Backstreet JellyPOLL: ILM Van Morrison Poll Discussion Thread

completely forgot that fun. did a cover of "queen of the slipstream." it's pretty good imo otherwise i wouldn't subject y'all to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlrmUuukVV0

I should submit a ballot, right?

yes

just submitted mine!

jesus this guy has a lot of good songs...

It is touched on upthread, but one of the enduring mysteries for me is that I am completely in thrall to these songs on subjects I find almost intolerable anywhere else: I am on tour; people are phonies; I'm staring at a 14-year-old girl from a car; those other people are phonies too; Ireland is lovely.

Which is just to say I am sitting here regretting not making a song that goes on about 'merry gypsies' my number one.

speaking of "ireland is lovely" here's a song van dedicated to his high school in belfast. prob my favorite song on avalon sunset, can't get enough of those golden autumn days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBao_-FJU8

I think I said this elsewhere but while there are plenty of good songs about California, Van's are pretty much the only ones that make me want to be in California.

I understood Van the vocalist much better when I realized he was a saxophone

I am on tour; people are phonies; I'm staring at a 14-year-old girl from a car; those other people are phonies too; Ireland is lovely.
lol otm -- also "i can't believe i signed that contract"

the first couplet on his latest album might literally be the biggest load of shit ever sung haha:

"I was Mr Nice Guy too long
And I found out that was wrong"

really now

lmao van

One of my favourite scenes in "The Last Waltz" is at the big singalong at the end; Neil Young puts his arm around Van in a gesture of brotherly solidarity. Van visibly recoils/shudders and Neil puts his arm away

I really like this also love the moxie of calling a song "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" like fuck Pink Floyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14VTF3EWqUo

i can imagine van singing "never heard of pink floyd / never got no insight from sigmund freud"

just on its surface Pink Floyd's whole approach to music would be so antithetical to Van

or....holy shit...maybe The Band, Roger Waters and Van doing "Comfortably Numb"??????

fucking Levon singing this song is messing w/ me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFo_E9Fq2k

lmao whut

this is the most bloated thing i've ever seen

Yes. I prefer to think of Van not being aware of any music post Ray Charles, or at least Bob Dylan. Certainly not singing songs from The Wall.

I believe Van's cover of Comfortably Numb was featured prominently in a scene or two from The Sopranos.

though maybe him and Waters are bros cuz they are total grumpy bastards?

i think i'm gonna actually finish my ballot in the next few hours! didn't think i'd ever get here lol

Christ, Tir Na Nog is glorious. This is impossible.

can someone (Brad or anyone) rank in descending order the '80s work?

PCC and Beautiful Vision sound the best to my ears.

common one
no guru
poetic champions
irish heartbeat
beautiful vision
inarticulate speech of the heart
avalon sunset
a sense of wonder

i think that's everything

Common One!

Anyone read the Marcus book?

I believe Van's cover of Comfortably Numb was featured prominently in a scene or two from The Sopranos.

It's what's on the stereo when Christopher and Tony have the wreck that causes the latter to finish off the former before the authorities arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU8nJE6z4DM

"It's The Departed soundtrack. It's fuckin' killer..."

god when hymns to the silence finally gets all of its bitter recriminations against the music industry out of the way and gives itself over to nostalgia and spirituality it's exquisite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eBjVOJ0w_o

take me back
take me back
take me back
take me back

"When the Leaves Come Falling Down" better make some ballads.

and here i thought i had all of his songs about leaves on my ballot

don't forget the recitatives for synth.

i love that there's also a song called "golden autumn day" on back on top. van really consolidating the overarching themes there

He's got no "Desultory Winter Light" in his catalog

First listen to 'Take Me Back' and it is lovely, but I think the issue is the band, which feels a bit pedestrian, a bit plodding. I mean, it's unreasonable to want Richard Davis and Jay Berliner on every album, but still.

slight counterpoint: van's drummer around the time was dave early, who was also sade's unofficial drummer

i think he does wonderful work here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOUilsuZj1E

all right i'm onto the live albums i'm less familiar with and my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN14cvbC8CY

Another super weird collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_f-kOri1w

lol immediately started crying when van sang "my tongue gets.... t-t-t-t-tied" on the live astral weeks, jesus

We all have to comment on Astral Weeks in the shadow of Bangs, but Ballerina is the track that destroys me the most, and it's the 'and this time I forget to slip into your slumber' verse in particular. I think it's the midpoint between His voice as instrument - where the words are secondary to the delivery - and the power of the lyrics themselves. And the bastard was 23.

Heh - I quite like the 'His' typo.

Zappa & Van had history: The Mothers (and The Doors, and Beefheart!) opened for Them on their only US tour w/Morrison in '66.

Ballerina is amazing. All of the album closers seem to be.

man avalon sunset's better than I remembered, huh

xp lol immediately started crying when van sang "my tongue gets.... t-t-t-t-tied"

otm

Avalon Sunset was a tape belonging to my older brother that I used to listen to a lot when I was 13. I felt I had to dislike it since then, cos yknow, Cliff Richard, but its a lovely album

Hey Born To Sing No Plan B is really good.

I got addicted to Ballerina through his live sets. Particularly this one ....

https://youtu.be/mRpLokqyQF0

^formatting fail. That leads to the Pacific High Studio version from 1971. Hard not to hit repeat after listening.

gonna take full advantage of the 1-day extension, 4-5 spots left on my ballot

ok here's a great them song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_-J0wKpSw

i had also never heard "friday's child" before this poll and wow