Van Morrison: your views please

He's got so much & I know so little. I also like "Wavelength". Some of those long mid-70s pieces like "Listen to the Lion" are pretty painful.

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.

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?!?

Van Morrison is a prize curmudgeon by all accounts, which gives me an opportunity to pinch this from the rocking vicar
Van's Daily Dump
Van 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.

Maybe.

Astral Weeks = very necessary.

The rest = meh. Ups and downs.

Out of context, that would be a strange sentence.

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.

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.

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.

how hold on a moment...

but al green is al green!

anyway style IS substance. dude.

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.

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.

xp (not "Domino" but "Living in Paradise," adding the joke "maybe (Van)'ll sue me.")a

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.

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.

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.

I love “out in the cold again” from keep me singing

“In between the times where it feels alright
To the dead of the cold black night”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Really? Maybe because of the brass.

That, and the vocal style is very Morrisonesque.

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

finally getting around to some 80s van and damn how the fuck was i even living before i heard "beautiful vision"????

yuuuup

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.

gotta love Vanlose Stairway

90s Van rules ok too, I have a particular weak spot for The Healing Game

the wind in the willows…AND THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

Van's pandemic turn has made it much harder for me to enjoy his work.

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.

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.

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

New episode of the 500 Songs podcast is on Van

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-170-astral-weeks-by-van-morrison/

ooh interesting!

that chinese translation is wild

Underappreciated track from otherwise nothing-special record, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghOffQ-BrI

“Cleaning Windows” came on at the bar hahaha

“Curiosity killed the cat / Kerouac’s dharma bums / and on the road”

The singing on the verses of the original Them studio version of “Here Comes the Night” are surprisingly wimpy.

Live version(s) on IT’S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW much better. Even David Bowie and Rod Stewart cover versions improve on the verses.

"tueplo honey" is kind of just "people get ready" i realized but still really good

*tupelo

been going on a bit of a deep dive with van, will report back on my findings

"Why Must I Always Explain" is the same chord progression as "Tupelo Honey."

The only bright side of a Trump reelection would be "Why Are You On Facebook?" at the inauguration.

Please do, budo. I love Van.

i hate to tell you this, but you've got ringworm

a van morrison deep dive is such an enduring pleasure. an honestly even long into the recent years there's gems -- that country record pay the devil is really really good

Exactly. I love grumpy Van so even the politically incorrect recent records are a delight to my ears -- I like it a lot when he whines. As other ilxors have pointed out, it makes the mystically transporting moments more powerful, when you consider who exactly is being transported! -- plus I think he's a great lyricist and singer when he's irascible, he's so sincere about it (You Don't Understand, for instance; so good) -- but I have the advantage of living in East Asia, where the pressing sociopolitical issues tend to be different, and the insufferable assholes I want to keep a distance from rant about different topics. Listening to whiny Van out here feels like reading some Latin poet mouth off about what he hated about Ancient Rome. Right or wrong, it's too far away for me to tell. And I love the contrast between his pettiness and that sweet, sweet, pro-yet-still-soulful music he and his band(s?) are now so great at making.

There is some hypnotic evil energy in the grumbling works. I listened to Latest Record Project Vol 1 once, out of curiosity, and spent 2 days shuffling around and muttering 'I'm a targeted individual'

Listening to whiny Van out here feels like reading some Latin poet mouth off about what he hated about Ancient Rome.

this is honestly wonderful insight -- I love Juvenal, the Roman satirist who, if he lived in present-day America, would absolutely be one of the worst people alive, but in Rome? I'm never gonna read Juvenal VI again ("Against Women") but otherwise his ire is a lot of fun and all those people are dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6G34zJzcAU

^^great performance with pee wee ellis on sax

I got the DVD that has this (should be easy to find in used but great condition for less than $10). It is pretty awesome.