A typical Sonic Youth song. Thurston and Lee build the song around a basic riff while Kim and Steve carry the song. There is no "real" chorus in the song but Thurston repeats "I see a green light!" after every few lines. In a typical Sonic fashion, the song builds and builds until it falls into a dark black hole of never ending reverb, something the band is becoming known for and is able to pull off quite well.
Reverb is also what makes this record sound a little more unique to the others. Lee began using a tape delay unit to get the deep vortex type sounds. The drums and vocals are very "roomy" and everything either chimes or rings. Perfect for this band. The use of reverb even improves the vocal performances making them quite spooky, For "Green Light" Thurstons usual spoken melody style of singing makes him sound more like he's really singing. Echo?!
"Green Light" was the first song composed with drummer Steve Shelley and one of the first to be played live before the record was made. The original title was "Green Love" and was often used as the set opener during the '86 tour. "Green Light" has not been resurrected since 1987.
This is another video from St. Louis 11-3-86:
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