Van Morrison: your views please

He's got so much & I know so little. I also like "Wavelength". Some of those long mid-70s pieces like "Listen to the Lion" are pretty painful.

dave q., as usual, nails it. still, i give a thumb's up to astral weeks and moondance, and bits and pieces of all the rest.

and didn't someone on ILX once post a rilly funny story about some (REALLY disgusting) thing that van's (understandably) pissed-off stage musicians did to one of his harmonicas?!?

Van Morrison is a prize curmudgeon by all accounts, which gives me an opportunity to pinch this from the rocking vicar
Van's Daily Dump
Van Morrison insists on his band turning up to rehearsals at bang on 8.30am, although Van himself often doesn't turn up until ten, and then goes straight to the toilet with a copy of Exchange & Mart to have a dump. One day, the band got so cross that they waited until Van was engaged and then, one by one, tip-toed over to Van's Sacred Harmonica Bag, full of harmonicas Van has collected from around the world, picked a specimen, and rubbed it in their anal clefts. Even now, when you see Van on Later, his band seemed particularly delighted when he does a harmonica solo.

-- Billy Dods (butterbubble...), September 4th, 2002.

Maybe.

Astral Weeks = very necessary.

The rest = meh. Ups and downs.

Out of context, that would be a strange sentence.

Nothing I've heard from him since 1974 seems to come close - although I'd be interested to see what other ILMers think of some of his more recent albums (especially Back On Top, Down The Road, What's Wrong With This Picture) since I have recently been entertaining the (probably fanciful) notion that he's about due for a sudden and unexpected return to form.

This message is not for Van haters, but for Van fans. I first got hip to Van when I saw the "Last Waltz." When he came out I thought "who the heck is that little fat guy, he's all flabby and dressed in a brown pantsuit? He looks like a middle-aged lady. On top of that he's doing this ridiculous chorus-line kicking." Then I kept listening and I shut up. His was the most definitive performance in the movie, his and Muddy Waters.

About Van sideman and territory-sharer Georgie Fame, who was dissed above: I saw Georgie once at Ronnie Scott's in London, and he put on one good show. He did one bit where, in a tribute to his former boss, he sang a medley of Moondance and some African song from a movie soundtrack (was it one of those Cornel Wilde things?) that was pretty damn great.

I've never thought of Van Morrison as hippy-anything (or especially earnest, for that matter). Unlike the faux-mysticism of, say, Led Zeppelin, Van's lyrics steer clear of gnomes and m'ladys, are grounded instead in back alleys, snowstorms, trains, Safeway supermarkets, and memory. More importantly, the music is equally grounded: in r&b. His 70's catalogue (Moondance, Tupelo Honey, St Dominick's Preview, Hardnose the Highway, Veedon Fleece, and though it's '69, Astral Weeks belongs in this group too) is at least as strong as Al Green's. After that, for the most part it seems like he started reading a bit too much of his own press: yes, the mysticism did start to grate. I've been listening to him a lot again. He good.

how hold on a moment...

but al green is al green!

anyway style IS substance. dude.

yeah, you would believe that sort of twaddle. Le Roy Neiman has a lot of "style," how do you feel about him? (here comes the lecture) I hope you wear a beret when you type out these missives. And one earring. No, that wouldn't go with the short pants and riding crop.

intelligent discussion may now resume.

I've been totally gaying out on Van lately. Saw the last waltz again and it really hit me how fucking BIZARRE the man is...such strange mannerisms onstage, so "passionate" but yet seems sort of bitter and hateful and totally uncaring about the crowd...

but so anyway yesterday I picked up "It's too late to stop now" a live album with his band, the Caledonia Soul Orchestra...honestly I think it's one of the greatest albums ever recorded...every song is retooled, rearranged...huge band, strings + horns + a core of a whoop-ass RnB band and rhythm secion....Van is all over the fucking place on this....slurring everything into a million fake endings and rave up WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP rhythm section hits...tuuurn on yuuuuur raDIO blooblobleeebledeeedlebloooombabloooobeeeedoodbeee..urrrrrnnnnn letcha lights shaaane....lettttit shine...

the fourth side "Heres Comes the night"---->gloria----->caravan----->cypress avenue is amazing...i think it's about five minutes before cypress is even close to being recognizable....

yeah that last waltz performance is strange, right? he's definitely got a weird mix of wanting to be this classic entertainer type and then also just having a "fuck you" attitude. it works! the jumpsuit, on the other hand ...

there's a beyond-fantastic bootleg from a 1972 live radio session that has some incredible van moments -- a definitive "Friday's Child," a beautiful "into the mystic" and an incredible reading of dylan's "just like a woman." that thing deserves official release, seriously. it's a peak.

as much as i like van, i haven't delved very deeply into his post-mid 70s stuff. but it seems as though there's plenty of worthwhile albums/songs ...

As much as I love "Caravan" from TLW, I love his vocal on "Tura Lura Lura" even more. God I wish there was an outtake of that floating somewhere.

He's complete crap, of course.

Wrong, Alex. The man could do the neatest codas.

If you enjoy listening to walruses gargle with their own filth, then I suppose so.

Oh goodness, well, a gurgling walrus with beautiful strings behind him then.

i thought he was drunk/coked out of his mind in the last waltz?

i like van, but i'm only recently recovering from drastic overexposure some fifteen years ago.

I owe a drink to whoever posted that YouTube clip of him doing "Warm Love" on German TV in '74 onto a different Van thread.

Of all of the songs on my favorite Van Morrison album, I'm undecided as to whether my favorite song is "Ring Worm" or "Want a Danish".

boring old fart, self righteous too.

It's interesting how many of the dismissive responses are based on not knowing his music in the first place. There also seems to be a sense of pride in that. Not sure why. I've worked in places where I've had to listen to Frankie Valli to the point where I've wanted his music vanquished from existence, but unless your uncle tortured you as a small child with a replay of his most obvious hits I've never considered Van to generate such snap judgement hate.

Now, granted, from everything I've read and heard from others much more in tune with the music business, Van looks to be a pretty difficult, cantankerous a-hole, which doesn't even put him in rarified company. Yes, he's been making pretty much the same album for years. If you like that sort of thing, it's not so bad. And he has been at it for decades.

But if you're going to judge the man, at least hear some of his best work. I wouldn't go judging the entire career of the Cure based on "Wish"...

While every Van fan I've met has different personal faves, I'd offer up the obvious: anything by Them, Astral Weeks, St. Dominic's Preview, Veedon Fleece, Wavelength (considered his most "commercial" album for its upbeat nature and slightly "slicker" production), Common One (if you think Van's a snoozer, then this will be your best evidence, but maybe I just like to daydream...), Into the Music, Beautiful Vision, Hymns to the Silence...

His radio hits only tell one very small part of the story. And he really doesn't fall into "hippie" music. He wore some bad hippie clothes back in the day.

For those who do like him, hopefully YouTube still has the video of him and Chet Baker doing Send in the Clowns. I'd only heard it on bootleg and imagined Van really biting into it, the way he phrases things and such...and then I saw this video. AND HE'S READING THE WORDS OFF A PIECE OF PAPER. Ah, the mastery of performance.

I'd submit a link but I'm new here and learning how to operate this formatting stuff. Hopefully, in time.

"Ring Worm" is totally better, for the "yooouuuu've got ring worm" near the end.

Oh, and Van's good. I love St. Dominic's Preview. Also "Snow in San Anselmo" is one of the coolest songs ever.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cxw98-SBhGo

While every Van fan I've met has different personal faves, I'd offer up the obvious: anything by Them, Astral Weeks, St. Dominic's Preview, Veedon Fleece...

all very solid, Astral Weeks being obvious, Veedon Fleece being the hidden grail, and I'd add Tupelo Honey and (god help me) Moondance. It'll never be my favorite, and it's way too exposed, but goddamnit if it's not a good record.

Alex, stop taking the piss and do something useful. We like Van Morrison, ok?

That two disc "Story of Them" set is amazing -- it's pretty much their full output as a band (with Van, but Them without Van is like VU without Lou), and it's very-good-to-legendary from end to end. I don't get tired of it.

i rebought astral weeks a couple days ago (traded it a few years back, then suddenly this week felt the overwhelming urge to hear it again), and what strikes me most about it is how . . . not like its reputation it is, in so many ways. like someone said upthread, for all the talk about van being a hippy-dippy mystic, most of the words are about very realistic scenes and situations.

it reminds me of talk talk's later work in some ways, that same contemplative mood, the way the old persona (the van of "gloria," the mark hollis of "it's my life") occasionally croaks through the new one, the way virtually any sound can take on meaning and depth. "slim slow slider" especially would fit in very well on laughing stock.

i also think the string arrangements are beautiful, almost unbelievably so, and i'm not really one to fawn over stuff like that.

i've got to get that them compilation. "gloria" is one of those overplayed classics that somehow never gets old; there's something so feral and almost unsettling about van's angry bark.

anyone heard blowin' your mind?

Here's the '74 German TV clip that Matos refers to:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=urpnB_5E4ro

Great fuckin' band; these must be the same guys that recorded the It's Too Late to Stop Now album with him. Aewsome!

"gloria" is one of those overplayed classics that somehow never gets old

tru, but "mystic eyes" > "gloria"

all I have to say about Van Morrison is that I bought Astral Weeks based solely on the strength of its reputation and the fact that I felt like I ought to have heard it -- one of those "eat your vegetables" record purchases -- and when I listened to it for the first time, it was so beautiful that I had no choice to duck out of work early, take a walk through the park, and call some people I hadn't talked to in months just to tell them about this incredible music.

(ps it's also my favorite album to listen to while high)

That Van and Chet clip is beautiful

He's complete crap, of course.
And Killing Joke are a bunch of candy-assed poseurs.

