Van Morrison: your views please

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?