The End Of The Game ()

"The End Of The Game" was recorded when Peter Green was filled to the brim with the spirit of the era: too full in fact, as it turned out. This unclassifiable instrumental album was named after a book of savage photos, portraying man's impact on the wildlife of the African savannah - hunter and hunted - which came out in the mid-60s. It provided Green with a potent metaphor for what he felt about the life he was leading. Few understood it, even in that era of experiment. By 1972 it was already going cheap in the racks of remaindered records on London's Petticoat Lane market, where I found it and bought it blind. What I discovered I'd unearthed, was an extraordinarily introspective journey, vividly dramatised through the aural perspective of the story of a big game animal pursued by the chase. The guitar work is incredibly intense, lithely twisting and turning through the light and the shadows: technically dazzling, yet utterly personal. A true collector's item, "The End Of The Game" should be sought out by all who want to understand (a) how much Peter Green contributed to the development of the electric guitar as a compositional instrument and (b) how bloody good he really was. Great blues man though he is since his recovery, it's the longer, experimental stuff like this that lifts the goosepimples on the back of the neck - so perhaps he should think about returning to this area of work too.