Van Morrison: your views please

5'5"

What's my line?
I'm happy cleaning windows
Take my time
Can't reach the fucking top rows
Cleaning windows

yeah it's robbie — he posted it on his twitter, they seem to be up to something. not the worst idea. does robertson remember how to play guitar i wonder?

There's a thing Van does with his voice that I've often wondered about. I don't think it's confined solely to Astral Weeks, but it's there I notice it most - particularly on the title track, and particularly between about 3.20-3.30 on this version: https://youtu.be/4ech6pZoBJ4

It's almost like he's (deliberately) singing around a bubble in his throat or something. Does it have a name? The only other vocalist I've really heard doing it is Jeff Buckley, and that's when he's covering Van, mainly.

It sounds to me like he's pushing his tongue out a little, and raising his tongue near the back of his mouth. Like when people do an impression of Droopy.

haha, that is indeed a weird little gimmick

Is that like on "When god shines his light" at the end where him and Cliff are humming on the outro, and Van forgets to keep his gob shut?

It sounds to me like he's pushing his tongue out a little, and raising his tongue near the back of his mouth. Like when people do an impression of Droopy.

Haha - it totally is this. Buckley aside, I still don't think I've heard anyone else do this. I like it. I think.

Wow, I only heard Beautiful Vision for the first time last night and it's quite lovely.

US tour coming

Last year this time we were in the midst of the Van poll. That was fun.

seeing him for the first time in a few weeks, excited

Had the chance to see the man in concert yesterday. Relative disappointment, his voice seems strong as ever, but he had a very hard time singing in key on jazzy compositions like Moondance and The Way Young Lovers Do, slightly embarrassing to witness. Pulled off jazz standards and blues covers a lot better, but I’m not that interested in hearing him do Got My Mojo Workin’, his own material is obv a lot more interesting. Band was professional but completely harmless. I know he’s supposed to be hit and miss live, so will give it another go if I get the chance. I’ve praised The Healing Game countless times and will say again that Sometimes We Cry is a late-career evergreen, show highlight for me (even if the band's performance lacked nerve). Oh yeah, and they finished off with Gloria, now that’s a song! Unfortunately Van left the stage after 2 choruses while bandleader encouraged the crowd five or six times in a row to give it up for “THE ONE AND ONLY SIR VAN MORRISON” upon which the band improvised solos for 10 minutes and waved goodbye.

This is the cover of Van Morrison's new album.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DogmWmDW0AA4E5Y.jpg

This is what happens when you're a legacy artist who doesn't sell enough (new) records for the label to bother telling you "No" anymore.

i love it and like the new song. album seems to be another covers + a few new originals thing

that album cover kicks ass and I will fight you

Santo Trafficante Jr goes into hiding and decides to slightly disguise himself as a Blues Brother. I like it.

Relative disappointment, his voice seems strong as ever, but he had a very hard time singing in key on jazzy compositions like Moondance and The Way Young Lovers Do, slightly embarrassing to witness. Pulled off jazz standards and blues covers a lot better

At the big outdoor theatre/shed where I just saw him, he stayed in key on all, but rushed through the hits at a faster tempo. He took him time more on less-known numbers.

his time

glad to hear that, he's infamous for having on/off days right?

was it good overall?

Is he touring all the time and getting bored with the more familiar stuff or something?
THough I guess he will ahve been playing the hits for years which might be boring anyway.

x-post-- It was good overall but a bit uneven. He also didn't talk to the crowd at all between songs. Decided to see a bunch of old legends recently and saw Smoky Robinson the night before I saw Van. Smokey sounded great, chatted to the crowd about old days at the Howard Theatre between songs, and was stunning on what he called the "b-sides" part of his set. He raced through a few hits though too. Van was busy directing his orchestra but other than naming off band members once, didn't bother with talking.

I saw that Boston author who has the book on Astral Weeks out, and he said Van refused to talk to him for the book. He spoke with folks who played on the album and who helped on the songs before they were recorded, but not Van himself.

He took him time more on less-known numbers.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, October 3, 2018 6:19 AM (fifty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same here (it was a festival set). i was thrilled when he really dug into "carrying a torch"

(xp) You sound surprised that legendary ray-of-sunshine Sir Van Morrison is a curmudgeon, curmudgeon?

haha yeah, van has been refusing to talk to biographers for decades now

Think Van is especially unforthcoming about Astral Weeks because he doesn't (or didn't) get any royalties on it.

New alb cover does offer a rare glimpse of his 'zany' sense of humour, last evidenced when he asked Spike Milligan to 'interview' him for Q magazine.

looking forward to a bit of ray charles in the style of lord charles

^^^^

ICYMI:

This is totally bananas.

Today, @vanmorrison unceremoniously released the '68 "Catacombs Tapes" as a live album on iTunes UK. This is the legendary recording I spend the whole #AstralWeeks1968 book trying to track down & hear...and, uh, now YOU can too! https://t.co/AKvyJw3xnE pic.twitter.com/rFg4jYqfYD

— Ryan H. Walsh (@JahHills) November 8, 2018

looks like it's gone already :(

if anyone has leads please let me know :)

Don't know how long it will be up:

https://youtu.be/rQUCv9PkPSg

hell yeah

haven't read ryan's book yet but i'm glad these tapes are out there now

catacombs tape is great! seems like Van had a fairly clear idea of the Astral Weeks sound at this point ... not a perfect recording, but pretty damn fantastic for a 50 year old audience tape.

yeah i'm at "brown eyed girl" and this rules a lot

not a perfect recording

lol yeah the tape speeding up during "one two brown eyes" freaked me out at work

yeah this is gorgeous, definitely interesting to hear a little hint of what brown eyed girl would have sounded like on astral weeks

damn this version of beside you is revelatory

holy shit this catacombs tape

like holy holy holy holy

Balls, it's already been taken down!

I managed to grab a copy, my ilxmail works fine

Magic, cheers! You have mail.

Missed this before it was pulled but I love that it was Peter Wolf of all people who had this tape.

Peter Wolf knew Van back then. Apparently Morrison would make drunken phone requests to radio station Wolf DJ'd for.

BTW, Wolf was college roomies w/David Lynch!

WBCN!

Didn’t know that about Van’s requests. Hilarious.

xp chinaski didn't get your email, weird... try kern.cooper at gmail dot com

I could also just post a direct link here but I get the feeling it wouldn't be in the spirit of ilx?

I'm surprised how much I like the version of Virgo Clown from the Catacombs set. It's not a song I've been into before.

Read through the Astral Weeks book very quickly yesterday and was happy to see tyler get an acknowledgement at the very end.

90s (?) 2-CD The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison is incredible, The Bang Masters, the unscrewed-with originals of tracks that showed up on early solo LPs, is good barefoot pop, get most 70s except maybe Hard Nose The Highway, but I think I stopped buying new stuff after Beautiful Vision, in the early 80s. Clearly need to check out some more, is what I think after hearing bluesy coountry duets with the evervescent Linda Gail Lewis, during one of the wildest (far beyond in-character) American Routes shows ever, THE KILLER, THE THRILLER & THE CHILLER: JERRY LEE LEWIS WITH SISTERS LINDA GAIL AND FRANKIE JEAN---scroll down this page a little for links to hours 1 & 2 (Van shows up in hour 2)
(playlists for both hours are also linked)
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1088/The-Killer-the-Thriller-the-Chiller-Jerry-Lee-Lewis-with-sisters-Linda-Gail-and-Frankie-Jean
Would like to check his album of Mose Allison songs too.

Albums That Should Exist has it:
https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/11/van-morrison-live-in-boston-1968.html