― stevo, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Simon, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Snotty Moore, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Andrew Norman, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― g, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mrs. Grundy, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Michael Daddino, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dn, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Sunday, 14 November 2004 18:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Sunday, 14 November 2004 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 14 November 2004 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Sunday, 14 November 2004 20:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 14 November 2004 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 14 November 2004 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link
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?!?
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:09 (nineteen years ago) link
Van Morrison is a prize curmudgeon by all accounts, which gives me an opportunity to pinch this from the rocking vicarVan's Daily DumpVan 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.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 14 November 2004 23:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 15 November 2004 03:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 15 November 2004 03:18 (nineteen years ago) link
Maybe.
Astral Weeks = very necessary.
The rest = meh. Ups and downs.
― skowly (skowly), Monday, 15 November 2004 04:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 15 November 2004 04:12 (nineteen years ago) link
Out of context, that would be a strange sentence.
― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 15 November 2004 04:17 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 15 November 2004 04:24 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 04:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― prov, Monday, 15 November 2004 06:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:41 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Burr (Burr), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― shookout (shookout), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Burr (Burr), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
how hold on a moment...
― amateur!!st, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― rumple, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― rumple, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:36 (nineteen years ago) link
but al green is al green!
― amateur!!st, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― rumple, Monday, 15 November 2004 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
anyway style IS substance. dude.
― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 04:47 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― the dude., Tuesday, 16 November 2004 06:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 08:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― rumple, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 08:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 15:43 (nineteen years ago) link
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....
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 24 September 2007 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link
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 ...
― tylerw, Monday, 24 September 2007 16:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Jazzbo, Monday, 24 September 2007 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link
He's complete crap, of course.
― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 26 September 2007 01:38 (sixteen years ago) link
Wrong, Alex. The man could do the neatest codas.
― Cunga, Wednesday, 26 September 2007 01:40 (sixteen years ago) link
That probably sounds insensitive in light of brimstead's post. I hope things get easier for you.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:27 (one year ago) link
Bird - maybe "Pay It Back"?
That's the only EC song that I can think of that has an echo of "Domino."
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:31 (one year ago) link
I mean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEu2e12x1w
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:36 (one year ago) link
"Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" used to get mistaken for a Van Morrison song pretty regularly.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:41 (one year ago) link
― brimstead, Friday, 24 March 2023 21:43 (one year ago) link
I actually have the easiest time separating the art from the artist in Van's case than anyone else. He's always been a fairly disagreeable little troll and it's a minor miracle that the universe decided to channel that magic through him. I don't really feel like his music has anything to do with him or even belongs to him.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:45 (one year ago) link
It just occurred to me to look up the setlist - it was actually "Living in Paradise" (which I think may have been demoed before the Attractions came into he picture, even though it ultimately appeared on This Year's Model).
And I think I'm in the same boat with UMS. To be fair, I don't have any interest in listening to his post-COVID records or to go to anymore shows, but it's always been understood that there's something seriously wrong with him mentally and it's a big reason why he will always be a terrible and unpredictable person. The fact he's created so much transcendent music is miraculous.
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 21:56 (one year ago) link
I can buy into the notion of Van as a conduit. I think the difference between mythically grumpy and abusive twat Van and modern Van is proximity & social media. The former is distant, avoidable, the vagaries of emotional control part of the mythos; the latter is blunt and ugly and precisely the kind of twat I avoid at all costs - and it's right there in my face. Am very much hoping it will pass.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 24 March 2023 21:57 (one year ago) link
Bird - Interesting. I don't immediately hear that in "Living in Paradise" but I will think about it.
Really? Maybe because of the brass.
But Elvis uses approximately fifteen times as many words as Van.
Elvis is like
Now the flagstone streets where the newspaper shoutsRing to the boots of roustabouts
Whereas Van is like
Sha la la la la la la la la la la tee dah
Both of these cranky singers have their place.
But I think part of EC's rhetorical purpose here has to do with claiming Irishness as an essential part of his identity - a point on which he sometimes protests too much. Sometimes he appears embarrassed by how English he is, and uses Ireland as a fig leaf. But that strays from the thread topic rather a lot.
To circle back, I am also done with Van. He made some pretty catchy records, sure, but he has overstayed his welcome from the public sphere. The planet would be okay if he just fucking vanished.
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 24 March 2023 22:02 (one year ago) link
Greg Kot said he once saw Van Morrison punch out one of his band members on the way off the stage. Anyone see this? It probably would've been a Chicago-area concert, though I know Kot sometimes covered shows out-of-state.
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:04 (one year ago) link
xp hey found a clip of that moment in the show!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuZfu9XvBzw
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:06 (one year ago) link
Prior to the anti vax crap, I'd say Van probably put out as reliably good new records as any old classic rocker, maybe save Dylan. His voice is still in remarkable shape for his age and the fact he seems like perpetually out of shape alcoholic.
