)

This one is a giant among giants. Little did Slowhand know, after he walked off the Winterland stage in San Francisco, he had created a template setting the standard for expressive, lyrical, howling blues-rock guitar. 

Armed with a ‘64 Gibson ES-335 and a couple of non-master volume 100-watt Marshall stacks, Clapton’s first break is a textbook example of how to build a solo’s intensity, while the second manages to kick it up one more notch for maximum climax. 

Not a duff note in the bunch, impeccably phrased, and with a vibrato that’s as classy as they come, Clapton could have never played another note and he’d still be one of the most influential players ever. 

12. Jimi Hendrix “All Along the Watchtower” (1968)

One can only guess what sort of “light bulb” moment Jimi experienced when he first heard this tune from Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Maybe it was the biblical references in the lyrics, or the great melody – or perhaps just the wide-open space for improvising afforded by the four-chord progression. 

Whatever it was, the version that appeared on Hendrix’ Electric Ladyland album gave rise to one of Jimi’s most memorable solo outings. Playing soulfully and inventively using a wah and fuzz, Hendrix reinvented “All Along the Watchtower” to such a degree that it’s sometimes easy to forget who actually wrote the tune!

13. Peter Green “Black Magic Woman” (1968)

B.B. King once said of Green, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” After establishing himself as a masterful blues stylist in John Mayall’s band, Green quickly evolved both as a player and a songwriter with Fleetwood Mac. 

On his D minor tour-de-force “Black Magic Woman,” Green pulls off an incredibly captivating melody, and his beautiful phrasing and soulful bending on a Les Paul with “magnetically out of phase” pickups was pure gold. 

Carlos Santana made the song a huge hit on Abraxas, and Green was also influential on Irish blues rocker Gary Moore, who would own – and eventually sell – Green’s famous Gibson. 

14. Robert Fripp “21st Century Schizoid Man” (1969)

Fripp’s serpentine solo on this alarmingly virtuosic track combines a supersaturated sustained tone with atypical intervallic movement, non-bluesy bends and trills, and note choices and phrasing that had more in common with Coltrane than Clapton. 

Playing a three-pickup ‘59 Les Paul Custom through a Marshall stack and probably either a Burns Buzzaround or a Colorsound Tone Bender, he recorded the seminal progressive rock solo.

15. Jimmy Page “Heartbreaker” (1969)

Selecting the most influential Page solo led to a heated debate. 

But the squawking tone of a ‘58 Les Paul into a Marshall SLP 1969 Super Lead, maniacal cluster picking, wicked hammer-ons and pull-offs, and behind-the-nut G-string bending in the first solo on “Heartbreaker” – not to mention the smoking second solo – explain why everyone from Brian May to Steve Vai to Steve Morse have hailed it as a definitive guitar solo.

16. B.B. King “The Thrill is Gone” (1969)

With a tone sweeter and thicker than molasses, B.B. King graced this song with one of his most emotive blues solos of all time. King knew what the tune called for in context of the highly produced album Completely Well (his first with strings), and it wasn’t about showboating. 

Far from it, judging by the way he grooves so succulently behind the beat. Besides being a big hit for B.B., “The Thrill is Gone” showed guitarists the power of playing slow and cool. 

In an era when Johnny Winter was introducing blues-rock shredding, B.B. King’s huge vibrato and deep soul defined what “playing from the heart” was all about. 

17. Leslie West “Mississippi Queen” (1970)

Leslie West’s massive and massively influential tone on Climbing! – which included “Mississippi Queen” – was created by playing through a Sunn Coliseum P.A. head and four 4x12 speaker cabinets. 

“The head had four microphone inputs and a master volume control, huge transformers and gigantic KT88 tubes, and the cabinets were loaded with Eminence speakers, which never hurt your ears, even with the treble all the way up,” West told GP in 2010. 

He was playing Gibson Les Paul Juniors at the time, and used a single-cutaway 1956 Jr. with a single P-90, strung with La Bella Electric Guitar strings (with a .010 banjo string for the high E and the other strings moved down one to create a light-gauge set) on the track. 

The song reached #21 on the Billboard charts, assuring that West’s signature sound was heard across the country and around the world.

18. Duane Allman “Statesboro Blues” (1971)

By 1970 Duane Allman and Dickey Betts had forged one of the most iconic guitar sounds of all time with their harmonized melodies on songs like “Revival” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” 

But as far as slide players went, few at the time got more acclaim than Duane himself, after the 1971 release of The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East. Duane’s slick phrasing and fat, singing tone on the opening track of the double live album was inspired by hearing Taj Mahal’s rendition of the song with Jesse Ed Davis on slide. 

Sonny Landreth, who remembers seeing the Allman Brothers at the time, recalls: “That huge tone that Duane got when he played slide on a Les Paul through a Marshall was a real game changer. I don’t remember anyone else who had a sound like that back then.”

19. John McLaughlin “Meeting of the Spirits” (1971)

Although he had already done revolutionary work with Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Miles Davis, and as a solo artist, McLaughlin’s combination of molten Gibson-through-cranked-Marshall distortion, impossibly fast and complex yet ultra-precise picking, and unique phrasing on The Inner Mounting Flame shattered all existing concepts of “electric guitarist” and lit the fuse of fusion.

20. Ritchie Blackmore “Highway Star” (1972)

Actually a harmonized pair of solos, the tasty bends, rapid-fire triplets, and whammy manipulations on this Strat-into-a-Marshall-amp (via a reel-to-reel tape recorder preamp) solo make it one of Blackmore’s most memorable.

The Deep Purple guitarist’s influence on legions of rock and metal shedders from Morse to Malmsteen to Mustaine is undisputable.

21. Billy Gibbons “La Grange” (1973) 

Gibbons made his mark on this classic shuffle with two solos. 

The first, done on a ‘55 Strat, enters screaming with that classic rear pickup Fender bite, before Gibbons flips to the front pickup for a swinging double-stop workout and some liquid pentatonic runs delivered with his impeccable sense of time and swing. 

But it’s the track’s second solo that the guitarist is most famous for, and the one that every hard rock player would study, due to Gibbons’ insane pinch harmonics. With his “Pearly Gates” ‘59 Les Paul, the Reverend squawks, grunts, and chokes out so many pinch harmonics that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so damm bad ass. 

22. Brian May “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975) 

Brian May’s touch, tone, and orchestral instincts have proven impossible to imitate, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. 

His majestic lines on this classic are quintessential May, with precise picking, impeccable phrasing, and a bold, loud sound. 

The solo’s placement in the mix was influential, informing how bands such as Boston and Styx featured their solos. You’ve got to assume Dr. May’s harmonized lines at the end of the song got Tom Scholz’s attention as well.

23. Larry Carlton “Kid Charlemagne” (1976)

Carlton was already a session legend known for his smooth-as-silk lines that were reminiscent of Wes, Pass, and Trane when he cut this Steely track. 

But when Mr. 335 combined a rock dude’s tone with a jazzer’s harmonic sensibilities, he created the standard by which every jazz rocker would be judged. 

Ask Steve Lukather, Robben Ford, or Mike Stern what impact this solo had on them. 

Alright then.

24. Carlos Santana “Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile)” (1976)

Santana masterfully caresses the tune’s main melody with his trademark singing sustain and thick tone, never quite giving up the goods until the outro solo where he lets it all hang out in an outpouring of soulful yet wicked playing. 

He displays a fluid, tactile control at all times, and his tone is more open-sounding and less compressed than in recent years. 

And when he kicks the wah on, look out – he ratchets up the intensity tenfold, just when you think it can’t go any higher. Simply put, “Europa” is a study in pace, melodicism, and space – as well as good, old fashion burning!

25. Al Di Meola “Race with Devil on Spanish Highway” (1977)

Sure, there were people who could play fast before Di Meola, but nobody had made it such a central part of their deal before Big Al came along. 

Di Meola’s picking ability coupled with his sick, self-described “mutola” technique raised the bar for audacious shred and players interested in pushing the limits of picking. 

