Late Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green can be heard on a new recording of “Need Your Love So Bad” featuring David Gilmour. The song, a staple of the band’s early blues roots, was premiered by Rolling Stone in coordination with the pre-sale launch for a new book about Green, The Albatross Man, out in October.
This vocal demo of “Need Your Love So Bad”—which was ultimately released on Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 LP The Pious Bird Of Good Omen—was made sometime in the mid-1960s in Green’s mother’s attic. More recently, the Pink Floyd guitarist came in and added new guitar tracks, receiving Green’s approval before his death last July. Gilmour was also one of dozens of classic rock icons to take part in the Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac tribute concert last February, where he performed Green’s signature track, “Albatross“.
Just as with the tribute concert, Gilmour’s devotion to the blues guitarist on the new cut of “Need Your Love So Bad” shines through. The sleek shimmer of Gilmour’s recent recordings at first clashes with the lo-fi nature of Green’s original vocals, before the two diverging qualities eventually coalesce in a cosmic mix of the old and the new. “Need Your Love So Bad” is a fairly straightforward blues stagger, the kind of acid-tinged, Delta-inspired British blues that Green and drummer Mick Fleetwood built the early band around.
Listen to Peter Green and David Gilmour collaborate on “Need Your Love So Bad”.
Peter Green, David Gilmour – “Need Your Love So Bad”
[Video: Rufus Stone Limited Editions]
Prior to his death, Green had been working with Rufus Publications on The Albatross Man. The more than 450-page book by Mark Smith provides an illustrated history of Green’s life and career, featuring previously-unseen documents, letters, lyrics, memorabilia, notes, and more. The Albatross Man also explores who the guitarist was outside of music, including his penchant for fishing and drawing. The book hosts contributions from record producers Mike Vernon and Neil Slaven, Fleetwood Mac tour manager and sound engineer Dinky Dawson, Kirk Hammett (Metallica), and Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake). Click here to pre-order The Albatross Man via Rufus Publications.
A similar recording to “Need Your Love So Bad”—featuring Hammett providing new guitar tracks on “Man of the World”—is also expected to arrive as the release of The Albatross Man approaches. The Metallica guitarist is another devotee of Green and even owns his famous “Greeny” 1959 Gibson Les Paul, which Hammett used to record the new tracks for “Man of the World”. Like “Need Your Love So Bad”, this new recording also received permission from Green himself.
[H/T Rolling Stone]