Fleetwood Mac lyric sheet handwritten by Peter Green hits the auction block – and could fetch up to £15,000
A Fleetwood Mac lyric and chord sheet handwritten by guitarist Peter Green is set to hit the auction block, and could reportedly fetch up to £15,000.
The sheet depicts lyrics for 1969 single Man of the World, which hit Number 2 in the UK later that year. It subsequently stayed in the charts for 14 weeks.
The lyric sheet – written in blue ballpoint pen, with corrections made in black ink – shows Green changed three lyric lines, adding a complete line to the final verse, while finalising each finished line with a tick at the end.
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Ewbank’s auction house in Woking, Surrey, is selling the sheet, and hopes it will reach a bid of up to £15,000. At present, there are no bids, and the starting bid is £6,000.
“Green himself said that he wrote the song when he was at his saddest,” says a spokesperson for Ewbank’s.
“The song is particularly significant as band member Mick Fleetwood said it reflected Green’s mental state at the time and helped explain why he quit the band and tragically descended into mental illness.”
“Few musicians can claim to have been as talented and as important to the development of rock music from the blues and folk movements as Peter Green,” adds John Silke, Ewbank’s music specialist.
Peter Green died in 2020 at the age of 73, after leaving an indelible mark on the blues and rock worlds. Once a member of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and the original founder and leader of Fleetwood Mac, Green’s unique guitar playing earned him nods from guitar legends Eric Clapton and BB King, as well as adoration from the wider guitar world.
Green – born Peter Allen Greenbaum in 1946 – suffered a series of issues with his mental health in the 1970s, and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric hospitals in the mid ‘70s.
He later re-emerged professional at the end of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, and in the late ‘80s attributed his breakdown to his previous abuse of drugs including LSD.
Green’s name is also attached to one of the most famous and iconic guitars in the world, Greeny. The 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard was used by Peter Green throughout his time with John Mayall and Fleetwood Mac, and was later acquired by Gary Moore in the early ‘70s. Now, the guitar is under the custodianship of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.
Learn more at Ewbank’s.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
