To Keep the Dark From the Light

Peter Green : In The Skies

[Purchase]

In May of 1979, after spending eight years in obscurity, the original founder of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green,  reemerged with his first solo album since the beginning of the decade. In The Skies is a soulful record that must have delighted fans of the early Mac. He was the lead guitarist who wrote Fleetwood Mac's 1968 U.K. Top 40 hit "Black Magic Woman", made even more famous by Santana in 1970.

By 1970, the year they released the Top 10 hit "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)", Green had been struggling with LSD, had withdrawn from other members of the band and was talking about giving his money away. In April of that year, he announced his departure from the band: 

"There are many reasons why I'm leaving. The main thing is that I feel it is time for a change. I want to change my whole life, because I don't want to be a part of the conditioned world and as much as possible, I'm getting out of it."  

And he was out of it. 

Green put down his guitar and took menial jobs, even working as a gravedigger. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, institutionalized and given electro shock therapy. He turned down royalty checks and record contracts because he wanted nothing to do with the "devil's money".  Finally, his brother Michael convinced the president of PVK Records to let him spend as much time as necessary noodling around a studio until he came up with the album that would be the atmospheric and very mellow In The Skies. Amidst the frenzy of all things Fleetwood Mac, the album peaked in the U.K. album charts at #32 and received a score of B+ from critic Robert Christgau who wrote:

For a supposed resident of Cloud-Cuckoo Land, Fleetwood Mac's original hitmaker is doing all right... Green's new music goes back even before Then Play On, but it's a lot more confident--simple guitar excursions with a Latin lilt, like Carlos Santana with a sense of form (or limits).