What is going on with Van Morrison's catalog?

It looks like more than half of his titles are out of print on CD and going for $40+ used on amazon and eBay?

What happened while I was not paying attention?

 

Van controls much of the back catalog, and he's, uh, on a different waaaa aaaaa eeeev length. And he will let you down.

 

even the Warner Brothers Stuff?

 

I don't think so. AW, HBATSC and Moondance are all widely available, the latter in an excellently remastered 2CD set.

 

mostly the polydor reissues that are pulling the bucks

 

There are a number of threads on this. In short: it's Van's fault.

 

Yep. I waited too long and ending up paying premium prices for mint Polydor copies of Veedon Fleece and St. Dominics's preview.

Lucked out and grabbed a sealed Tupelo Honey at Barnes and Noble at retail just after it went out of print.

The fact that it was Van still made it all well worth my while .....but ....come on Mr. Morrison, ...please stop taking your grievances against Polydor out on the fans who love you. ...

 

I don't think the Polydor's are all that rare on Amazon UK and Germany or even the used record shops here, apart from Veedon Fleece. Even that can be picked up quite regularly in the bins here, ( the 90's remaster).
Maybe it's a US thing.

 

Van does not give a **** about a) his past work or b) fan service.

 

Nothing it seems...

 

What's going on with his catalogue? In short.......very little. I've always had this pipe dream where I look on line one day and see that Mobile Fidelity is issuing the Complete Van Morrison recordings on 45 RPM vinyl in a deluxe box set for like $1500.00. I'd order it in a second.

- Buck

 

It certainly worked on me - went on a rampage to pick up the titles I was missing second-hand.

 

Just happened to notice this on the Canadian Amazon site. Even some ordinary looking compilations have a high price, though the used prices look normal.

 

Honestly, that's the answer to a lot of questions

 

They're all coming out on SHM SACDs

 

When ?

 

They already did. They were issued stimultaneously with the 2006-2007 re-masters that were released ... and they all disappeared just as quickly. I have them all on SHM-CD, in fact. I'd even pre-ordered the next remastered batch, which had a lot of great Van albums coming all at once, but then Van pulled the plug. You blinked.

 

based on anything he's released the last 10 years i'd say he doesn't care about his current work either

 

Really? I enjoyed Born To Sing as well as Duets.

Tim

 

Wrong.

 

DUETS is the best duets album ever released by anyone. It's that good ... and I hate duets albums, as a rule.

 

van is like neil young - he makes it real hard for you to love him!

 

When is his Archive series due?

 

I'd settle for a copy of the 'Philosopher's Stone' compilation which is out of print. A seriously great compilation.

 

As a person, he doesn't seem so likeable. As a musician, Van's albums are never less than workmanlike. His average is much higher than Neil Young's -imo.