Peter Green - All Over Again 1969-70
Peter Green: Give Up Livin' | John Mayall's Bluesbreakers 1965-7 | Live 1967-70 | Munich 1970
If something can be described as "achingly beautiful" this is it. The 4 minute solo is an agonizingly moving, heart-aching, bare knuckled exploration of the despair the song’s stark lyrics only hint at. (D 2013)
The most emotive and raw solo of the early seventies.... (Shaun Nielsen, February 2020)
A stellar performance by the greatest blues guitarist of all time. (Facebook 2020)
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| Peter Green, Duster Bennett and B.B. King, London, 9-16 June 1971. Recording Caledonia. |
The three above-mentioned quotes refer to a performance by guitarist Peter Green (1946-2020) and his band Fleetwood Mac early in 1970. During his final year as a member of the band, from April 1969 through to May 1970, Green - lead guitarist and founder of the group - featured in his repertoire the "old" (1965) B.B. King song All Over Again, also known as All Over Now or Got a good mind to give up livin'. The song, especially the performance at the Warehouse, New Orleans, on 31 January 1970, is noted for containing the most searing and emotionally intense blues lead guitar work of Green's entire recorded career - and that is no small claim amongst an extensive catalogue of works dating back to 1966. Other performances of the song by him during this period were recognised as extraordinary and applauded by audiences as such. Green's presentation of All Over Again, backed by Mick Fleetwood (drums), John McVie (bass) and Danny Kirwan (rhythm guitar), was nothing less than magisterial, and there are reasons for this. A 2013 posting entitled Peter Green - "Got a good mind to give up living" - the blues of despair and salvation on the anonymous Stranger Than Known blog, analysed the song and its place in the guitarist's body of work, revealing some of the background to its appearance near the end of his time with Fleetwood Mac. This current blog provides an alternate perspective, whilst at the same time acknowledging the significance of the performance of the song in the context of late sixties and early seventies rock. At the outset, it should be noted that the lyrics to All Over Now are some of the most heart-wrenching of any blues song ever written, focusing as they do on the mortal impact of lost love:
I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead
I say, I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead
To pick up me a tombstone, and be pronounced dead.
When I read your letter this morning, that was in your place in bed
I read your letter this morning, that was in your place in bed
And that's when I decided, that I would be better off dead.
It read, there is no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back
Oh, there's no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back
Yes, because it's all over now, and baby you can bet on that.
The song was written by B.B. King (1925-2015) and one of his trumpet players Cliff Adams. It was recorded during 1965 and issued as a single on the ABC - Paramount label, eventually appearing as an album track in 1968.
The precise history of the song and its erroneous attribution to rockabilly guitarist Carl B. Adams was discussed and clarified in the Gibson Forum during 2014. It is possible that Green was made aware of the song from a 1966 studio recording by American blues harpist Paul Butterfield, and (less likely) a live recording from the Coffee House, Boston, that same year featuring guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, with a searing solo on that occasion by Bloomfield. This was around the same time as the Paul Butterfield Blues Band visited England and performed and recorded with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, whose lead guitarist in December 1966 just happened to be Peter Green. The latter may also have seen King play it live during one of the Fleetwood Mac tours to the US in 1968 and 1969, or during the many British and European visits by King around that time. Green could even have caught the live US television performance from 1968.
B.B. King, All Over Again, Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual, US television, 1968. Duration: 3.41 minutes.
Unfortunately, the song was never recorded in the studio by Fleetwood Mac, or released on any official live albums - there were none - by the band during Green's time as a member between the middle of 1967 and May of 1970, or in the immediate decades thereafter. It was only during the early 2000s that versions of the song began to appear in bootleg recordings and then, later that decade, on open access sites such as YouTube. The current author - a long time fan of the band since the late 1970s - only discovered the song in March 2021, and this blog is a result of that. It seeks to provide references to seven known versions / recordings, of which six are freely available, and discuss those in detail. Why do this? Well, as noted above, and as stated by so many others in online forums and discussions of the song by learned guitar players, this is one of the greatest blues guitar performances of the modern era, by one of its finest proponents of the electric guitar. It is nothing less than that, and accordingly deserves to be more widely recognised as such.
