There’s a hypnotic quality after a dozen or two repeats of the line “Why are you on Facebook?” and by the end I was pilled.
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Monday, 10 May 2021 02:25 (two years ago) link
just read the youtube comments section for "they own the media"
lotta nazis there
― unknown or illegal user (doo rag), Monday, 10 May 2021 03:25 (two years ago) link
imagine my shock
Don’t we kind of expect that at this point, though? Every great artist seems to have about a decade of great output followed by a decade of falling off followed by a lifetime of competent but completely inessential dross
― "The Pus/Worm" by The Smiths (hardcore dilettante), Monday, 10 May 2021 04:22 (two years ago) link
Van has done some good material in the 2000s overall, I'd say, until now, his quality ratio is better than most of his contemporaries
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 May 2021 13:06 (two years ago) link
I liked something I heard recently, "Close Enough for Jazz," I think, but yeah.
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 10 May 2021 13:28 (two years ago) link
In pop music that's usually the case mainly because it's so rooted in youth culture, and that's always changing. But the resulting doctrinal belief has also unfairly shortchanged older artists who do excellent work later on. The argument becomes much weaker when you look outside of pop music - Miles Davis and Duke Ellington are the first two that come to mind, creating masterpieces several decades apart. I'm reluctant to go along with the idea because it leads to some misguided judgment. Again, it's understandably a common argument in pop music, but it's dubious when brought it up in other art forms, never mind other areas of music.
― birdistheword, Monday, 10 May 2021 13:37 (two years ago) link
But as mentioned, his recorded output over the last 20 years is nearly a waste
not to defend the guy who put out latest record project vol 1 but born to sing: no plan b and keep me singing came out within the past decade and are really lovely records
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 10 May 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
xp - I was thinking Scott Walker, Johnny Cash, David Bowie - artists that started in something close to pop (at least compared to Miles and Duke) and yet managed to put out great (and popular) records practically from their deathbeds.
― worth her weight in dogecoin (Lee626), Monday, 10 May 2021 13:49 (two years ago) link
As a rule of thumb I'd say it applies, mostly. With exceptions, of course, as mentioned. And yeah, a lot less so outside of pop music.
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 10 May 2021 13:53 (two years ago) link
xpost - Brad - have you listened to Magic Time from 2005? I really like that one
Blackstar by Bowie is a masterpiece but overall, I think if you take Van post, say 1990, versus Bowie's output, he's way more consistent and it's not that close
I just feel like a lot of people are assuming things about a discography they haven't and don't intend to listen to
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:00 (two years ago) link
though at the same time, they are so different...Bowie was always looking around for new things, like working with NIN or doing drum n bass stuff etc, where Van just has his vein of soul/jazz/r&b that he worked his whole career so maybe it's not that surprising
this new album is shockingly bad though
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:01 (two years ago) link
Morrison/Bowie definitely feels like an inapt comparison; Morrison/Lemmy is probably a better one. There was a new Motörhead album every two years, and every one had at least 3-4 great new songs on it. And no one outside the core fan base gave a shit.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:18 (two years ago) link
haha yeah actually that's a great one actually i never would have thought of that
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:27 (two years ago) link
And Van and Lemmy were roommates in the 60s! That's when they hatched their plans for continued musical relevance into the next millennium.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 10 May 2021 14:34 (two years ago) link
i like magic time quite a bit!
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
xpost roommates! wow I can't believe I never heard that
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 May 2021 14:48 (two years ago) link
Now I don't know where I read that, I can't find confirmation online.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 10 May 2021 14:53 (two years ago) link
I cannot imagine Lemmy putting up with Van Morrison for any length of time tbh.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Monday, 10 May 2021 15:02 (two years ago) link
Oh, to be a fly on any other wall than whatever walls may have enclosed those two.
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 10 May 2021 15:47 (two years ago) link
Lemmy angry with Van for finishing the Crispix
― If you value Vox, we have an axe (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 10 May 2021 15:56 (two years ago) link
The Old Before Their Time Ones
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 10 May 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
probably best to start with these killer last frames for the Lemmy & Van Sunday comic and work backwards: "he ate the grapes. he ate the grapes.", "bring me the Raid. bring me the Raid.", "cookies, I made. cookies, I made."(dressed as yoda for halloween)
― If you value Vox, we have an axe (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 10 May 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
I really need that "Who's Grumpy" boot
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 10 May 2021 23:54 (two years ago) link
Just checked out "Why are you on Facebook?" I guess you could think of it as him making music relevant to his own age group, and if it were a joke song I might even like it, esp. the long-drawn out "Facebooook" at the end of the chorus. What bums me out is knowing he's 100% serious.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 00:25 (two years ago) link
I listened to all of Van Morrison's solo records through to 1991's Hymns to the Silence. I hit the wall with that one and didn't want to go any further. It felt like a bunch of safe adult contemporary with no creative spark. He was consistently interesting before that though - even has a bunch of very good 1980s records like No Guru, No Method, No Teacher and Beautiful Vision.
