Backstreet JellyPOLL: ILM Van Morrison Poll Discussion Thread

The version of Into the Mystic on vol.3 of Too Late to Stop Now damn near makes me levitate.

Hoping voters remember just how exquisite Linden Arden is ... the interplay between Van's singing and the piano is magic.

man yall I really didn't know there were other van fans around here and generally hold my tongue

I will rep for a fair bit of 90s van. honestly I will say he's still got it. pay the devil was fuckin good. common one knocked me over when i first found it but that was back when just knowing it existed made you a head. wanna say good words here for queen of the slipstream & raglan road. those are giant numbers. along w/be thou my vision from hymns to the silence. fuck yes van morrison.

man I never but never do these poll submission threads but you can expect an email from me in about five minutes here.

OH MY HIGH IN THE ART OF SUFFERING ONE, TAKE A WALK WITH ME

man I never but never do these poll submission threads but you can expect an email from me in about five minutes here.

Somebody do a death metal poll next.

too broad

if somebody did Death or Mercyful Fate I would of course be in for those

I predict my ballot will be the only one with "goin down to monte carlo" but it's so much the quintessential late van song. the band: exquisite. the pace: languid, flowing, effortless. the lyric: bitchy and clumsy. the overall effect: utterly hypnotic.

Xxxxp Tir No Nog is bomb

veedon fleece, you guys

his falsetto is so gorgeous throughout

I'll be following this poll with great interest, but since I'm not familiar with much of his catalogue won't be voting. All the same, I'd like to stan for The Healing Game, which is the Van album I listen to the most:

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

Mostly a boring 68-74 ballot from me, but the thread's sending me back to albums I've never properly listened to. I think maybe I'm ready for taking-it-easy mystic 80/90s Van.

Throwing out a a shout for Naked in the Jungle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Up9okdpcM

My ballot will be last minute FYI

this is too difficult, I can't get a ballot together, but I'll follow the results closely

I hope Them gets some recognition beyond the hits ... there's probably too much solo Van for that to happen

my ballot was pretty boring for the most part because the high canon Van shit is so undeniable. like seriously you're not gonna put at least 3 Astral Weeks tracks on your Van Morrison ballot? seriously? fire that shit up again then, it's just timeless. I feel the same way about a LOT of the canonical van numbers, even though I ride hard for Poetic Champions & Irish Heartbeat & the Healing Game too, what an enjoyable record that is.

this thread is bringing me a lot of joy, I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

yup - I was trying things like leaving off Listen to the Lion because I thought I probably didn't like it as much as I used to, but then I'd put it on and damn.

I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

why?!

I hope Them gets some recognition beyond the hits ... there's probably too much solo Van for that to happen

Late with this, as I've been kind of in and out a bit, but want to urge folks DON'T SLEEP ON THEM! "Baby Please Don't Go", "Mystic Eyes", fuckin' "G-L-O-R-I-A"!

A couple of underrated bangers

"All For Myself" (is that Jimmy Page on guitar?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBF83O-brVQ

"I Can Only Give You Everything" (interpolated by Beck for "Devil's Haircut")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0G1o8xbt4

Overlook His Band and the Street Choir at your own peril, friends. I was looking for the studio version of I've Been Working and found this 9 minute live raveup that can only be described as scorching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0dpNHLLCBs

Real live Them on French TV in '65

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goR8Lf3YH2w

holy shit @ that Orphanage clip. Van running deep on the James Brown records

I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

well...like...this is just sort of an example of why van has become as close as I get to a guilty pleasure, but...because he's devoted multiple songs in the past 20 years to how annoying it is to do press work. you know? like...most great artists maybe take a swipe at the press when they're young & drunk but they get over it. van...will never get over it

holy shit @ that Orphanage clip. Van running deep on the James Brown records

Yes! And I bet he was as equally prolific at firing band members.

I will definitely be giving a vote to "mystic eyes"

One of the few artists where I genuinely cannot see how he made a living as a pub singer let alone a comfortable living as a jobbing touring act let alone got rich selling albums let alone enjoys bonafide legend status.

Good luck to him but rly wtf

wanted to rep for this, every song on veedon fleece is amazing but this song, which is one of the more traditionally arranged songs on the record along with "bulbs," is my favorite. i love the way the verse melody keeps sinking into van's vocalization whirlpool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQnZEkrn7s

Veedon Fleece for me is like you're sitting around thinking I've got Astral Weeks. This is the only album I'm really ever gonna need how can it even get deeper than this, forget it. and then you hear about Veedon Fleece so you find a copy and you think holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

^^^^^^^

dmac, I went from wondering the same thing to understanding that he creates his own aesthetic gravity through sheer force of will. People don't think they like slurry mumbling, or repetitive nonsense, and yet. With druidic mojo Van decrees that this is his jam and you will like it, and the sheer confidence of his delivery and the fact that he keeps doing it convinces one to pay attention. It's a bit like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff in the cartoons - he doesn't fall as long as he doesn't look down. Van doesn't look down, ever.

It's an angle, certainly.

I come not to snark in all seriousness, so it's interesting to hear a take on it that at least acknowledges that he's bovrilish

Re: mumbling and repetitiveness of his vocals. He likes to use his voice like a jazzer might solo on a saxophone.

whoa wait hold on everyone don't submit your ballots without song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOhG7GYmE6Y

er without this song*

beyond that "irish heartbeat" is my favorite song in the entire world. i might prefer the recording with the chieftans but i also might not!

'cause the world is so cold!
don't care nothing about your soul
that you share
with your own ones

taking sides: og "irish heartbeat"'s formation as a gently rotating synth orb vs. chieftans recording which is crisp and embroidered with bagpipes

Veedon Fleece for me is like you're sitting around thinking I've got Astral Weeks. This is the only album I'm really ever gonna need how can it even get deeper than this, forget it. and then you hear about Veedon Fleece so you find a copy and you think holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)

Outer space with beautiful lawns that smell like honey.

astral turf

holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

To me, that's the long songs on Saint Dominic's Preview, particularly Almost Independence Day, where he isn't even burdened by lyrics, just a few repeated phrases. It's perfect.

i always forget how wonderful this song is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvDamp4tvA4

It won't help the voting but, true confessions, I always skip Beside You. Someone up thread used the term bovrilish - no idea what that means exactly but I don't like bovril nor Beside You which has always sounded too strident.

The opening synth burbles at the beginning of "A Sense of Wonder" -- man

gonna send in a ballot before i torture myself about the order too much

'cause the world is so cold!
don't care nothing about your soul
that you share
with your own ones

otmfm

Irish Heartbeat is such an incredible album

prob should be a separate poll for best van morrison horn arrangements but this is my no. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ-ib0euAKk

Thanks for the information
Never give a sucker an even break
And with her everything light becomes heavy
And everything heavy becomes light

People let me tell you, the results of this poll are quite interesting thus far.

Get those ballots in. We were pretty slow there for awhile, but they're starting to come in now.

i love both versions of "wonderful remark" so so so so much

also this song!!!! idek if i can fit it onto my ballot but i really want to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMP9jMJlsks

really enjoying my research here - I can submit a ballot in the evening West Coast time as long as it's before midnight right?

also wanna note that this is the dude who wrote GLORIA which I will certainly vote for

I can submit a ballot in the evening West Coast time as long as it's before midnight right?

Yes.