Far from being a pattern-minded monotone shredder, Di Meola’s Latin influences and his compositional sense have always made his displays of virtuosity supremely musical. 

And for all of the shred haters, Di Meola proved that the emotional impact of many notes is just as valid as a few well-placed ones. 

26. Eddie Van Halen “Eruption” (1978)

What can you say about this cadenza from hell? Cut in 1978, this has to be one of the most influential pieces of guitar playing ever. 

EVH took a Strat with a humbucker, an MXR Phase 90, and a plexi Marshall, and then played some supercharged Clapton licks that boggled just about every 6-stringer’s mind in the world. 

It was Van Halen’s two-handed tapping that truly grabbed everyone’s attention, however, and made this the most recognizable solo of the next two decades. “Eruption” made an impact on millions of rock dudes and seemingly every kid who set foot inside a Guitar Center.

27. Allan Holdsworth “In the Dead of Night” (1978)

As Bill Bruford put it, this solo was, “94 seconds of liquid passion married to a blinding technical facility that was to go down in the annals of rock guitar history. 

"All the hallmarks of his brilliant playing were there in this solo: poise, pace, melody, the Slonimsky interval jumps, the whammy bar, and all over a killer groove.”

28. Mark Knopfler “Sultans of Swing” (1978) 

When Mark Knopfler released this fingerpicked two-pickup masterpiece, he showed guitarists that you don’t need distortion or a plectrum to rock. 

With a Strat on the bridge and middle pickups, a Fender Twin Reverb and a Roland JC-120, Knopfler played two deft, bouncy solos that referenced Chet Atkins with snappy popped notes, crying bends, and clever arpeggios. 

Along the way he influenced just about every clean tone for the next 20 years. When people talk about an “out of phase” Strat tone, they’re talking about this tune.

29. Michael Schenker “Rock Bottom” (1979)

The 1970s was a great time for live records, with classics from Frampton, Lizzy, and Ted Nugent, but one of the sweetest solos to grace a double LP came from UFO’s Michael Schenker. 

The extended break on this tune has everything great about Schenker: melody, dynamics, tone for days, and burning. 

This lead would fascinate rockers all over the world, including George Lynch, Vinnie Moore, Akira Takahashi, and Kirk Hammett.

30. David Gilmour “Comfortably Numb” (1979)

Few solos can match the vibe of Gilmour’s work on this iconic piece. 

Playing a ‘79 black Stratocaster with a ‘62 neck and DiMarzios through Hiwatts and Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinets, Gilmour transformed what are essentially blues licks into a signature statement that affected the molecules in myriad musical minds. 

This is arguably his crowning achievement as a soloist.

31. Angus Young “You Shook Me All Night Long” (1980)

It serves to reason that a song that is all about getting it on should have a solo that is sexy, right? 

Damn straight. 

Young’s turn on this global hit finds him harnessing his kinetic blues tendencies into a steamy, attitude-laden solo that is actually kind of funky. 

His tasteful major pentatonic flavorings as well as his gorgeous tone – thanks to a wound up old Marshall and a Gibson SG – are the icing on the cake of his impeccable groove, intonation, and phrasing.

32. Randy Rhoads “Crazy Train” (1980)

After Van Halen, it wasn’t easy for an L.A. rocker to make a mark, but Randall Rhoads did so in a big way on his debut with Ozzy. 

Rhoads took what he had gleaned from Mick Ronson, Gary Moore, and Bach, and synthesized it into this metal tour de force. 

He wasn’t the first guy to blend classical music and rock, but he was absolutely the gateway drug for players like Zakk Wylde and Tom Morello.

33. Stevie Ray Vaughan “Pride and Joy” (1983)

The second cut on SRV’s debut album, Texas Flood, “Pride and Joy” blasted onto the airwaves courtesy of a great melody, catchy lyrics, and a gamechanging solo in which Vaughan threw down a barrage of killer licks with a gargantuan tone from his Fender/Dumble rig. 

SRV’s deft songwriting and his Albert King/Hendrix-influenced style succeeded in making what was fundamentally a classic “tay-hass” shuffle into a huge AOR hit that every classic rocker is expected to cover in perpetuity. 

Bottom line is, after SRV came along, anyone who thought they could play blues with fire and passion got a schoolin’ the size of Texas.

34. Yngwie Malmsteen “Black Star” (1984)

Mike Varney’s rep as a finder of great guitarists was already solid when he wrote about a kid from Sweden with a funny name in 1983. 

Many players’ first exposure to Malmsteen was on this shred fest. With his blinding speed, dazzling classical arpeggios, gorgeous Strat-into-Marshall tone, and larger than life vibrato, he didn’t raise the bar for rock technique – he obliterated it. 

Yngwie changed the game forever with this one, just ask any rocker who has swept an arpeggio since then.

35. George Lynch “The Hunter” (1985)

Dokken's George Lynch has inspired countless rock and metal players for nearly 30 years with his perfect blend of structured melodicism and off-the-rails fury – all in the space of a 16-bar solo. 

This solo is a perfect example, as he eases into it with memorable, understated melodic motifs that are helped along with some thick-ass tone and sick vibrato. 

Halfway through, however, Lynch begins to turn up the jets. Alternate picking, sweep picking, and legato playing become one within a single winding phrase, giving him a sound and style that are difficult to ape. 

However, Lynch did show the way for shred-obsessed guitarists on how to structure a meaningful statement in the middle of a tune and leave an everlasting mark. In fact, his solos are the only thing that don’t sound dated about Dokken.

36. Kirk Hammett “Master of Puppets” (1986)

Kirk Hammett’s influences include his teacher Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker, and Thin Lizzy. And nowhere are those influences more prominent than on this tune. 

Hammett’s whammy bar work and speed picking would inspire countless kids to notch their mids, cram their theory, and play blazing solos over chugging grooves.

37. Joe Satriani “Always with Me, Always with You” (1987)

Satriani is obviously known as a master technician, but it’s his melodic side that has left the biggest imprint on guitardom. 

This sweet ballad showcases Satch’s singing tone, skillful ornamentation, and ability to blend the tasty with the jaw dropping. 

The reach of this solo is apparent in hundreds of instrumental guitar records, country ballads, movie soundtracks, and car commercials.

38. Kurt Cobain “Come As You Are” (1991)

Although he took about as many solos and Johnny Ramone, the late Nirvana guitar anti-hero played a memorable one in this song from 1991. 

Presumably using a Boss DS-1 for dirt and an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus for the warbly modulation, Cobain simply quoted the vocal melody in a snotty, vibey way, and the kids went crazy. 

Suddenly, young players – many with a sanctimonious disdain for ‘80s-style wanking – were taking a break from strumming through songs and trying their hands at playing single-note lines.

39. Zakk Wylde “No More Tears” (1991)

Logic dictates that Zakk Wylde was doomed to failure when he got the gig with Ozzy. 

A blond kid with a Les Paul? Really? 

But then people got a taste of his huge tone, squealing harmonics, and rapid-fire pentatonics and a new star was born. 

On this tune Zakk channeled Rhoads, Billy Gibbons, and Frank Marino into a solo that was emblematic of the new generation of metalheads.

40. Dimebag Darrell “The Great Southern Trendkill” (1996)

The post-Van Halen, post-Randy Rhoads world was in dire need of a champion when Darrell Abbott came on the scene. 

He took the styles of those guys, mixed in some Ace Frehley, some Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a heapin’ helpin’ of moonshine and created the ass-kicking solo here. 

Dime made it cool to love Holdsworth, EVH, and Billy Gibbons all in the same song.

Once described as, “an oasis of chaos in a desert of suburban calm,” Eel Pie Island in the River Thames at Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames was a musical hotbed of the '60s and a mecca for the most talented blues-rock guitarists of the era.

Started by promotor Arthur Chisnall in the mid-‘50s, by the following decade the club had become one of the most important venues in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

Known for its weekend jazz nights, the Eel Pie Island Hotel was also famous for hosting concerts by American blues guitar players including Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker – all of which were attended by a young Jeff Beck.

