Greed

Album: Fierce Bliss (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • Ann Wilson conceived her 2022 solo effort Fierce Bliss as a concept album based on
    the Seven Deadly Sins. She ended up scrapping the concept, but did write one song on the subject: "Greed."

    "That's the basic primary drive that's going in the world, especially right now with the war [in Ukraine] and all the material pursuits and the corporations and the politics," she said in a Songfacts interview. "It's just rampant. I think more so than any other time that I've ever experienced. So, I wrote a song about it. It's just so in our nature – and in animal nature – to be greedy, to want more for yourself and just do what you've got to do to get it."
  • "Greed" is the first single from Fierce Bliss, Ann Wilson's third solo album and her first with mostly original songs. Most of the music from her storied career was with Heart, the group she formed with her sister Nancy, but she had taken on lots of side projects, including duets with Mike Reno ("Almost Paradise") and Robin Zander ("Surrender To Me"). "Greed" she co-wrote with Nashville session man Tom Bukovac, who also played guitar on the track. Her other backing musicians are:

    Bass: Tony Lucido
    Drums: Sean T. Lane
    Keyboards: Gordon Mote, Tim Lauer
  • Wilson believes there's a bit of Gordon Gekko in all of us, so greed is something we have to manage. "I think people who claim to have made every decision from a root of pure idealism, and never done anything dark or greedy, is lying," she said. "I think everybody who ventures into especially the music industry hoping for a career with big success, ends up making these Faustian bargains at some point even if only briefly. It's an aggressive song and I think I write best when I'm angry."
  • The music video, directed by Elliot Crotteau, mixes live footage with scenes of human encroachment on nature, like power plants, dams, and shopping centers.

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