...that Van Morrison began recording "Astral Weeks". Two months later it was released. Bloody hell.
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His 3rd album...
..took even longer.
Does Van still love The Word?
And forty years on. . .
Here's what some of it sounds like. Not too bad, actually.
U2 were formed
32 years ago today. If you were 11 then (that was me), bloody hell as well.
It's not the time between then and now...
...it's the time between beginning it and putting it out. *Nothing" is done that quickly nowadays.
Well that too.
Have you ever seen Welcome to Sarajevo where they use The Way Young Lovers Do for the opening scene where the ladies are getting ready for the wedding. Ok Film, very moving opening.
Your David Ford video
rather puts the lie to that...
I have a bit of a blind spot
with VM - I think it stems back to when some hippy git gave me 'Astral Weeks' to perform during a game of charades.
I listen to it at
weekend by chance and it sounded great. That's sounded great in that the music is good and enjoyable but also on my vinyl copy I noticed i was listening to beautful sound if you know what I mean. VM still looking grumpy on the cover god love him.
I played it not long ago...
...and "Moondance" too, both of them on vinyl.
You know what? They are staggeringly good. And I don't say that in any spirit of reverence.
And he is still a miserable old bastard
I'd love to see it reissued. I think there is a problem with the ownership (or something).
Even my Ex loves it
My ex is by no stretch of the imagination a muso, but Astral Weeks is her favourite album by miles. When it appears on best of... lists it's usually dismissed as being an album that you are meant to admire, but there is obviously some quality about it which makes it loved.
It is still
an absolute stand out. Whenever I need a spiritual pick me up and if the vino is not working its magic for me, then I throw on "Ballerina". It is magnificent and majestic and always, always unfailingly uplifting. Thanks Van, you grumpy old git.
Didn't he record it in just two days?
I think that's what it says on the back of the sleeve. ( But maybe I was too lazy to read it properly ). Still his best album I reckon. Although 'Moondance' runs it close.
I've just checked :
"Cut in New York City in less than two days..." Blimey.
You're probably right
He was paying proper session men like members of the Modern Jazz Quartet and probably couldn't afford to have it go on for ages. According to the Wikipedia entry it was three sessions. Richard Davis the bass player "was not impressed by Morrison, but not out of disdain or any preconceived notions, but rather because Morrison's professional comportment generally did not meet Davis's expectations." Get away.
Beautifully understated...
"...Morrison's professional comportment generally did not meet Davis's expectations."
Van has made some great music though.
I remember
an NME piece from around 1991 reporting on a Fall gig where the crowd broke into a chant of '14 more years! 14 more years!' and recall thinking yeah, right...
It's great
but I still think "Veedon Fleece" is better and while I'm at it, I think "Avalon Sunset", "Beautiful Vision", "Into The Music", "No Guru, No Method, No Teacher" and "Poetic Champions Compose" are all fantastic.
What about Tupelo Honey?
Wild Night is my favourite Van song of all time. Fist pumping, visceral, loud perfection.
have you heard
Dusty's version of Tupelo honey it's really rather good
yes
yes it is and Cassandra Wilson's is pretty great also
Astral Weeks - excellent obviously but
I have never heard any convincing explanation as to 'how' it actually came to be. By that I mean how did Van move from the three chord stomp of 'Gloria' to the pop perfection of 'Brown Eyed Girl' and on to the ethereal 'Cypress Avenue' in only three years?
I suspect that even he doesn't know. With the exception of 'Veedon Fleece' he has never attempted any sustained work in a similar style.
IMHO the run of albums from 'Astral Weeks' to 'Veedon Fleece' is arguably more impressive than the more frequently acknowledged achievements of the Stones from 'Beggars Banquet' to 'Exile On Mainstreet', or Stevie Wonder from 'Music of My Mind' to 'Songs In The Key of Life'.
The big difference of course is that you can see the logic of the Stones' and Stevie Wonder's development with each successive album. Even within the stylistic range of Joni Mitchell’s run from ‘Blue’ to ‘Hejira’ each release builds on the foundation of what went before.
With Van, it seems to me, that there is no real sign of that sort of linear development. Listening to ‘Astral Weeks’ you could not have predicted ‘Moondance’, and neither gives any clue that ‘Tupelo Honey’ was just over the horizon.
The one thing that all of these artists do have in common is that their frankly towering reputations are largely based on their work during that period 1968 – 1976, and that the bar was then set so high that - with very few exceptions - virtually everything that they produced thereafter disappoints.
Oh, and by the way, the best ever version of 'Madame George' is by Marianne Faithfull.
My favourites...
...are 'Veedon Fleece' and 'Common One' as I noted on another thread here last month. Love most of Van's output of the 60s, 70s and 80s though.
I know it's heresy,
but I'm just not that big a fan of Astral Weeks. And I really love some of Van's stuff. No Guru ... would be my choice as his greatest album.
There's really no stylistic difference...
..between "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Madame George."
Remove the shalalalas and handclaps from B.E.G. (put there by Bert Berns)then slow it down, and you have a three chord reflection on the past.
A tale of two Morrisons
The first time I heard Astral Weeks it completely baffled me.
