The list of people who played in his band, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, contains many who became luminaries, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Taylor. He seems to have had a talent for uncovering musicians with much to give to the world. For that, British rock music still owes Mayall a debt.
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers: All Your Love
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers: Tears in my Eyes
John Brumwell Mayall: 29/11/1933 – 22/7/2024. So it goes.
I was so sad to hear of the death of guitarist Peter Green, late of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac and the Peter Green Splinter Group.
I have featured his music before here and Here. Both of those songs speak of a troubled mind and it is no secret that Green found life and fame difficult (not helped by taking LSD.)
His work speaks for itself though.
The first clip – Oh Well Part 1 is a live performance and misses out the acoustic last part.
Fleetwood Mac: Oh Well Part 1:-
That acoustic part was repeated at the beginning of Oh Well Part 2 so is included below.
Fleetwood Mac: Oh Well Part 2:-
Peter Allen Greenbaum (Peter Green,) 29/10/1946 – 25/7/2020. So it goes.
Earlier this week I learned of the death of Danny Kirwan, guitarist with Fleetwood Mac from 1968 to 1972. His Guardian obituary is here.
Much overlooked in comparison to Peter Green, Kirwan was an important part of the band’s sound during the transition after Green’s departure. The song I’ve chosen, Dragonfly, is the only Kirwan composition (he wrote the tune to set the words of a poem by Welsh poet W H Davies) to make it onto the first Fleetwood Mac “Greatest Hits” compilation.
A less harsh, more melodic touch than Green’s (Man of the World notwithstanding.)
Fleetwood Mac: Dragonfly
Daniel David Kirwan: 13/5/1950 – 8/6/2018. So it goes.
The Shadows were a bit before my time though they were a kind of Saturday night variety televisual backdrop to my childhood.
But I do know that they were important and that without them there might have been no Beatles, no Clapton, no Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Jimmy Page etc etc.*
It’s only right to mention, then, the passing of bassist Jet Harris.
Terence (Jet) Harris. 6/7/1939 -18/3/2011. So it goes.
*This is maybe overstating the case a little as some of these might have come to prominence anyway but there is more than a grain of truth in it.