Other guitar heroes of the British blues boom such as Peter Green and Eric Clapton are also known to have frequented Eel Pie Island, as did the Rolling Stones who were offered a residency there in the early ‘60s.

“There was a bit of a scene in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s in Richmond,” said British space rock veteran and Hawkwind founder Dave Brock. “That’s where I met Eric [Clapton] and a load of other people who used to hang out in the L’Auberge coffee bar. We always used to hang out there before going over to Eel Pie Island. That was where it all happened in our era.

“I loved going over there and listening to jazz. Later on, they had blues artists playing there… Arthur Chisnall, was an innovator because he’d book all these different blues artists in. Arthur Chisnall got so many people into blues and jazz – Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds and Jeff Beck.”

“The dressing room at Eel Pie was behind the stage, up one flight of stairs,” recalled the late Terry Clemson of British blues rockers Downliners Sect. “The walls were covered in graffiti, mainly written by the Rolling Stones. That wall would be worth thousands of pounds if it existed today!”

While American blues-influenced bands like the Rolling Stones and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers trod the notoriously rickety boards of Eel Pie Island early on, by the mid-‘60s, the British Isles – let alone Eel Pie Island – could not contain the blues boom it had so lovingly nurtured.

And as this wave of new music swept beyond U.K. shores towards the U.S., the British Invasion began to kick off, ultimately bringing blues back to its land of origin.

Veteran pickup builder Seymour Duncan has just launched three vintage-style humbuckers inspired by some of classic rock’s greatest guitar tones.

Hand built in California by the firm’s long-established team of world class specialists, these custom shop-style pickups are now available to order as regular stock items.

Found in the axes of many of today's leading electric guitar players – including Slash, Jennifer Batten, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, Billy Gibbons, Mark Knopfler and countless others – Seymour Duncan pickups are among the most trusted on the market.

Here’s a quick rundown of each of their three new regular production vintage-style humbuckers…

78 Model

Seymour Duncan had already made a name for himself as the pickup guy by the time pickup modding had become a well-established practice in the late ‘70s.

In 1978, he was famously tasked with rewinding a PAF humbucker in order to enhance its sensitivity and tonal response.

Sporting an Alnico 2 magnet and wound to the same specs as this fabled PAF, the 78 Model is a great choice for those seeking an articulate humbucker capable of handling Eddie Van Halen-style whammy bar wizardry and lightning fast solos.

Green Magic

The Green Magic takes inspiration from the legendary ‘Burst dubbed Greeny – an instrument of lore that has been handed down through generations of guitar players from Peter Green to Gary Moore and now Kirk Hammett.

Peter Green rose to prominence in the late ‘60s as one of the leading figures in the British blues guitar movement. Following a stint in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Green founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 and set the guitar world alight with his unparalleled touch and tone.

The Green Magic bottles some of Greeny's unique out-of-phase mojo, as well as providing classic vintage ‘bucker sounds.

High Voltage

For those about to rock some new pickups, the High Voltage delivers AC/DC-style crunch and clarity.

Chunky enough to kick out tight, powerful riffage and with enough clout to make solos sustain and sing, this Alnico 2 hard rocker is tweaked for just a little more edge.

As per the 78 Model and Green Magic pickups, the High Voltage is available as a dual set and individually in bridge, neck and (hotter) Trembucker formats.

Visit Seymour Duncan for more information.

Often cited as the best blues guitar player to emerge from England, Peter Green began his brief career with the unenviable task of replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall's band. Recorded in '66, A Hard Road – the second Bluesbreakers studio album – proved Green and his '59 Les Paul were up to the task.

While sharing Clapton's respect for American bluesmen, the 21-year-old Green had his own take on Les Paul tone.

His quick, stinging vibrato; penchant for clean, cutting timbres (often drenched with reverb); acute sense of dynamics; and unmatched melodic subtlety set him apart from all English blues players before or since.

Green's haunting, 10-second-long sustained notes in the instrumental "The Super-Natural" established him as England's new tone god.

After a short stay in the Bluesbreakers, Green left to form Fleetwood Mac, which played its first gig at the '67 Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival.

Green wrote prolifically for the band, penning "Albatross" (rumored to have inspired the Beatles' "Sun King"), "Black Magic Woman," "Rattlesnake Shake," and "Oh Well."

In early '68, the group's debut album, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, reached #4 on the British charts. Soon Green added the 18-year-old Danny Kirwan – whose beautiful playing bore an uncanny resemblance to Green's own – to create a twin Les Paul lineup.

In '70, Green abruptly left Mac and the music biz. He sold his magic Paul – with its unique, snarky honk and mysteriously wired pickups – to Gary Moore, who used it to record Blues for Greeny, a 1995 collection of 11 Green originals rendered with tone and heart.

During his brief career, Green played through a variety of tube amps – including a Marshall head and 4x12 cab (A Hard Road) and Orange half-stacks (early Mac).

Most often, however, he wailed through silverface Fender Twin Reverb and Deluxe combos.

Peter Green’s famous '59 Les Paul – now dubbed ‘Greeny’ – currently belongs to Kirk Hammett who acquired the iconic electric guitar from U.K. guitar dealer Richard Henry.

“I rolled into London and I called him up and said, ‘Hey, Rich. What have you got for me? Anything interesting?’” recalled Hammett.

“I plugged it in and I checked the bridge pickup. It sounded nice, bright, full. Great tone. The tonal spectrum was very, very smooth from low to high. I checked the neck pickup. I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is so nice.’ It has that full-on Still Got The Blues sound; I recognised it instantly.

“Then, you know, I put it in the middle position and started playing and all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Holy… Lord!’ I looked up at Richard and I said, ‘I’m not giving this guitar back to you guys.’”

Hammett, who regularly plays Greeny live and in the studio, wowed the audience at an all-star Peter Green tribute performance hosted by Mick Fleetwood at the London Palladium in 2020.

“It was amazing,” said Hammett. “It was a full circle thing for me having Peter Green’s guitar and playing “The Green Manalishi.” That song has been with me for a very, very long time. And to be able to play it with Mick Fleetwood and a bunch of other players who just understand that era of Fleetwood Mac was an amazing thing.

“Greeny was so at home with that song, and all the tones were just sitting there waiting to be used inside of her. It was a transcendental experience. When it came time to do the solo, I dug deep. I didn’t know what I was going to play, but having Greeny in my hands and with that Marshall Bluesbreaker and with that band, I knew I was going to be okay.”

Plenty of ink has been spilled over the decades about "Greeny," the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard boasting the serial number 9 2208. 

Owned first by Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green and subsequently by Gary Moore and Metallica's Kirk Hammett (its current owner) the electric guitar is famous for its one-of-a-kind "out-of-phase" tone, a product of Green replacing Les Paul's original neck pickup and accidentally putting it in backwards, creating the aforementioned sound when played in the middle position. 

It's this legendary tone that Monty's Guitars seeks to recreate with its meticulous new Bethnal Green humbucker set. 

The company's head honcho, Matt Gleeson, was once afforded the opportunity to study Greeny at length, taking measurements and readings of its pickups (though he was not allowed to take apart the pickups themselves) before the guitar came into Hammett's possession. Gleeson imparted this hands-on experience with Greeny into the Bethnal Green set.

To that end, the Bethnal Green 'buckers are hand-made with period-correct parts – Alnico II magnets, unpotted coils, pure nickel silver, aged covers with nickel silver baseplates and correct tooling marks, and brass baseplate screws.

While the bridge coil is wired with 42 gauge plain enamel, the neck is wired with 42 gauge heavy formvar. In an interview with Andertons – which you can watch above – Gleeson explained the significance of including formvar wiring.

"He had the famous Greeny 'Burst and the neck pickup was busted and he had to get in rewound," Gleeson says. "At the time he could only get a different type of wire, which is heavy formvar, which is typically what you find in Strat pickups. So the neck pickup was rewound with that."

