"The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" | ||||
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UK sleeve, featuring (L–R): Kirwan, Green, Fleetwood, Spencer, McVie
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Single by Fleetwood Mac | ||||
B-side | "World in Harmony" | |||
Released | 15 May 1970 | |||
Format | 7" single | |||
Recorded | Hollywood, April 1970 | |||
Genre | Blues rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 4:36 | |||
Label |
Reprise Reprise RS27007 |
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Writer(s) | Peter Green | |||
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology | ||||
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"The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)" | |
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Song by Judas Priest from the album Hell Bent for Leather | |
Released | March 1979 (US) October, 1979 (worldwide) |
Recorded | 1978 at Utopia, Basing Street and CBS Studios in London |
Genre | Heavy metal |
Length | 3:23 |
Label | Columbia |
Writer(s) | Peter Green |
Producer(s) |
James Guthrie Judas Priest |
Hell Bent for Leather track listing | |
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"The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" is a song written by Peter Green and recorded by Fleetwood Mac. It was released as a single in the UK in May 1970 and reached No. 10 on the British charts, a position it occupied for four consecutive weeks.
The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had withdrawn from other members of the band. "Faced with the band's refusal to give away all monetary gains, Peter Green decided to leave Fleetwood Mac, but not before writing the haunting 'Green Manalishi,' which seems to document his struggle to stop his descent into madness." While there are several theories about the meaning of the title "Green Manalishi", Green has always maintained that the song is about money, as represented by the devil.
Green has explained that he wrote the song after experiencing a drug-induced dream, in which he was visited by a green dog which barked at him. He understood that the dog represented money. "It scared me because I knew the dog had been dead a long time. It was a stray and I was looking after it. But I was dead and had to fight to get back into my body, which I eventually did. When I woke up, the room was really black and I found myself writing the song." He also said that he wrote the lyrics the following day, in Richmond Park. Supposedly, he was unable to record Robert Johnson's 'Hellhound on My Trail' following the incident; having conflated Johnson's hellhound with the green dog-demon of his dream. This is supported by his discography, in which Green's sole post-Manalishi cover of 'Hellhound' was sung by band mate Nigel Watson.
The B-side of the single was an instrumental written by Green and Danny Kirwan, titled "World In Harmony". The two tracks were recorded at the same session in Warner/Reprise Studios, in Hollywood, California.
A 13-minute live version of "The Green Manalishi" was recorded in February 1970, prior to the single's release in May, but it remained unreleased until 1998 when it was issued on the Live in Boston: Remastered three-CD boxed set.