Van Morrison: your views please

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