Of course, there's more to the Greeny pickup than just the wire, there's also the flipped alnico magnet. Whether it was a mistake on Gibson's end or an aftermarket mod – the recent discovery of "Gemini," the Les Paul Standard made directly before Greeny, suggests that it was indeed an aftermarket quirk – the flipped magnet is included in the Bethnal Green set.

"They're very different to the stock PAFs we make," Gleeson says of the uniqueness of the Bethnal Greens. "The bridge pickup is a lot more powerful, so a lot more mids in there. And the neck pickup obviously has all the weird stuff that went on with it and is a completely different beast."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Monty's Guitars' first batch of Bethnal Green humbuckers has already completely sold out. Due to the scarcity of the parts used to build them, Monty's says it can't yet estimate when the next batch will be made available. 

Whenever they return, they'll be available for £375 (just over $500).

For more info on the pickups, head on over to montysguitars.com.

As its name suggests a blues turnaround is a section of music that comes at the end of a verse, giving it harmonic interest and resolution and leading the song back to the start of a new verse, which is almost always a repeat of the first, in terms of form.

Generally speaking, a turnaround occurs in the last two bars of a blues or jazz standard, whether it’s an eight-, 12-, 16-, 24- or 32-bar form. In the context of a standard 12-bar blues progression, the melody generally concludes at the beginning of the 10th bar, so instead of simply sitting on the tonic, or “one,” chord for two more bars, a chordal turnaround is inserted in bars 11 and 12 to maintain interest and forward momentum and create a strong setup for a repetition and “looping” of the progression.

Turnaround licks are typically improvised and are generally built around the framework of four chords (two per bar), usually I-IV-I-V but sometimes the jazzier I-VI-ii-V (lowercase Roman numerals indicate minor-type chords). As you’ll see in this lesson, there are many variations on these two basic forms.

The chord types may be diatonic or non-diatonic (based on the parent scale of the key, or not) and are also influenced by the style of blues (major versus minor). It’s generally understood that professional players will be familiar with the harmonic intricacies generated by the many permutations of these two basic forms.

In both parts of this two-part lesson, we’ll study lead licks played over blues guitar turnarounds in the styles of 10 of the genre’s most influential players of all time. Each player will be represented with three examples that cover major and minor keys, and because some licks can often be interchanged between major and minor keys, our examples will start on the same root note and feature a range of grooves and tempos.

Instead of illustrating the turnaround in isolation, the examples are presented as they would occur in the last four bars of a 12-bar blues progression – bars 9 through 12. And because turnarounds are also frequently used as intros, these examples can also serve as useful ways to kick off a song or guitar solo in a blues tune.

Because turnarounds customarily occur at the end of the vocal melody, they provide a clear space and musical opening that the guitarist can fill, whether they’re soloing or not. Not surprisingly, different players have their own approach to turnarounds. Some plow through the changes with pentatonic-based ideas, taking little heed of the chords, while others carefully target notes in each underlying chord to create a melodic shape.

It takes practice to deftly negotiate this sequence and make your playing sound relaxed and casual, but the time spent doing so will improve your improvisational and soloing skills tremendously. The turnaround contains all the chords of the blues but in condensed form, so you really need to keep on top of the changes and nail those target notes.

Technique Focus: Scale Choices

To get the most out of this lesson, make sure you can play these scales in all five CAGED positions and familiarize yourself with the suggested applications. 

MINOR PENTATONIC: R-b3-4-5-b7

Use this form in the I-chord position over the I, IV and V chords. It can also be transposed to start on the root of the V chord but can only be transposed to the root of the iv chord in a minor key. Also, you can freely add the blues-scale’s b5 passing tone to this scale.

MIXOLYDIAN MODE: R-2-3-4-5-6-b7

Use in tonic position over the I chord. It can also be transposed to the IV and V chords.

MAJOR PENTATONIC: R-2-3-5-6

Use in tonic position over I and V. It can also be transposed to the IV chord. Also, you can freely add the blues-scale’s b5 passing tone to this scale, as the b3.

PHRYGIAN-DOMINANT MODE: R-b2-3-4-5-b6-b7

Play this scale over the V or V7 chord in a minor key. This is the harmonic minor scale’s fifth mode and is the same as playing the tonic harmonic minor scale of that key.

THE B.B. KING “BLUES BOX”: R-2-4-5-6

Use in tonic position over all chords, but bend the B string only a half step when playing over the IV chord.

SUPER-LOCRIAN MODE: R-b2-b3-3-b5-b6-b7

Use in root position over an altered-dominant chord, such as 7b9, 7#9, 7b5, 7#5, or any combination of these. This is the same as playing the melodic minor scale rooted a half step above the altered[1]dominant chord’s root.

Let’s begin with a T-Bone Walker–style lick played over a I-IV-I-V turnaround in the key of G (G7 C9 G7 D7aug). T-Bone’s jazzy and harmonically adept style has influenced countless players, and echoes of his pioneering approach can be heard in the playing of guitarists ranging from Chuck Berry to Jimmy Page.

Walker’s solos frequently featured the major second (or ninth) and major sixth from the Mixolydian mode (in this case, the notes A and E from G Mixolydian: G A B C D E F), as demonstrated in bars 9 and 12 of Ex. 1. Notice that the minor third, relative to G, Bb, is played over, and only over, the IV chord, where it effectively highlights the b7 of C9.

Walker’s style also informs the i-iv-i-V minor turnaround in the key of A minor shown in Ex. 2. Here, the IV chord is dominant in bar 10 (D9) but minor (iv, Dm) in bar 11, during the turnaround. To avoid any harmonic clashes, you can play the tonic A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G) over both incarnations of the IV chord, as demonstrated here.

That unusual lick in the first bar is created by applying an augmented triad to the root of the V chord and then ascending in whole tones, referencing the whole-tone scale) This is a harmonically sophisticated idea and showcases T-Bone’s musical depth.

Presented in the key of A major, Ex. 3 offers a phrase played over a jazzy I-VI-ii-V turnaround in T-Bone’s style. To negotiate the more complex chord movement in this example, the A Mixolydian mode (A B C# D E F#G) is extended over the dominant VI chord (F#7) to imply an F#7b9 sound (via the note A), which is a move frequently employed by jazz guitarists, such as T-Bone’s contemporary back in the 1940s, the great Charlie Christian.

In bar 12, the fifth of the ii chord, Bm7 (E) is highlighted, followed by a walk down the A minor pentatonic scale over the E7 chord, which includes what would be the #5 tension tone of that chord, C (or B#).

The great B.B. King is another blues guitarist celebrated for his impeccable note choices and phrasing. B.B.’s signature go-to pattern was a hybrid major-/minor-pentatonic “blues box,” which is based around the root note of the song’s key (typically played on the B string), with the major sixth played below it and the major second, perfect fourth and perfect fifth played above it. The guitarist would typically bend the major second up a half step to the minor third, or up a whole step to the major third, and would also often bend the fifth up a whole step to the major sixth, or one and one half steps to the minor seventh. In so doing, the guitarist would greatly expand his palette of note choices and musical colors.

Ex. 4 features King-style licks played over the final four bars of a 12-bar blues in the key of Bb, with a harmonically complex bass-line “walk-up” turnaround in bars 11 and 12 that features the use of a first-inversion chord and a diminished seven, but this can be approached as a more straightforward I-IV-I-V turnaround.

Ex. 5 offers an example of how B.B. would solo over the last four bars of a minor blues progression in the key of B minor that includes a i-bVI-ii-V turnaround (Bm Gmaj7 C#m7b5 F#7#9). The bVI chord (in this case, Gmaj7) is commonly encountered in a minor blues progression; it can be either major (with or without the major seventh) or dominant, but never minor.

This entire turnaround is skillfully negotiated by hitting just the right “color tones” over each chord, all achieved in this example with just the B minor pentatonic scale (B D E F# A), with the major second, C#, added, which is borrowed from the B Dorian mode (B C# D E F# G# A).

