Hidden Depth ()

Just like the title of one of the tracks, this album has "Hidden Depth" that will reveal itself to you if you are ready to receive. I have owned this album since first release on vinyl, then cassette and now CD. It is the only album I have ever owned that my appreciation of its content, its beauty, its depth has never diminished. Many other albums I loved fade and become discarded in time; not this one. It is "Timeless Time".

When I listen to "The End Of The Game" it is like it surrounds me and I am in that bubble. I can feel everything Peter Green felt in its conception and performance. No matter how well known his other work is and how little known this album is, I know this album is the embodiment of Peter Green. Without knowing him or his views on his work, I have always firmly believed that this album is the one he is proudest of. With it, he reached the pinnacle that all artistes aspire to but rarely achieve, and he knew it.

Music is the weird place where the best never reaches the top. "The End Of The Game" challenges your soul, whilst the most successful in sales does not. Sales are achieved because it is easily digestible, easy to connect to.

It is strange, but should this album ever achieve the acclaim it deserves, it would lessen its beautiful mystery. "The End Of The Game" should only be found by those seeking the extraordinary Truth.

Hidden Depth ()

Just like the title of one of the tracks, this album has "Hidden Depth" that will reveal itself to you if you are ready to receive. I have owned this album since first release on vinyl, then cassette and now CD. It is the only album I have ever owned that my appreciation of its content, its beauty, its depth has never diminished. Many other albums I loved fade and become discarded in time; not this one. It is "Timeless Time".

When I listen to "The End Of The Game" it is like it surrounds me and I am in that bubble. I can feel everything Peter Green felt in its conception and performance. No matter how well known his other work is and how little known this album is, I know this album is the embodiment of Peter Green. Without knowing him or his views on his work, I have always firmly believed that this album is the one he is proudest of. With it, he reached the pinnacle that all artistes aspire to but rarely achieve, and he knew it.

Music is the weird place where the best never reaches the top. "The End Of The Game" challenges your soul, whilst the most successful in sales does not. Sales are achieved because it is easily digestible, easy to connect to.

It is strange, but should this album ever achieve the acclaim it deserves, it would lessen its beautiful mystery. "The End Of The Game" should only be found by those seeking the extraordinary Truth.

A pre-Jazz Rock Fusion exploration ... ()

... leading to 'Hidden Depths' and other unexpected moods.

Janus-faced because of Green's obviously confused emotional world at that time on the one hand, but outspoken with it's musical and sound visions on the other. When I heard it first in summer 1977, I was just starting to play guitar myself and had learned to love the latest Fleetwood Mac album with Green, "Then play on". But this solo album was so different I couldn't for a long time make up my mind what this music was. What was it? No Rock, no Blues, no Jazz Rock, no Jazz, no Acid Rock, no ...

however, I loved it more and more. Until I felt it's emotional 'depths' were of a kind that drew me into a thing that wasn't healthy. I still do think this today. I only recommend the album to people I know have a stable character. It is one of the albums you can't let play in the background while having a small talk or doing other business. Which is - in fact - a positive mark of its artistic quality for me.

Peter Green opened a view into an emotional room you will have to be able to bear, otherwise you can't enjoy his musical vision as a player at that time. He was far ahead of his time musically, no doubt about that. If you aren't able to bear it's mood in a particular moment - better keep out. I still feel like that, after 30 years of listening to it.

You want some comparison of where to put this album musically? Think of Hendrix "Cry of Love" (1970), of Miles Davis "Agartha" and "Pangaea" (both 1975) albums (Green & Davis: They should have met, anyhow). You think these musicians are too far from each other to be called together in one chapter here? Right, maybe. But Peter Green and the rest of this electrified improvisation music group consisting of Zoot Money, Godfrey McLean, Nick Buck and ex-Zappa bassist Alex Dmochowski, went crossing this vast music ocean and achieved some remarkable glimpses of a (then) new music.

This album is far underestimated until today. 'Outstanding' in a literal sense.

sounds that blow the mind! ()

The first time listening to the album blew my mind, what can you say it left me speechless, the musical talent of such a intelligant artist like peter green really shines on a cosmic scale when listening to end of the game.It was far beyound its time and still is. you can appreciate the vision of peter green contained within this album and the ability to push the boundries and beyond that too .it is in a category of its own, a real special one off album that takes you on a TRIP to higher plains and brings you back breathless,after seeing a small glimpse of his soul.
talented man.......true musician......PEACE
thank you Mac and Peter green!

undated ()

I bought this album in 1971 and loved it, a couple of years later I lost it to a light fingered visitor and hadn't heard it for 25 years when I bought it again. I was simply bowled over by this wonderful record which sounds as fresh now as when it was made. Peter Green's guitar playing needs no lyrics, I don't think I have ever heard a more expressive instrumental than "The end of the game", it is no surprise that he had to take such a long time off after making it.

Ahead of his Time! ()

Peters first solo album after his breakaway from Fleetwood Mac is way ahead of his time. This album was not only overlooked it was virtually dismissed at the time! First off, the cover art is way over the edge for the time.......Everyone was going for Peace and Love and Peter has this Tiger waiting to bite your Ass Off staring right at you....but the topper is the Digital font 'name' of the album................You knew right off this was going to be something special.........and it was/is!!

All you have to do is put on the track 'Bottoms Up' and then Fudgedaboudit.........You are about to listen to something very special and when this puppy was released in 1970....It was so far ahead of anything out there....Yes, even Hendrix......that it will Blow You Away!

If you have any doubts of who The Man is............Listen and Learn! God is Green!