Alex, stop taking the piss and do something useful. We like Van Morrison, ok?

Who is taking the piss? I'm sincere. Van Morrison is a bloated tub of fatuous lard.

And Killing Joke are a bunch of candy-assed poseurs.

Compared to Van Morrison? Baahahahahahahaahahaha

Gifted musician - guitar, alto sax, harmonica....

Van Morrison is not a gifted alto sax player!

the end of this vers. of cypress avenue is fucking nuts! he's so weird...his mannerism onstage are fascinating to me...

honestly, sometimes the only guy that really reminds me of how van was onstage is Al Johnson from US Maple, sometimes i think he stole some of his bizarre schtick from Van...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=svgvIsbKL28&mode=related&search=

anyone heard blowin' your mind?

i just picked up the new vinyl reissue on Sundazed...it's good...it's definitely about exactly what you'd expect...some sort of middle ground between Them and astral weeks...a lot of it is just good solid RnB stuff...also brown eyed girl obv. and then the TB Sheets as well, which I guess his first weird art epic type thing....very odd song, almost stranger in it's way than Astral Weeks...I'd actually never heard it before and I expected something more similar to Astral Weeks but it's a lot different actually.

Van Morrison is a bloated tub of fatuous lard.
Well, there's no arguing there.

Bobby Gillespie: "Gie' us a smile Van, go on, yer face is aye trippin' ye. The 'Gers are daein' awright noo wi' Big Watty back at the helm - 'zat no' enough tae cheer ye up?"

i find how assholish he apparently is part of the appeal, he seems like the least likeable major star like ever....yet he writes these really warm songs that are sort of intergenerational classics, it's odd....and onstage he has the whole kind of otis redding thing, real soul belting giving it all, etc, yet it doesn't seem warm, even during the big climaxes he doesn't seem to care about the crowd or trying to engage them, it's like he's got some personal little place he's trying to reach or something and fuck you if you don't get it.

this cypress is even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isHjUEvfzFY&NR=1

i find how assholish he apparently is part of the appeal, he seems like the least likeable major star like ever

Lou Reed?

yeah maybe lou is even worse. but van is a way bigger star i think for the average person.

True and less of a dick too

One man who would talk about Morrison was Ted Templeman, a Warner Bros. staff producer known for his work with the Doobie Brothers and Van Halen. In the early Seventies, Templeman produced three of Morrison's albums -- Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic's Preview, and It's Too Late to Stop Now -- and he was recently quoted in 'BAM', a regional music newspaper, as saying, "I'd never work with Van Morrison again as long as I live, even if he offered me $2 million in cash. I aged ten years producing three of his albums. He's a marvelous talent, a fantastic singer, but he's fired everyone who's ever worked with him -- all his producers, his managers, his attorneys. He's so unpredictable."

... this from a guy who worked with Beefheart!

and Eddie Van Halen!

I prefer strung-out, delirious Van to any other, so Veedon Fleece blows away all of his other albums. I can't think of another artist who has made albums I love and hate to such degrees as this guy.

i really really need to hear veedon fleece

Likewise. Anybody know if that's Ronnie Montrose on guitar in the 2nd "Cypress Ave." clip?

I've heard Veedom Fleece compared favorably to Astral Weeks, but I just don't hear it myself.

Glad to see the love for Veedon Fleece. It seems like when it came out, 1974, most people's attentions were elsewhere and the reviews didn't get it (well, the very few I've seen from back then). I don't think VF sounds like AW at all. But what they share is a certain free-floating, stream-of-consciousness. "Fair Play" is just two chords floating back and forth..."Bulbs" is the only real conventional pop tune (and the single), but "You Don't Pull No Punches" is that weird, improvisational nonsense that Van does so well -- and which he goes into overload on Common One, as "Summertime In England" has its fans and detractors. (Personally, I"m all for it, for I wouldn't use it to convert anyone.)

The THEM 2-CD does seem to collect everything except "Mighty Like A Rose," which can be found on Backtrackin', an LP collection of outtakes. Lester Bangs had mentioned how he'd had arguments with people about whether or not Van's early work was about pedophilia and obviously the 14 year old of "Cyprus Avenue" can be a bit creepy, but "Mighty" also discusses a girl of 14 summers...

As per age, I liked how Jagger dropped the girl from "Stray Cat BLues" from 15 to 13 on Ya-Ya's, something he wouldn't do today, I'm sure. And changed the woman in "Spider and the Fly" from 30 to 50 for the version on Stripped...and yet he's still WAY older...

and great clips on YouTube. thanks for the heads-up.

Veedon Fleece is impossible to find on CD, my copy is either on cassette or MP3, pretty sure you can find it on vinyl. I've heard mixed reactions, some people think it's not strong because it's not as jazz-inflected as Astral Weeks, it's much more of a spare folk album (although the baseball imagery on "Bulbs," matched to some corny upbeat hoo ha, is plain bizarre on an album that's by and large about depression and insanity.) I gave it to a good friend of mine when a close family member of his died and it turned into his favorite album.

Also, "Linden Arden Stole the Highlights" = best Van Morrison song by a long shot.

and

First verse of "Fair Play," 1st song on Veedon Fleece:

Fair play to you
Killarney's lakes are so blue
And the architecture I'm taking in with my mind
So fine...

Not sure if there's an opening verse quite as mentally unsound and yet devastatingly gorgeous as that one.

i just picked up the new vinyl reissue on Sundazed...it's good...it's definitely about exactly what you'd expect...some sort of middle ground between Them and astral weeks...a lot of it is just good solid RnB stuff...also brown eyed girl obv. and then the TB Sheets as well, which I guess his first weird art epic type thing....very odd song, almost stranger in it's way than Astral Weeks...I'd actually never heard it before and I expected something more similar to Astral Weeks but it's a lot different actually.

Like 3rd/ Sisters Lovers, Blowin' yr Mind/ TB sheets has suffered from multiple versions and no set track listing; and the Blowin' yr Mind version misses the early RnB version of Madame George, which, in some moods i prefer to the AW one.

I'll never be a huge fan, but I finally got copies of Tupelo Honey and Veedon Fleece last spring and, while both have their moments, I think St Dominic's Preview is the best album for an agnostic; it nicely bridges the arty and the poppy.

The song that kills me on Veedon Fleece is the last one, "Country Fair."

Veedon Fleece is impossible to find on CD
It's out there, but copies are scarce and you'll probably have to pay at least $30.

That's too bad. I guess my copy is really old.

I'd love to see a Ryko-style rerelease of all this early stuff.

hmm my CD of Veedon Fleece is from 1999, i think? those reissues are out of print? curious! his back catalog could use some work for sure ... there are a ton of good outtakes, i think -- some of which are collected on the now probably out of print Philosopher's Stone double disc. It's a patchy set to be sure, but there are some essential tracks -- "Contemplation Rose" might be one of my favorite Van songs ...

I don't think I have ever met a single van morrison fan in person

anyway, yeah, I never got the "Veedon Fleece is a cousin to Astral Weeks" train of thought -- I think that might just be because neither of them have a real R&B flavor ... But both are great, no doubt about it. There was a Robyn Hitchcock single from the late 80s where he does both "Fair Play" and "Linden Arden" -- surprisingly beautiful stuff. I think Robyn starts off kinda making fun of Van, but seems to be swept away by the song as it continues ...

sure I own Astral Weeks and its pretty good and I heard Moondance and Brown-Eyed Girl a lot from the trustafarian hippies in college but ... I find this cult of his strange and mysterious

x-post

xpost to shakey
that's funny, i know tons of van obsessives. my dad was one for starters, but Van was key to lots of ex-garage punk types I know who got into him through Them. He really did some amazing shit outside of astral weeks... If you think you hate Van, start with TB Sheets.
like 3rd/ Sisters Lovers, Blowin' yr Mind/ TB sheets has suffered from multiple versions and no set track listing; and the Blowin' yr Mind version misses the early RnB version of Madame George, which, in some moods i prefer to the AW one.

I think the best way to get everything he recorded between Them & Astral Weeks is on the Bang Masters comp, but I could be wrong... but yeah I have 3 records with slightly different line-ups of the songs on Blowin' Your Mind/TB Sheets. I like the one known as TB Sheets best (especially for the version of Madame George as you mention) but it's missing some good r&b stuff - especially "Send Your Mind" which is a great Them-styled stomper.

The only problem I remember with Bang Masters was that it included the alt.take of "He Ain't Give You None" and not the original.

I heard about that Hitchcock single but have never seen it anywhere. I got to thinking it was just a rumor.

I remember a friend bought a copy of a remastered Veedon Fleece a few years back but I haven't looked in years. Weird how what you see tons of one day is suddenly rare the next.

Most Van Morrison fans never leave their homes. I don't think I've ever seen a Van Morrison T-Shirt. I don't think I would wear one.

Count me in on the Veedon Fleece train. His vocal performance on Linden Arden Stole the Highlights is simply stunning-- which is saying a lot considering who we're talking about.

The thing that will make me an apologist for Van Morrison (at least his music) forever, is Beside You on AW. That song, the lyrics, the overall performance, everything...seems to have originated from some deep, haunted visionary place; there is some transhuman perspective going on there or something, like he's merely functioning as a mouthpiece for some urgent communication of nonetheless eternal archetypes. (which sounds like complete bullocks, I realize, but, never mind my clumsiness...give the song a listen, fucking amazing). Unfortunately, some of his late 70's and eighties stuff and whatever came later sounds as though he was forever trying to tap into that primal source once more, and failing to do so.

In any case, as noted upthread, Van Morrison is no "hippie" (whatever that even means). The man sings about TB, a forlorn transvestite, a young girl dying from junk, an obsession with an underage girl, etc.

