- Place – KD’s Studio, Chiswick, London
- Time – 1997
- Artist – Peter Green AKA Peter Greenbaum
- Album – The Robert Johnson Songbook
Peter Green had reached legendary status over the years but is probably best known as the founding member of Fleetwood Mac, along with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.
In 1968 Fleetwood Mac achieved success with Green’s Black Magic Woman, followed by Albatross, Oh Well, Man of The World and Green Manalishi.
Unable to cope with the success, Peter’s discovery and abuse of LSD is said to have led to his schizophrenia.
Deciding to leave Fleetwood Mac in 1970, Green was on his way down a dark road pursued by his demons.
After being incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals, enduring treatment of electroconvulsive therapy, Peter had managed to emerge several times over the years, but only to relapse again back into obscurity.
The Splinter Group – Walk Don’t Run.
During the 1990s, I owned my own recording studio and my good friend Stuart Taylor contacted me to book some studio time for the band he was managing called, The Splinter Group, which featured Peter Green.
We were to mix a recording of the instrumental title Walk Don’t Run.
This track was produced by the lengendary drummer, Cozy Powell at another studio, but Cozy was unhappy with the overall status of the band and decided to leave.
Having been a fan of Peter for many years, a chance to work with him was truly an honour.
I was aware of Peter’s turbulent past, but was more than surprised when meeting him.
Rather than the persona of the legendary guitarist he had the facade of Mr. Smee from Peter Pan.
His wispy side burns protruded from a tightly tied bandanna around his head, his clothes, covering his slightly overweight torso, would have been discarded by Oxfam.
Peter Green
At first I found it very difficult to converse with Peter, but as I got to know him, and he got to know me, I discovered a person with a wonderful warm and gentle character, a deep love of music and a mind so entrenched in a world of his own making, I couldn’t help but admire him.
I once asked Peter if he believed in the afterlife, after a long pause whilst staring at the ceiling he replied,
”I’m not sure I believe in this one.”
The First Mixing Session
My first task as the engineer was to get the multi-track ready for mixing; the first ten tracks were taken up with drums, bass and rhythm guitar, which were all fine.
There were various takes of Peter’s guitar solos so I listened to them all and choose the best parts. I amalgamated these sections to one complete guitar track.
I then set about mixing the backing track. When this sounded complete, I introduced Peter’s guitar into the mix.
As I was adding some reverb to the guitar, using one of the many pieces of studio equipment at our disposal, Peter asked me,
‘How many different types of echoes does the module have?”
“Around two-hundred in this particular unit.” I replied.
Peter then asked if we could hear them all.
So with the multi-track machine on recycle, playing the track over and over, I changed the reverb setting every ten or fifteen seconds. We listened to every single one of them, marking down the ones Peter liked.
Having exhausted all options, Peter selected his favourite reverb, I then set his guitar level within the rest of the instruments.
Next he said “The drums are too loud,”
So I took the level of the drums down.
“Now the bass is too loud, can we bring the bass down?”
I duly obliged and turned it down.
“The rhythm guitar is too loud, take it down.”
Now all you could really hear was Peter’s lead guitar.
He now realised that his guitar was way too loud, so we started again.
As the hours slowly drifted by, I quietly agreed with Stuart that we would settle for a mix with Peter and then I would remix the track later alone, which I subsequently did.
On delivering the finished master everyone seemed more than happy.
The Robert Johnson Songbook
Before too long Stuart, the manager, called me again to ask if I would be interested in producing an album of Robert Johnson songs for Snapper Records. It was to be a duo with Peter and the other guitarist from the Splinter Group.
Even taking into account my previous experience with Peter, this did not sound like a complex gig; after all, I had worked with some very challenging artists over the years and believed this could be an interesting project to be involved with.
This album was to be my introduction to the absolute circus that surrounded Peter Green.
Originally the album was to be made with just Peter and his guitarist.
The studio was booked in three-day sessions over a four-week period.
Day One
Day one started with listening to various Robert Johnson titles from two CDs, making a list of which songs Peter and colleague wanted to record.
We discussed what would be the best way to set about recording the album and agreed to start by taking the simplist route.
The plan was to record both musicians together so I set up two chairs then microphones for the guitars and live vocals. I also provided a couple of music stands for the lyrics.
After a few hours it became apparent that this particular method of recording was not going to work.
Over the next few days we tried various techniques; recording one player first then overdubbing the second. I tried using a metronome fed into the headphones in the hope we could keep some sort of timing consistency to the track.
The strangest thing we attempted to do was to record the original Robert Johnson recordings from the CD onto the multi-track. I then placed a count in on the front of the Johnson recordings, so Peter and colleague knew where to start playing.
This didn’t work either.
In reality this album should have been recorded, overdubbed, remixed and delivered within seven-to-ten days.
Svengali
After several days, I nervously phoned Stuart to explain that we needed to rethink the project as the recording was going nowhere and maybe we should consider bringing the rest of the Splinter Group into the studio to help cut the album.
Stuart said he would come over to the studio and have a word with Peter and colleague.
Peter was very interested in bringing in the rest of the band, he was also keen to hear there had been several offers by well-known artists to guest on the album, but Peter’s partner was totally against anyone other than Peter and himself being involved in this recording.
I started to notice that Peter’s colleague had a Svengali-like hold over Peter, along with a very child-like manner, which would turn, in a second, into an explosive anger when he not getting his own way.
It was decided that we would continue to complete the album without any additional musicians.
Stuart told me that he believed that the insistence not to involve guest artists or the Splinter band to perform on the album was due to the structure of the recording deal.
The advance for the album was to pay for the recording and mixing and whatever was left over would be split between Peter and his guitarist, bringing anyone else in would eat into the recording budget, reducing the residue.
What should have been a relatively simple recording was now turning into a farce.
With constant interference from Peter’s guitarist and his, “that’ll do” attitude, he really managed to inhibit Peter’s creative ability.
Peter at KD’s Studio
A Flash of Genius
It’s the job of the producer to get the best out of an artist and lthough there were real flashes of absolute genius from Peter I was never allowed to capitalise on these precious moments.
I considered resigning at this point but decided for my own peace of mind I would not walk away from the situation.
I felt strongly that Peter’s partner did not want anyone to get to close to Peter.
For instance, if he could not make it to the studio on a certain day, Peter would request to come in and work with me by himself, this was never allowed.
After a few more sessions I requested someone from the record company attend the studio to hear how this catastrophe was unfolding, but no one ever took me seriously.
We had one or two titles that were usable, but we would need many more to complete an album.
Mistakes can sometime help
Stories from the I O W Festival 1970
The story of the recording of the hit song “In The Summertime”
Needing a record deal urgently, amazingly this worked
A look at various songwriters.
Sham 69’s first timme in a recording show. Just shows Perseverance pays off
My early days and discovering music
Not all recording and producing records is fun
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