Fleetwood Mac: Albatross
This weekend, Peter Green—guitarist, singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac co-founder—died in his sleep. He was 73 years old. While playing music as part of British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bass guitarist John McVie recorded several songs together and soon formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967. A year later, Green composed “Albatross,” an ambient but haunting instrumental. Though just over three minutes, the song feels sprawling and boundless. After a performance in 1970, Green left the band, but appeared uncredited on Penguin (1973) and Tusk (1979). He told Music Express of his departure from the band, “I want to change my whole life, really, because I don’t want to be at all a part of the conditioned world, and as much as possible, I am getting out of it.” Despite serious struggles with his mental health, Green went on to release seven solo albums and is widely lauded as one of the world’s greatest blues guitarists. B.B. King said, “He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”