Who Was That Masked Man from VF is amazing, too. Van does falsetto...

Spent a lot of today listening to bits and pieces of Van / Them records - something which hasn't, i think, been mentioned is the lovely sense of geographical precision in which he places the 'eternal archetypes' - , 'that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row' (I think of that line everytime i go to Belfast), even earlier in the Story of Them ' the Spanish Rooms up on the Falls' 'the Blues rolling down Royal Avenue, all the way past City Hall' - then on to London 'Watch the sun rise over Notting Hill Gate' ' in Friday's Child.....

The Stones did this a bit, I guess, setting their pilfered Rn'B loose in London and watching it learn the language, but I think Van was the most pigheadedly local of that generation of RnB singers from these islands; even the way, when he's trying to sing American, it always slips back to Belfast. I think, in a way, this is what allows him to inhabit a 'deep haunted visionary place' so convincingly - he renders the ordinary and the particular transcendent by making it strange, forcing us to look, rather than by mystical generalisation..

Nicely put, and I agree. Something like the "objective correlative", maybe? Or maybe I'm completely misusing that term...

Interesting. Geography -- or specific namedropping -- does play quite a role. Later works like On Hyndfort Street...and then the photo on Hymns to the Silence filling in the rest for those of us with no idea where he's talking about. I often wonder if my old non-descript neighborhoods could be transformed that way. I've also loved how he'll mention Kerouac, Mezz Mezrow and his perennials William Blake, T.S. Eliot...

I always assume Masked Man is Morrison doing Curtis Mayfield. And Linden Arden blows me away...glad to see so many others are equally gripped.

For me it's always been his vocal tics and not necessarily the ones that Lester Bangs pointed out in his essay. In this day of computer looping of tracks and complete vocal lines being recorded once and then copied, it's so much more rewarding to hear vocals that are inspired and spontaneous and happen only once...for me, in Cyrpus Avenue when he sings "That little girl done something" (is that even what he's singing. I'm awful with this stuff). And the "Rainbow ribbons in her hair." There are so many quick turns of phrase.

I understand when others say they can't get into the later work, starting, I would guess, with Wavelength (though A Period of Transition is pretty spotty as well). But if you can accept that it is a bit more trying and forced than his earlier work there is stuff to hear. I'm fond of "Hungry for Your Love," "Take It Where You Find It," even "Natalia" which sounds like he's taking lessons from Boz Scaggs (not a bad thing, but not really Van's thing).

I think the reason it bothers me less is because I heard those records (Wavelength, Into the Music, Beautiful Vision) much earlier than Astral Weeks, Dominic, Fleece... so it was introductory and I didn't have any expectations. And I think you're always a bit forgiving to the records that introduce you to an artist, even if they pale later on. And I probalby hear them a little differently. The production just seems like it's there, but I could see how others already schooled in the differences might take stronger note of them.

I often wonder if my old non-descript neighborhoods could be transformed that way

believe me, the Streets of Arklow aren't all that descript. It's a wonder what he does to quite ordinary places.

I think, in a way, this is what allows him to inhabit a 'deep haunted visionary place' so convincingly - he renders the ordinary and the particular transcendent by making it strange, forcing us to look, rather than by mystical generalisation..

-- sonofstan, Thursday, 27 September 2007 22:26

This is so fucking OTM.

yup.

If you think you don't like Van Morrison, try the live record It's Too Late to Stop Now...unbelievably great

i find how assholish he apparently is part of the appeal, he seems like the least likeable major star like ever....yet he writes these really warm songs that are sort of intergenerational classics, it's odd....

from M@tt upthread and OTM. I always find it strange how such an angry miserable SOB could deliver such heartfelt & flat-out joyous music -- think Brown-Eyed Girl, Wild Nights, Jackie Wison Said, Angeliou, Tupelo Honey, etc. Must be some rare variant of the tears of a clown personality -- misanthropes make the best happy music.

I always find it strange how such an angry miserable SOB could deliver such heartfelt & flat-out joyous music

Yeah - i know people who've worked for him and it's no holiday camp.
I think really, we should take the line from Astral Weeks about being 'Nothin' but a stranger in this world' literally - he has the sensibility of an outsider artist but, rarely, the talent to express it; it may be that the world he makes is the only one he can live in.

'the talent to express it in a - relatively - conventional medium' i guess

He is almost like a comedy stereotype of the bad-tempered belligerent Ulster Proddie with 12 chips on each shoulder

new record is awesome

I like Gerry's opening post!

i didnt realize there were so many haters..on th new lost highway cd...which th russians have a copy of already..hes loose and sly and fun and fat and good and u should get it maybe

almost independence day is dope as fuck

glad to see this has turned into a veedon fleece lovefest. side 1 just blows me away every time. I managed to get it on CD a few years back after a cassette copy wasn't returned to me (never lend favourite albums, even to good friends). Don't know about current availability.

I wish the doing all of Astral Weeks live US tour was not so expensive(with first dibs to American Express car holders).

Veedon Fleece has come out remastered, with lyrics and two bonus cuts: Twilight Zone and an alternate take of Cul De Sac.

so sad that "Warm Love" clip got removed (a while ago, but still). the only CD I want to actually physically purchase these days is Saint Dominic's Preview--title track might be my favorite-ever Van recording.

Misspelled:
Van Morris(s)on: The Smooth Jazz Years

they used to play "best of van morrison" in the health food store EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY, till i was sure i would never ever voluntarily listen to the guy again. but a roommate a few years later on insisted i listened to veedon fleece before i wrote the guy off, and i'm glad he did cause it's now one of my all-time favorite albums. reading this thread makes me realize i need to track down some of his other stuff as well (now i'm trying to remember which album it was that i liked almost as much as VF)

I love "Real Real Gone." His eighties and late nineties work needs reevaluation.

*in the health food store i worked in for 2 frikkin years

lindon arden stole the hiiiiighlight!

would highly recommend Common One to Veedon Fleece fans ... not quite the same deal, but a sorta similar vibe. Anyway, that is probably my fave Post-70s Van record. And I only heard it for the first time last year! Nice, long songs, some jazzier bits, great singing.

The later stuff is well patchy. Typical track: long slow lugubrious jam, Van grunting and reciting list of poets, gardens wet with rain, etc...
St Dominic's, as mentioned above, has some great things - jackie wilson said, title track, I will be There, some bizarre stuff (lion impressions) and some less memorable stuff towards the end.

There is no better brunch album than Poetic Champions Compose.

I have always enjoyed Tupelo Honey (the song).The album is pretty good as well.

they used to play "best of van morrison" in the health food store EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY, till i was sure i would never ever voluntarily listen to the guy again

cosign. it took me about a decade to recover

Put on Common One and then Miles' In a Silent Way. They flow perfectly. If picking up on CD, be sure to to wait for the remastered versions. They aren't coming with an excess of bonus material but a couple tracks and the sound is improved. And they're coming out in no logical order -- starting with His Band and Street Choir up through the past few years. (Van doesn't own Astral Weeks or Moondance outright so they're not part of this...) I don't think St. Dom's is out remastered yet. And to add to the confusion, some are out in the UK, I'm told.

Morrison treated his band and crew horribly. In the midst of "Fair Play," one of a handful of non-"Astral" tunes in the set, he decided he didn't like the tempo and screamed at his drummer to switch from brushes to sticks. Morrison was close enough to the microphone that the crowd couldn't avoid taking in the humiliation. He later summoned a roadie to the center of the stage to move his microphone and music stands a few feet away from him, then screamed an obscenity at him while telling him to leave the stage. Then Morrison launched into "In the Garden," a 1986 spiritual glorious enough to get him right with God, flaws and all.

From Dave McKenna's Washington Post review of Morrison on his current Astral Weeks tour

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080703207.html

Ha! My friend got a refund from a show on the Astral Weeks tour because he didn't play any songs from Astral Weeks!

I'm surprised not to see more love for "Moondance" (the album) on here. That strikes me as a solid piece of work - but maybe I'm a sucker for pop-R&B with horn arrangements.

oh yeah "Moondance" can't be denied! Might just be too obvious ... but I love that record. So many good songs, wonderful vibe. Some of it is overplayed, but whenever I put it on, I love it.

Yeah, I guess it's always unfashionable to like something that's universally popular - better to pick out the obscure release only known to hardcore fans. But screw that, I say. Good music is good music.

speaking of obscure, if you only own one Van bootleg, here's the one: http://moonglampers.net/blog/2009/02/10/van-morrison-ksan-1971/ Don't know if the link still works, but seek it out elsewhere, if not!

it is sooooo good. "Friday's Child", "Just Like A Woman" ... Can't believe it hasn't been officially released. I vastly prefer it to "It's Too Late ..." (which is good, but not this good)

man this is good...though don't talk down about my baby!!! (being it's too late to stop now)

"Then Morrison launched into "In the Garden," a 1986 spiritual glorious enough to get him right with God, flaws and all."

such a great song. i said this somewhere else last week, but no guru no method no teacher is up there with any of my fave 60's or 70's van records. i love the whole thing from front to back. so beautiful.

don't talk down about my baby!!!
no, I don't mean to diss It's Too Late -- that is one of the best live records of the 70s, no doubt. But that bootleg is kinda unbelievable. Wait til you get to the Dylan cover!

listening now this is really great.....

sounds different though from It's Too Late, band doesn't seem as big in terms of number of players maybe...

I need No Guru No Method No Teacher and Common One

Is Hard Nose to the Highway good?

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/v/van-morrison/album-hard-nose-the-highway.jpg
it's got a terrible cover, but otherwise, yeah, it's good!

last song "Purple Heather" is A+ Van

"Bein' Green" is kinda C- Van though. Good for the lolz though.

kermit cover?

yeah, basically. missed opportunity that van never appeared on the muppet show really.

