Linden Arden POLL the Highlights--ILM Van Morrison Poll Results

this Belfast 79 show rules

an odd thing I noticed a while back is how "St Dominic's Preview" kinda borrows the tune of "The Wind Cries Mary," and "Bulbs" swipes the line about the streetlights turning blue.

That was brilliant, thank you.

Spotify playlist is all up to date: https://open.spotify.com/user/thepoacher/playlist/5DPeJd4pUzQMIQMBvzvU9M

My ballot:

Albums

Astral Weeks
Too Late to Stop Now
Veedon Fleece
St Dominic's Preview
Moondance

Tracks

Madam George
Ballerina
Into the Mystic
Summertime in England
St Dominic's Preview
Cyprus Avenue
And it Stoned Me
Redwood Tree
Listen to the Lion
Sweet Thing
The Way Young Lovers Do
Glad Tidings
Tir Na Nog
Astral Weeks
TB Sheets
Contemplation Rose
Fair Play
Wavelength
Almost Independence Day
Gloria
Brown-Eyed Girl
Take Me Back
Caravan
Steppin Out Queen
And the Healing Has Begun

yeah thanks for running this, it's been a spiritual journey

(slightly O/T but just to reiterate w/thanks: as a former van sceptic of many puzzled years' standing, brad's essay on 80s VM has totally and i assume permanently swung me into the mancamp) (currently loving the weird buzzy instruments on COMMON ONE, which i choose to believe are druidic vuvuzelas)

(obviously POLLS are still bad and you should all feel bad)

"druidic vuvuzelas" is excellent; thank you mark s for providing me with my next band name

I'm so glad everyone enjoyed this. Like the best ILM polls, I discovered a ton of great new music here, like the No Guru album and the absolutely fantastic song Goin Down To Monte Carlo (Thanks Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)

I can't believe I'm the only one who voted for Satisfied. It sticks out on Common One, but it's really incredible.

My ballot:

Saint Dominic’s Preview
Astral Weeks
Almost Independence Day
And It Stoned Me
Sweet Thing
Wild Night
Domino
Wonderful Remark
Cyprus Avenue
And the Healing Has Begun
Gloria
Into the Mystic
Slim Slow Slider
Ballerina
Listen to the Lion
Linden Arden Stole the Highlights
Real Real Gone
TB Sheets
Celtic Ray
Moonshine Whiskey
Brown-Eyed Girl
Caravan
I’ve Been Working
Streets of Arklow
Full Force Gale
Jackie Wilson Said
Satisfied
Goin Down To Monte Carlo
You Know What They’re Writing About
Moondance

Albums:
Dominic
Astral
Moondance
Into the Music
Band Street Choir

the poll results spotify thread is a really enjoyable listen

I want to think this thread for getting me to listen to Van again. Im high af right now and Astral Weeks is kicking my ass. Years since Ive heard it as a teen and I did not get it then at all. It took intervening years of listening to jazz, now it makes sense. Some of the songs have an almost symphonic structure as well. Veedon Fleece also rules. You ppl rule. Thanks for this thread.

I hadn't listened to Astral Weeks in many years either and... yeah, it is overwhelming.

Got my hands on the Glastonbury set. Holy shit what a band. I've mostly avoided boots, and now I'm wondering at my stupidity. Are there any other obvious Van ones I should get?

Is there a 'best boots of evah!' thread somewhere?

this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y-CsUw_-AY

(hat tip to tylerw)

Definitely get the Pacific High Studio set. And if you haven't gotten volumes 2, 3 and 4 from It's Too Late, by all means, pick that up as well.

xps to Chinaski

Your favourite bootleg -as in 'Unofficial Live Recording-

Watching this 74 Van Morrison show and he covers Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" and after "please don't let on that you knew me when" instead of "I was hungry and it was your world" he mutters "I was weird.... everybody was....." Van the Man #1

In the '71 Pacific High Studio version of "Just Like A Woman" (which, after a slow first 3 minutes, really gets intense) on the second time the "please don't..." line comes up he says "I was weird... and you were weird, too." Van must have liked that spin.

an odd thing I noticed a while back is how "St Dominic's Preview" kinda borrows the tune of "The Wind Cries Mary," and "Bulbs" swipes the line about the streetlights turning blue.

