Van Morrison: your views please

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?

yeah i think it's all trickling out.
the rainbow film was broadcast on the BBC in 1974 I think?

Disc: 1
1. Come Running
2. These Dreams of You
3. The Way Young Lovers Do
4. Snow in San Anselmo
5. I Just Want to Make Love to You
6. Bring It on Home to Me
7. Purple Heather
8. Hey, Good Lookin'
9. Bein' Green
10. Brown Eyed Girl
11. Listen to the Lion
12. Hard Nose the Highway
13. Moondance
14. Cyprus Avenue
15. Caravan

Disc: 2
1. I've Been Working
2. There There Child
3. No Way
4. Since I Fell for You
5. Wild Night
6. I Paid the Price
7. Domino
8. Gloria
9. Buona Sera
10. Moonshine Whiskey
11. Ain't Nothing You Can Do
12. Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket
13. Sweet Thing
14. Into the Mystic
15. I Believe to My Soul

Disc: 3
1. Listen to the Lion
2. I Paid the Price
3. Bein' Green
4. Since I Fell for You
5. Into the Mystic
6. Everyone
7. I Believe to My Soul
8. Sweet Thing
9. I Just Want to Make Love to You
10. Wild Children
11. Here Comes the Night
12. Buona Sera
13. Domino
14. Caravan
15. Cyprus Avenue

Disc: 4
1. Here Comes the Night
2. I Just Want to Make Love to You
3. Brown Eyed Girl
4. Moonshine Whiskey
5. Moondance
6. Help Me
7. Domino
8. Caravan
9. Cyprus Avenue

listening to the original it's too late, and damn it remains so good

yeah that's the definitive version of Caravan in my estimation, so joyful

Do Love the Caledonian Soul Orchestra. What i've heard from him live from around that time has been pretty great, as long as the sound is good.

he's pretty good throughout '74 too I think. Though CSO cease to be sometime during that.

yeah i find myself wondering about all the people who played w/ van during this time ... how good they are, and how they seem to disappear after van gives them the boot!

Revival of this thread finally got me to some of the music linked from Tyler's great blog, like the sets in this post (though better to do Google Advanced Search than tumblr's own search semi-function)http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/77389633507/van-morrison-live-at-the-lions-share-san

yeah i find myself wondering about all the people who played w/ van during this time ... how good they are, and how they seem to disappear after van gives them the boot!

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:17 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, yeah, the last time I listened to it I thought, hm, ok, these are obviously big-deal players, wonder who they are? Didn't recognize a single name.

yeah, i assume a lot of 'em in the early to mid-70s are bay area session dudes ... maybe i'm just looking in the wrong places for them. would be interesting to read an oral history from van's sidemen. i imagine some of it wouldn't be pretty.

Oh well yknow Morrison had some well-known jazz musicians (and Ronnie Montrose) on previous albums, but the only name that comes to mind re mid-70s Caledonia Soul is John Platania, who also played with Raitt, Newman, a bunch of others back then, and even got back with Van for the 2000s live album verion of Astral Weeks---how is that, btw??

i've never heard that live astral weeks ... not sure if i really want to.

new album sounds good!

Van still seems very cranky, though:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/van-morrison-on-blues-roots-rock-roll-bulls--t-w441824

what's new

Exactly

i like the new one a lot, v autumnal

Cranky or not looking forward to seeing him tomorrow night in SF.

Cool, let us know how it goes!

Is there still now news about the reissue of the cd catalogue?
Was really hoping to get at least the early 70s studio stuff.

The Van show at Davies Symphony Hall in SF was fantastic. His voice has held up amazingly well. Hardly said boo to the audience and when he did talk it was mostly mumbles. Some of the lyrics were mumbly as well. But no bother, the band was hot and Van was there to preach.