"Green Fields" is the third single by British alternative rock band the Good, the Bad & the Queen.Note that while frontman Damon Albarn has claimed that the band is officially unnamed, and that "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" was merely the name of band's first album, this single clearly credits the artist as "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" on the single's front cover, spine and on the disc itself. "Green Fields" is also the eleventh track on the group's 2007 debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' The Good, the Bad & the Queen.'' The song was released on 2 April 2007 as the band's third single in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The single debuted—and peaked—at #51 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 April, substantially lower than " Kingdom of Doom" which had reached the Top 20 upon release in January. In the album's review for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', Hamish MacBain called the song "the best thing Damon's ever written."

Song 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. It was later recorded by Faithfull with different lyrics in the verses and released on her 2005 album '' Before the Poison'' as "Last Song." Alexis Petridis of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

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 Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

," especially when Albarn sings "how the world has changed." The song makes reference to a " war" and a " tidal wave"; referencing the War on Iraq and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

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 Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM ...

. At the press conference, the band played a short set consisting 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 & 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.

Track listings

Chart positions

References

{{authority control 2006 songs 2007 singles The Good, the Bad and the Queen songs Song recordings produced by Danger Mouse (musician) Parlophone singles Songs written by Damon Albarn Songs about London Marianne Faithfull songs