B.B. also had a penchant for occasionally beginning a turnaround lick before the turnaround begins, as in bar 10 of Ex. 6, which leads into a jazz-flavored I-VI-ii-V turnaround in the key of Bb major (Bb7 G7 Cm7 F7).

The turnaround phrase begins by chromatically encircling the third of the tonic Bb chord, D. This creates tension, which is resolved perfectly on beat one of bar 11 by landing squarely on the Bb root note. In bar 12, the tonic major arpeggio, Bb, flows into a chromatically descending blues-scale phrase (resolving on Eb, the b7 of F7), which beautifully outlines the Cm7-F7 chord change.

The legendary Albert King was famed for his wide, howling “over-bends” of a minor third (equal to three frets) and sometimes a major third (equal to four frets) and fiery delivery, as exemplified in the line played in the key of C over Ex. 7’s descending I-I7-IV-iv-I-V turnaround. The apparent complexity of this six-chord sequence can be approached as a more basic I-IV-I-V turnaround and negotiated with nothing more than the tonic C blues scale (C Eb F Gb G Bb), as demonstrated here.

The minor pentatonic or blues scale (which additionally includes the b5) can indeed almost always be applied as a blanket approach over an entire turnaround sequence, but it is only really effective when the relevant chord tones are targeted, as demonstrated in Ex. 8, an Albert King-style i-iv-i-V turnaround in the key of C minor.

Notice how the phrasing here is always anticipating the chord changes. This is the only way to achieve slick and musical results. Albert is often thought of as a “simplistic” player, but this clear sophistication belies that view.

Played in the key of C major, Ex. 9 is another Albert-inspired turnaround phrase, one that illustrates an even looser approach to the basic I-IV-I-V turnaround. Here, a strong C minor pentatonic (C Eb F G Bb) lick is forced over the sequence and resolves satisfyingly to the V chord, G7.

This approach exemplifies a great way to start getting your turnaround chops together. Simply think of the sequence as a bar and a half on the I chord followed by two beats on the V, but be sure to anticipate the resolution to the V chord, as shown here. A “late” resolution – meaning on the beat – will just sound wrong in this context!

Peter Green was a precocious master of the blues. His signature finger vibrato and controlled phrasing were already fully developed by the time he joined John Mayall’s backing group, the Bluesbreakers, at the tender age of 19.

The melodic lick played in the key of C minor over the descending i-iv-i-v-i-V7 descending turnaround in Ex. 10 illustrates how adept Green’s approach was when dealing with a complex minor-key turnaround such as this (with the use of both minor and dominant V chords and inversions), using nothing more than the tonic minor pentatonic scale, in this case C minor pentatonic.

Also in the key of C minor, Ex. 11 offers another Green-style lead phrase, this one played over two bars on the iv chord, Fm, followed by a i-bVII-bVI-V turnaround: Cm Bb6 Ab7 G7 Cm. The chromatic bVI7-V7 chord sequence (Ab7 G7) is very common in minor turnarounds but can be approached as a regular i-V7 sequence since the bVI chord shares critical notes with the tonic minor chord, namely the root and minor third.

Notice how the C minor pentatonic melody is used to generate altered-dominant tensions over the all-important G7 chord in bar 12, with the tonic note, C, phrased on the upbeat. Green really knew how to nail a solo!

The blues scale contains the über-cool b5 interval, a note that is all too frequently employed merely as a passing note for creating fast licks. In Ex. 12’s I-I7-IV-iv-I-V turnaround in the key of C (C7 C7/Bb F/A Fm/Ab C/G G7), inverted chords are used to create an pleasingly effective descending harmony line. Notice also how the phrase effectively resolves to the V chord, G7, illustrating total rhythmic and harmonic control.

Let’s wrap up this first half of our lesson with three examples in the style of the great Eric Clapton, Green’s Bluesbreakers predecessor. Clapton’s blues playing with the Bluesbreakers in the mid-’60s demonstrated a deep understanding of the genre that belied his youth and suburban background. His phrasing has always been impeccable, infused with fiery licks and B.B. King-style “thumb off the neck” finger vibrato.

In Ex. 13, the climbing bass line of a I-I7-IV-#IVdim-I-V7 turnaround in the key of E (E E7/G# A A#dim7) is juxtaposed by a contrary-motion descending melody line, resolving tidily to the V chord, B7.  

Oblique unison bends figured prominently in Clapton’s early soloing style, and they’re featured in bar 11 of Ex. 14, at the start of a i-iv-i-V-i minor turnaround in the key of E minor. This simple lick is typical of Clapton’s economical phrasing style, outlining the four turnaround chords with precision and clarity.

Played in the key of E major, our final Clapton-style example, Ex. 15, illustrates the effectiveness of the major pentatonic scale, in this case E major pentatonic (E F# G# B C#) when applied to a I-IV-I-V turnaround sequence.

Notice how the fourth, A, borrowed from the parallel E minor pentatonic scale, is added to provide the root of the IV chord, A7, on beat three of bar 11. It’s important to note here that you should avoid playing the tonic major third (in this case, G#) over the IV chord (A7, in this case), as doing so creates an unpleasant harmonic clash.

Next time, we’ll finish up our lesson with a fresh batch of blues turnaround lick and phrases in the styles of Carlos Santana, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. See you then!

Making and selling amplifiers was an afterthought for Orange, an act undertaken out of desperation to save the company from eviction. The Orange concept was founded in London in 1968 by musician and would-be all-round empresario Cliff Cooper, who rented a storefront on New Compton Street in the Soho district of London’s West End.

Out of this he ran what was intended to be a recording studio, record label, music publishing and promotional agency business. Unfortunately, business wasn’t very good. When the venture failed to bring in a profit, Cooper displayed his band’s gear in the front window and marked it “for sale,” in an effort to make the rent.

The amps sold the very same day, and soon after, the shop began selling second-hand musical equipment, catering to the needs of local bands who preferred older gear. The effort was so successful that Cooper had trouble keeping amps in stock.

In autumn 1968, he commissioned Matamp in the north of England to manufacture his new Orange amps. Mat Mathias’s creations were known to be rugged and powerful, and were already in use by stars like Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac.

Around the turn of the decade, though, Orange established its own manufacturing facility in the southeast London suburb of Bexleyheath, and that’s where this archetypal 1974 OR120 would have originated.

In addition to being robust and loud, Orange amps were distinguished by their orange tolex, although many were also covered in black. They also featured unusual front-panel features, with graphic legends adding to the explanatory control text.

The circuits were likewise quite different from those used in other large amps, giving Orange its own distinctive sound. Although the nifty big F.A.C. knob (short for Frequency Analysis Control) appears first on the panel, after the inputs, it actually follows the gain and dual EQ knobs in the signal chain.

This enigmatic six-position switch taps six different capacitors to revoice the signal between the preamp and output stages. As such, it’s not entirely unlike the “click switch” on popular latter-day boutique amps by Matchless and Divided by 13, although the feature is used somewhat differently here.

The Hz and KHz legends represent the bass and treble controls, respectively, and govern a Baxandall tone stack that is very different from the EQ stages in popular amps from Fender, Marshall, Vox, and the like. The controls are highly interactive, making it a powerful tone shaper.

It’s followed by HF Drive, a high-frequency boost akin to a presence control. The gain knob is the amp’s main volume control and appears in the circuit between the first and second gain stages from the amp’s first 12AX7 (ECC83) tube.

Orange offered models with master-volume controls, labeled OD120 and Overdrive, but those without them, like this OR120, were certainly loud by the time they gave up the grind. This model produces 120 watts from four EL34 tubes, with a lot of sonic bite going into it from the characterful preamp circuit.

These amps did induce some early breakup in the output stage even short of full whack, thanks to the use of a split-load (a.k.a. cathodyne) phase inverter, preceded by a driver stage. Not often used in amps of this size, it’s a topology that largely went out of fashion in all but sub-20-watt amps after the archetypal designs of the ’50s by Fender, Gibson, Valco and the like.

