Cover Me Up (Peter Green)

Peter Green (259 songs)

As I mention on the Beatles Covers page, I've collected free, legal, on-line covers of Peter Green songs over the years. Early on, many were found at the now-defunct MP3.com. I subsequently discovered the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive. Unfortunately, finding songs credited to Peter Green or even Fleetwood Mac is well nigh impossible, so I've had to search the archive for individual song titles. To make matters worse, there are over 50 versions of "Black Magic Woman", almost all performed Santana-style. Now, I'm the first to admit that Santana's classic cover is the definitive version of "Black Magic Woman" against which all others, including Peter Green's, will be judged. Still, listening to 50-some versions of Carlos's guitar intro probably hastens the erasure of brain cells.

I confess that I enjoyed the early Fleetwood Mac recordings so much that I didn't expend much brain power on keeping track of who wrote what song. Initially, when putting together this page, I tried to be a little more careful. However, as I've found an increasing number of covers of Fleetwood Mac covers, I've loosened up and allowed in non-Greeny songs. I'm a little leery of "Need Your Love So Bad" because I hadn't followed Eric Clapton's career closely since Derek and The Dominos and didn't realize he had released his own version of the song, which was inspiring a lot of covers.

A special song in the bunch is not a cover. George Wilson's "Peter Green" is a folk song about Peter Green. The complete lyrics are accessible from the song page, but here's one verse to give you a taste of it:

Now he talks a little funny and he acts a little strange
But I believe that love still burns and some things never change
When he's walking in the wilderness, waking from a dream
Who'll play the blues for Peter Green?

Although some of the MP3s are no longer available on-line, I do have copies of everything.