In the 80’s I thought this was truly a Judas Priest song. My cassette (for the record we called these things tapes!) of Hell Bent for Leather was recorded from a friend with no mention of the track as a cover, and this was not one of the many Fleetwood Mac songs you would hear on the radio. In retrospect, the green manalishi is clearly a metaphor, arguably with misogynist undertones. But it was fun, in those days before the Web and instant Google satisfaction, to try to imagine just what in the world a green manalishi literally was—the assumption being it had to actually be something, right?!? If I was a more imaginative, or maybe just more active, gamer I would have statted up a Green Manalishi. Oh well. Thinking about this this morning I’m liking it as a possibility for my slightly customized version of the clumsily-named ogre mage first presented in Greyhawk. I like that the name creates greater separation between what are really two separate species (or, at least, subspecies). So the manalishi (maybe there is a purple manalishi as well as a green?) might be distantly related to the ogre, but the difference in abilities, intelligence, geography, etc., is more apparent by its having a different name. Or something.
Anyway, here is my song of the week . . .
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