Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece - what a great album!

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tangledupinblue, Mar 4, 2012.

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  1. Briskit

    Briskit “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!”

    Location:
    St Kilda
    Oh wait...i must have missed it. Here is entry on discogs:
    Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece

    And look - 1 x for sale at discount price of...€250. Christ on a bicycle!
     
    Solace likes this.
  2. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    I’d didn’t pay anywhere near that amount. Save a Search on eBay - they come up from time to time.
     
  3. Nrochie4184

    Nrochie4184 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    Does anyone foresee this getting the AAA Vinyl treatment any time soon? This is a top 5 all-time album for me, but just can't seem to get a quiet copy. Even my VG++ Promo Copy is fairly loud. It also feels like an album that could benefit from the KPG treatment.
     
    lucan_g, GentleSenator and Solace like this.
  4. Snow2

    Snow2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Eaton
    I love this album probably just prefer St.Dominic's Preview.

    Read a kindle book on best top 20 Morrison albums and Veedon Fleece was No1 - so some people also love it!
     
  5. Almost Simon

    Almost Simon Forum Resident

    Pretty sure thats the same kindle book i read. I always put Veedon Fleece high but it might have slipped slightly in my pecking order through the years. Still great, mind. Prob St.Dominic top for me, also have a lot of love for Tupelo Honey too.
     
    CybrKhatru likes this.
  6. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    I’m pretty sure that Veedon Fleece along with The Healing Game were both on the list of imminant reissues when Sony/Legacy gained the rights to the VM catalogue a few years ago. However, with the Man’s rate of new releases of late, we’re still waiting...
     
    steelinYaThighs likes this.
  7. googlymoogly

    googlymoogly Forum Resident

    Like a lot of restless artists with long careers, Van struggles with the need to respect (and market) his older music, while still wanting his audience to listen to (and buy!) his most recent efforts. It's not easy, that's for sure.
     
  8. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    wasn't it said that van detested veedon fleece? might explain why it's not seen as many reissues.
     
  9. steelinYaThighs

    steelinYaThighs "I'll be dancin' on Diamonds..."

    Location:
    U.S.A.
    Veedon Fleece

    A monster album, but not in the traditional sense--this is an acoustic album, and yet, that pastoral Celtic tone immediately punches out of the speakers and envelops you in that world, enriched by Van's falsetto vocals on "Fair Play." It immediately sets and mood, tone, and atmosphere--a place very similar to the spiritual ground traveled in Astral Weeks, Celtic, but uniquely its own world. This is probably the closest Van has ever come to duplicating what he achieved on Astral Weeks. This isn't "Gypsy Van"--this is "Mystic Van" all the way.

    Van goes to work with a solid band comprised of many familiar faces in two recording sessions--Nov. 73 (West Coast) and Apr. 74 (N.Y.C. for "Bulbs" and several others). This album is the one on which Van gets his "Caledonia Soul" formula just right--his acoustic guitar complemented by Ralph Walsh's acoustic guitar (and John Tropea's electric work on "Bulbs" and "Cul de Sac" from the spring 74 sessions), but given massive punch courtesy the Celtic baroque finishes--the flute and the string arrangements (violin, and upright bass). Most importantly, this is a very literary album--rivaled only by AW. The Poetic Champion knocks it out of the park with his tales of wandering the "Streets of Arklow" with a "head filled with poetry." Van succeeds in rivaling guys like Wordsworth, or John Keats--or some of the great poets native to Van's homeland. I love the name dropping on "...But You Don't Push The River"--Van goes emotionally "all in" on this number, and to this day, those nine-minutes feel like only thirty seconds--literally, the flute stops time stupid in its tracks, and Van creates a mystical world--as he was wont to do on many of his albums, especially back then.

    For me, "Cul de Sac" is the masterpiece on the album--with that said, like Van's other LPs from this era: no fat on the bones. When he goes on about "Mount Palomar," you can literally see his homecoming to Ireland, full circle--this time a Poetic Champion to the entirie world, but without pretense. "We don't care who you know--it's who YOU ARE." Every time he grits that line out, it strikes me in the emotional core--but that's par for the course with The Belfast Lion.

