Peter Green's last Fleetwood Mac single · 1970
Peter Green said “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)” is about money, personified as the devil. He wrote it after a drug-induced nightmare in which a green dog — the dead, come back for his money — barked at him. It was his final single with Fleetwood Mac and was later covered by Judas Priest.
By 1970 Peter Green had grown deeply uneasy about wealth, and “The Green Manalishi” is that anxiety turned into music. Green always maintained the song is about money, represented as the devil — the thing he felt was pulling the band away from what mattered.
He said he wrote it after a vivid, drug-induced dream in which he was visited by a green dog that barked at him; he understood it as the dead coming back for his money. The result is one of the heaviest things he ever recorded — a churning riff that made it a natural fit for Judas Priest, whose 1979 cover introduced the song to a metal audience.
It was Green's last single with Fleetwood Mac before he left the band in 1970.
What is “The Green Manalishi” about?
Peter Green said it's about money, represented as the devil, written after a nightmare about a green dog.
Who covered “The Green Manalishi”?
Judas Priest recorded a well-known heavy-metal cover in 1979.
Sources: Fleetwood Mac Wiki · Rolling Stone