Songfacts®:

• "Pale Green Ghosts" is the title track of former The Czars frontman John Grant's second solo album. Pale Green Ghosts was recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland with Birgir Þórarinsson (a.k.a. Biggi Veira) of the Icelandic electro-pop group Gus Gus.
• The title refers to the Russian olive trees that stand along the I-25 highway near Grant's family home in the small town of Parker, Colorado. "They have these pale green leaves with a silvery back, so they're sort of luminescent in the moonlight," the enraptured singer told UK newspaper The Observer. "And at the end of May every year, like clockwork, they grow these tiny little yellow flowers that exude the most beautiful fragrance I've ever smelled."
• Inspired by the Russian olive trees that line Colorado's I-25 highway, Grant would drive into Denver in the '80s to the new wave clubs. He told Mojo magazine: "The trees have these tiny leaves backed by silver, which glow in the moonlight like pale green ghosts. The song is about wanting to get out of a small town, to become someone and make my mark."