When pushed hard, this stage adds a little more hair to the overall tone, thanks to its own distortion, contributing to that legendary “Orange haze.” Crank it up, and it’s Brit-rock incarnate, and a trouser-leg-flapping playing experience you won’t soon forget.

Essential Ingredients

• Four EL34 output tubes generating around 120 watts
• Two 12AX7 (ECC83) preamp and phase-inverter tubes
• Unusual F.A.C. (frequency) and HF Drive (presence) controls
• Split-load phase inverter

Thanks to Frank Gross at Thunder Road Guitars for showing us this incredible 1974 Orange OR120 amp

Carolyn Wonderland hails from Houston, Texas. Besides being a great singer, she is an amazing guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who is also proficient on trumpet, accordion, piano, mandolin and lap steel.

When she’s not on tour with her own band, she’s out walking in the footsteps of giants like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor while touring and playing lead blues guitar with British blues legend John Mayall.

Wonderland released her first album, Groove Milk, in 1993, and issued her latest, Moon Goes Missing, in 2017. Having recently signed to Alligator Records (the "first female guitar hero" in the label's 50-year history) Wonderland's forthcoming long-player, Tempting Fate, is due out on October 8.

When did you first pick up the guitar?

[Early on] I didn’t play a whole lot in front of people. I’d play rhythm, but I had Little Screamin’ Kenny [Houston guitarist Kenneth Blanchet] playing guitar in the band, and he was one of my favorites, so I kind of thought I was superfluous. But then there’d be gigs where we’d be missing a guitar player, and so I was like, 'Well, okay, I can play the tunes I wrote ’cause I know how they go.' 

Eventually, it came to be that I had a tour but no guitar player, and I wasn’t gonna cancel it, so I just learned really quickly.

Did you have any musical history in your family?

Oh, yeah. Pretty much everyone on my mom’s side plays. My grandma was a steel player, and my pop played ragtime and big-band piano stuff. My mom sang, and she played acoustic guitar in a band called Badlands. So there were always guitars around. I started playing piano when I was about five, and I started writing songs when I was about eight.

You’re known and marketed as a blues artist, but you also touch on a lot of styles in your playing, and you seem to draw a lot of creative inspiration from your political and world views. How do you bring that all together?

I play a lot of blues and rootsy stuff as well as soul, gospel and a little country. There’s also experimental rock and roll, like my [2003] song “Bloodless Revolution.”

A lot of my stuff’s been really political, just ’cause that’s what’s going on and that’s what’s been speaking to me. My songs of peace are not necessarily just about peace between countries but about peace between folks. I’m trying to find hope or a solution, instead of just pointing out the problems.

The bottom line is, there’s no “us and them.” We’re all us. Even the folks who you think you detest. They’re your children, they’re your brother, they’re your father. They’re all of it. So I guess I’m just trying to find a way to be more loving myself.

*** After touring the world with John Mayall the past few years, Wonderland has recently signed to Alligator Records and has a new album – Tempting Fate – and tour on the way. Visit carolynwonderland.com for more information ***

This live performance of "Don't Believe a Word" is probably one of the best clips of Gary Moore playing 'Greeny' you could hope to see. Filmed in the late ‘70s for the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test an unbeatable line-up of classic rock luminaries includes Moore's Thin Lizzy bandmates, guitarist Scott Gorham and bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott; Deep Purple keys player Don Airey; and Jeff Beck/Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell.

Released in 1978, Back on the Streets was Moore’s first solo album following 1973’s Grinding Stone by The Gary Moore Band, and features the top-ten UK hit co-penned with Lynott, “Parisienne Walkways”. "Don't Believe a Word" (written by Lynott) is the second track from Back on the Streets and also appears on Thin Lizzy’s 1976 long-player Johnny the Fox.

Of equal star appeal in this incredible rendition is one of the most famous electric guitars in the world – the now legendary 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard that once belonged to Fleetwood Mac blues guitar hero Peter Green. In the early ‘70s, Moore and Green became good friends, and after accepting Green’s offer to borrow his ‘Burst, Moore promptly fell in love with it, taking the guitar everywhere he went. Happy that his guitar had found a good home Green later insisted on taking around £100 in exchange. 

Suffice to say, Moore soon put 'Greeny' to good use.

The current custodian of 'Greeny' – Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett – is also known to take the guitar everywhere with him. A big fan of both Peter Green and Gary Moore, Hammett says he sees 'Greeny' as “the people’s guitar”. Known to enjoy using the ‘Burst for its intended purpose of being played he says, “This guitar wants to be heard. I’m doing all I can to make sure it’s still being heard by playing it live, recording with it, and having people see it and hear it in real-time… I want to share the magic of this guitar, because it gives so much. It gives more than any other guitar I’ve ever played in my life.”

Last week, Gibson announced they will be collaborating with Hammett on a new line of signature Gibson and Epiphone models. “It’s a really great and exciting time for me to be joining forces with Gibson,” said the guitarist. “I look forward to achieving great things together in the future.”

Rumours abound as to whether or not this will include a Greeny model. Watch this space for more news!

Get the The Old Grey Whistle Test, Volumes 1-3: The Definitive Collection here.

As part of the release of The Albatross Man, an upcoming coffee table book about the life of Peter Green, a unique recording of Fleetwood Mac’s "Need Your Love So Bad" – featuring Green and David Gilmour – has been released. 

This particular recording is built around a 1968 tape cassette demo Green recorded in his mother's attic, around which Gilmour recently added electric and acoustic guitar parts. 

Produced by Laurie Latham, the recording was given Green's seal of approval shortly before he passed away on July 25, 2020. You can give it a listen below.

“This version of Need Your Love So Bad started life as a home recorded vocal by Peter Green in 1968 using a domestic tape recorder,” read a statement from Rufus Publications, the publisher of The Albatross Man.

“Producer Laurie Latham took the vocal track and with the full input of legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour created a new musical landscape for this classic blues track.”

Featuring rare images, memorabilia, lyrics and notes from Green’s Fleetwood Mac days, The Albatross Man can be preordered now, and will ship in October. Green worked on the book with Mark Smith for the last four years of his life, and had complete creative control over its contents.

For more info on the book, and to preorder it, stop by rufuspublications.com.

Last February, Mick Fleetwood gathered a laundry list of famous friends together at the London Palladium for a tribute concert honoring his former Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Peter Green.

Held on February 25, 2020, the concert featured Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, and many more, and was a poignant tribute to the blues guitar legend, who sadly died just a few months later, on July 25, 2020.

Above, you can watch one of the concert's standout performances, a rendition of the classic Fleetwood Mac instrumental, "Albatross," featuring David Gilmour taking the lead on lap-steel. 

For the performance, Gilmour was accompanied by Rick Vito and Andy Fairweather Low on guitar, Dave Bronze on bass, Zak Starkey on percussion, and, of course, Mick Fleetwood on drums. 

The video is part of Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac, a concert film documenting the show. The film will be premiered on April 24 at nugs.net, after which it will be available for five days on demand.

A physical release of the film on DVD will follow – in tandem with the release of its accompanying soundtrack album – on April 30.

Tickets for the livestream are on sale now, for $14.99. 

To purchase a ticket, stop by nugs.tv.

Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac – the concert film documenting the all-star Peter Green tribute show that took place February 25, 2020 at the London Palladium – was originally supposed to be released in select theaters around the world this month.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic however, the film will instead be streamed online via video on demand.

nugs.net will premiere the film – which features Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, and many more – on April 24, after which it will be available for five days on demand.

A physical release of the film on DVD will follow – in tandem with the release of its accompanying soundtrack album – on April 30.

“Peter Green taught me two unassailable lessons when it came to music: less is more and don’t worry about being clever," Fleetwood said of Green in a statement. "He played from his heart, which is why so many people, musicians, and appreciators alike gathered in London to pay tribute to him, all of us together bearing witness to the magic of Peter’s music.

“He revealed himself in his art, which sometimes happens at great cost, as it was with Peter. He showed so much of himself that he had to withdraw. And he did. May he rest easy. He was loved and he will be missed.”