I'm loving that cover, it reminds me of my other favourite cover:
http://www.torrentportal.com/uploads/images/1153170zucchero%20-%20miserere%20a.jpg

Yeah, I guess it's always unfashionable to like something that's universally popular - better to pick out the obscure release only known to hardcore fans.

If you repeat this often and loud enough, you might transform the second side of Moondance into the near-genius of the first.

the flipside of HNTH is even wacker
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/0/6/6/7/3/9/webimg/224999037_tp.jpg
i remember thinking as a kid it made Van look like an X-Man.

He's Banshee!

Yeah, I guess it's always unfashionable to like something that's universally popular - better to pick out the obscure release only known to hardcore fans.

If you repeat this often and loud enough, you might transform the second side of Moondance into the near-genius of the first.

― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:14 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Perma

i love moondance but yeah alfred's point is pretty well taken...actually man...that first side is as good as any a-side to an LP ever....

i like the 2nd half though, but it's more just good solid pleasant Van...the 2nd half reminds me a lot of "his band and street choir"

http://comicbookbeginners.info/files/xmencostumes/giant-size/banshee-bigcostume1.jpg
you might be onto something there ... Banshee was Irish, right?

^^^i think that costume might be similar to what Van wore to the Last Waltz anyway.

http://i.cnn.net/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i28/LastWaltz_FF_300x225_102220041519.gif

vs.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/0/0c/Banshee_001.gif

If you repeat this often and loud enough, you might transform the second side of Moondance into the near-genius of the first

First side is genius. Second side is near-genius.

THEM and only THEM. Sorry, garage rock purist here.

heh, fair enough. it is interesting that Van never really returned to that garage rock sound, after having helped invent quite a fair bit of it.

acid is a two edged sword

but speaking of THEM, the version of "Friday's Child" on that bootleg I posted up above is sweeeeeeet.

man this is really swinging man....it's far out!

for THEM completists: be sure to add "Might Like a Rose" from Backtrackin', the only cut I can see that didn't make it onto that 2CD comp of complete Them recordings....any others?

This thread inspired me to listen to Tupelo Honey (the album) today. Lots of good stuff on there.

...listening to the 1971 boot, many thanks tylerw. Spectacular. Friday's Child / Hound Dog / Ballerina is a fantastic sequence.

Nothing else on HNTH quite lives up to "Snow in San Anselmo" but it's still good.

yeah thanks for pointing this boot out. very good

my pleasure -- anyone who's into Van should hear it, I think. His vocals are stunning -- he's just floating above the band.

Holy shit the "Just Like a Woman" on that boot..

Yeah, this boot is great! And it inspired me to listen through a whole bunch of Van's work, thus confirming that I really don't care for Hard Nose The Highway and need to spend a lot of time with Veedon Fleece because it is great.

"you don't pull no punches, but you don't push the river"
always wished there was more astral weekly stuff like this later on

You Don't Pull No Punches is the dope, more Astral than Astral. His voice does incredible, unexpected things. Every single Van song since is an anticlimax as far as his tenor is concerned. "Get down to the real soul!"

suggest astral weekly as title for that zine scott steward's been talking about

I heard You Don't Pull No Punches on the radio a few days ago in the middle of the afternoon, on the Current, which usually plays nothing but the hottest indie singles of the moment.

Veedon Fleece's rep is definitely on the rise lately.

My favorite has always been Saint Dominic's Preview, the best merger of his Domino-style hits and Astral Weeks-ish long pieces.

Check this out clip from 1974 before the Van police pull it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPSBzGEklE

th new album sounds pretty great to these ears. jazzy, relaxing, flowing nicely, his voice is still tops. and i never realy got into astral weeks...

looking forward to it on Tuesday - I think later Van is pretty badly underpraised. Pay the Devil is pretty great, The Waiting Game has some stone classics on it ("Rough God Goes Riding" especially to my ears)

his new albums have sold modestly but consistently well for twenty years and they each sport at least one gem

yeah i don't keep up w/ the new stuff too much, but i'm always pleasantly surprised when i hear one of them. he can still sing.

I love a lot of the early stuff, especially the Them era. & Astral Weeks.
Also Veedon Fleece, It's Too Late To Stop Now and other bits of the Caledonia Soul Orchestra.

Not listened to him much after about '74 though I do have Common one somewhere and the video of the live set from the collaboration with the Chieftains.

I was just looking at the list of supposedly essential lps by him in the current Mojo this morning and thinking there were a couple of things I'd think of as necessary such as the Too late set.
Also that I should have the Chieftains studio lp, just managed to get the video thing from the tv around the time that was released.

Irish Heartbeat is one of his best albums for sure. "Raglan Road" is incredible.

here is the stream

i was listening to these songs a LOT in 1987. and doing lots of drugs. people forget how psychedelic the 80's were. unless they were psychedelic in the 80's. a lotta 80's revivalists miss that part of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Cnh7uD0b4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijIPY-MTClI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oISucGq5dsk

(also i just love that van album a lot. very inspiring to me.)

A lot of his eighties are sharp! "Cleaning Windows," "Did Ya Get Healed," "Someone Like You" -- lovely.

"dweller on the threshold" is another great 80's Van track

one irish rover from no guru is another great one. the production on the album track is a little cheese-o, this version kinda improves on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC14pZQ2nyA

So glad to see No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is getting some love! I saw Van on the tour for this album and was floored by several of the then-new songs, which I'd never heard at that point. The album's midsection - "Foreign Window", "A Town Called Paradise", "In The Garden", "Tir Na Nog" - is an amazing, trancelike four-song sequence.

I was going to ask for guidance into eighties Van. I own Beautiful Vision ("Cleaning Windows" is one of his best imo) but dat's dat.

listening to the new one - so smooth and pleasant, which I think is probably a mark against it in a lot of people's books but not in mine. Relaxed little horn section, Van with his grumpy observations...it's like...kind of boring, that can't be denied, it doesn't grab you, but I really really like it. I don't know, I expect to play it a lot more than more exciting stuff

Pretty good too;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Remark

^ easily my fave van morrison track of the past 30 years and reading that i apparently really need to get the philosopher's stone.

Philosopher's Stone has a fair amount of good stuff on it but don't go looking for higher peaks than "Wonderful Remark" - "Wonderful Remark" is an all-time jam. "Bright Side of the Road" is great but isn't there a version of that on Into the Music too?

this thing from philosopher's stone is all time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkAT7muk5Ec

and this!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrSn1QhN1lE

yeah yr right esp re steppin out queen, God damn

yeah i've always wondered if that song is just straight up improv on van's part or what. barely a song but holy shit!

yeah 'bright side of the road' was on into the music, pretty easily the best post-peak run van album (xgau says best post-moondance, and he may be right). apparently shakira performed it at the obama inauguration!

Into The Music a fine piece of work but hardly the best since Moondance

I prefer it to Moondance. I prefer St Dominic's Preview to Moondance. I prefer Tupelo Honey to Moondance.

see a trend?

"Full Force Gale" is mighty

holy shit steppin' out queen - i just went fucking ham

how did i not know about this philosopher's stone thing??????

fuckin' a

YOU GONNA PROMENADE!
A LITTLE HIP ACTION!

seems like that release was kinda under the radar (at least I didn't really pay attention to it when it came out). but it's essential imo. van really needs like a comprehensive box set, but maybe he's been on too many different labels for that to happen?

yeah label thing is a huge obstacle, even the comps, as solid as they are, are hurt by this i think. really wish his 80s onward stuff was on spotify, totally the kind of thing that service is best for.

yeah, i just went over there to listen to some stuff but no dice! vannnnnnnn!

it used to be, must've been taken down

van really needs like a comprehensive box set, but maybe he's been on too many different labels for that to happen?

I have a good 2-disc NRBQ comp (on Rhino) and they've been on like seven different labels, so it's doable.

yeah, i mean now that all major labels are one major label (or three, i can't keep track) it seems like it should happen. might even be van's fault, i feel like he might own his masters or something?

holy shit steppin' out queen!

soto do you actually not like moondance or are you just tired of it or do you just prefer some others to it? totally understand the latter two and always kinda amazed at how many ppl i've met who own and LOVE moondance, go to a weird place when they hear 'into the mystic' like it's 'desperado' or something and yet somehow have zero interest in listening or owning any other van morrison album.

I gotta rep for "inarticulate speech of the heart" as far as 80s van goes. immense album.

soto do you actually not like moondance or are you just tired of it or do you just prefer some others to it? totally understand the latter two and always kinda amazed at how many ppl i've met who own and LOVE moondance, go to a weird place when they hear 'into the mystic' like it's 'desperado' or something and yet somehow have zero interest in listening or owning any other van morrison album.

The second side is a bore and I never want to listen to it whereas every other album I mentioned has goodies.

but the first side is so awesome it makes up for it. but yeah, this is one of those albums where i only listen to one side.

also, why does Allmusic show "Crazy Love" as having been written by Paul Anka? That can't be right!

yeah, i mean now that all major labels are one major label (or three, i can't keep track) it seems like it should happen. might even be van's fault, i feel like he might own his masters or something?

Van owns most of his masters, and that's part of the problem. He had a nice reissue campaign going a few years ago, but stopped it (depending on who you ask) either because he got pissed at his label, or he got caught up in new projects, including the Astral Weeks concert series. The latter also came about because of another problem: most of his solo catalog that he doesn't own is controled by Warner Bros. Morrison has been trying to get them back for years to no avail, complaining that those albums haven't been treated properly (and hence no reissues other than audiophile vinyl outside of the still in print original cd editions). The live AW album was done so he could own versions of the all the songs on that set.