I guess I really came around Van as conduit when I finally read about the making of Astral Weeks, which I thought was probably some kind of mystical group seance to find out he barely acknowledged or spoke to anyone and did his vocals from the booth while they played in the studio.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 24 March 2023 22:06 (one year ago) link
xp (not "Domino" but "Living in Paradise," adding the joke "maybe (Van)'ll sue me.")a
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:08 (one year ago) link
I think Greil Marcus was right about Roll with the Punches, it's a pretty excellent album. I wasn't taken by Keep Me Singing but Roll with the Punches somehow came off like a great afterhours show where he just did as few new songs and a lot of old standards. On paper I never would have expected it - "it's over an hour (probably too long) and he's already released covers of some of these songs" - but I loved the entire album.
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:10 (one year ago) link
I liked Keep Me Singing actually...Three Chords and Truth is pretty good, Magic Time from 05. I guess I always find a few gems, not that I go back to them often.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 24 March 2023 22:17 (one year ago) link
I get the impression a lot of fans like Keep Me Singing - a lot them single it out as his real comeback, but something about it felt kind of lifeless to me, like he was sapped of energy. I'll give it another try though.
― birdistheword, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:22 (one year ago) link
I love “out in the cold again” from keep me singing“In between the times where it feels alrightTo the dead of the cold black night”
― brimstead, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:24 (one year ago) link
i once saw van walk off stage in the middle of a song, not to return, after he had done his contractual 45 minutes. he didn't punch anyone afaik but the bandmembers he left vamping looked mighty perplexed. luckily rockpile had done a killer opening set so i didn't feel too ripped off.
― Thus Sang Freud, Friday, 24 March 2023 22:42 (one year ago) link
Re: the conduit reading of Van. Okay I guess but I just want to have this mystique applied consistently.
Musicians like him don't have a monopoly on soulfulness / spirituality / mysticism.
Like, if Van Morrison gets to be a "conduit," then so does Paula Abdul or Garth Brooks or Morris Day or Johannes Brahms or Erykah Badu or whomsoever.
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 24 March 2023 22:53 (one year ago) link
He's always been a fairly disagreeable little troll and it's a minor miracle that the universe decided to channel that magic through him. I don't really feel like his music has anything to do with him or even belongs to him
Sums up my feelings as well. It’s even more remarkable that he has recorded some of the most joyous music around.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 25 March 2023 02:47 (one year ago) link
I've been having a bit of a problem with Van lately myself. I likely will get over it, but it's been harder than I realized.
― This machine bores fascism (PBKR), Saturday, 25 March 2023 03:22 (one year ago) link
That, and the vocal style is very Morrisonesque.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:00 (one year ago) link
Okay, I can see that, in the shouts growled chorus.
Elvis is like five times as smart as Van, not that it does him any good
― carne asana (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 25 March 2023 19:43 (one year ago) link
finally getting around to some 80s van and damn how the fuck was i even living before i heard "beautiful vision"????
― ꙮ (map), Monday, 13 November 2023 18:31 (six months ago) link
yuuuup
― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 November 2023 18:35 (six months ago) link
I taped a King Biscuit concert of his, about 1991, off the radio. Unfortunately my boombox was wonky and recorded at the wrong speed. Consequently that was the only machine on which I could play that recording.
Van was, in my view, at the height of his mid-career powers, and he had an an excellent backing band. Basically the "Wavelength" album, plus the way he was performing his earlier material in exactly that moment.
Exquisite. Before that, he was underbaked. After that, too much. It was exactly right.
― don't let days go by, Listerine (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 13 November 2023 19:49 (six months ago) link
gotta love Vanlose Stairway
90s Van rules ok too, I have a particular weak spot for The Healing Game
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 13 November 2023 20:34 (six months ago) link
the wind in the willows…AND THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
― brimstead, Monday, 13 November 2023 22:27 (six months ago) link
Van's pandemic turn has made it much harder for me to enjoy his work.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 00:02 (five months ago) link
As someone suggested in another thread, I kind of pretend he's been dead since 2019 and indulge in the work of a man who (while still a colossal dick) hasn't gone all-in into vile conspiracy theories.
Similar to Eric Clapton (dead since the end of 1974) and I guess Kanye West (dead since the end of 2010) when I'm ready to listen to him again.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 01:00 (five months ago) link
Yeah bird I tuned Van out a long time ago. Pretending he died is perhaps the best way to enjoy his early work while ignoring his subsequent rancid dickishness.
― don't let days go by, Listerine (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 02:00 (five months ago) link
I put Van Morrison into a Chinese translator and I feel like I'm going insane pic.twitter.com/0TuPUQKEb8— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) November 24, 2023
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Friday, 24 November 2023 12:54 (five months ago) link
New episode of the 500 Songs podcast is on Vanhttps://500songs.com/podcast/episode-170-astral-weeks-by-van-morrison/
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 24 November 2023 13:08 (five months ago) link
ooh interesting!
that chinese translation is wild
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 24 November 2023 13:23 (five months ago) link
Underappreciated track from otherwise nothing-special record, imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghOffQ-BrI
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 April 2024 12:51 (three weeks ago) link