Tickets for the livestream are on sale now, for $19.99. 

To purchase a ticket, stop by nugs.tv.

On February 25, 2020, Mick Fleetwood hosted a star-studded tribute concert for his former Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Peter Green. 

Held at the London Palladium, the concert featured Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, and many more, and was a poignant tribute to the blues guitar legend, who sadly died just a few months later, on July 25, 2020.

Above, you can watch a professionally shot video of Gibbons, Tyler, and more coming together for a red-hot version of Fleetwood Mac's 1969 tune, "Rattlesnake Shake."

The video is the second clip released so far from Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac, an upcoming film and live album documenting the show. 

You can check out the first preview clip released from the movie – a video of Hammett and Gibbons' take on the Green/Fleetwood Mac classic, "The Green Manalishi" – below.

Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac will be released online via video-on-demand in April, while a physical release of the accompanying album is set for an April 30 release via BMG. To preorder the album, step right this way.

For more info on the film, stop by mickfleetwoodandfriends.com.

Earlier this year, on February 25, Mick Fleetwood hosted a blockbuster tribute concert for his former Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Peter Green. 

The concert – which took place at the London Palladium – featured Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, and many more.

Above, you can watch a professionally shot clip of one of the highlights of the show, Hammett and Gibbons' take on the Green/Fleetwood Mac classic, "The Green Manalishi."

Taken from the upcoming film documenting the show – Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac – the performance features an extended solo from Hammett, played on Green's legendary "Greeny" 1959 Les Paul Standard.

The Metallica axeman first purchased the guitar – which for many years belonged to another British blues-rock guitar giant, Gary Moore – in 2014.

Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac will be released in cinemas in March 2021, with select screenings on March 23 and 28. You can check out the film's trailer below.

For more info on the film, stop by mickfleetwoodandfriends.com.

Earlier this year, on February 25, Mick Fleetwood hosted an all-star tribute concert for his former Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Peter Green. 

The concert – which took place at the London Palladium – featured Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Lang, Bill Wyman, John Mayall, Neil Finn, Andy Fairweather Low, Christine McVie, Zak Starkey and more.

The show was made all the more poignant just a few months later, on July 25, when Green passed away at the age of 73. 

Now, a film and live album documenting the show – Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac – have been announced. The film will be released in cinemas in March 2021, with select screenings on March 23 and 28.

The live album will be available in gatefold 4LP, 2CD/Blu-Ray mediabook, and digital audio sets, and will arrive on April 30, 2021, via BMG.

“The concert was a celebration of those early blues days where we all began, and it’s important to recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music," Fleetwood said in a statement. 

"Peter was my greatest mentor and it gave me such joy to pay tribute to his incredible talent. I was honored to be sharing the stage with some of the many artists Peter has inspired over the years and who share my great respect for this remarkable musician. ‘Then Play On’...”

For more info on the film, stop by mickfleetwoodandfriends.com.

Gibson has given Metallica's Kirk Hammett an official, custom reproduction of "Greeny," his beloved, and legendary, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Originally owned by the late blues guitar legend and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green - and sporting a famously backward neck pickup that gave the guitar its trademark, "out-of-phase" sound - "Greeny" was purchased by Hammett from vintage guitar dealer Richard Henry in 2014.

Hammett has used the guitar - which was later sold onto the equally influential Gary Moore - extensively since, both onstage with Metallica and at the star-studded Peter Green tribute concert that took place at the London Palladium in February. 

"Special thanks to Cesar [Gueikian] and Mark [Agnesi] at Gibson for making me a Greenie twin!" Hammett wrote on Instagram.

The elephant in the room, of course, is whether or not this means we'll soon be seeing a Gibson Custom Shop Greeny replica produced on a wider scale.

There have been a number of unofficial replicas - not to mention the countless guitarists who've had the Greeny neck pickup mod applied to their own Les Pauls - but an official Greeny replica run would definitely be timely, given the guitarist's recent passing. 

Replica run or not, we'll certainly keep our eyes peeled!

In the mid Sixties, when all ears seemed to be trained on Liverpool and the Merseybeat Sound, there was a new music taking seed in the clubs of London.

Loud and heavy, with an emphasis on extended solos, it was basically a revved-up, distortion-laden offshoot of the electric blues pioneered by American artists like Muddy Waters, Albert King and B.B. King, and developed by acts like the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the Animals and Fleetwood Mac. The new hybrid would eventually be coined, quite logically, “British blues rock.”

It was an exciting time in rock history, to be sure - the period that gave birth to future blues guitar legends such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Ritchie Blackmore and a transplanted Yank who spelled his first name “Jimi.”

Blues-Rock Phrasing

In 1965, Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds and joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Clapton’s playing on the group’s 1966 release, Blues Breakers, set the standard for blues-rock guitar. With a Gibson Les Paul plugged into a Marshall, he carved influential lines like the one in Figure 1. 

Drawn exclusively from the A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G), it mixes syncopated 16th notes (bar 1) with staccato attacks, both hammer-ons and pull-offs, and sustained notes drenched with fret-hand vibrato.

Figure 2A represents the blues-rock side of Jimi Hendrix, evidenced in such tunes as “Hey Joe” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” 

Based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D), it features inflections on the open high E string, plus a pair of Hendrix’s trademark unison-bend licks (bar 2). For the latter, fret the 2nd-string note with your 1st finger while bending the 3rd string with your 3rd. And don’t forget to let the 1st string ring out.

Figure 2B is in the style of Peter Green, Clapton’s replacement in the Bluesbreakers and future guitarist for Fleetwood Mac. Incorporating the E blues scale (E G A Bb B D), it features a 16th-eighth-16th rhythmic motif and calls for a palm-muted pick attack.

On beat 4, bend the 3rd string with your 3rd finger while you hold the 2nd string with your pinkie.

The fiery Figure 3 is inspired by another Yardbirds alumnus, Jimmy Page, and his sizzling blues-rock phrasing on early Led Zeppelin recordings. 

Drawn from the A blues scale (A C D Eb E G), this one is bursting with Page’s customary legato moves: slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Note the passing major 7th (G#) and major 6th (F#) in the second measure.

When Clapton left the Yardbirds, his former bandmates replaced him with the brash and daring Jeff Beck. 

Figure 4 is an example of Beck’s unusual and highly inventive single-string work. Keep your 1st finger planted on the 3rd string throughout; use your 4th or 3rd finger to fret the first notes in each series of pull-offs and your 1st finger for the downward slides.

The Solo

The 24-measure solo shown in Figure 5 revolves around an E7#9 chord, the mother of all blues-rock chords. 

A bIII-IV (G–A) cadence marks the first eight measures, while bVI–bVII (C–D) and IV–V (A–B) passages provide a contrasting bridge section in measures 9–16. The outro (measures 17–24) is basically a condensed reprise of the first 16 measures.

The solo opens with a Clapton-esque rhythmic statement similar to the A minor pentatonic example of Figure 1. A set of matching, fixed-string bends follows in measure 2. Adding vibrato to both strings during such bends takes a good deal of hand strength and therefore is no small feat. 

Try using your bending (3rd) finger to initiate the vibrato and allowing your 4th finger to join in on the wiggling process. The second half of measure 3 features a Hendrixian E minor pentatonic (E G A B D) phrase which culminates at the end of measure 4 in a variation on the opening phrase.

Measure 5 brings back the E7#9 chord and with it a David Gilmour–inspired E minor pentatonic passage. Note the partial release of the first bend - G to A on the 1st string - and the unusual half-step bend to the major-7th degree (D#). 

Midway through measure 6, the bluesy phrase segues into a burning, Jimmy Page–style run that descends the E minor pentatonic scale and concludes with an extended slide down the 6th string. This is a rather long phrase, so work it out slowly as you tackle its various sequences or repeating patterns.

At measure 9 we hit the bridge, where the solo launches full bore into “Electric Jimiland.” The maneuvers here, similar to those in Figure 2, are founded on the open-position E minor pentatonic scale. 

