| "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" | ||||
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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)" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Judas Priest from the album Hell Bent for Leather | |
| Released | March 1979 (USA) October, 1979 (worldwide) |
| Recorded | 1978 at Utopia, Basing Street and CBS Studios in London |
| Genre | Heavy metal |
| Length | 3:23 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Writer | Peter Green |
| Producer | 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 #10 on the British charts. The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had withdrawn from other members of the band.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."[1] While there are several rumours about the meaning of the title "Green Manalishi", one referencing a mysterious LSD drug called "Green Manalishi" associated with the drug scene of the 1960s and 1970s, Green has always maintained that the song is about money, as represented by the devil.[2]
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."[2] 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.
The other member of the band, guitarist 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".
The song later became a standard cover for heavy metal band Judas Priest, beginning in the late 1970s. The song has become so identified with Judas Priest that many fans mistakenly assume it to be a Priest original. Their first release of the song was a studio recording on the U.S. edition of Killing Machine (called Hell Bent for Leather in the U.S) in 1979. 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.
The song was covered by Melvins on their 1999 album The Maggot.
The song was covered by Steel on their 1998 Heavy Metal Machine EP.
The song was covered by Arthur Brown on the 1997 tribute album, Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music of Peter Green.
The song was covered by Therion, though they were actually covering Judas Priest’s version, on the 2002 tribute album A Tribute to the Priest.
The song was covered by Ian Parker on his 2005 live album ...Whilst the Wind.
The song was covered by Corrosion of Conformity on their 1983 album Eye for an Eye.
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