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The Grateful Dead. They opened the show in New Orleans the night of the Dead’s in- famous drug bust, later immortalized in the song “Truckin’.” Occasionally Green would join the Dead onstage, and bootleg tapes reveal the guitar interplay between him and Jerry Garcia to be dazzling.
They also appeared on Hugh Hefner’s Play- boy After Dark TV show, and the sight of a Je- sus-haired becrucifixed Peter Green grinning like a naughty schoolboy while (aptly) sing- ing “Rattlesnake Shake,” his proto-metallic paean to masturbation (as Hef’s crowd stiffly dances), is one not soon forgotten. The irony level is apparent on the man’s face.
Well I know this guy
And his name is Mick
Now Mick don’t care When he ain’t got no chick
He do the shake
The Rattlesnake Shake
Yeah Micky does the shake
Just watch him jerk away the blues Go on and jerk it, Mick!
In February 1970, Fleetwood Mac record three nights at the Tea Party, a Boston club housed in an old cathedral, for a projected live album. Due to the events of the next few months, the idea was scrapped. Over the years, bits and pieces of these tapes leaked out, mostly on low budget compilations. In 1998, the original masters were located, cleaned up, and issued on compact disc.
The 3-CD Live At The Boston Tea Party will be a revelation to anyone unaware of the sheer power of this band. Had it been released at the time (in whatever form) it would have proudly stood alongside Led Zeppelin IV, Who’s Next, Exile On Main Street, Machine Head, Space Ritual, and Master Of Reality as a monument of early ‘70s hard rock. It’s that good.
The performance is a snapshot of these five drug- and booze-soaked loonys going at it full throttle with nothing to lose while perched on the brink of worldwide success yet well aware that one of them is getting off the ride soon. Even Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh stop by to jam (Walsh’s band the James Gang were the opening act). The star of the show, Peter Green, is at the top of his
Fleetwood Mac, circa 1969
game despite what’s going on upstairs. The whole band shines like a jewel, and it may be their most representative release. Any- one out there wondering what all the fuss is about should be played Live At The Boston Tea Party at deafening volume, preferably late at night after a few pints.
One of the live album’s highlights is “Jump- ing At Shadows,” written by English blues- man Duster Bennett, which Green had been singing on stage for some time. The lyrics could have easily been describing the inside of Peter Green’s head:
What can you say There isn’t much to tell I’m going downhill But I blame myself
I’ve been jumping at shadows Thinking about my life
Now everybody
Points their hand at me
I know I’m just a picture
Of the way I should have been I’ve been jumping at shadows Just thinking about my life
May God have mercy
Cause I think I’m going insane
The devil’s been a-gettin’ at me
And you know he’s got me down again
I’ve been just jumping at shadows Thinking about my life
Debuted on this tour (and a cornerstone of the live album) was a stunning new song of Green’s (“This one’s about the devil,” he intro- duces it) that would be his last missive from reality before diving headfirst into the abyss.
“The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)” came about after an LSD-induced nightmare where Green was confronted by a barking green dog he knew represented money that wouldn’t go away. Addressing the beast, Green sings: “You come around here/Making me do things I don’t wanna do” and “Making me see things I don’t wanna see.” Whatever the inspiration, the music for “The Green Manalishi” hit as hard as the words, and shows Peter Green effortlessly master- ing yet another genre, this time the nascent heavy metal of Black Sabbath and their ilk. The mind boggles to think where he would
30 • APRIL 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us