Peter Green during the legendary Fleetwood Mac Chess Blues session in Chicago, 1969
It happened more than fifty years ago, a memorable recording session at the the Chess Records Studio that brought together an English blues band and some of the best Chicago blues musicians. The music captured during the nine hour session was released as two volumes entitled Blues Jam In Chicago, on Blue Horizon Records in December, 1969.
The classic line-up for Fleetwood Mac included the phenomenal Peter Green on guitar and vocals. He was a true master of the blues, playing with enormous amounts of taste and emotion. The band also featured two other guitarists, the slide guitar whiz Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan, who managed to get one of the finest vibrato tones from his guitar without any electronic enhancements. The rhythm section was comprised of Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass, who would later achieve even greater fame with another version of the band.
Jeff Lowenthal was the proverbial “fly on the wall” that day, the lone photographer invited to be part of the session. Some of his photos were included on the original LP albums, as well as subsequent re-releases in a variety of formats.
When Mick Fleetwood authored his book Play On, he recalled the reaction when the band got to Chicago.
“None of them had ever seen or heard of us before and when they got a look at us I could tell that they thought we were another loud, over-distorted, acid rock blues band from Europe, the type who turned it up to mask their fairly basic skills, But we showed them otherwise.”
In a footnote to history, one will note that Buddy Guy is not credited on the album. Due to a contract issue, he appears as “Guitar Buddy.” Music fans will delight in his recollection to Schaffner of meeting Green at a Chicago concert many years later. “I went to see him and asked if he’d remembered me at those sessions and he said no,” prompting Guy to have a hearty laugh.
This month, June 8, 2018, British blues rock guitarist/singer/songwriter Danny Kirwan who joined Fleetwood Mac at age 18 in August 1968 died in London, aged 68. An obituary in The New York Times quoted Kirwan's former wife as saying that he had died in his sleep "after contracting pneumonia earlier in the year and never fully recovering from it."
Kirwan remained with Fleetwood Mac through a couple of key personal changes until 1972, leaving abruptly during the US tour in support of their Bare Trees album. He went on to release three solo albums and a couple of compilations but in later years was plagued by alcoholism and mental health problems that saw him institutionalized for a time.
Described as shy, sensitive, nervous and withdrawn, Kirwan grew up listening to jazz in his mother's home where he also discovered and was influenced by the great gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Playing in Brixton trio Boilerhouse, he came to the attention of ex-John Mayall guitarist and founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green who invited a teenage Kirwan to be the third guitarist in the group alongside Green and slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Kirwan's more melodic style contrasted with Green's blues licks. He also contributed to the band by writing and singing his own compositions. Mac producer Mike Vernon recalled, "Danny was outstanding. He played with an almost scary intensity. He had a guitar style that wasn't like anyone else I'd heard in England." Kirwan's first recorded work with Fleetwood Mac, in October 1968, was his contribution of the second guitar part to Green's instrumental hit single "Albatross". The flipside was Kirwan's instrumental "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues", a cover of an old jazz song.
Kirwan shared equal stature with Green on the band's third album Then Play On. When Green abruptly quit in May 1970, Kirwan was thrust into leading and fronting the band, a role he accepted reluctantly. Keyboard player/singer Christine McVie contributed to the next album Kiln House, joining the band soon after. With Kirwan calling the shots Mac turned from a bluesy band to a more pop oriented group on tracks like Kirwan's "Jewel-Eyed Judy", "Tell Me All the Things You Do" and "Station Man". American guitarist Bob Welch joined in time for Future Games and its followup Bare Trees, replacing Jeremy Spencer and taking the pressure off Kirwan and providing an even greater rock influence. But by then Kirwan had become unpredictable and was drinking heavily. Matters came to a head in the summer of 1972 when an enraged and inebriated Kirwan smashed his Gibson Les Paul Custom against a wall in a dressing room and announced he had had enough. The band went on without him. He was fired soon after by Mick Fleetwood.
Welch recalled, "I thought he was a nice kid, but a little bit paranoid, a little bit disturbed. He would always take things I said wrongly. He would take offence at things for no reason ... I thought it was just me, but as I got to know the rest of the band, they'd say 'Oh yes, Danny, a little... strange'."
Kirwan recorded three solo albums for DJM (Dick James Music) Records between 1975 and 1979 but none achieved any commercial breakthrough. Describe by a friend as "lost in a drink and drugs wasteland; he was just too sensitive a soul," in the 1980s and 1990s Kirwan endured a period of homelessness in London sleeping on park benches having abandoned his wife and two children. In July 2000, a few weeks after his 50th birthday, Kirwan was settled in a care home for alcoholics in South London.
