Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)

Now, when the day goes to sleep and the full moon looks
The night is so black that the darkness cooks
Don't you come creepin' around - makin'
me do things I don't want to


Can't believe that you need my love so bad
Come sneakin' around tryin' to drive me mad
Bustin' in on my dreams - making me see things I don't wanna see


'Cause you're da Green Manalishi with the two prong crown
All my tryin' is up - all your bringin' is down
Just taking my love then slippin' away
Leavin' me here just tryin' to keep from following you

The Green Manalishi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"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 The song was written during Green's final months with the band, at a time when he was struggling with LSD and had withdrawn from other members of the band.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,^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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, inHollywood, California.

[edit]

Band members

• Peter Green – guitar, vocals
• Danny Kirwan – guitar
• John McVie – bass
• Mick Fleetwood – drums

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"