Peter Green

This was the first greatest hits package for the rock band Fleetwood Mac, covering the period from the band's beginning in 1968 through 1971, in its original incarnation led by guitarist Peter Green.

A live concert from 1969, recorded in Los Angeles by soundman Dinky Dawson. The fidelity is very good (excellent, in fact, by late-1960s standards), and the band are good form on a nine-song set (a tenth track is just a "Tune Up") that sticks mostly to lesser-known originals and covers. That means you don't get classics on the order of "Black Magic Woman" or "Oh Well," but on the other hand it's nice to hear different versions of some of the lesser-known early Mac originals, like Peter Green's anguished "Before the Beginning" and one of Danny Kirwan's better tunes, "Something Inside of Me." It's getting hard to keep track because of the bumper crop of official and semi-official live late-sixties Fleetwood Mac releases now available, but this is the first appearance of "Lemon Squeezer" to my knowledge, and "My Baby Sweet" is not easy to come by (although at least one version has appeared on a hard-to-find CD). No late-sixties Fleetwood Mac live release, it seems, is deemed complete without the inclusion of a couple of comic fifties rock covers, and you have to sit through "Great Balls of Fire" and "Blue Suede Shoes" here. The latter boasts over-the-top lewd lyrics, "lick my dick" being substituted for "blue blue, blue suede shoes" for a while in the chorus–just the type of schoolboy humor that might have seemed taboo-smashing in 1969, but seems sort of stupid on disc. This release would be of more interest if there wasn't already an abundance of live and outtake early Mac available on Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac Live at the BBC, Jumping at Shadows, Cerulean, and Vaudeville Years.
Review by Richie Unterberger @Allmusic

2017 release. Some of Green's best work has been in the trio format, historically a configuration that has been one of the most popular in the advancement of jazz. The ensemble featured here is made up of bassist David Wong and drummer Rodney Green. Benny Green has been performing at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center for more than 35 years. He was introduced to the stage while in the ensembles of Betty Carter and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Since then, Green has tried to make a point of playing the Northern California venue yearly. Begun as a non-profit and festival in 1975, Kuumbwa has maintained a steady presence in the jazz world as one of the premier jazz venues in the United States.

STUNNING 1970 BROADCAST RECORDING FROM PETER GREEN S FLEETWOOD MAC Released in September 1969, Fleetwood Mac s third studio album, Then Play On, was their first to feature new recruit,19-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan, and was their last with Peter Green. Some months following the record s release, Green was subjected to drinks spiked with LSD at a party in Germany, leading to his severe mental decline; after a final performance on 20 May 1970, Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac. The marvellous Mr. Green was, however, on hand and truly on form for the band s January 30, 1970 appearance at The Warehouse in New Orleans, where Messrs. Green, Kirwan, Fleetwood, Spencer and McVie played a stunning set as support to the Grateful Dead. Mac s complete performance was recorded for local broadcast too, and from this source comes this superb CD featuring one of Fleetwood Mac s finest available live recordings from this period, an era sadly destined to come to a close soon after this quite extraordinary gig.

As far as major-label debuts by underground bands go, Green is fairly uncompromising. While it displays a more powerful guitar sound on "Get Up," "Turn You Inside Out," and "Orange Crush," it also takes more detours than Document, whether it's the bizarrely affecting contemporary folk of "The Wrong Child" and "You Are the Everything," the bubblegum of "Stand" and "Pop Song 89," or the introspection of the lovely "Hairshirt" and "World Leader Pretend."

As far as major-label debuts by underground bands go, Green is fairly uncompromising. While it displays a more powerful guitar sound on "Get Up," "Turn You Inside Out," and "Orange Crush," it also takes more detours than Document, whether it's the bizarrely affecting contemporary folk of "The Wrong Child" and "You Are the Everything," the bubblegum of "Stand" and "Pop Song 89," or the introspection of the lovely "Hairshirt" and "World Leader Pretend."