― JoeStork, Monday, August 7, 2017 9:47 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

will never unhear this now

lol yeah the verse chords are the same in wind cries mary and st. dominic.

I can't be the only person who thinks of Wish You Were Here when listening to Almost Independence Day (of course in this case, van's version came first)

In the '71 Pacific High Studio version of "Just Like A Woman" (which, after a slow first 3 minutes, really gets intense) on the second time the "please don't..." line comes up he says "I was weird... and you were weird, too." Van must have liked that spin.

― that's not my post, Monday, August 14, 2017 11:35 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha that's funny, it seemed so off the cuff

there's really a great amount of well shot full Van concerts on YouTube

yeah, it's nice -- for a while there his people were super vigilant about scrubbing any/all vids ...

via Midnight Bootlegs, a 1990 set in FLAC: https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/bf6mkTXx4Oyx2bb4rfBro1As2R9yHsF9l7f88drsUcY?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&mgh=1

Man, just listened to Into the Music properly for the first ever, probably. Dexys entire career for a start, but more.
I saw Van maybe 20 times, work related, between 1988-2000ish. I know most of those 80s records from seeing him live, must pick up No Guru, Poetic Champs etc.

born to sing: no plan b is just the loveliest record. the horns are so wonderful

but does no plan b refer to born, sing, or both

who knows, at least a third of the record is a critique of capitalism so

because of this poll back on top and the healing game are now two of my absolute favorite van records

you check out magic time?
that was one that grew on me when I was listening to them all on Spotify

yeah magic time is great, especially "just like greta" which is overwhelming

less a definitive ranking than maybe a potentially useful order for people trying to get into van's '90s records:

the healing game
enlightenment
back on top
hymns to the silence
days like this
too long in exile

the first five are basically all variously great, days like this ends with two of van's best songs ever. too long in exile is a real mess though, maybe my least favorite van record ever, and yet the title track is still so awesome

i always feel like i underrate keep me singing when i'm listening to it bc the first five tracks are all so gorgeous

Let me step in for some fair play...to you.

Excellent. But I will always remember this poll for introducing me to No Guru...my god what an album.

you inspire me to check the wavelength album more closely (i am sold on the song).

Not a great album, but with Morrison it's especially hard to distinguish mediocre from good or good from great

wavelength has a great title track

oh which has been covered, lol

alfred have you heard all of common one

shhh I'm about to exercise while listening to "Got to Go Back."

Yes! Good work with ranking Saint Dominic number one. That's my favorite.

I need to hear Veedon Fleece. I like the rest of the top 4. Probably would have ranked Tupelo higher.

Maybe you've addressed this elsewhere but no Moondance?

I thought, stupidly, he released it in 1969, but it worked out because I prefer every album on my list.

preferring wavelength to moondance is absolute nonsense

Alfred preferring synthy outlier to canonized classic shocker

:P

Veedon Fleece is so good, one of my faves by Van.

^agree about Veedon Fleece. Anyway, here's a great version of Bulbs from a German TV show in the mid 70s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFc7uVEYAsw

Jesus, I just got cut nearly in half by Tir Na Nog. I've been reading Peter Matthiesen's The Snow Leopard, which is partly a travelogue of a trek in the Himalaya to study bharal, partly a discourse on the origins of Buddhism, and partly a gentle prayer of devotion for his wife who had died the year before, and it's an incredibly moving book, full of the white light of understanding and humility. The song dovetails so neatly with those themes of finding solace in eternity (albeit from a different mythological viewpoint) and the possibilities inherent in the idea of reincarnation - let alone Van's open, enveloping deliver - it reduced me to tears. Ach.

Regard as one, this life, the next life, and the life between - Milarepa.

^Beautiful post. I read The Snow Leopard many years ago - this is making me want to revisit it. One of the great things about ILM.

I would like to thank this poll for turning me on to Veedon Fleece, what an album

^^^ what sleeve said, this thread made me discover veedon fleece which by now i prefer to astral weeks.