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van morrison


desdemona

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I never know what to make of van morrison, I liked so many of his albums but each one was so different, I'm a fan but I have no desire to see him in concert, it must be his odd personality, but then that's what puts him apart from others, the mystic side of his music is unique and has always appealed to me, he slips between different genres. Astral Weeks was his first and most acclaimed album, but not my favorite, anyone have any thoughts?

below a review of the album from Rollingstone

Van Morrison

Astral Weeks

He didn't use the phrase for a song title until a year later, but "Astral Weeks" was the album on which Van Morrison fully descended "into the mystic." Morrison's first full-fledged solo album sounded like nothing else in the pop-music world of 1968: soft, reflective, hypnotic, haunted by the ghosts of old blues singers and ancient Celts and performed by a group of extraordinary jazz musicians, it sounds like the work of a singer and songwriter who is, as Morrison sings in the title track, "nothing but a stranger in this world."

It also sounds like the work of a group of musicians who had become finely attuned to one another through years of working together - but, in fact, Morrison had made his name with rock songs like "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night," and he sang "Astral Weeks," sitting by himself in a glass-enclosed booth, scarcely communicating with the session musicians, who barely knew who he was.

"Some people are real disillusioned when I tell them about making the record," says Richard Davis, who supplied what may be the most acclaimed bass lines ever to grace a pop record. "People say, 'He must have talked to you about the record and created the magic feeling that had to be there . . .' To tell you the truth, I don't remember any conversations with him. He pretty much kept to himself. He didn't make any suggestions about what to play, how to play, how to stylize what we were doing."

"I asked him what he wanted me to play, and he said to play whatever I felt like playing," adds Connie Kay, the Modern Jazz Quartet drummer, who was also in the group assembled for the session. "We more or less sat there and jammed, that's all."

Kay was hired because Davis had suggested him; Davis got the nod because he had often worked with Lewis Merenstein, who produced the record and rounded up the musicians. Other musicians on the album include guitarist Jay Berliner, percussionist Warren Smith and horn player John Payne - all of them New York jazzmen and session players who knew nothing about Morrison and who rarely appeared on pop records.

At the time, Morrison's solo career was just getting under way; earlier he had let the rough rock and R&B band Them. Until he signed with Warner Bros., to make "Astral Weeks," the mercurial Irishman didn't even have a deal with a major American label, though he had made a few solo recordings, including the sunny pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl" and the scarifying "T.B. Sheets," a ten-minute dirge about a friend's death from tuberculosis.

The songs he brought into New York's Century Sound Studios were a far cry from those earlier tunes. They were long, most of them, and meandering, suffused with the pain of the blues and the lilt of traditional Irish melodies. Morrison depicted the streets of Belfast in a dim, hallucinatory light, peopled with characters who danced like young lovers and spun like ballerinas but who mostly struggled to reach out to each other and find the peace and clam that otherwise eluded them. The crowning touch is "Madame George," a cryptic character study that may or may not be about an aging transvestite but that is certainly as heartbreaking a reverie as you will find in pop music.

A straight rock & roll band probably wouldn't have know what to do with these songs, but the musicians Merenstein assembled moved with the lightness and freedom that the tunes demanded. And the arrangements, invented on the spot by those players, were as singular as the world they illustrated: a soothing acoustic guitar, gently brushed drums, the caressing warmth of Davis's bass.

Not that the musicians were trying to interpret Morrison's words. "I can't remember ever really paying attention to the lyrics," says Davis. "We listened to him because you have to play along with the singer, but mostly we were playing with each other. We were into what we were doing, and he was into what he was doing, and it just coagulated."

They worked from seven to ten at night, running through songs they had never heard before; both Davis and Kay remember that the basic tracks were finished in a single three-hour session (the liner notes of the compact disc say it took "less than two days"). By seven o'clock some of the musicians had already played on two earlier sessions and Davis, for one, credits the relatively late hour with the way "Astral Weeks" sounds. "You know how it is at dusk, when the day has ended but it hasn't?" Davis asks. "There's a certain feeling about the seven-to-ten-o'clock session. You've just come back from a dinner break, some guys have had a drink or two, it's this dusky part of the day, and everybody's relaxed. Sometimes that can be a problem - but with this record, I remember that the ambiance of that time of day was all through everything we played."

read the entire review here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album?id=111839

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I've been a big Van Morrison fan begining with his recording of Gloria for Them. If I were to choose his best albums, I would go with Tupelo Honey and Moondance, which came out right after AstralWorks, and then Wavelength. Best cut: Into the Mystic. But hey, they are all good.

Why wouldn't you want to see him live, Des? His music is just as good live...

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well first of all he usually only plays Boston for god's sake, lol and then secondly I think the price of a ticket is outrageous, but mostly I guess he's always seemed so arrogant to me, I just don't care to see him live, but I do still like his music.

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mostly I guess he's always seemed so arrogant to me, I just don't care to see him live, but I do still like his music.

When I saw him at UCLA's Royce Hall, he barely spoke a word other than introducing his bandmates or songs...it was all about the music. Perhaps you are reading something into his aloofness or professional tone that isnt there. His music certainly doesnt seem condescending...

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could be dude, I guess some people you just feel like you wish you would have seem them live years ago, I'm sure if he got close enough in concert I'd go ;)

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he`s getting on a bit now but i sure would have liked to have seen him in concert during his " them " days....there is a black and white video clip doing the rounds somewhere of them doing gloria....

