Friday, September 11, 2026

Peter Green on ‘Black Magic Woman’ | Don’s Tunes

May be a black-and-white image

The inspiration for Peter Green's ‘Black Magic Woman’ – subsequently a worldwide million-seller for Carlos Santana – was two-fold: his girlfriend at the time, model Sandra Elsdon, and Otis Rush’s classic ‘All Your Love’. Peter liked to call Sandra his ‘magic mama’ and, as she now recalls bluntly and with fond amusement, when he wrote the lyrics, Peter wasn’t getting his oats: ‘I had decided to be celibate as part of some lofty spiritual quest I was pursuing at the time, and so in that second verse, when Peter sings “Don’t turn your back on me, baby,” his blues are all about frustration!’
The melody line Peter developed from the opening notes of ‘All Your Love’. ‘When I was in The Bluesbreakers,’ he explains, ‘John got me started with songwriting, and one of the things he said was that, if you really like something, you should take the first lines and make up another song from them. So that’s what I did with “Black Magic Woman”. But then it turned out sounding more like BB King’s “Help The Poor”.
Source: Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac by Martin Celmins
Photo: Curt Dahlgren

Don's Tunes

Fleetwood Mac Peter Green - Black Magic Woman (Live Boston Tea Party) 1970

curved ball from The Guvnor! IAN DURY and BAND (sic!) "Upminster Kids"

Ian Dury (and the Blockheads)

This is an odd one despite the band (sic) and the fact that it is only Mickey from the Blockheads why were these guys covering a Kilburn and The High Roads song classic by 1995 on Irish TV?

Still gert lush eh?

"It’s #TBT to (we think) Belfast 1995, and a rare clip of Ian performing ‘Upminster Kid’ with Blockhead Mick Gallagher on Hammond organ. They’re accompanied by Rod McVey (piano), Johnny Scott (guitar), Brendan McGarrity (drums), Michael McGinty (bass), Liam Bradley (percussion/vocals) and Michael Buckley (saxophone). The footage and music credits are from the @oldflat YouTube channel.
Does anyone know the TV show?"

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - You Know You’re a Man [Bat Chain Puller]

Stevie Ray Vaughan on how to play with 13s (it’s a string thing!) | Guitar

Don's Tunes

With the incorporation of more Jimi Hendrix songs into his set, Stevie Ray Vaughan decided to tune his guitar down a half step all of the time, just as Hendrix had done. Detuning the instrument facilitated the move to even heavier string gauges, all the way to .013s, several steps thicker than the norm. Detuning serves to decrease the tension and make the heavy strings easier to bend while yielding a better tone and a meatier sound. Playing them required enormous hand and arm strength and a level of sacrifice in terms of ripping up his fingertips that few would be willing to embrace.
Doyle Bramhall II: He paid a price for being as committed as he was to the kind of string bending he was known for. He had a “callus kit” to make new calluses on the spot: a wallet with compartments for nail files, manicure scissors, super glue, and baking soda. He often had massive holes, like a quarter-inch deep, in his fingertips. Before shows, he would fill the holes with baking soda and put super glue over it and stick it to the other palm of his hand let it dry and rip a new piece of skin off to form the new callus. Then he’d file it down smooth so it wouldn’t catch on the strings. He was very ingenious and inventive.

Source: Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Alan Paul & Andy Aledort 

Birthdays : John Martyn

John Martyn was born as Iain McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey on this day in 1948. ROUTE

John Martyn - Over The Hill

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS triple hit: I Don’t Want To Get Over, Take Ecstasy With Me, Desert Island | O MY SOUL

O My Soul

Or I could make a career of being blue
I could dress in black and read Camus,
Smoke clove cigarettes and drink vermouth
Like I was 17
That would be a scream
But I don’t want to get over you