Forgotten masterpiece ()

"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.

excellent ()

Excellent album, probably one of the best I´ve ever heard.
Dark, sporadically very oppressive but very honest and intimate album, real insight into Peter`s soul.

An excellent experimental experience ()

These tapes have often been dismissed as self indulgent meanderings but those open to improvisational music will find this a taut, suspenseful journey. The very busy rhythm section of Maclean & Dimochowski introduce us to a strong dash of jazz leanings while Peter and a fellow 60's blues pro pianist Zoot Money fight in some blues influences into the mix, these recordings weave in and out of various volumes, speeds and moods. I always thought this would have been an ultra hip soundtrack to a late 60's early 70's Warner Brothers detective movie (a la Lalo Schifrin style scores like "Bullitt" or "Dirty Harry"). Surprising in that Peter didn't want to be a guitar star but he rips it up more here than ever before (that is going by what was released at the time) such as through the nine minutes of the opener "Bottoms up", the irresistible rhythms of "Burnt foot" and the orgasmic closing title track, not to mention some seriously quiet moments like the short but very sweet "Timeless time" (listen to this one on headphones outside on a cool early morning laying down looking into the barely blue sky) and there's some real edge of the seat stuff throughout but in particular in the epic "Descending scale". Many may disagree, but I feel this to be one of Green's very best recordings ever to this day and consider it an essential part of Peter Green collecting.

An adventure in free form, (Open mind recommeded) ()

I first found this record very hard to judge, many Peter Green fans might have been alienated by the Green God's post Mac debut, I always wanted to hear this album since I first discovered the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac at 19 years old, I saw it in a few used record shops but balked at the prices, So that's when Napster came in handy, after a few failed downloads I had the album, at first it was hard to relate to the music with it's lack of structure and the almost avant garde jazz atmosphere it creates, A couple listens were required to get aquainted with the sound, Peter was beginning to expand his range in his last year with Fleetwood Mac with extended jams and improvs on various songs, but Peter Green also well on his way to his LSD fueled psychological collapse and after a brief reunion with Fleetwood Mac in early 1971 began to disappear from the music scene for most of the 70s, However you view this record, It is an adventure in free form,

Instrumental psychedelic-acid-blues-jazz-rock wahwah ()

One of the best albums I've heard in the last 20 years. Impressive. You just have to hear it, though be warned, there's a high chance that you won't like it...If you happen to like it, I'll be more than happy if you send me a message, treid4fanyahoo.com , feel free to recommend me more similar albums like this one.

acid-jazz fusion ()

I got this album my sophmore year of high school and expected everything and more from the English version of Lets Play On. What I found took a few listenings but it's really pretty good, it does wear on you.The fact of the matter that there is no vocal or basic Shadow-type instrumental guitar work on this album is no concern. What he is doing in this time and at his current state of mind is no different than Mles Davis or John Coltrane did when they did their latter albums in the late sixties/early seventies.

searching for a new way! ()

Some people try to attribute Peter Green's exit from Fleetwood Mac to the problems in his personal life that had begun to appear. There may be some element of truth in this, but I have always felt that there was a burning musical reason as well.

From listening to the available (and unofficially recorded) music of the time it does strike me that Peter was searching for something more musically than he could find within the confines of Fleetwood Mac. Inspired by encounters with the Grateful Dead, he seems 5to have been attracted to a more free-form style of music making. Listen to his playing on the 'Boston' recordings, or from the live material featured on the 'Showbiz Blues' double CD as well as the sessions for Peter Bardens 1st album, and you hear a very different guitar style from the one first paraded with Mayall and on the 'Dog and Dustbin' album. Elements of that wonderful reverb laden bluesy style are still in place, but now there is also an improvisational rockier element to things.

That brings us to 'End Of The Game', one of the few records available to us of Peter's post Mac search for another way to express himself musically. His playing is exquisite throughout. I believe his wah pedal technique during this period is one of the least lauded aspects of his work. I find it wonderful. This is not an easy album to get into, but there are tremendous rewards to those that do. All improvised over one six hour session, these pieces are haunting, exciting, and yes, very long! The leap from Black Magic Woman to 'Timeless Time' is a huge one, so perhaps this album is not one to jump to straight away if you are new to Peter's work. It is my belief that Peter is searching still musically. This album is a very important stopping off point in that journey!

Simply the BEST instrumental guitar album of all time. ()

This extraordinary concept album presents a guitar genius, Peter Green, at the height of his powers. His composition is flawlessly realised by a band comprising himself on guitar, Zoot Money on grand piano, Godfrey MacLean on percussion, Nick Buck on electric keyboards, and Alex Dmochowski on bass guitar.

I first heard a tiny part of the last track on this album as the closing of a radio news programme every day when I was a 17-year old student in Washington DC in the spring of 1970. I searched for three years to discover, in great surprise, that it was the work of one of my already favourite guitarists, Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac.

The album present a big cat, probably a cheetah, in the jungle and veldt of Africa during a day in his life. The cat runs, chases prey, contemplates a still pool of water, a hunter's camp, and settles down to the end of the day, and the end of his life.

If you've never heard this album before, prepare yourself for a transcendent experience.

Green without the structure ()

Peter Green at his best combines the freewheeling emotional wallop of great blues guitar soloing with unique, almost classical, structures : 'Black Magic Woman', 'Rattlesnake Shake', 'Oh Well', Albatross', and 'Green Manalishi', are, to me , what Peter Green is all about. For him to give up his genious structures to go on long-winded open -ended solos from beginning to end is a step back, not forward.