Green Is the Colour Lyrics
Heavy hung the canopy of blue
Shade my eyes and I can see you
White is the light that shines through the dress that you wore
[Verse 2]
She lay in the shadow of the wave
Hazy were the visions of her playing
Sunlight on her eyes but moonshine made her blind every time
[Verse 3]
Green is the colour of her kind
Quickness of the eye deceives the mind
Envy is the bond between the hopeful and the damned
[Instrumental Outro]
About
“Green Is the Colour” is a track on Pink Floyd’s 1969 Soundtrack from the Film More. It was composed and written by Roger Waters and sung by David Gilmour. A tin whistle is heard in the song, played by drummer Nick Mason’s then-wife Lindy.
This song was a staple of the Floyd’s live sets circa 1970, and was turned into more of a full-band tune from this sparse arrangement. Check out a version from that year here
Live arrangements of the song were performed as a full electric band piece and at a slower tempo. Richard Wright built a calm sheen of warbling organ sound throughout, which created a more natural segue into the piece that always immediately followed it, “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”. David Gilmour also sang a scat vocal over his guitar solo during the outro. In a live intro to the song from 1970, Roger Waters states that the song is “about being on Ibiza” the setting of the film, More.
In The Man and The Journey suite, the song was retitled “The Beginning” in “The Journey” half of the show. It was played as a medley with “Beset by the Creatures of the Deep”, which was a retitling of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”.
The song was a regular part of the band’s shows from early 1969 through 1970, then less common in 1971. It was played for the last time during their short tour of Japan and Australia in August 1971.
It is in the key of G major.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
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- 4.Flaming
- 8.The Gnome
- 9.Chapter 24
- 10.The Scarecrow
- 11.Bike
- 13.Remember a Day
- 15.Corporal Clegg
- 17.See-Saw
- 18.Jugband Blues
- 19.Cirrus Minor
- 20.The Nile Song
- 21.Crying Song
- 22.Up The Khyber
- 23.Green Is the Colour
- 24.Cymbaline
- 25.Party Sequence
- 26.Main Theme
- 27.Ibiza Bar
- 28.More Blues
- 29.Quicksilver
- 30.A Spanish Piece
- 31.Dramatic Theme
- 36.Sysyphus
- 39.The Narrow Way
- 42.If
- 43.Summer ’68
- 44.Fat Old Sun
- 48.Fearless
- 49.San Tropez
- 50.Seamus
- 51.Echoes
- 53.When You’re In
- 54.Burning Bridges
- 57.Mudmen
- 58.Childhood’s End
- 59.Free Four
- 60.Stay
- 62.Speak to Me
- 64.On the Run
- 65.Time
- 67.Money
- 68.Us and Them
- 70.Brain Damage
- 71.Eclipse
- 74.Have a Cigar
- 78.Dogs
- 80.Sheep
- 82.In the Flesh?
- 83.The Thin Ice
- 87.Mother
- 88.Goodbye Blue Sky
- 89.Empty Spaces
- 90.Young Lust
- 91.One of My Turns
- 95.Hey You
- 97.Nobody Home
- 98.Vera
- 100.Comfortably Numb
- 101.The Show Must Go On
- 103.Run Like Hell
- 105.Stop
- 106.The Trial
- 107.Outside the Wall
- 108.The Post War Dream
- 109.Your Possible Pasts
- 110.One of the Few
- 112.The Hero’s Return
- 113.The Gunner’s Dream
- 114.Paranoid Eyes
- 117.Southampton Dock
- 118.The Final Cut
- 119.Not Now John
- 121.Signs of Life
- 122.Learning to Fly
- 123.The Dogs of War
- 124.One Slip
- 125.On the Turning Away
- 126.Yet Another Movie
- 127.Round and Around
- 129.Terminal Frost
- 131.Sorrow
- 132.Cluster One
- 134.Poles Apart
- 135.Marooned
- 138.Take It Back
- 139.Coming Back to Life
- 140.Keep Talking
- 141.Lost for Words
- 142.High Hopes