I was in my late teens and heavily into 60s music – bands like The Doors, The Velvet Underground and The Grateful Dead, all of whom flirted with the avant-garde.
I was a pretentious, wildly off-kilter individual who dressed exclusively in black, was fond of quoting Baudelaire and wrote interminable prose poems in which the key protagonists wore cloaks and spent a good deal of their time in Hades. I was interested in the extraordinary. Astral Weeks found beauty in the ordinary. All I heard was a set of meandering kitchen sink dramas with lyrics apparently mired in the bad old days of the 1950s, before people wore Tye Die and leather trousers. I didn’t warm to the record lyrically or musically, but for some reason I kept coming back to it.
In fact I grew into Astral Weeks over a period of about ten years. I needed to experience more of life and more of music before I was able to get a sense of how special it was - a deeply personal collection of songs that belie Morrison’s surly demeanour by being very open listener.
While I still enjoy the excessive thrills of The Grateful Dead’s - Blues or Allah of The Doors - Celebration of the Lizard, Astral Weeks is the record that speaks to my heart.
WEB SHERIFF Protecting Your
WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com
Hi David,
On behalf of Exile Productions and Exile Publishing, many thanks for plugging Van Morrison and, for your readers’ info, up-to-the-minute news on Van’s latest album - Keep It Simple - and 2008 shows is, of course, available on www.vanmorrison.com and www.myspace.com/vanmorrison and, for a limited period, you can still see Van's exclusive BBC sessions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/vanmorrison/video/ . We’re also pleased to announce that an increasing archive of exclusive film footage of Van Morrison performances has now been made available for fans on Exile’s official YouTube channel at http://uk.youtube.com/user/OfficialExileFilms .
Thanks again for your support.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
Plugging?
Is that what you were doing? Or was it blogging? Or possibly plogging? Or maybe blugging?
I have a head ache.
Bloody Hell !
Bloody Hell. What's that all about ?
It left me gobironed. Er, smacked.
Whatever it was, I think the Word Towers bottle of vodka should be hidden away in a filing cabinet sharpish.
From the slightly scary 'Websherriff' website...
It was through the acute need and demand for the protection of on-line rights against infringements and abuse, that Web Sheriff came into being. Web Sheriff is one of the few specialist, companies that operate in the field of internet policing and has become a market-leader through offering truly across-the-board solutions, from on-line legal enforcement to high tech anti-piracy. As part of Web Sheriff's activities on behalf of its clients, Web Sheriff has closed-down illegal web-sites from locations all over the globe, including China, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil and, obviously, the US and the UK. Web Sheriff also has a proven track-record of being able to significantly suppress illegal peer-to-peer activity (in some cases by as much as 90%). Similarly - and working in conjunction with companies such as eBay - Web Sheriff is also very effective at eliminating illegal retail activity through otherwise legal web-sites.
Whilst most Web Sheriff work is undertaken in connection with the protection of intellectual property and privacy rights in the Entertainment Industry, the methods for closing down web-sites and having content removed are, essentially, universal in application and, as such, Web Sheriff has the capabilities and experience to tackle any form of illegal activity on the internet (see Services page for further details).
Web Sheriff's clients include record labels, music publishers, pop stars, film companies, film stars, celebrities, sports personalities, theatre producers, book publishers, video companies, games companies, national newspapers and the media generally. (see Outlaws Gallery for topical examples of the type of work undertaken).
Sheesh, big brother is watching - and he's a Van Morrison fan.
Don't get it.
Is it supposed to be a threat? Is it a mickey take? You would hardly put thanks like that on a thread of a blog. I'd say "up yours lads and keep your thanks". And tell Van mine's a pint if he's interested.
It's often the way...
That those proclaiming themselves as guardians of the web are the most clueless when it comes to netiquette.
These presumably
are the people that Van's people engaged to have all those videos removed from Youtube that showed the chords for 'Caravan', and featured small children dancing to 'Brown Eyed Girl' etc.
As Private Eye always used to say about the lawyers whose job it was to write to people pointing out that 'biro' was a trademark ... "What a pathetic way to make a living".
When you posted that link
When you posted that link from Exile, would our Web Sheriff chums have been informed, by some sort of web based geekery widgit?
I don't think we should be surprised that The Man works with these people. He has form after all.
I posted it. . .
using the "embed into your own website" feature that they so helpfully provided. Goaf, and indeed, igga.
What
is that all about?? Who was that masked man??
Look who's watching
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9784193-7.html
"Operators of The Pirate Bay could not be reached for comment". Love it!
Actually
have you read the 'Privacy Statement' at the bottom of these pages? Bit scary I thought.
Now that you mention it
Jeez.
Boilerplate stuff
Look at this one, which is even more draconian:
What cryptofascist media empire have I blanked out - Fox News? MSNBC? Er, no, it's The Independent, actually.
It's a shame that
the web sherriff rode into town and spoiled the party. There were a lot of nice comments about the old git. For what its worth i will add mine - Astral Weeks without question is a work of beauty. Later albums often get derided but i think many of them are really very good - Hymns to the silence is a personal favourite and Too long in exile is also excellent. When he is at the top of his game he really makes beautiful music.