Musicians the world over have taken to social media to pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green, whose death was announced yesterday at the age of 73. A song so disturbing with its banshee wail and nerve-shredding guitar, that it still beggars belief that it was a top 10 single in 1970. Green was the songwriter behind classic Fleetwood Mac hits including “Albatross”, “Black Magic Woman”, and “Oh Well”. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. He died peacefully in his sleep at home, his family said. My biggest regret is that I never got to share the stage with him. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Green stood out in “an era of great guitar work”, he added. One of the many highlights of Rumours, recorded live in an empty theatre in the University of California, San Francisco, just Christine McVie, a piano and a dozen red roses. Clapton, Page, Beck and Green.”. “Peter was asked why did he call the band Fleetwood Mac. A blistering guitar intro, cowbells (very much in vogue in 1969, thanks to the Stones “Honky Tonk Women”) and tongue-in-cheek lyrics segue into a wonderfully atmospheric instrumental with classical overtones, and in three and a half breathless minutes, one of the most extraordinary songs of the era has passed in a blink of the eye. He tweeted: “RIP Peter Green. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. “When I first listened to all the Fleetwood Mac records, I was very taken with his guitar playing. Welch’s finest Mac moment was the jazzy, noiresque “Hypnotized” from the Mystery to Me album, featuring Christine McVie’s ghostly harmonies over Welch’s dreamy vocal. Peter Green‘s former Fleetwood Mac bandmates have led tributes to the influential guitarist and songwriter, after his death aged 73. Mayall told his producer, who was scandalised at losing Clapton: “He might not be better [than Clapton] now. However, when the band decided to make their first album since 1982’s Mirage, Buckingham, not for the first or last time, put the greater good of Fleetwood Mac before anything else. Paul Stanley, co-lead vocalist for rock band Kiss, compared Green to the great figures from Britain’s blues history, including Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. I have always been a huge admirer of the great Peter Green may he rest in peace.”, Yusuf/Cat Stevens said Green had become “something of a model” for him, writing: “God bless the ineffable Peter Green, one of the unsung heroes of musical integrity, innovation and spirit. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. And again. McVie had always been a prominent songwriter, but this was the album where she really came into her own as she responded to the challenge of the twin tyros with “Warm Ways”, and “Over My Head”, prime examples of her gorgeous lilting love songs. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler also described Green as “one of the greats”. You changed our lives.”, Singer and guitarist Peter Frampton said: “Most sadly have lost one of the most tasteful guitar players ever. The jaunty “Say You Love Me” was her best song yet and even scraped into the UK top 40 at a time when the original band were but distant memories in their homeland. As with so many Mac songs, the meaning behind Sara is complex and inevitably based around relationships both within and outside the band. 25 February 2020 | The London Palladium. Their first top 10 single in the UK in almost a decade, “Tusk” is Fleetwood Mac and Buckingham at their barking best, tribal drumbeat and 300-piece marching band included. Tusk, the new wave-influenced follow-up to Rumours, found the band and Buckingham in particular resolutely determined not to just churn out a Rumours retread. January 28, 2020 11:56AM ET Mick Fleetwood on His Peter Green Tribute Show, Future Plans, and Lindsey Buckingham “Lindsey’s legacy is alive and … (From left) Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, John McVie and Peter Green Fleetwood Mac members lead tributes to late co-founder Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green dies aged 73, Fleetwood Mac’s Wembley show was more than an exercise in nostalgia, Fleetwood Mac: ‘We’ll burn in hell if we don’t play Glastonbury’, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. And it’s also a classic Fleetwood Mac soft rocker – jangling guitars, multilayered harmonies, lush, glossy production and a hook you can’t forget. He wrote on Instagram: “I can’t quite express my feelings this afternoon after learning of Peter’s death. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? In 1966, Green replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Ample proof along with many other fine songs such as 1972’s mellow and much loved “Sentimental Lady” (which Welch later re-recorded as a solo artist with great success) that even as the band foundered commercially, artistically the Bob Welch era wasn’t always the barren netherworld of popular myth. Nicks also reflects on her past struggles and regrets on a song that quickly became one of her most loved. You just have to listen to it again. It was in the beginning, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and I thank you, Peter Green, for that. Mick Fleetwood wrote, "For me, and every past and present member of Fleetwood Mac, losing Peter Green is monumental! The self-titled first album with the new line up (otherwise known as Mac’s White Album) featured four superb Christine McVie compositions plus a co-write with Buckingham, as many as Buckingham and Nicks combined. An enduring classic indeed. Mumford and Sons guitarist Winston Marshall also tweeted a touching tribute, thanking Green for his work. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. Fleetwood Mac perform 'Oh Well' on Monster Music Mash 1969. This beautiful, heartfelt song of unconditional love, described by its composer as “a little prayer – an anthem for everybody”, has been covered by Eva Cassidy and Willie Nelson and closed every Fleetwood Mac show until Christine left the band in 1998. But no one was listening, least of all (as Mick Fleetwood would later admit) the other members of the band. “Peter Green was one of my biggest inspirations when I first started playing guitar. “The Chain” is yet another rumination on the internal emotional strife of the band, building from its slow-burn intro into a full-on guitar wig-out and massed harmonies via one of the most famous basslines in all of rock. However Mac enthusiasts will point to the 8.47 version from the 2015 Tusk edition. She stood at the crossroads of her life and poured all her doubts and fears into one cathartic song; shortly afterwards came the wholly unexpected invitation to join Fleetwood Mac. It was one of the reasons I was excited to join the band. That said, “Big Love” is virtually a Buckingham solo track anyway, right down to those striking call and response “uhs” and “ahs”. We did good, and trail blazed one hell of a musical road for so many to enjoy. Those early days of Fleetwood Mac will stay in my mind for ever.”, Left to right; Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and John McVie, the original Fleetwood Mac lineup, (From left) Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, John McVie and Peter Green. Buckingham’s cutting licks are a highlight too, especially that scratchy bit at around 2.40, and the song glows with trademark three-part harmonies. Putting personal feelings aside, Buckingham worked his magic and “Dreams” became Fleetwood Mac’s first No 1 single in America. “Every song was about someone in the band,” said Fleetwood, but none more so than Nicks’s “Dreams”. A bouncy, positive plea from Christine McVie to her ex-husband to forget the past and move on after their divorce, “Don’t Stop” remains one of the band’s most popular songs and Christine McVie’s finest. The breakthrough single from the eponymous album that signalled Fleetwood Mac’s remarkable change of direction and fortune, as they began their extraordinary transition from British Blues also-rans to the epitome of slick, air-brushed Californian soft-rock. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. Buckingham and Nicks’s assimilation into the band and the sheer quality of the material they brought with them proved to be the artistic fillip that the other members needed. “There I was, sat [sic] with my hero. It’s all here – the McVies’ divorce, the Buckingham-Nicks break-up, Nicks’s affair with Fleetwood, all laid bare and written in 10 minutes by Nicks. One of the absolute hierarchy of the original British Blues Greats. It’s a certainty that “You Make Loving Fun” wasn’t about John McVie, Christine’s by now ex-husband, and all romantics out there will hope that it wasn’t about her dog as she allegedly told him. Green was among the eight Fleetwood Mac members inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.