Backstreet JellyPOLL: ILM Van Morrison Poll Discussion Thread

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

anyway i submitted my ballot

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

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, July 31, 2017 5:30 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jim Morrison was a huge fan of Them (a band I get the sense that any recorded material can't really convey what they were as a force of nature during a small club date in the mid-60s) and also is said to have studied Van's stage moves in Them very carefully and adopted them for his Lizard King dramatics

OK, so tomorrow is the last full day of voting. Please have your ballots in by 12 AM, August 3. Rollout starts on Thursday and we'll finish up on Friday.

the "friday's child" from that pacific high 71 bootleg is unbelievable (as is most of the rest of that show)

http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Van-and-Jim-Morrison.jpg
jim van morrison

(plus sherlock holmes on the sax!)

not enough deerstalkers in music nowadays imo

i regret not voting for "fire in the belly"

Let me tell you, the results of this are pretty surprising thus far.

that is the greatest photo

listening to Enlightenment right now. Dude is so weird, "Cleaning Windows" he goes "I'm a workin' man in my prime (lol you haven't worked a day in yr life Van), CLEANIN' WINDOWS!" then, oddly he just speaks, matter of factly "Number 36" before a sax solo

also really regret not voting for "dweller on the threshold," specifically the faster live version from 1984

"van is a saxophone" theory falls apart on "Almost Independence Day" where he is a guitar and "When Heart is Open" where he is a harmonica

Can't see cleaning windows on my copy of /enlightenment/ but man is it a ropey album

also really regret not voting for "dweller on the threshold," specifically the faster live version from 1984

Will probably make my ballot because of the Glastonbury recording. Such a great set. Most of my post 74 picks will be as a result of that gig

rave on

holy shit that glastonbury 87 setlist is incredible

Sorry summertime in England. The vocal interplay with one of the backing singers towards the end is phenomenal. And the line about Avalon strikes a local chord...

It was a revelatory experience.