Green Blimp

Album: Green Blimp (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Thirty-five years after his debut single "I'm On Fire," Twilley released his Green Blimp album, which NPR called "blissful, emotive pop."

    By 2010, "Green" had become a popular marketing phrase, used to sell everything from coffee to air conditioners by conjuring up an environmentally friendly image. When Songfacts asked Twilley if he was thinking Earth-first with the title, he replied: "Well, I hadn't really thought about it that way. Actually, I had the idea for the song many years ago, like when I was a little kid, practically, with my friend, Phil Seymour, and we would play the song occasionally. And in those days they didn't talk about anything being green.

    I just kind of liked the refrain of it. Of course, I've upgraded it and re-wrote it. I don't know why I did it. (laughs) But you know, it kind of is a hats off to 'Yellow Submarine,' and the whole album and the song really has a kind of an anti-war theme. And when I say that, I don't mean like any war in particular. Just the violence in the world. And then it's kind of a tranquil place where you're floating through the sky and not having to deal with all the terrible things that are after you in the world.

    And the thing is, too, it floats, it just meanders and drifts through the clouds. It's not like a jet airplane that just shoots through the sky, or a speeding car. It's just tranquil, relaxing, through the breeze and through the birds and the clouds. It's a tranquil place for everybody to be."

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