Peter Green was founder and the legendary British guitar player from FLEETWOOD MAC. His songwriting, playing, and voice was a huge part of the band’s ’60s blues/blues rock direction, having come up with such classics as “The Green Manalishi (With The 2 Prong Crown)”, “Oh Well”, “Rattlesnake Shake”, “Man Of The World”, and “Black Magic Woman”.
His first solo album, recorded soon after his departure from Fleetwood Mac, The End Of The Game, came out in late 1970, released worldwide. It was a 6 track instrumental album, consisting of lengthy jams, apparently all done in 5-6 hours, and later edited into the tracks that made up the album. Produced by Green and engineered by Martin Birch. The End Of The Game included the same players throughout, notably Zoot Money (Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band) on Grand piano, as well as Nick Buck (electric piano and organ), Alex Dmochowski (Bass), and (drummer) Godfrey McLean (ex Gass).
This is just a great listening album of jams, and to hear Peter Green’s guitar playing. Highlights being 9 -minute opening track “Bottoms Up” with plenty of ‘wah wah’, as well as the title track (last of the 6 cuts here) which features some heavy blues licks, but a lot of changes in pace and atmosphere (as with much of this record). And as much as this is a Peter Green album, there is lots of space throughout this for the other players involved to be featured.
Not sure how well this did at the time, but this would be essential listening for fans of British blues-rock, and fans of early Fleetwood Mac. Green wouldn’t release another solo album til 1979. This expanded CD versison of The End Of The Game features 4 added tracks.
