Peter Green

According to Wikipedia: "In June 1996, Green was voted the third–best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine".

To summarise what I'm now going to take several hundred words to say in full: I think the truth is probably that this was not voted on by readers, but agreed by Mojo staff (i.e. a panel of music journalists). Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se; just that if it had been a readers' poll, the results would surely have been quite different.

Mojo back numbers don't appear to be available online – at least without a subscription. But I did find the front cover of the June 1996 issue; it proclaims "The 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time ... and the greatest music they made".

Wikipedia provides a link to rocklistmusic.co.uk – a site that I am familiar with. It reproduces hundreds of lists (best album of years and decades, etc.) from various magazines and other publications – including, of course, Mojo – and is a useful reference source.

Mojo's 'Greatest Guitarists' list is headed by Jimi Hendrix; second is Steve Cropper, of Booker T & the MGs. The track that's cited as Cropper's "greatest music" is the MGs' most enduring hit – Green Onions.

I don't know about you, but when I think of Green Onions, I don't even hear a guitar; I hear an electronic organ, a bass guitar, and drums. I've just listened to it again, and there is some guitar playing on it; but it's not what sticks in my mind.

In third place on the list we do indeed find Peter Green. His greatest work, we're told, is "The supernatural (John Mayall's Hard rain)".

The Supernatural is in fact the fourth of seven tracks on Side 2 of the 1967 album A Hard Road, by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It was written by Peter Green, and features him on lead guitar.

Although I used to own several John Mayall/Bluesbreakers albums (before I reluctantly parted with my vinyl collection, and eventually my CDs), I had to turn to Spotify to remind myself of The Super–Natural (as Spotify has it). Running to just short of three minutes, it's an instrumental track, with Green's haunting guitar backed by a minimalist rhythm section. I might describe it as a precursor of several better–known Green classics, not least Albatross.

How many readers, I wonder, would have voted for The Supernatural, rather than Albatross, as Peter Green's greatest work? And how many would have voted for Steve Cropper above Peter Green – or, for that matter, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, George Harrison ... to name but four?

The Hendrix track cited is "Are You Experienced, the whole album". Again, no quibbles – but no open poll could possibly have come up with this result.

To put all this into context: Wikipedia also states that "[Green's] tone on the instrumental The Super–Natural was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player." And this is preceded by the statement that "Rolling Stone ranked Green at number 58 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."