_____________________________________________

The Story of Them

(Van Morrison)

When friends were friends

And company was right

We'd drink and talk and sing

All through the night

Morning came leisurely and bright

Downtown we'd walk

And passers by, would shudder with delight

Mmmmmm! Good times

And there was this man

All the cats were there

Just dirty enough to say, "We don't care"

But, the management have had complaints

About some cats with long, long hair

"Look, look, look"

And the people'd stare

"Why, you won't be allowed in

anywhere!"

Barred from pubs, clubs and

dancin' halls

Made the scene at the Spanish rooms

on the falls

And man, four pints of that scrumpy was

enough to have you, outta your mind

Climbin', climbin' up the walls

Out of your mind

But it was a gas, all the same

Ummm! Good time!

Now just 'round about this time

With the help of the three J's

Started playin' at the Maritime

That's, Jerry, Jerry and Jimmy

You know they were always fine

And they helped us run the Maritime

Don't forget Kit, hittin' people on the head

An' knockin' 'em out

You know he did his best and all

Was something else, then

Ummm, Lord, good times

And people say

Who are or what are, Them?

That little one sings

And that big one plays the guitar

With a thimble on his finger

Runs it up and down the strings

The bass player don't shave much

I think they're all a little bit, touched

But the people came

And that's how we made our name

Too much it was

Umm, yeah, our good times

Wild, sweaty, crude, ugly and, and mad

And sometimes just, a little bit sad

Yeah, they sneered an' all

But up there, we just havin' a ball

It was a gas, you know

Lord, some good times

It was kinda bad for, Them

We are, Them, take it or leave it

Do you know they took it, and it kept comin'

And we worked for the people

Sweet, sweat and the misty, misty atmosphere

Gimme another drink of beer, baby

Gotta get goin' here

Because, it was a gas

We all had good times

Blues come rollin'

Down to all your avenue

Won't stop at the city hall

Just a few steps away

You can look up at, Maritime Hotel

Just a little bit sad, gotta walk away

Wish it well

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I've been a big Van Morrison fan begining with his recording of Gloria for Them.  If I were to choose his best albums, I would go with Tupelo Honey and Moondance, which came out right after AstralWorks, and then Wavelength. Best cut:  Into the Mystic.  But hey, they are all good.

Why wouldn't you want to see him live, Des?  His music is just as good live...

100% with you on that one

if you want live stuff, http://www.bt.easytree.org always has shn bootlegs of all of his shows

for example

Van Morrison

THE EMPIRE, LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND

4 JUNE 2004

1h 32m LB

Taped by SAW

Encoded by OTT

Aud>TCD d10>Optical>Soundblaster Extigy>CDR>EAC>Flac 1.7.1

Rest in Peace Brother Ray!!!

This is the second of last weeks two VERY GOOD Van shows. This one features a wonderful last hour, full of vocal innovation, scatting and a truly excellent vocal workout. Some of the 'hardcore' who ewere present described this as the best Van performance since Ross-on-wye 2000!! High praise indeed. van certainly seems to be enjoying himself, he connects with the audience and the power of the voice is pretty amazing.

He really can pull it out of the bag when he wishes. Don't miss this one!!!

These discs are rather unusual in that disc 1 only runs to about 35 mins & disc 2 is about 1 hour, You will see why when you listen, the last hour needs to be listened to without interuption!!

disc 1

:Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart No.1

:All Work And No Play

:Have I Told You Lately [Las Vegas version]

:Bring It On Home To Me

:Back On Top

:You Make Me Feel So Free

:Sometimes We Cry [LB]

:Jackie Wilson Said :

Disc 2

In The Afternoon > Ancient Highway > PSS > When Heart Is Open [improv.]

:Little Village

:Whinin’ Boy Moan > Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid [instr.]

:Streets Of Arklow > You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River

:Precious Time [scat ending]

:It’s All In The Game > Make It Real One More Time > Rainbow ’65 >

***

:Help Me

***

:Brown Eyed Girl

:Gloria

The Van Morrison Band : Richard Dunn, Ned Edwards, David Hayes, Matt Holland, Bobby Irwin, Martin Winning. Guest : Lavern Brown

(for inrormation on shn/flacs, see http://www.beatking.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4655&hl= )

Edited by nate
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Here are the cuts on Wavelength, circa 1978. I just dusted off the cover and gave it a listen and its as fresh today as it was then.

1 Kingdom Hall 5:59

2 Checkin It Out 3:29

3 Natalia 4:04

4 Venice, USA 6:32

5 Lifetimes 4:15

6 Wavelength 5:44

7 Santa Fe/ 7:04

Beautiful

Obsession

8 Hungry for 3:45

Your Love

9 Take It Where

You Find It 8:40

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nice link nate thanks..

If I manage to get broadband in the next couple of months I'll make good use of that one :good job:

Des.... Van Morrison is pretty much a person who shuns celebrity which makes him appear arrogant at times, but that doesn't come across in his music that I've ever noticed. He's an excellent musician and well worth going to see live. I think you'd enjoy it, but I know what you mean about ticket prices. Not many of them are bargains these days.

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  • 2 months later...

My husband and I once drove home, and as we were almost there The Man started to sing 'Its All Over Now, Baby Blue' on the radio

We looked at one another, I took a 'wrong' turn and we drove around in cirkles, when the song was over, we went home......

One does NOT turn the car key during such a magnificent peace of work!

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