Peter Green Man of the World: The Peter Green Story DVD Review by Gary Hill
When you ask a lot of people about Fleetwood Mac, they only know about the modern era with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie. The fact of the matter is, though, the original Fleetwood Mac was so much about Peter Green that the history is almost inseparable. Peter Green's tale is a tragic one. Yet, at the end of the story there is also a somewhat happy ending. Peter Green's first taste of fame came with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Beyond that point, though, he formed Fleetwood Mac. He wrote songs better known by other artists like "Black Magic Woman" (Santana) and "The Green Manalishi" (Judas Priest. He was a musical genius who was derailed by his own demons. Whether something deeply seated within himself, something brought on by drug use, or a combination, Peter Green lost touch with reality and spent quite a while in mental institutions and really struggling through life.
This documentary includes archival footage, interviews with fellow Fleetwood Mac members, John Mayall, Peter Green himself and others and more to tell this fascinating tale. The happy ending is that Green seems to have his life together these days and has been again doing music. I've reviewed some of his solo stuff in the past, in fact. This tale is really fascinating. I'd recommend it to fans of his music and music fans in general, but I'd say that this is the type of thing that should interest even people not really into music. This is, after all, a very human tale.
