Review Summary: A fitting tribute from one blues legend to another.
How do you really measure an artist’s value? Is it just based on how many quality albums one has released? Is it linked with the number of fans that have been accumulated through the artist’s career or the recognition by his/her peers? No matter what your response is, Peter Green is a legend. At the same time he’s a tragic figure and one of those people who never managed to come close to their potential. Having released albums such as
Then Play On,
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and
The End of the Game and still not having reached his potential, says a lot about his value. When in his prime, Peter Green was hands down one of the best bluesmen Britain has given us. He combined solid songwriting that blended blues with psychedelia while being an exceptional guitarist. Oh, he also was one of the most emotional guitar players the blues world has ever seen. BB King once stated that Green’s guitar tone was the sweetest he had heard and made him sweat. Not bad for a wasted potential.
On the other hand, Gary Moore released 20 solo albums in his glorious career and he participated in arguably Thin Lizzy’s best LP. Therefore, he managed to reach his full potential despite his untimely death. Moore first witnessed Green back in 1968 when the latter had replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbrakers and was impressed with his live performance. Since then he became a fan of Green’s work and on this studio album, Gary Moore pays homage to Peter Green by covering a selection of excellent tunes mostly from Green’s Fleetwood Mac days. In fact, only two out of the eleven tracks, including the incredibly haunting instrumental “The Supernatural”, are from Green’s work with John Mayall.
Those of you who are familiar with Fleetwood Mac’s early albums will find out that Gary Moore has actually changed very few elements from the originals. However, this should not put you off as Moore does a magnificent job of making the songs sound as if they were written by himself. Those of you who haven’t listened to the tracks before, should expect traditional Brit blues in the vein of Derek and the Dominos, Cream, John Mayall’s Bluesbrakers and you can definitely hear some BB King too. The songs are mostly mid tempo and based on emotion rather than technicality. Even though Gary Moore is renowned for his larger than life metallic guitar tone that has incorporated in his sound, on this album he follows a more traditional approach which is closer to Peter Green’s tone. In fact, during Green’s dark period in the mid ‘70s he sold his Les Paul to Gary Moore and this is the guitar that Moore used while recording this album.
Overall, this is a must buy not only for Peter Green or Gary Moore fans but for blues lovers in general. Many times, tribute albums seem to disappoint as they suffer from lack of character and sound like watered down versions of original material. This is not the case with this album though, as Gary Moore does a terrific job of adding his personal touch to some already excellent songs. Lastly,
Blues for Greeny can also serve as a great compilation and introduction to Peter Green’s music for all those who wish to delve into one of the blues’ most emotional performers.