I listened to ASTRAL WEEKS about a year ago and was sorely disappointed. Not even sure how it can be considered a classic album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWmAez71uMY

I'm really into ponderous Van. "Keep It Simple" is a hugely funny Van album title to me.

really wish his 80s onward stuff was on spotify, totally the kind of thing that service is best for.

i was bummed to discover this fact today

what are some good early-ish mark isham albums? I like his soundtrack for "never cry wolf"

Not Supposed To Break Down off Philosopher's Stone is just amazing.

Some other gems from the 80s that I don't think have been mentioned
- Wild Honey from Common One
- Rave On, John Donne from Inarticulate Speech
- So Quiet in Here and Real Real Gone from Enlightenment
- Tore Down a la Rimbaud from A Sense of Wonder

Rave On, John Donne is such a quintessential Van title. Hard to think of anyone else who'd merge Buddy Holly and 17th C English poetry.

"Celtic Ray" off Beautiful Vision quite nice too

i guess it's obvious that common one is totally killer but common one is totally killer

"Give Me My Rapture" from Poetic Champions Compose is a good 'un.

Yep, love that whole album.

I've been enjoying Into The Music quite a bit lately. Warm and comfy like an old sweater.

i don't think i've ever heard poetic champions.
this long outtake from the early 70s is worth hearing, if you haven't checked it out. http://ow.ly/fOwOm

Van The Man Don't Give A Fuck About Artwork (#20? In A Continuing Series...)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81deahJtc5L._SY450_.jpg

hope there's a posthumous biggie track on there

btw that's basically the concept for the elevator music that would play during the extremely long ride to my personal hell

(the record, I mean, not van/biggie)

Was hoping this morning that this might be news about further reissues. Like somebody finally getting a remastered Astral Weeks out officially. Or is that scuppered by Van's reaction to the release of the Deluxe Moondance?

lol at "Re-Working The Catalogue" -- van sounds really enthused about this one.

How about a reissue of Saint Dominic's Preview? I don't think you can even buy that on CD anymore.

really? crazy.

you can basically do what you like van, you've earned it, but ffs "Streets of Arklow - Van Morrison & Mick Hucknall"

Xp yeah it is crazy but it's definitely been OOP for a few years, cuz I remember being really excited to find the vinyl at my college radio station c.2007 (& subsequently really disappointed in the record's condition)

Van doesn't earn anything from the Warner Bros albs, so he's got no motivation or interest in helping out with or endorsing remastered editions.

yeah makes sense that he wouldn't want to do it, but can he stop WB from doing it?

Well he couldn't with Moondance - but can't think of another reason why WB haven't given Astral Weeks similar deluxe treatment (there are def outtakes etc floating around on bootlegs)

are there actual astral weeks outtakes on bootlegs? only things I've heard are the acoustic demos for moondance. i would kill for astral weeks session outtakes. KILL.

Think there's def some AW session stuff on that four CD 'Genuine Philosopher's Stone' bootleg set

should've gone with 'astral leaks'

there are some pre-astral weeks demos, but i don't think there are any actual session outtakes on that genuine philosopher's stone set.

kinda love that the duets record almost exclusively focuses on '80s and '90s material, very van

Hey did anyone read that Clinton Heylin bio of Van? I gave up pretty early in because he was so dismissive of The Them and Bang Records stuff, and also seemed weirdly hung up on bashing other Van Morrison biographies. Is it worth schlepping through the whole thing?

it has some good stuff iirc, but you have to take the good with the cranky when it comes to heylin.
great interview w/ astral weeks' producer here: http://darkforcesswing.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-full-lewis-merenstein-producer-of.html

wtf are you playing at Van? God bless the fucking Queen, long may she reign over us?

Really disappointed to find out that the 00s reissues of the early to mid 70s stuff was long gone. THink I had thought until sometime last year that it was still available just not on local shelves. & not sure how popular back catalogue Van is, despite this being ireland etc. Would hope that it would be since there is some classic stuff there.
I think at the time i was just bewailing the lack of an Astral Weeks in the series and putting other titles on the back burner. I do at least have a Veedon Fleece from that series but should definitely have St Dominic's Preview and a couple of others.
Actually not sure of the state of that VF since somebody left it face up on a table in an environment that had a lot of sand blowing around in it. Mostly listened to tracks from it on my walkman until recently I think.

van morrison is really weird, why is this man shouting at me about how much he loves me? stop shouting at me!

Great interview linked above! I don't have any idea of what to make of this part of it though:

HS: I'm wondering if you feel in your years since then, did you ever hear any albums or artists that were kind of picking up the thread of what you guys had begun with that record?

LM: I think it may have, I don't know. I have heard artists, the first album of this English group.

HS: Current group? Radiohead?

LM: Beautiful keyboard thing, singing beautiful vocals. The lead singer is married to the actress.

HS: Coldplay.

LM: Their first album wiped me to the ground, leveled me. I lie in bed, listened to the album, and had the same feeling. When I get that feeling, I know something is going to happen. A friend of mine in California, had just gotten it and said, "Lewis, I'm going to send you an album that's just going to knock you down." Coldplay did the same thing to me in a way; it got me in the same place where it just exhausted my emotions, I said, "Oh I can't hear it again. Let me hear it again, but I can't hear it again." It was too much to handle.

Legacy is going reissue all Van recordings

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/legacy-recordings-acquires-catalog-of-music-legend-van-morrison-spanning-more-than-50-years-of-music-300132701.html

hooray!

finally i can listen to hymns to the silence at work

hi Brad

aweeesome news

First Legacy Reissue Announced: http://theseconddisc.com/2015/11/05/g-l-o-r-i-ous-legacy-announces-new-set-featuring-van-morrisons-complete-recordings-with-them/

Nice

Have heard the solo stuff is coming early next year. Still not heard what exactly is coming whether it's the 4 initially announced to get Legacy Deluxe releases or a much larger selection.

I have The Story Of Them but will probably grab this upgrade.

Got the new Astral Weeks playing now and its great.

You what's the rumpus with this? Tyler tweeted it last night, can't seem to find any more details

http://www.amazon.com/Its-Too-Late-Stop-Volumes/dp/B01EMP3WOY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1461686090&sr=1-1&keywords=Volumes+II%2C+III%2C+IV

yeah, apparently all previously unreleased stuff from the same shows as it's too late to stop now + a DVD of a rainbow theatre gig, which has rarely been seen (i think it was on youtube for a bit, but i've never seen it). haven't seen a tracklisting yet. should be totally great.

Think I may have the Rainbow thing of dvd. Seems to have dialogue duplicating things on the lp, but he may have some of the same things repeated at the same spot in different shows.
I got it from Minus Zero about 8 or 9 years back but think it may be something that was torrented in a few places. It came with a cd of related audio I think. Cd split when I took it out of the dvd case. Shame, I like the band from then.

Was it a tv broadcast from the time?

&is this likely to mean a bunch of Van back catalogue appearing on cd at last? Been best part of a year by then since the digital d/lds appeared. 10 months?

yeah i think it's all trickling out.
the rainbow film was broadcast on the BBC in 1974 I think?

Disc: 1
1. Come Running
2. These Dreams of You
3. The Way Young Lovers Do
4. Snow in San Anselmo
5. I Just Want to Make Love to You
6. Bring It on Home to Me
7. Purple Heather
8. Hey, Good Lookin'
9. Bein' Green
10. Brown Eyed Girl
11. Listen to the Lion
12. Hard Nose the Highway
13. Moondance
14. Cyprus Avenue
15. Caravan

Disc: 2
1. I've Been Working
2. There There Child
3. No Way
4. Since I Fell for You
5. Wild Night
6. I Paid the Price
7. Domino
8. Gloria
9. Buona Sera
10. Moonshine Whiskey
11. Ain't Nothing You Can Do
12. Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket
13. Sweet Thing
14. Into the Mystic
15. I Believe to My Soul

Disc: 3
1. Listen to the Lion
2. I Paid the Price
3. Bein' Green
4. Since I Fell for You
5. Into the Mystic
6. Everyone
7. I Believe to My Soul
8. Sweet Thing
9. I Just Want to Make Love to You
10. Wild Children
11. Here Comes the Night
12. Buona Sera
13. Domino
14. Caravan
15. Cyprus Avenue

Disc: 4
1. Here Comes the Night
2. I Just Want to Make Love to You
3. Brown Eyed Girl
4. Moonshine Whiskey
5. Moondance
6. Help Me
7. Domino
8. Caravan
9. Cyprus Avenue

listening to the original it's too late, and damn it remains so good

yeah that's the definitive version of Caravan in my estimation, so joyful

Do Love the Caledonian Soul Orchestra. What i've heard from him live from around that time has been pretty great, as long as the sound is good.

he's pretty good throughout '74 too I think. Though CSO cease to be sometime during that.

yeah i find myself wondering about all the people who played w/ van during this time ... how good they are, and how they seem to disappear after van gives them the boot!

Revival of this thread finally got me to some of the music linked from Tyler's great blog, like the sets in this post (though better to do Google Advanced Search than tumblr's own search semi-function)http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/77389633507/van-morrison-live-at-the-lions-share-san

yeah i find myself wondering about all the people who played w/ van during this time ... how good they are, and how they seem to disappear after van gives them the boot!

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:17 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, yeah, the last time I listened to it I thought, hm, ok, these are obviously big-deal players, wonder who they are? Didn't recognize a single name.

yeah, i assume a lot of 'em in the early to mid-70s are bay area session dudes ... maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places for them. would be interesting to read an oral history from van's sidemen. i imagine some of it wouldn't be pretty.

