i am in LOVE with astral weeks and veedon fleece--i prefer his more irish/folky ballad-type songs, i.e. "linden arden," "cyprus avenue," "who was that masked man," "slim slow slider," "come here my love," etc. (i also dig all his work with Them, but have been in a more gentle mood lately. ahhhhh.)
what other albums (early-ish period?) reflect this type of songwriting by morrison? i like moondance, but it isn't as intimate as the albums i mentioned. anyone?
p.s. "hi-fi" by m. ward is one of the best songs i've heard in a long time. unrelated.
― rockaction (rockaction), Thursday, 24 February 2005 05:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 24 February 2005 05:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Burr (Burr), Thursday, 24 February 2005 06:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 24 February 2005 07:56 (nineteen years ago) link
You might also find it's worth investigating the earlier Blowin' Your Mind album or one of the innumerable different compilations that seem to be available of the sessions he recorded in NEW York for Bang! in 1967, after leaving Them but before signing to Warner Bros.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 24 February 2005 10:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 24 February 2005 12:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 24 February 2005 14:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rick Kronberg (TCBeing), Thursday, 24 February 2005 14:31 (nineteen years ago) link
Next favourites, 'Tupelo Honey' and 'His Band And Street Choir'. But I too am open to suggestions as to anything else in this Celtic soul vein.
― persecution_smith, Thursday, 24 February 2005 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 24 February 2005 16:45 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/van-morrisons-back-catalogue-gets-digital-release-70434Van morrison catalogue from '71 onwards as well as Them material getting a digital release through Sony legacy, but no Astral Weeks.Looks like some of them are getting Legacy Deluxe releases which I hope are physical cds. Would love the St Dominic's Preview, and possibly It's Too Late To Stop Now ones. I already have the live set a couple of times, including the remaster from 2008 so not as hard pushed.NOt sure about Hard Nose The Highway since I'm not really sure what's on there , apart from a Kermit cover I think.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 17:37 (eight years ago) link
hard nose the highway has some good stuff -- i love "purple heather"... but yeah, mainly interested in the St Dominic's expanded reissue. Think those songs were drawn from a pretty wide variety of sessions, so there is probably some good stuff in the vaults.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 17:38 (eight years ago) link
"snow in san anselmo" is the jam
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, 26 August 2015 17:40 (eight years ago) link
yeah so good.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 17:55 (eight years ago) link
I have a real liking for Wild Children from the Hardnose album, especially the sudden tempo shift into jazz instrumental
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 20:34 (eight years ago) link
also check out Van Morrison, his Band and the Street Choir, some great songs, notably I've Been Working for its vocal performance
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 20:38 (eight years ago) link
Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir are the ones owned by Warners rather than Van, so not part of this deal - dunno why Warners singled out Moondance for the deluxo treatment (poss Van's best-selling alb?)
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 26 August 2015 20:46 (eight years ago) link
does seem crazy that astral weeks hasn't been done up in deluxe style ...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 26 August 2015 20:51 (eight years ago) link
i'd imagine outside of that 90s greatest hits, Moondance is his best selling album by a large margin
― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 26 August 2015 21:30 (eight years ago) link
whoa apparently there *is* an astral weeks expanded reissue coming out in october with these bonus trax: "Beside You" (Take 1), "Madame George" (Take 4), "Ballerina" (Long Version), "Slim Slow Slider" (Long Version).crazy.
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 August 2015 14:24 (eight years ago) link
Wow. I mean, any unreleased AW stuff is an exciting prospect, but it'd be cool if they also included that live version Peter Wolf recorded in '67 or whenever.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 27 August 2015 14:27 (eight years ago) link
ha yeah, i'll believe that when i hear it...
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 August 2015 14:28 (eight years ago) link
Where's this news about the Astral Weeks thing come from?