Kirwan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1998 for his work as part of Fleetwood Mac. He did not attend the induction ceremony. One of Kirwan's songs, "Tell Me All the Things You Do" from the 1970 album Kiln House, was included in the set of Fleetwood Mac's 2018–19 "An Evening with Fleetwood Mac" tour, with guitarist Neil Finn and Christine McVie sharing vocals.
Mick Fleetwood said, "Danny was a huge force in our early years ... Danny's true legacy will forever live on in the music he wrote and played so beautifully as a part of the foundation of Fleetwood Mac that has now endured for over fifty years. Thank you, Danny Kirwan. You will forever be missed." No mention by Fleetwood of Bob Welch or his contributions.
Fleetwood Mac - Coming your way - Live 1969 Danny Kirwan / Peter Green
ONE SUNNY DAY (REHEARSAL) - DANNY KIRWAN & PETER GREEN
Lazy Poker says : "This brief footage of Danny Kirwan and Peter Green in private rehearsal (with John McVie sitting by) at Peter's home - although nothing new to hardcore fans of the 'Mac' - may be of some interest to those who haven't seen it yet. It implies the impression that this was a pre-gig rehearsal, just before getting into the band's van to take them there.
These scenes were part of a French TV programme, that also showed the band on stage at the 1968 "Bluesology Festival" - it's not clear, though, if this rehearsal was immediately before their appearance at that Droitwich gathering. In any case - these are most likely the first moving pictures of Danny Kirwan as a member of 'Fleetwood Mac' - enjoy!” We did!
A : He came to audition for a band called The Peter B's Looners - Dave Ambrose on bass, Peter Bardens on keyboards and myself. He fitted with us. We were a very simple instrumental band, a lot of Booker T, Mose Allison. He had a great 'sound' as they say, but me and Dave didn't think he knew enough about the guitar. He only played a couple of licks, variations on a theme, Freddie King. And to Peter Bardens' credit, he pulled me aside and said, “You're wrong, this guy is special".
Q : Your backgrounds were very different ?
A : Oh, we used to joke about it. He was the Jewish kid who was beaten up in the East End of London a lot of the time and he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, which I used to give him a hard time about : “It's time to move on, Peter !” But as young men we had an incredible friendship. I was basically ... “in love” with him. We roomed together. When it was cold we slept together. I knew this man. It's the most terrible loss. I mean I still listen to him all the time. I never go on the road without taking his music with me. When I still drank - I haven't for two years - and we were on the road, I used to feel I had this mission, this quest, to get people to realise how great he was. I would get drunk and I'd have my cassettes and CDs laid out and, come that magic moment when I felt everyone was primed sufficiently, I'd say “Now listen to this !” And, invariably, I would end up in tears. Every time “Man Of The World” destroys me. It's just so sad - "… and how I wished I was in love." Everyone thinks I'm the cat's whiskers and I'm just a normal guy. He was crying out back then, which basically led to part of his illness.
Q : Did you see that coming?
A : No, I didn't. We were all too young.
Q : “The Green Manalishi” ? You must have had some idea something catastrophic was going on ?
A : Not really, no. We were just playing music. Now I do ! My God, yes. And it makes me shiver.
Q : So when he went off the rails, you felt you could have helped him if you'd seen it coming ?
A : Peter ‘going off the rails’ was not an immediate thing. It was relatively subtle. In those days people did things like he did. People did see God and drift off and go to the mountain tops and wear striped T-shirts. I'm not making light of it but there was a lot of that shit going on. He left Fleetwood Mac under the most controlled circumstances. We talked about it. He knew it was coming for the better part of a year. He didn't leave us in the shit, he was completely and utterly responsible. But behind all that was this seething emotional disturbance that he was about to go into, and was already going into. He seemingly knew what he was doing which is why it was so frustrating, when we would talk, and me and John would say “We don't want to give all that money away. Let's just give some of it away!"
Q : But when he left ...
A : We were in shock. We were lost babes in the wood. We'd lost our mentor. He was The Great White Hope. He was our leader.
Q : When did you last talk to him?
A : A couple of Christmases ago we had a long talk on the phone. He was great. We talked about what he was doing and what the music scene was like. I said “Do you ever pick up the guitar ?” He said “Yeah, sometimes, but I just like to go for my walks”. He lives with his mother now. You take pot luck when you ring him up : you can be saddened or you can be quietly amazed. He has this dreaminess, you think he's not really interested in talking to you, and sometimes he does phase people out. But there was this glimmer ...