The present author has listened to a lot of recordings by Peter Green over the years, focusing on his time with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1966-67) and Fleetwood Mac (1967-70). All Over Now shines brightly amongst the collection of live performances and studio recordings, for a number of reasons. It is intensely felt and played by Green; his use of a Fender tube amplifier with reverb on max, and a Gibson Les Paul guitar is a lesson in presentation of the electric blues form; and the audience reaction, where heard, is proof positive that in a live setting this anthemic song of lost love and desperation was incredibly moving. The best way to support this is to listen to those few recordings that have been made available online in recent years. The best and most inspiring of these is that done by Grateful Dead sound engineer and maker / supplier of LSD, the great Owsley Stanley. It appears in one of the three performances by the band at the Warehouse, New Orleans, on 30 and 31 January and 1 February 1970. The version of All Over Now is from the second concert and has never been officially released. The following live recordings are known to exist, from England, Europe and the United States between 19 April 1969 and 1 April 1970:
- College of Distributive Arts and Trades, London, 19 April 1969
- BBC World Service Rhythm & Blues Show, BBC radio, London, 14 May 1969
- Helsinki, 24 September 1969
- Njardjhallen, Oslo, 7 November 1969
- Fillmore West, San Francisco, 4 January 1970
- Warehouse, New Orleans, 31 January 1970
- Konserthaus, Stockholm, 1 April 1970
As none of these recordings was officially remixed or remastered, they are of less than ideal sound quality, even though they mainly derive from the band's soundboard, rather than audience tapes and radio broadcasts. As the song was a slow blues in G minor, with quiet backing and dominant lead guitar, in the majority of cases Green's playing is clear and upfront. The same cannot be said for the rest of the band, with various sound levels evident for the drums, bass and rhythm guitar. The available performances also display varying levels of tape hiss and distortion. Despite this, the supremacy of Green's guitar playing shines through on all. It should also be noted that the intensity of those performances varies, from quietly muted to searingly and explosively sad, with each and every one moving. Copies of the recordings (except for one) are presented below in chronological order, with commentary interspersed.
* College of Distributive Arts and Trades, London, 19 April 1969. Duration: 5.15 minutes. Uploaded 19 March 2009. Quality issues: tape hiss; muddy sound; audience recording. Very slow, moving version with beautiful guitar work.
URL: https://youtu.be/eNtt6SOh8t4. [Unable to embed]
This earliest recorded performance of All Over Again at the London college is less intense than those given later in the year and early in 1970. It is similar to many of the blues song recorded and performed by Fleetwood Mac during 1967 and 1968, with a rather muted solo by Green. At no stage does it soar to the heights of emotional intensity of those later performances, though his use of sustain is notable on a couple of occasions.
* World Service Rhythm & Blues Show, BBC radio, London, 14 May 1969. No copy of this live studio performance is at present available online.
* Helsinki, 24 September 1969. Duration: 4.54 minutes. Uploaded 30 August 2013. Quality issues: lots of tape hiss, and likely running slow. This is the quietest and most restrained version of the song by Green, but also sited by many as the best. It is perhaps the saddest. There is a lot of reverb, and the rest of the band is difficult to hear, especially in the early parts. The playing by Green is once again superlative, as it builds to a crescendo. It is strange that Green never recorded this song in the studio.
* Njardjhallen, Oslo, Norway, 7 November 1969. Duration: 5.15 minutes. Quality issues: loud tape (or acetate) hiss and minor distortion of voice and guitar. Superb bluesy guitar; less intense version than those from 1970, but also move towards a crescendo. In some of his singing, Green sounds incredibly sad, and this is reflected in his playing.
Oslo, 7 November 1969.
It should be noted that during 1969 Fleetwood Mac performed a number of B.B. King songs live in concert, including Have you ever loved a woman?, though they did not record them in the studio. All Over Now was one of these. King famously said of Peter Green's blues guitar playing:
Peter Green has more talent in his little finger than I have in my entire body ... He has the sweetest tone I ever heard ... He was the only one that gave me the cold sweats.
Both guitarists preferred Gibson guitars during the 1960s and early 1970s, most likely for their fulsome, bluesy tone, as opposed to the higher frequency, shrill sound of Fender guitars - though that was to change with the experimentation and innovation of Jimi Hendrix.
* Fillmore West, San Francisco, 4 January 1970. Duration: 7.53 minutes. Quality issues: Tape hiss.
Fillmore West, San Francisco, 4 January 1970.