Oh well yknow Morrison had some well-known jazz musicians (and Ronnie Montrose) on previous albums, but the only name that comes to mind re mid-70s Caledonia Soul is John Platania, who also played with Raitt, Newman, a bunch of others back then, and even got back with Van for the 2000s live album verion of Astral Weeks---how is that, btw??

i've never heard that live astral weeks ... not sure if i really want to.

new album sounds good!

Van still seems very cranky, though:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/van-morrison-on-blues-roots-rock-roll-bulls--t-w441824

what's new

Exactly

i like the new one a lot, v autumnal

Cranky or not looking forward to seeing him tomorrow night in SF.

Cool, let us know how it goes!

Is there still now news about the reissue of the cd catalogue?
Was really hoping to get at least the early 70s studio stuff.

The Van show at Davies Symphony Hall in SF was fantastic. His voice has held up amazingly well. Hardly said boo to the audience and when he did talk it was mostly mumbles. Some of the lyrics were mumbly as well. But no bother, the band was hot and Van was there to preach.

damn str8, I'll make sure to catch him next time he's in Denmark (tho tickets are v v expensive...)

apparently he needs the money

does he really? that is too bad -- I just assume that these older dudes with huge catalogs are pretty well off at the end of the day. But I guess it all depends on a bunch of factors.

I'm sure he's not poor, but probably not swimming in cash either. And if I were Van, I would be cranky too...imagine getting screwed out of the royalties for Brown Eyed Girl.

yeah that song has to be one of the most played tracks of the past 50 years -- he really makes zero dollars off it?

I don't know about zero, but he definitely got a small percentage of what it earned. I recall seeing somewhere that it's the single most downloaded song of the entire 1960s.

Don't know about royalties for Brown Eyed Girl but there are plenty of interviews where he talks about being dead broke in the late 60s. Astral Weeks, no surprise, wasn't much of a seller. Said he did Moondance to make some $$. At the show on Monday he was at his best singing the blues.

Yeah, I think Astral Weeks only took off after a couple of years.

The early 70s stuff is great, so wish they would come along with the cd reissues if they're happening. Not sure why I didn't get St Dominic's Preview in the last remaster. Probably thought it would be around for a while so prioritised other stuff. Then next time I looked for it it was gone, seemed like that 00ies series of reissues disappeared over night.
Also looks like it might not have got as far as SDP while I definitely got Veedon Fleece and It's Too Late To Stop Now in it

xpost If Van Morrison is really having financial problems then he's either very careless with his money or he's got the worst manager ever. He's had a ton of songs covered by other artists and featured in big movies. He's got to be raking in royalties. "Brown Eyed Girl" was a long time ago.

It's on the internet so it must be true.
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/van-morrison-net-worth/

Yeah, I think Astral Weeks only took off after a couple of years.

More like a couple of decades, I think. I recall a 1987 issue of RS saying it had sold fewer than 100,000 copies.

But hey, Van, I bet if you released that 1968 live version of Astral Weeks that Peter Wolf has tapes of, that'd bring in some cash. Just sayin'.

He may be down to his last million. I can't believe he needs the money. Jazzbo otm.

You have a drive to do this – writing, recording, touring – your own way.
It's not a drive. It's what I do. It's like Robbie Robertson said to me: "It's like breathing." I've been doing a lot of touring in the past several years because I need the money. I was running out of money, paying for a lot of stuff. I had to go out there again.

I think the renown for Astral Weeks came a long way before 87. It was on a few Best of all time lists a while before that.
I've heard that it was popular on the hippy trail in the early 70s

I got a copy on Original Rock Classics sometime in the mid 80s, or slightly earlier that I've just seen came out in 74. Would think that indicated that whatever label thought it worthy of release in that form recognised it was likely to sell.

Would like to hear that 68 live set. Have enjoyed the early 70s ones I've heard.

yeah, it must've been highly esteemed at some point (see Lester Bangs' Stranded essay), but probably only became a "major" record in the CD era.

Kicked your gift-horse in the teeth
Crowd gathered round in the street
You killed your saviour new one can't be found
Talk is cheap your saviour's highway bound

I gotta rep for "inarticulate speech of the heart" as far as 80s van goes. immense album.

― blank, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 8:39 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is my favorite Van, his "Avalon"

My list of hi sthirty-two best.

Hmmm. You've got some great ones on there no doubt. But I'm a petty, small minded man and I need to say it.

No Saint Dominic's Preview, no Astral Weeks, no credibility. Those are my 2 favorite Van songs. Almost Independence Day is up there too.

"Common One" kicks ass!

underrated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIT0mVLTZM

Finally got the vol 2,3,4 ITLTSN cos I found it cheap on Amazon. It looks to be standard £5+ cheaper than it was btw, I got for even less.
But still hoping more early stuff gets reissued. Has anybody heard anything about that?

Next reish appears to be an "Authorized" collection of the Bang Records stuff.

days before rock n roll on radio atm at work

have we ever polled 'worse tracks in history?' asking for a friend

the new record will perhaps not be a very original statement, but I'm enjoying the singles so far - this Goin' to Chicago version is cool:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4u9Xyg324bx3c5ZfZMhtlm

But the most thrilling moment on the record is when its volume suddenly drops for “Goin’ to Chicago,” so that it sounds as if Morrison, Georgie Fame, and Chris Hill—who plucks the walking bassline which forms the song’s spine—are exchanging simple melodic ideas in the uncrowded air. Morrison sings, “Goin’ to Chicago/So sorry that I can’t take you,” and then Fame, his vocal a liquid counterpoint to Morrison’s more inflexible and geologic formations, sings, “I come from Chi-town, Chi-town is my town,” and the effect is lovely, two powerful vocalists tracing and retracing each other’s phrases just as they start to evaporate from the arrangement.

nice, brad!

oh thanks! i was nervous about that review bc i wish i liked the record more

Another album of standards due out next month:
http://www.recordstore.co.uk/recordstore/Out-in-December/Versatile/5PKS0EAN000

haha, taking the Dylan route

Weird that this thread would be bumped right now. I'm very into A Period of Transition today.

"out in the cold again" from last year's keep me singing is really nice.

In between the times where it feels alright. To the dead of the cold black night

i've a feeling van does not gaf about album title anymore, he already told us born to sing: no plan b why do we have to 'keep him singing' now

Next year he'll release I Have an Album Out.

To be followed up by "$16.99 At Barnes & Noble"

if only! I bough a lot of obscure Rykodisc shit at B&N.

You reminded me of seeing every late '90s Van album, shit like Back on Top displayed prominently.

i really like keep me singing i listen to it often

common one is underrated

the first time i heard moondance i thought "that braying voice.... that bland lifeless smooth jazz puree.... is this sinatra?"
before that my only impression of him was "brown eyed girl is a little mediocre but still listenable"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWg4jnyVAAAtwwD.jpg

Still wishing that the 70s catalogue would reappear in remastered cd form.
Is that remotely likely to happen now?
Really need St Dominic's preview and veedon fleece in decent form.

days before rock n roll on radio atm at work

have we ever polled 'worse tracks in history?' asking for a friend

― spud called maris (darraghmac), Friday, 19 May 2017 10:55 (nine months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who's in the photo with Van and why is Van looking so happy?

robbie robertson?

yeah looks kinda like him - but is he so tall?

Definitely Robbie. Van's a short dude.

5'5"

What's my line?
I'm happy cleaning windows
Take my time
Can't reach the fucking top rows
Cleaning windows

yeah it's robbie — he posted it on his twitter, they seem to be up to something. not the worst idea. does robertson remember how to play guitar i wonder?

There's a thing Van does with his voice that I've often wondered about. I don't think it's confined solely to Astral Weeks, but it's there I notice it most - particularly on the title track, and particularly between about 3.20-3.30 on this version: https://youtu.be/4ech6pZoBJ4

It's almost like he's (deliberately) singing around a bubble in his throat or something. Does it have a name? The only other vocalist I've really heard doing it is Jeff Buckley, and that's when he's covering Van, mainly.

It sounds to me like he's pushing his tongue out a little, and raising his tongue near the back of his mouth. Like when people do an impression of Droopy.

haha, that is indeed a weird little gimmick

Is that like on "When god shines his light" at the end where him and Cliff are humming on the outro, and Van forgets to keep his gob shut?

It sounds to me like he's pushing his tongue out a little, and raising his tongue near the back of his mouth. Like when people do an impression of Droopy.

Haha - it totally is this. Buckley aside, I still don't think I've heard anyone else do this. I like it. I think.

Wow, I only heard Beautiful Vision for the first time last night and it's quite lovely.

US tour coming

Last year this time we were in the midst of the Van poll. That was fun.

seeing him for the first time in a few weeks, excited

Had the chance to see the man in concert yesterday. Relative disappointment, his voice seems strong as ever, but he had a very hard time singing in key on jazzy compositions like Moondance and The Way Young Lovers Do, slightly embarrassing to witness. Pulled off jazz standards and blues covers a lot better, but I’m not that interested in hearing him do Got My Mojo Workin’, his own material is obv a lot more interesting. Band was professional but completely harmless. I know he’s supposed to be hit and miss live, so will give it another go if I get the chance. I’ve praised The Healing Game countless times and will say again that Sometimes We Cry is a late-career evergreen, show highlight for me (even if the band's performance lacked nerve). Oh yeah, and they finished off with Gloria, now that’s a song! Unfortunately Van left the stage after 2 choruses while bandleader encouraged the crowd five or six times in a row to give it up for “THE ONE AND ONLY SIR VAN MORRISON” upon which the band improvised solos for 10 minutes and waved goodbye.