Open 1st-string reinforcement, a trill and the well-balanced mixture of rhythmic variations (quarter, eighth and 16th notes) lend a riff-like quality to this three-bar phrase (measures 9–11). 

In response to this lyrical passage, another incendiary Jimmy Page lick spreads across measure 12. Inspired by the second solo break in “Whole Lotta Love,” it’s culled from the open-position E blues scale and contains pull-offs galore.

Measures 13–14 call to mind the major-pentatonic mannerisms of Eric Clapton, as heard in such songs as Cream’s “Crossroads” and “Sunshine of Your Love.” Measure 13 is built from the C major pentatonic scale (C D E G A) while measure 14 uses D major pentatonic (D E F# A B). 

The choppy A blues scale (A C D Eb E G) line in bars 15–16 represents the edgy blues-rock style of Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. Tackle this aggressive passage using all downstrokes.

A relentlessly attacked high G at measure 17 marks the top of the outro (measures 17–24). Spread across two full measures, this idea gradually gains rhythmic intensity, escalating from dotted quarter notes to quarter and eighth and, finally, 16th notes.

This simple yet effective technique - repetition - has been used by blues players since time immemorial and has been employed by virtually all notable blues-rock guitarists as well. 

Two prime examples occur in the outros of Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” and “Purple Haze.” Measure 19 hosts a variation on the David Gilmour lick from measure 5, followed by a Peter Green–style phrase similar to the one discussed in Figure 2B (which drew on Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”). 

For this nimble passage, keep your 2nd finger planted on the 2nd string, and fret the 1st-string notes with your other digits.

At the top of measure 21, a wicked 1 1/2–step bend kicks off the goodbye phrases of the solo. Bend with your 3rd finger and reinforce it with your 1st and 2nd fingers. Measures 21–22 are sort of a cross between Jimmy Page (“You Shook Me”) and David Gilmour (“Money”), while measures 23–24 represent a Clapton-meets-Hendrix play on a double-stop-enhanced E minor pentatonic run.

Eric Clapton, due to his tenure with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, is often credited with being the first musician to play searing blues-inspired solos with his Gibson Les Paul plugged into a Marshall running at maximum volume. Indeed, Clapton's solos would in turn inspire thousands of guitarists the world over.

However, in retrospect, a revelation has occurred with the emergence of many historic live-bootleg recordings that have been shared on YouTube since 2007. That revelation is the late British guitarist and singer-songwriter Peter Green - co-founder of Fleetwood Mac and Clapton's replacement in the Bluesbreakers.

Revealed and documented within these archival recordings are some of the most brilliant, emotive, melodic and bluesy improvised guitar solos ever played, giving proof that Green's playing rivaled the work of Clapton.

It was also during this period that blues legend B.B. King said of Green: "He has the sweetest tone I have ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats."

From what exists on these live recordings, it's easy to see why King felt that way. From blistering runs to the most soulful of melancholic sustained notes, Green had it all.

Of course, over the years, many have focused on the musical union between Green and his "Holy Grail" 1959 Les Paul, with its modified neck-position humbucker that gave him enhanced dynamic control over the tones he created. 

And though that guitar did indeed play a large role, if you really take the time to listen, what you'll discover is the sound of pure musical intuition - Green's heart and soul being bared, and soaring through the medium of his guitar.

Some of Green's earliest (and best) live work with John Mayall can be heard from the recording of Mayall's show at the Manor House in 1967 (released as John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Live in 1967). 

His ferocious virtuosity on "So Many Roads" and "Stormy Monday" is on perfect display during that show, as Green (only 21 at the time) can be heard unleashing torrents of emotion through his '59 Les Paul. 

As the concert evolves, Green becomes a paramount of fire and grace, playing as if his life depends on every note. Perhaps his fiery display was intended to break through the looming shadow of Eric Clapton - a shadow created by Clapton fans who were quite hostile at the thought of someone trying to replace their guitar god.

Green's tenure with the Bluesbreakers was certainly a critical union - especially in the wake of Clapton's departure - as it helped establish Green, and resulted in the seminal album A Hard Road (February 1967). Unfortunately, their union was to be short-lived. 

By July 1967, Green left Mayall's side to form his own band, Fleetwood Mac, with bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. That career move had, by the end of 1968, turned into a golden one as Fleetwood Mac would become the reigning young royalty of the British blues-rock scene (even topping the charts with their classic instrumental, "Albatross").

Despite his newfound success, it wasn't long before Green began to feel frustrated again, as he began moving artistically and creatively beyond pure blues. In the years between 1968 and 1970, Green would develop musically in glorious ways. He forged ahead to create the mystical and unique songs "Black Magic Woman" and "Oh Well, Part 1" from Fleetwood Mac's 1969 album, Then Play On.

Fortunately though, Green never seemed to lose his special connection with the blues, as some his absolute best solos were improvised over B.B. King covers. "Got a Mind to Give Up Living/All Over Again" (recorded live at The Warehouse, New Orleans on January 31, 1970, while the band toured with the Grateful Dead) and "Let Me Love You" (from the Boston Tea Party in February 1970) are particular highlights of this category. 

Green could also be considered a pioneering father of heavy metal with his dark and brooding composition "Green Manalishi" (also from Then Play On). 

There are several live versions of "Green Manalishi" that exist, but the improvised solo he played at the Roundhouse Chalk Farm in London, England on April 24, 1970 is epic in the way it evolves. With each passing phrase, both melodically and passionately, he can be heard reaching new heights of feeling and expression on the guitar.

By 1970, Green's life changed drastically, as he began loathing the fame and money he had made with Fleetwood Mac. During that time, Green became increasingly religious, and he eventually suffered a mental breakdown (reportedly initiated from a now-infamous incident where he disappeared for three days and took a heavy dose of acid at a castle in Munich). 

Sometime after that incident, he claimed to have had a vision of an angel holding a starving Biafran child in her arms, and the vision inspired him to give his life to charity work.

Outside of the U.K., Green rarely received Clapton-level acclaim for his music. Thankfully though, in the decades that followed his departure from Fleetwood Mac, the genius and prowess of Green's singing and guitar playing developed a cult following that slowly been earned him a rightful place among the world's greatest electric blues players. 

My hope and suggestion for anyone who cares about the history of blues and rock is: take your time, and give a good listen to all the historic live recordings available out there. A key thing anyone is sure to discover is that Green never improvised the same solo twice. Green's music is really a thing of beauty and joy, and his legacy stands monumental, otherworldly and transcendent. 

But don't take my word - just listen to the music.

Peter Green, a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac and a hugely influential British blues guitar legend, has passed away at the age of 73.

The news was confirmed by a statement from Green's family's lawyers, who said, “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep. A further statement will be provided in the coming days.”

Born in London in 1946, Green first came to prominence in late 1965 as Eric Clapton's replacement in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He would go on to form Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with fellow former Bluesbreakers John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, on bass and drums respectively.

Though Fleetwood Mac's early music was steeped in the blues of their past, Green's guitar work - which incorporated feedback, incredible sustain and tasteful bends - helped set the band apart from their blues-rock contemporaries, and earned them a host of hugely influential hits, including the instrumental "Albatross," "Oh Well" and "Man of the World."

Fleetwood Mac's success, however, took a significant toll on Green's mental health, and he left the band in 1970. He would be diagnosed with schizophrenia later in the decade, and spent time in psychiatric hospitals during the period.

Green would go on to re-emerge in the late '70s with a string of solo albums, and formed the Peter Green Splinter Group in the late-’90s. Though he continued to tour and record sporadically until the early 2010s, Green and fellow Fleetwood Mac co-founder Jeremy Spencer turned down a potential opportunity to reform the band's original lineup in the mid-2000s.

He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with seven other members of Fleetwood Mac in 1998.

Green's influence continues to loom large to this day, as evidenced by the star-studded Green tribute concert- which featured the likes of David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons and Pete Townshend - that took place at the London Palladium in February.