yes, i've always thought so too.
― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 21:40 (five years ago) link
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
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 21:44 (five years ago) link
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.
― mitt the hoopla (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 May 2019 23:31 (five years ago) link
It’s always amazes me that so many joyous tunes can come from such a surly, grumpy guy.
― that's not my post, Thursday, 23 May 2019 04:13 (five years ago) link
Xpost, I like that version of Comfortably Numb. It’s not particularly joyous of course.
― that's not my post, Thursday, 23 May 2019 04:18 (five years ago) link
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
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 15:09 (four years ago) link
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.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 15:13 (four years ago) link
New song is lovely - the gentle huff and wheeze of a pair of bellows returning to rest.
― Life is a meaningless nightmare of suffering...save string (Chinaski), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 18:03 (four years ago) link
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
― that's not my post, Tuesday, 15 October 2019 05:05 (four years ago) link
new album stands up with all of his recent original work, really awesome
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 11 November 2019 00:48 (four years ago) link
That interview was great.Last album was pretty good, will give this one a listen.
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 11 November 2019 01:20 (four years ago) link
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.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Monday, 11 November 2019 20:56 (four years ago) link
Also, who would have thought that a broken <br> tag in October 2001 would have made my words go small in 2019.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Monday, 11 November 2019 20:58 (four years ago) link
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
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 11 November 2019 21:31 (four years ago) link
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
― pomentiful (pomenitul), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link
He don't pull no punches.
― Isinglass Ponys (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 17:56 (three years ago) link
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
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, 18 September 2020 17:50 (three years ago) link
Even disregarding the message, that is a remarkably crude assortment of doggerel from the same guy that brought us Astral Weeks.
― mirostones, Friday, 18 September 2020 17:58 (three years ago) link
Nobody, no, no, no, no, nobody stops me from loving you babySo young and bold, fourteen-year oldBaby, baby, baby
indeed!
― calzino, Friday, 18 September 2020 18:01 (three years ago) link
man’s a cunt, always has been
― scampo italiano (gyac), Friday, 18 September 2020 18:04 (three years ago) link
ulster prod in backward opinion shocker
― rascal clobber (jim in vancouver), Friday, 18 September 2020 18:04 (three years ago) link
Ulster prods treated as generalised monolith on ilx shocker
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 18 September 2020 18:18 (three years ago) link
King Billy was a cunt as well
― scampo italiano (gyac), Friday, 18 September 2020 18:22 (three years ago) link
this is one of my favourite thread titles
― mark s, Friday, 18 September 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
― Master of Treacle, Friday, September 18, 2020 11:18 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
it's tough at the top
― rascal clobber (jim in vancouver), Friday, 18 September 2020 18:52 (three years ago) link
he's just testing the water for his new album, 'a period of transmission'
― kites aren't fun (NickB), Friday, 18 September 2020 18:55 (three years ago) link
I knew he was a curmudgeonly asshole, but didn't realize he was such a moron.
― James Gandolfini the Grey (PBKR), Friday, 18 September 2020 19:24 (three years ago) link
yeah it blows
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 18 September 2020 19:24 (three years ago) link
If I ventured in the slipstreamBetween the ventilator of your dreamsWhere unworn mask rules retractAnd the ditch into which I drop'dCould you find me?Would you close-a my eyes?To lay me downIn silence easyTo be buried inTo be buried in
― James Gandolfini the Grey (PBKR), Friday, 18 September 2020 20:48 (three years ago) link
No more celebrities telling us, telling us what we are supposed to feel
Take your own fucking hint, Ivan.
― pomenitul, Friday, 18 September 2020 20:53 (three years ago) link
Fuck me, those lyrics.
― Duke, Friday, 18 September 2020 21:11 (three years ago) link
The new normal, is not normal
― pomenitul, Friday, 18 September 2020 21:13 (three years ago) link
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.
― Duke, Friday, 18 September 2020 21:16 (three years ago) link
as i said itt or some other van thread, it boggles the mind how such a dick could have made such incredibly joyous music.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 19 September 2020 02:27 (three years ago) link
i'm pretty sure van was into scientology at one point so this anti-science stupidity is maybe par for the course
― that's not my post, Saturday, 19 September 2020 02:29 (three years ago) link
He was born a Jehovah's Witness.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 19 September 2020 03:19 (three years ago) link
He gave thanks to L Ron Hubbard on the liner notes of Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Saturday, 19 September 2020 03:26 (three years ago) link
Van Morrison was ever thus:
Did you ever hear about the rock and roll singersGot three or four CadillacsSaying power to the people, dance to the musicWant you to pat 'em on the back
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 19 September 2020 03:44 (three years ago) link
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?"
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 19 September 2020 04:04 (three years ago) link
Well, I want to make love to you tonightI can’t wait ’til the morning has comebut i can't cos you've got a facemask onAnd that means you're a fake science drone
― origami condom (Neanderthal), Saturday, 19 September 2020 04:57 (three years ago) link
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).
― birdistheword, Saturday, 19 September 2020 05:07 (three years ago) link
For what it's worth (nothing), my friend heard from someone who worked with him that he's on the autism spectrum.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 19 September 2020 05:09 (three years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 19 September 2020 06:51 (three years ago) link
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.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 12 October 2020 20:18 (three years ago) link
He didn't mention vaccines once, thankfully.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 12 October 2020 20:19 (three years ago) link
A hip genial Van is alas only a dream
― that's not my post, Tuesday, 13 October 2020 02:01 (three years ago) link
Let's discuss his album closers.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 November 2020 05:02 (three years ago) link
Man, I absolutely love "Purple Heather."
― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Friday, 6 November 2020 05:08 (three years ago) link
Feeling like Almost Independence Day as we wait
― that's not my post, Friday, 6 November 2020 06:29 (three years ago) link