This is the cover of Van Morrison's new album.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DogmWmDW0AA4E5Y.jpg

This is what happens when you're a legacy artist who doesn't sell enough (new) records for the label to bother telling you "No" anymore.

i love it and like the new song. album seems to be another covers + a few new originals thing

that album cover kicks ass and I will fight you

Santo Trafficante Jr goes into hiding and decides to slightly disguise himself as a Blues Brother. I like it.

Relative disappointment, his voice seems strong as ever, but he had a very hard time singing in key on jazzy compositions like Moondance and The Way Young Lovers Do, slightly embarrassing to witness. Pulled off jazz standards and blues covers a lot better

At the big outdoor theatre/shed where I just saw him, he stayed in key on all, but rushed through the hits at a faster tempo. He took him time more on less-known numbers.

his time

glad to hear that, he's infamous for having on/off days right?

was it good overall?

Is he touring all the time and getting bored with the more familiar stuff or something?
THough I guess he will ahve been playing the hits for years which might be boring anyway.

x-post-- It was good overall but a bit uneven. He also didn't talk to the crowd at all between songs. Decided to see a bunch of old legends recently and saw Smoky Robinson the night before I saw Van. Smokey sounded great, chatted to the crowd about old days at the Howard Theatre between songs, and was stunning on what he called the "b-sides" part of his set. He raced through a few hits though too. Van was busy directing his orchestra but other than naming off band members once, didn't bother with talking.

I saw that Boston author who has the book on Astral Weeks out, and he said Van refused to talk to him for the book. He spoke with folks who played on the album and who helped on the songs before they were recorded, but not Van himself.

He took him time more on less-known numbers.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, October 3, 2018 6:19 AM (fifty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same here (it was a festival set). i was thrilled when he really dug into "carrying a torch"

(xp) You sound surprised that legendary ray-of-sunshine Sir Van Morrison is a curmudgeon, curmudgeon?

haha yeah, van has been refusing to talk to biographers for decades now

Think Van is especially unforthcoming about Astral Weeks because he doesn't (or didn't) get any royalties on it.

New alb cover does offer a rare glimpse of his 'zany' sense of humour, last evidenced when he asked Spike Milligan to 'interview' him for Q magazine.

looking forward to a bit of ray charles in the style of lord charles

^^^^

ICYMI:

This is totally bananas.

Today, @vanmorrison unceremoniously released the '68 "Catacombs Tapes" as a live album on iTunes UK. This is the legendary recording I spend the whole #AstralWeeks1968 book trying to track down & hear...and, uh, now YOU can too! https://t.co/AKvyJw3xnE pic.twitter.com/rFg4jYqfYD

— Ryan H. Walsh (@JahHills) November 8, 2018

looks like it's gone already :(

if anyone has leads please let me know :)

Don't know how long it will be up:

https://youtu.be/rQUCv9PkPSg

hell yeah

haven't read ryan's book yet but i'm glad these tapes are out there now

catacombs tape is great! seems like Van had a fairly clear idea of the Astral Weeks sound at this point ... not a perfect recording, but pretty damn fantastic for a 50 year old audience tape.

yeah i'm at "brown eyed girl" and this rules a lot

not a perfect recording

lol yeah the tape speeding up during "one two brown eyes" freaked me out at work

yeah this is gorgeous, definitely interesting to hear a little hint of what brown eyed girl would have sounded like on astral weeks

damn this version of beside you is revelatory

holy shit this catacombs tape

like holy holy holy holy

Balls, it's already been taken down!

I managed to grab a copy, my ilxmail works fine

Magic, cheers! You have mail.

Missed this before it was pulled but I love that it was Peter Wolf of all people who had this tape.

Peter Wolf knew Van back then. Apparently Morrison would make drunken phone requests to radio station Wolf DJ'd for.

BTW, Wolf was college roomies w/David Lynch!

WBCN!

Didn’t know that about Van’s requests. Hilarious.

xp chinaski didn't get your email, weird... try kern.cooper at gmail dot com

I could also just post a direct link here but I get the feeling it wouldn't be in the spirit of ilx?

I'm surprised how much I like the version of Virgo Clown from the Catacombs set. It's not a song I've been into before.

Read through the Astral Weeks book very quickly yesterday and was happy to see tyler get an acknowledgement at the very end.

90s (?) 2-CD The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison is incredible, The Bang Masters, the unscrewed-with originals of tracks that showed up on early solo LPs, is good barefoot pop, get most 70s except maybe Hard Nose The Highway, but I think I stopped buying new stuff after Beautiful Vision, in the early 80s. Clearly need to check out some more, is what I think after hearing bluesy coountry duets with the evervescent Linda Gail Lewis, during one of the wildest (far beyond in-character) American Routes shows ever, THE KILLER, THE THRILLER & THE CHILLER: JERRY LEE LEWIS WITH SISTERS LINDA GAIL AND FRANKIE JEAN---scroll down this page a little for links to hours 1 & 2 (Van shows up in hour 2)
(playlists for both hours are also linked)
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1088/The-Killer-the-Thriller-the-Chiller-Jerry-Lee-Lewis-with-sisters-Linda-Gail-and-Frankie-Jean
Would like to check his album of Mose Allison songs too.

Albums That Should Exist has it:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/11/van-morrison-live-in-boston-1968.html

So, that was purely to keep the copyright alive: Make it available for one day in an obscure part of the world (the UK)

The TV was playing (in the background) a Saturday Night Live episode from Nov. 4, 1978 — I snapped to attention when the Van Morrison performance, “Wavelength,” came on... the band is super tight, lithe, springy, fluid!

Anyone know who was in that particular band? Was it basically the crew from the Wavelength album?

I searched around but can’t find much info... the clip doesn’t even seem to be YouTube, where people usually lost that stuff.

*list

This one is from a few months later (Feb 79). Someone listed the musicians in the comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsEdUH3j1KU

Thanks!

The new Prophet Speaks is Van's fourth album in 18 months, he again is with Joey DeFrancesco's quartet doing a mixture of originals and blues covers.

"The Prophet Speaks"

Almost Independence Day sounded even better than usual as I drove through Marin this morning. For a ten minute tune with a fair bit of repetition and sparse instrumentation, the groove and atmosphere pull you in and hold your attention. Beautiful way to start the day.

Van rules in a similar way to how Pink Floyd rules. Like, when I sit down and try to isolate why they are great, it evaporates completely and I’m left with “aw, geez, I guess I’m wrong — I guess they suck after all.” But then I hear just about anything by them and I’m like, “What am I talking about? [Pink Floyd/Van Morrison] RULES.”

speaking of pink floyd and van morrison. doesn't wish you were here sound like the guitar intro of almost independence day? and the guitar tone is very similar, those are both fenders?

yes, i've always thought so too.

Van rules in a similar way to how Pink Floyd rules. Like, when I sit down and try to isolate why they are great, it evaporates completely and I’m left with “aw, geez, I guess I’m wrong — I guess they suck after all.” But then I hear just about anything by them and I’m like, “What am I talking about? [Pink Floyd/Van Morrison] RULES."

Oddly enough, not so much when they're together tho...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFo_E9Fq2k

I recently spent a commute trying to figure out which live version of "Wavelength" is most joyous.

The answer is Bottom Line 78. But the exercise was instructive, partly because he so rarely does anything the same way.

And I have def come to the conclusion that the trait that I am calling "joy" is most of what I seek from van. It's different from quality or chops or happiness or energy or intensity or soul or whatever. It's the incantatory Dionysian abandon.

It’s always amazes me that so many joyous tunes can come from such a surly, grumpy guy.

Xpost, I like that version of Comfortably Numb. It’s not particularly joyous of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GqszEwXPlc

new album three chords and the truth out 10/25. first album of all original compositions since keep me singing

new song is gorgeous

speaking of pink floyd and van morrison. doesn't wish you were here sound like the guitar intro of almost independence day?

And they both sound like Moonlight Mile.

New song is lovely - the gentle huff and wheeze of a pair of bellows returning to rest.

Interview with Ted Templeman about co-producing Van in the mid-70s. Van being a mentor?

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8531986/ted-templeman-interview

new album stands up with all of his recent original work, really awesome

That interview was great.

Last album was pretty good, will give this one a listen.

There was an interview with him in The Guardian recently. It didn't go well:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/31/a-duel-with-van-morrison-is-this-a-psychiatric-examination-it-sounds-like-one

"I look him in the eye and tell him that I am not trying to psychoanalyse him, that his music has simply meant more to me than any other throughout my life. There is something that moves across his face but I could not name it. 'Aehhh,' he breathes. "Well, shall we end it there?" I say, and stand and shake his hand. As I do I look at (his) notepad. In the top left hand corner he has drawn an angry rectangle."

I always wonder if interviewers treat interviews with notoriously stiff interviewees as a badge of honour, along the lines of Lester Bangs' series of interviews with Lou Reed. There's a comment on Mark Prindle's website to the effect that Lou Reed perked up if you mentioned pinball machines - he apparently had an encyclopaedic knowledge of pinball machines - and I wonder if Van Morrison has a secret hobby that is the key to building a rapport with it. Perhaps he is secretly an expert on Cookie Clicker, or the XCOM games, or perhaps he has a massive Transformers collection.

I can find no evidence on the internet that Van Morrison toured Japan in the late 1970s, around the time that Diaclone first came out, but Wavelength was popular and with the funds he amassed from that record he could easily have gone on a toy-buying spree. Wikipedia's article on that record contains the word "butt". I think the cover photographer was trying to make him look sexy, and amazingly it almost worked. I'm heterosexual, but I can appreciate why ladies might have found 1977-era Van Morrison attractive.

One of the comments on The Guardian's article mentioned an interview he did with Spike Milligan for Q magazine back in 1995:
http://www.raubenheimer.nl/spikevan.html

It's not much more illuminating, although they obviously got on together. "I can't mix my personal stuff with the job, so I just talk about my job. I'm not interested in selling myself, I just sell my records, my music. So I have to censor everything I say, 'cos if I don't, they just use it against me" he says.

