B-side "World in Harmony" Format 7" single Length 4:36 | Released 15 May 1970 Recorded Hollywood, April 1970 | |
Genre Blues rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock | ||
"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.
Contents
Composition
The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had withdrawn from other members of the band.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.
Live versions
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.
The song was played live by subsequent versions of Fleetwood Mac with Bob Welch and then Lindsey Buckingham singing the vocal and taking on the song's guitar parts.
Band members
Jeremy Spencer is thought not to have been present at the recording sessions, though he was present when Green was recording the eerie howling noises heard at the end of the song, according to an interview with Spencer on the BBC Peter Green documentary DVD, "Man of the World".
Judas Priest versions
Heavy metal band Judas Priest covered the song on their 1979 album Hell Bent for Leather (the American version of Killing Machine) and it has become so identified with them that many fans mistakenly assume it to be a Priest original. The first worldwide release was on the band's live album, Unleashed in the East, released later that year. A re-recording of the song was also added as a bonus track on the German/Australian version of the album Demolition in 2001. The band performed it on Live Aid at JFK Stadium, Pennsylvania in 1985. This version of the song features a dual guitar solo played by Glenn Tipton and KK Downing.
Other versions
The song has been covered by various other artists and bands: