Originally Posted by hallc:
“Sad to report the death of Mick Green one the great rock and roll guitarists ,,.
He played with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates thats his riff in "Shaking All Over", The Dakotas, plus he jammed with almost everyone who could play .
RIP....”
Hate to burst the bubble but it's a common misconception - the guitar riff on the hit version of Shaking All Over is actually played by Joe Moretti. Mick didn't join the Pirates until 1962.
That said however he did revolutionise guitar playing with the ability to play lead while keeping the rhythm part going at the same time. It gave The Pirates a real raw edge as you can hear on the later singles like A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues and its brilliant B Side I Can Tell. It's a style that has influenced many guitarists since in bands like Dr Feelgood (esp Wilko Johnson). This is made more relevant as Julian Temple's Dr Feelgood documentary, Oil City Confidential, is about to get a cinematic release.
I saw the reformed Pirates in 1977, purely by accident. I was meeting some friends at The legendary Hope And Anchor pub in London and they were playing in the very sweaty basement. It was an amazing gig full of Energy and great Rock'n'Roll. I bought the two albums they released at that time - Out Of Their Skulls and Skull Wars and I still enjoy listening them.
I heard that he had been ill for some time with a Heart condition but did play some gigs last year.
He should have been a major contender for the Guitar Heroes series recently on BBC 4 - The Beeb do have a recording of The Pirates on Top Of The Pops from sometime in the 1970's doing Gibson Martin Fender as it has been on TOPT2.
A very sad day with loss of a musicians musician.
RIP Mick and thanks for the great memories.