The Guardian's inteviewer points out that two of his management team stayed in the room in order to ensure that everything remained on-message, and I wonder if they were scared he was going to blurt out something racist? He's in his seventies, old people are notoriously off-message.

Also, who would have thought that a broken <br> tag in October 2001 would have made my words go small in 2019.

he's never a good interview, i just think he's a very guarded person who also deeply dislikes all non-music-making aspects of the record business

See you soon on the 'notably infected and/or fallen thread':

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/25/van-morrison-blasts-covid-gig-limits-pseudoscience

He don't pull no punches.

Inbox: "Van Morrison to release three new anti-lockdown protest songs". The lyrics are... 😟 pic.twitter.com/uLQhYTH2na

— Stuart Dredge (@stuartdredge) September 18, 2020

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiL7J9yXYAMr7sx?format=png&name=900x900

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiL7J90X0AA9gXi?format=png&name=900x900

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiL7J91WsAEN1ec?format=png&name=900x900

Even disregarding the message, that is a remarkably crude assortment of doggerel from the same guy that brought us Astral Weeks.

Nobody, no, no, no, no, nobody stops me from loving you baby
So young and bold, fourteen-year old
Baby, baby, baby

indeed!

man’s a cunt, always has been

ulster prod in backward opinion shocker

Ulster prods treated as generalised monolith on ilx shocker

King Billy was a cunt as well

this is one of my favourite thread titles

Ulster prods treated as generalised monolith on ilx shocker

― Master of Treacle, Friday, September 18, 2020 11:18 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's tough at the top

he's just testing the water for his new album, 'a period of transmission'

I knew he was a curmudgeonly asshole, but didn't realize he was such a moron.

yeah it blows

If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the ventilator of your dreams
Where unworn mask rules retract
And the ditch into which I drop'd
Could you find me?
Would you close-a my eyes?
To lay me down
In silence easy
To be buried in
To be buried in

No more celebrities telling us, telling us what we are supposed to feel

Take your own fucking hint, Ivan.

Fuck me, those lyrics.

The new normal, is not normal

If memory serves, he complained about the plaque attached to the house he was born in, in Hyndford Street in Belfast. I've walked past it many times. A tiny plaque. Such a massive dick.

as i said itt or some other van thread, it boggles the mind how such a dick could have made such incredibly joyous music.

i'm pretty sure van was into scientology at one point so this anti-science stupidity is maybe par for the course

He was born a Jehovah's Witness.

He gave thanks to L Ron Hubbard on the liner notes of Inarticulate Speech of the Heart

No more celebrities telling us, telling us what we are supposed to feel

Van Morrison was ever thus:

Did you ever hear about the rock and roll singers
Got three or four Cadillacs
Saying power to the people, dance to the music
Want you to pat 'em on the back

greil marcus has a story about a dude who saw van morrison in a bar and got up the nerve to approach him to tell him how much his music had meant to him, and van's response was "why do people feel they have to tell me these things?"

Well, I want to make love to you tonight
I can’t wait ’til the morning has come
but i can't cos you've got a facemask on
And that means you're a fake science drone

I can't remember if this was suggested in Clinton Heylin's bio or some other book, but does Morrison actually have a clinical psychological disorder?

Anyway, going back to his days in Them, he was known to turn into a complete asshole, and I got the impression it wasn't consistent - he would just enter these moods. You can kind of see this in his interviews of the past decade, where he becomes inexplicably hostile to some and very cheery open to others (for example, his last newspaper interview with an Irish reporter, where he's not only in good spirits, but is dutifully following social distancing and thorough handwashing).

For what it's worth (nothing), my friend heard from someone who worked with him that he's on the autism spectrum.

Oh yeah just picked up Hot Press last week cos it's a Van special.
Not looked at it much so had probably missed reference to the new material.
I love Them and think at least the early solo stuff is great.
Does this colour that stuff any more than any previous behaviour from him?

I thought he was brought up as Christian Scientist in a Prod area of Belfast. So probably head wrecked already.

I had a dream last night that I was escorting Van around an identified British city (I think it was Winchester). He was dressed in the classic Dexy's dungarees and pheasant feathers get up and had a guitar slung across his back. He was most genial. That is my Van dream.

He didn't mention vaccines once, thankfully.

A hip genial Van is alas only a dream

Let's discuss his album closers.

Man, I absolutely love "Purple Heather."

Feeling like Almost Independence Day as we wait

Starting to think ‘ No Guru No Method...’ is amongst his best albums...the 80’s new agey production has aged beautifully

There's a good mix of heavy statements and lighter envois here. Lewis Merenstein made a good choice clipping the "Amen" coda off of Slim Slow Slider; if they had kept it, it would have been one of the worst endings to a great album ever. I would definitely have Street Choir and Midnight Special flip places on this list.

I don't know if your exploration of Van has come to an end at 1995, but 97's The Healing Game is definitely worth your time, even Greil Marcus thinks so.

I love how "Glad Tidings" starts off almost like a Krautrock song.

ICYMI this long series of posts from One Band One Week was a good read about Van, Belfast and a bit of Irish history.

https://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/tagged/van+morrison/chrono

He's got a new album out in May. It's called "Latest Record Project Volume 1." A double-CD album of all-new material.

And here's the tracklist.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81adIR0IprL._SL1500_.jpg

And here's where I get off. Adios Van.

Jesus, that thing's two hours long.

When you get to "Stop Bitching, Do Something," "They Own the Media" and "Why Are You on Facebook?," I'm sure those previous 100 minutes will seem worth it.

Should pair nicely with the 80-minute Sun Kil Moon album that quietly dropped last week

Well I'm caught
One more time
Up on Facebook Avenue

they own the media

...

Slippery slope is supposed to be a logical fallacy, yet it ends up going there almost every single fucking time.

Are sure the Onion aren't behind this?

Anyway, you could have powered all of Texas during the winter storm with the pure, unadulterated boomer energy on display here.

goddamnit

Are sure the Onion isn't behind this?

This SHOULD be a prank...but it isn't. It's already appearing in retail stock inventories everywhere. Distributed by BMG (Van already had a contract with Sony, which now owns BMG). UPC code 4050538666250, release date set for May 7. If it's a prank, it's one of the great pranks in rock history, on par with David Bowie's great "Nat Tate" hoax.

And as mentioned, this has been designated Volume ONE.

I'm seeing music posters on twitter babbling almost excitedly about this shite, can't tell if they are trying to be ironic or not.

I actually thought some of his recent music was great before he got onto the Covidiot stuff. Getting harder and harder to defend him now though. Those song titles are shocking.

his view are repugnant but even if they were right on the last fucking thing i want van morrison to be is engaged with current events and the modern world

also this is the only thread on ILX that shows up as times new roman for me

I was long since strung-out on 70s Van (except still haven't heard Hard Nose The Highway or Veedon Fleece) when I got the 2-CD The Story of Then Featuring Van Morrison, which made alll the other stuff I'd stanned for go away from my headbox for a while---now it's back, but damn get that twofer if you can, also liked The Bang Masters, early solo stuff unfucked-with by suits at last. Some good stuff on The Common One and Beautiful Vision, but that's where I stopped keeping up. Would like to check the set of Mose Allison covers.

Is this what happens when you run everyone out of your life that is willing to tell you, "no, Van, that's a terrible idea"?

I think those people left Van Morrison's life by the end of 1970.

When you get to "Stop Bitching, Do Something"

Thought this was Bobby McFerrin?

also this is the only thread on ILX that shows up as times new roman for me

Same here. Did something happen on October 15, 2001, that re-formatted this thread?

Should pair nicely with the 80-minute Sun Kil Moon album that quietly dropped last week

Where, in a toilet?

I wonder if he's had his jab yet? Peter Hitchens caught a bit a of flack from the various idiot constituencies of his after reluctantly surrendering his freedom to big pharma

I actually thought some of his recent music was great before he got onto the Covidiot stuff.

Except for the Astral Weeks tour, I pretty much gave up on anything worthwhile after he sabotaged and diluted the Choppin' Wood album, but Greil Marcus raved about Roll with the Punches and to my surprise it was really good - a casual, hour-plus program of Van and some friends doing his longtime favorites and some worthy originals of like mind. It seemed like an anomaly because pre-Covidiocy I didn't think his other new albums were that good, but I went to see him a few years ago and he put on an awesome show. He even had Jay Berliner on guitar, and the Astral Weeks material came off better than they did in 2008. He's always been a moody jackass, so for all I know this could pass and he'll come to his senses. But it could be a long wait.

He should have called this abortion The Long Con. 6.59 for that atrocity, Christ.

Keep Me Singing from a few years ago was good

I love all of Beautiful Vision but it’s probably because my mom played it all the time when I was a kid

Keep Me Singing from a few years ago was good

I heard a lot of fans claim that was the beginning of his comeback, but it sounded kind of tired to me. I'm sure it's an improvement over what came before it, there wasn't exactly a high bar established in the '00s.

Did Ye Get Redpilled

...and the name is...M...O...D...E.R.N.A!

I kinda like "Why Are You on Facebook?" tbh

I kinda like "Why Are You on Facebook?" tbh

I doubt Van's going to take that in a sensible direction. It's more likely to echo someone I know who quit FB for "choosing" what he could believe when they blocked the Covid conspiracy videos he was trying to upload. (Posted by the same guy last spring: "Fauci is a criminal and he should be in jail!")

oh, didn't mean i thought Van's song would be good; I just like the title...

This would be a good pre-covers one.

lol I was thinking the same thing

Hmmmmmmm.

I wonder if we could get enough participants, though.