― Stevolende, Thursday, 27 August 2015 14:34 (eight years ago) link
saw it on stephen erlewine's facebook (all music editor) -- also a his band and the street choir reissue: Bonus tracks on Astral Weeks: "Beside You" (Take 1), "Madame George" (Take 4), "Ballerina" (Long Version), "Slim Slow Slider" (Long Version). Bonus tracks on Band: "Call Me Up In Dreamland" (Take 10), "Give Me A Kiss" (Take 3), "Gypsy Queen" (Take 3), "I've Been Working" (alternate), "I'll Be Your Lover Too" (alternate version)
― tylerw, Thursday, 27 August 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link
I can't find anything on that so hope it's just early news. Would love a decent copy of AW
― Stevolende, Thursday, 27 August 2015 15:19 (eight years ago) link
right, just found thishttp://theseconddisc.com/2015/08/27/breaking-return-to-cypress-avenue-rhino-remasters-expands-van-morrisons-astral-weeks-his-band-and-the-street-choir/
out 30/10/15 apparently.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 27 August 2015 15:33 (eight years ago) link
Hm, there's a whole lot more of his catalog on Spotify than there was last time I checked
― Brad C., Friday, 28 August 2015 23:59 (eight years ago) link
After spending most of the morning listening, I gotta say that the 1986-1995 period is hella forgotten. So many good understated gems.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:42 (eight years ago) link
poetic champions compose!
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:46 (eight years ago) link
Friday morning fans listen!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:49 (eight years ago) link
Very happy to re-acquire Irish Heartbeat, his 1988 set with the Chieftains.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:02 (eight years ago) link
Looking at all the album covers reminds me that Van looks like he couldn't have cared less about album covers.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:05 (eight years ago) link
since he likes three word titles I can see an album called Couldn't Care Less.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:08 (eight years ago) link
Poetic Champions Compose is great and so is Irish Heartbeat; Avalon Sunset is pretty good or at least has at least a couple of great tunes -- "Whenever God Shines His Light On Me," "When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God." Enlightenment felt pretty hurried to me though "Real Real Gone" is a winner. After that he feels pretty cranky to me until '97 but I really love The Healing Game.
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:16 (eight years ago) link
enlightenment also has "avalon of the heart" which i love
i am mostly psyched that the philosopher's stone is widely available again
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:25 (eight years ago) link
PCC has the most songs of any '80s albums on the original comp, so even Van liked it.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:31 (eight years ago) link
my memory of albums like Days Like This and Back on Top is of walking into Barnes & Nobles' often impeccable music section and seeing an impressive display (they were also one of the few stores that stocked deep catalog albums).
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 August 2015 02:32 (eight years ago) link
Is there a reason why they picked Enlightenment as one of the 4 Legacy Deluxe titles? The other 3 are early 70s, 2 classics and Hard Nose.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 29 August 2015 06:47 (eight years ago) link
The Healing Game is such a fantastic album, I don't mean to hype via ranking hyperbole but I guess I only prefer Astral Weeks to it, and it's a very different album...
Rough God Goes Riding, Sometimes We Cry, so many great songs.
And the production value is spectacular!
― niels, Thursday, 10 September 2015 17:14 (eight years ago) link
As I was poking around to see if this stuff was in Spotify yet, I made a playlist of the stuff recommended here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/124420673/playlist/21u6NrVqK5MARcfwwUAPAR
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 13 September 2015 02:30 (eight years ago) link
The latest Record Collector, with the Kinks on the cover, has the announcement that there are 33 Legacy expanded editions coming with a lot of unreleased material so does that mean that these things are actually getting physical releases. That News is very late for the streaming/download versions.
― Stevolende, Friday, 9 October 2015 21:08 (eight years ago) link
I see Rhino is doing 180g vinyl reissues of some of the same titles that Legacy released digitally last yearhttp://www.rhino.com/article/doing-a-180-van-morrison-common-one-beautiful-vision-inarticulate-speech-of-the-heart?cmpid=rn/2016February12/NewReleases-VanMorrison-right-image-6&eml=2016February12/3159313/6134371&etsubid=34079420which I find odd because I thought they were different, possibly rival, companies.
I still haven't heard anything about other physical media releases of any of that material that legacy released digitally last August. The only thing I've seen come out since that set of digital releases is the Them 3cd. Even the initial announcement was talking about 4 album titles getting Deluxe treatment apparently on cd.
Has anybody heard anything else new about thsi back catalogue getting cd release?
― Stevolende, Saturday, 13 February 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
Has anybody here seen Van live recently? He's coming to Denmark but tickets are v expensive.
― niels, Sunday, 14 February 2016 11:03 (eight years ago) link
This blog writes up all his shows: http://mysticavenueblog.blogspot.com/ The recent ones are supposed to be excellent if you like Van with a jazzy tilt. Sad I missed his January shows in Oakland.
― that's not my post, Monday, 15 February 2016 00:53 (eight years ago) link
Cool, thanks!
― niels, Saturday, 27 February 2016 16:02 (eight years ago) link
Sir Van!
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03567/Van_3567538b.jpg
― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 27 February 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link