HUMBLE GENIUS

Thanks for the excellent tribute to Peter Green who sadly died on my birthday, which really put a damper on the day, especially as it was only a couple of years after Danny Kirwan’s passing.

Apart from both being exceptional guitarists and their stars coming into alignment all too briefly in Fleetwood Mac, they both seemed to find it hard to accept the talent they had. I saw Peter in a restaurant in Brighton with family a few years ago, our paths crossed literally on our way to the gents. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell him how much his music meant to me and that Love That Burns, with his guitar and vocals and that haunting sax and piano fade-out, would be my choice if l was only allowed one piece of music on this planet. He muttered a thanks but that was about it.

When he and his party left they walked past our table but he stared straight ahead. It didn’t bother me, after all l’d read enough about how introspective he’d become, but as they got to the door he stopped, turned round gave me a thumbs up and a huge smile. Did he ever realise just how good he was or what an inspiration he had been? I just hope so, certainly Joe Bonamassa is right when he says the trinity of British guitar royalty in Beck, Page and Clapton really should be a quartet.

Terry Holmes, via email

Many thanks for sharing that charming memory of Peter, Terry – it chimes with what so many others have said about him: a man of huge talent who was ill at ease with receiving adulation for what came naturally. We think Bonamassa is right in that assessment, too. It’s impossible to say whether he would have gained the same recognition as Clapton et al had he not lost years to the well-documented mental turmoil he experienced after using psychedelics. However, we suspect that he was just one of those modest yet spiritually alive artists who feel their music comes from a source larger than themselves. Not every genius has an ego the size of a planet, and fame, in and of itself, isn’t what true artists are focused on.