Green Fields

Infobox Single
Name = Green Fields


Caption = Green vinyl 7" cover
Artist = Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Paul Simonon, and Simon Tong
from Album = The Good, the Bad & the Queen
A-side =
B-side =
Released = April 2 2007
Format = 7", CD, download
Recorded = 2005 - 2006
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 2:26
Label = Parlophone, Honest Jon's
Writer = Damon Albarn
Producer = Danger Mouse
Certification =
Last single = "Kingdom of Doom" (2007)
This single = "Green Fields" (2007)
Next single = "Live from SoHo" EP (2007)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Type = studio
prev_track = "Three Changes"
prev_no = 10
this_track = "Green Fields"
track_no = 11
next_track = "The Good, the Bad & the Queen"
next_no = 12

"Green Fields" is a song by an unnamed alternative rock band fronted by Damon Albarn, and is the eleventh track on their 2007 debut album "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" (see 2007 in British music). The song was released April 2 2007 as the band's third single in the United Kingdom.cite web|title=The Good, The Bad And The Queen announce new single|publisher="NME"|date=2007-02-20|accessdate=2007-02-20|url=http://www.nme.com/news/the-good-the-bad-and-the-queen/26565] The single debuted at #51 in the UK Singles Chart on April 8, substantially lower than "Kingdom of Doom" which had reached the Top 20 upon release in January.cite web|title=UK Music Charts - The Official UK Top 75 Singles: Week of Mon 09 Apr - Yahoo! Music UK|work=UK Singles Chart|accessdate=2007-04-09|url=http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/c/uk/single_charts.html]

In the album's review for "NME", Hamish MacBain called the song "the best thing Damon's ever written."cite web|title=Damon Albarn finds his soul with new supergroup|publisher="NME"|author=MacBain, Hamish|date=2007-01-13|url=http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-good-the-bad-and-the-queen/8116|accessdate=2007-03-02] "The Sun" considered the song with Beatles-references, referring to the songs ability to "cast [Albarn] as a latter-day Lennon and offers wistful, woozy psychedelia as Strawberry Fields are replaced by green ones."cite web|title=Something For The Weekend: Damon's Brit on the side|publisher="The Sun"|author=Cosyns, Simon|date=2007-01-19|url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2007030065,00.html|accessdate=2007-03-02]

ong background

Damon Albarn wrote the original version of the song following a night out with Blur bassist Alex James and Marianne Faithfull. That demo was recorded in a studio on Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith and Albarn gave the tape to Faithfull.cite web|title=Something For The Weekend: Track by Track|publisher="The Sun"|date=2007-01-19|url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2007030053,00.html|accessdate=2007-03-02] It was later recorded by the singer/actress with different lyrics in the verses and released on her 2005 album "Before the Poison" as "Last Song."cite web|title=Damon Albarn - The Good, The Bad and The Queen - The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Review|publisher="Uncut"|author=Troussé, Stephen|url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/damon_albarn/reviews/9237|accessdate=2007-02-20] The demo of the song resurfaced "late in the proceedings of recording ["The Good, the Bad and the Queen"] " when Albarn played it for the rest of the band. The band decided to record the track and Albarn decided to "finish it by explaining how I lost this song and now it's come back to me. So it’s a song about a song."

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian commented that as the album comes to a close "we find Damon Albarn reflecting on the passing of time." The reviewer explicitly described this song's lyrical beginning "years ago, somewhere on the Goldhawk Road" as more than a "reference to the west London thoroughfare whose traffic noise appears on the 1995 Blur album "The Great Escape" (this London thoroughfare is the noise at the start of the song "Ernold Same" from that album). Petridis remarks that Albarn "suggests that "years ago" means the height of Britpop," especially when Albarn sings "how the world has changed."cite web|title=The Good, the Bad and the Queen - Pop - Guardian Unlimited Music|publisher=Guardian Unlimited|author=Petridis, Alexis|url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/alexispetridis/story/0,,1993419,00.html|accessdate=2007-03-02]

The song and DRM

On the day the single was released, Apple Inc. and EMI announced a new deal to end that label's use of Digital Rights Management. At the press conference, the band played a short set comprised of "Herculean" and "Nature Springs." The single for "Green Fields" became the first new release by the band to be issued without DRM. The album "The Good, the Bad and the Queen" was also the first album issued under the new plan. The remainder of EMI's online catalogue underwent upgrades to the same superior quality download rate (320 kbit/s) shortly thereafter.cite web|title=Apple and EMI strike digital rights deal on music locks|publisher="NME"|date=2007-04-02|url=http://www.nme.com/news/the-good-the-bad-and-the-queen/27474|accessdate=2007-04-05]

Track listings

*Promo CD CDRDJ6738
# "Green Fields" - 2:26
*Gatefold 7" R6738
# "Green Fields" - 2:26
# "England, Summer (in black & white) Dog House" - 4:06
*Green vinyl 7" RS6738
# "Green Fields" - 2:26
# "England, Summer (in black & white) Polling Day" - 4:53
*Enhanced CD CDRS6738
# "Green Fields" - 2:26
# "England, Summer (in black & white) Polling Day" - 4:53
# "Green Fields" (original demo) - 2:40
#* "The original demo written and recorded by Damon Albarn in 1998."cite journal|author=Elan, Priya|date=2007-03-03|title=Fields of Gold... and Green|journal=NME|pages=9|url=http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3559/nmefinalgz2.jpg|accessdate=2007-03-01]
#"Kingdom of Doom" (video)

Chart Positions

References