― aphoristical, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 00:30 (two years ago) link
I quite liked Down the Road, from 2002, I think? It didn't blow me away, but it had nice bittersweet/nostalgic vibe and there are a few songs on it that still stick in my mind: "The Beauty of the Days Gone By," "What Makes the Irish Heart Beat," the title track, maybe some others.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 00:35 (two years ago) link
Yeah, that grew out of Choppin' Wood after he fired Linda Gail Lewis and proceeded to mix her out or re-record the songs while dropping a few and adding a whole lot more. To be fair "Fast Train" (not "Fast Road" as I said earlier, I mentally squashed that title in with "Down the Road") is a great track, so that would have been missed, but otherwise I strongly prefer Choppin' Wood. Also, "Down the Road" is a great track, but it was also a 20-year-old song that he held back until then - not an unusual practice for Van, but in hindsight, it's like he had tapped that reserve completely dry. (He hasn't, there are some excellent songs that to this day are available only as bootlegged outtakes. But at this point, I don't think I'd want to hear newly recorded versions of them.)
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 03:16 (two years ago) link
the healing game I liked a lot at the time but haven’t listened to it in foreverkeep me singing was good. “out in the cold again” is really affecting despite the first line being‘I was Mr Nice Guy too long’
― brimstead, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 03:52 (two years ago) link
"In Tiburon" off Keep Me Singing was really beautiful too, singing about a San Francisco that's about as far away as some ancient Celtic village now
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 11 May 2021 13:08 (two years ago) link
TIL that Garth Hudson played organ on Wavelength
Also Bobby Tench is no relation to Benmont Tench
― Triumph of the Willa Cather (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 11 May 2021 13:52 (two years ago) link
Excellent things to L.
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 May 2021 15:39 (two years ago) link
isn’t there a really awesome song on a musical history that’s literally Van fronting The Band sometime in the 70s? or did I dream that? Think it might be on philosopher’s stone too
― brimstead, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 20:32 (two years ago) link
He sang on their song "4% Pantomime", from Cahoots.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 20:34 (two years ago) link
And co-wrote it too.
hmmm yeah that’s probably what I’m thinking of
― brimstead, Tuesday, 11 May 2021 20:35 (two years ago) link
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/van-morrison-john-cooper-clarke
Well, someone *loves* the new album...
(The article writer, not JCC...)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
looking forward to Latest Record Project, Volume 2: Have I told you lately that I hate you
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 12 May 2021 17:39 (two years ago) link
I need my laptop to play “Why Are You on Facebook?” every time I go to the website.
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Wednesday, 12 May 2021 19:09 (two years ago) link
end of that interview is amazing.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Wednesday, 12 May 2021 19:10 (two years ago) link
xp Yes! New browser extension where instead of blocking the time-wasting websites it just forces you to listen to Van's latest record project the whole time you're on them.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 19:15 (two years ago) link
... appalling Tory dickhead, Dylan Jones, to be precise.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 12 May 2021 19:16 (two years ago) link
Funny name, does he sing “ballad of a thin man” to himself?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 23:12 (two years ago) link
So Van's label tried selling signed copies of this to help sales, and they even posted a photo of him signing one. But fans started to grumble that the signatures were fake - at least one reported by the press resembled a printed or stamped signature (the ink's uniform instead of a path of ink traced along by a writing instrument), and several photos of different signed CD's owned by different people have completely identical signatures even though they're placed on different parts of the booklet. (I just saw After the Thin Man for the first time last week, and hilariously this very subject figures in that film where they identify forged signatures using the same method - putting two checks on top of each other over a light and discovering they are more or less identical.) His management has already denied this, pointing to the photo of evidence. All this somehow feels appropriate given Van's support of the same bullshit theories spouted by the orange Mussolini who has relocated to Florida.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:31 (two years ago) link
hmmm....that's interesting. because at this point i'd think they could probably predict exactly how many copies of a new van morrison album they were going to sell give or take a thousand or two.
guess the press must be turning off some of the hardcore fans
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:35 (two years ago) link
The price wasn't marked up much, if at all, so maybe whoever organized it thought it was "okay" because of that. Plus Van probably said "I'm not signing a thousand f-ing CD's!"
― birdistheword, Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:41 (two years ago) link
Van probably said "I'm not signing a thousand f-ing CD's!"
Fixed that for you.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:44 (two years ago) link
"Bring me some Edison Cylinders!"
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:53 (two years ago) link
van usually seems so pumped about going the extra mile to please his fans. disappointed he would be involved in a lazy ripoff
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 13 May 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link
He signed some for us last time around, so, not unheard of for him to do this. They weren't auto-penned or anything, but there also weren't that many. 100 or so, I think.
― mr.raffles, Thursday, 13 May 2021 23:02 (two years ago) link