There is a lot of audience applause and support evident throughout the Fillmore West performance of the All Over Again. It is obvious that many in the crowd were blown away by what Green was doing on stage, and the emotive force of his performance. The playing at this Fillmore West concert is also more intense than the London and Oslo versions, with the obvious use of reverb and no pedals. This is likely the result of the utilisation of Fender amplifiers for the American tour, of which this was one of the initial concerts. Green and the band had made use of Fenders previously, but it is possible that upon arrival in the US at the beginning of 1970 for an extended tour, they acquired new amps, rather then transporting their original amps from home. Green's singing is also incredibly mournful, and reflected in his playing at the Fillmore West. During this period his use of LSD and mescaline, along with a heavy touring schedule, saw a change in his demeanor and talk of leaving the band and giving all his money to charity. One month later the band was playing a series of concerts in New Orleans, alongside their friends the Grateful Dead, and All Over Again was featured in one of the sets.
* Warehouse, New Orleans, 31 January 1970. Duration: 8.34 minutes. Quality issues: best quality, slight tape hiss.
Warehouse, New Orleans, 1 February 1970.
The live New Orleans version of All Over Now is the definitive version - it is the most intense, the loudest, the longest and it presents the best recorded sound, thanks to Owsley Stanley. The recording is also notable for Green's introductory comments, outlining his reasons for playing the song and the emotional content of the performance:
This one's a B.B. King number... He did it a long, long time ago. I think it's one of his best slow ones, and I feel that I agree very much with the thing, you know. I sort of image myself in the same situation. So that's why I suppose I like it. That's why I'm going to do it. All Over Again...
These words are telling - they are also incredibly sad and point to the mental turmoil the guitarist was going through at the beginning of 1970, and which came to a head during the band's final tour through Europe and the United States, culminating in Green's departure in May.
* Konserthaus, Stockholm, 1 April 1970. Duration: 7.54 minutes. Uploaded 27 April 2009. Quality issues: some distortion and low sound level in parts. This is the last live recorded version we have and is somewhat restrained compared to the New Orleans performance.
Konserthaus, Stockholm, 1 April 1970.
The Stockholm performance - often cited as the best - took place after the infamous Munich party of 21 March 1970, and shows that Green had not lost any of his guitar playing ability in the immediate aftermath. His state of mind may have been affected, but it is not immediately evident in his playing. All of which points to the likelihood that his subsequent abandonment of performance and adoption of a new, less intense, loud and psychedelic sound was a mindful decision. Of course, his playing was always more than simply technique, but most especially feel, and when the motivation for that intensity of feeling disappeared, so did the way the Green played and performed.
Guitar analysis and lessons
With Peter Green's lead work on All Over Again gaining so much praise over time, especially since the various versions were first made available in the early 2000s, a number of musicians have analyses it, broken it down, and provided YouTube videos on aspects of its construction. Some of these are referred to below. The earliest of these is a breakdown of the 1st solo from the New Orleans version, by the anonymous player fistfullofthistles.
fistfullofthistles, Got a mind to give up living guitar tutor - 1st solo, YouTube, 30 March 2013. Duration: 8.24 minutes.
British guitar player and teacher Dave Simpson applauded the song in his 66 minute long online lesson from 7 December 2019.
Dave Simpson guitar lesson, 7 December 2019. Duration: 1 hr 55.50 minutes.
It is possible that Simpson's highlighting of the song was the stimulus for Shaun Nielsen's email to American guitar teacher Michael Palmisano two months later. The best analysis of the song is undoubtedly by Palmisano who, on 1 February 2020, posted a detailed 30 minute long breakdown of its structure, performance by Green and the band, and his own incredulous reaction to it. It is a joyful video, by someone who truly appreciates, and understands, the magnificence of Peter Green's playing and use of tube amplification.
Michael Palmisano's analysis of, and reaction to, Peter Green's All Over Now, 1 February 2020. duration: 30.02 minutes.
Both Simpson and Palmisano highlight the special nature of Green's performance/s of the B.B. King song. For those seeking to replicate the Warehouse performance, a backing track is available here:
All Over Now backing track, Warehouse performance. Duration: 7.06 minutes.
When Green sang the song, he varied the lyrics slightly from the B.B. King version, as follows:
I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead
I say, I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead
To pick up me a tombstone, and be pronounced dead.
When I read your letter this morning, that was in your place in bed
I read your letter this morning, that was in your place in bed
And that's when I decided, that I would be better off dead.
It read, there is no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back
Oh, there's no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back
Yes, because it's all over now, and baby you can bet on that.
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Peter Green: Give Up Livin' | John Mayall's Bluesbreakers 1965-7 | Live 1967-70 | Munich 1970 |
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Last updated: 30 August 2021
Michael Organ, Australia
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