    This is a timeless album with a powerful yet soothing sound and quality to it. I feel guilty for Astral Weeks being (a very close) second, but Veedon Fleece is the album--to my ear--in which every single thing I crave about Van he gives me in fistfuls on this album. One of the regulars here once wrote this to the effect of Saint Dominic's Preview: "if you don't have SDP in your collection, then you aren't invited to my pool party." Well, that same phrase is applicable to Veedon Fleece. :righton:

    -siyt
     
    mrzpliff, CybrKhatru, GordonM and 5 others like this.
  10. geddy402

    geddy402 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Picked this up today. I would say a VG++ copy and it is noisey as heck. Second side is a bit better but I was really surprised by the snap, crackle, and pop of this vinyl. I don’t come across this album very often, and at $30 seemed like a reasonable price so I’ll hold on to it. But, man this is really in need of a reissue.
     
  11. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    yeesh. i hate that. and this one really demands a quiet disc.
     
  12. a customer

    a customer Forum Resident

    Location:
    virginia
    St Dominic's is a masterpiece with the closers on each side
     
  13. Sckott

    Sckott Hand Tighten Only.

    Location:
    South Plymouth, Ma
    Said it before and I'll say it again. If you find a decent copy, it will still sound like poo. Not because of the cutting.

    That is, if you DO find a decent copy. Strangely hard to find for years.
     
  14. Em.

    Em. Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal, USA
    Van Morrison was the artist that I made a decision to dive deeply into last year (though I grew-up hearing my parents play his records), and while I've still only really gotten through his output through 1974, Veedon Fleece is definitely one of my favorite four Van records (along with Astral Weeks, Moondance, and SDP), so it's cool to find this thread and see that I'm not anywhere near alone in my adoration for Veedon Fleece.

    I know you all know very-well what it looks like, but here's a shot of my copy:

    [​IMG]
     
    Newscot, Crispy Rob, jwoverho and 2 others like this.
  15. geddy402

    geddy402 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Is it riddled with surface noise (crackle)?
     
  16. Em.

    Em. Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal, USA
    Nope. After reading through this thread, and all the accounts of the bad pressing quality, I put my copy on, turned the volume up, and gave it an attentive listen.
    It's nowhere-near the most quiet vinyl I have, but what little surface noise there is doesn't seem like it's at the level that some others are reporting. Even on the quieter tunes, it doesn't detract. When I bought this copy, it was graded NM, but I'd put it closer to VG+ because I can see signs of use (spindle marks, some light superficial marks, etc.), so I'm guessing it sounded even better at one point.
     
    Crispy Rob likes this.
  17. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    I picked up an 80s reissue and it sounds great and has minimal noise. As all pressings seem to be kind of scarce, I'm glad to have scored it.

    This is the one:

    Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
     
    The Sage, LeeGriffin and Bryce like this.
  18. culabula

    culabula Unread author.

    Location:
    Belfast, Ireland

    I have both the original and the Polydor reissue. Both are perfect.
     
  19. CybrKhatru

    CybrKhatru Music is life.

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Found the old WB CD of this one a few years ago. Love it!!
     
    Crispy Rob likes this.
  20. geddy402

    geddy402 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I decided to return my copy. Too noisey for $30. I’ll check out a reissue or keep looking for a less noisey original.
     
  21. Snoddywilko

    Snoddywilko Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Not confirmed yet, but over on the Vinyl Me, Please forums, Veedon Fleece seems to be the best guess for Feb’s Essentials ROTM.

    Announcement date is January 28th, for anyone interested.
     
    cwd likes this.
  22. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    VEEDON FLEECE is a return to the mysticism of ASTRAL WEEKS with a bit of the soul of MOONDANCE. Definitely in my top Van albums.
     
    Blue Note likes this.
  23. Jaycat

    Jaycat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Harvard, MA, USA
    Bought the record the day it came out. Still one of my favorites.

    My CD copy has Zero Surface Noise (ZSN). Just sayin'
     
    Crispy Rob and Nick Dunning like this.
  24. Bryce

    Bryce I drank what?

    Location:
    New York City
    I have this one as well. This, along with the Japanese pressing are the quietest you will likely find. I also have a few U.S. originals with various matrix iterations. Can't say which one I like the most, but I often pull the quietest copy.
     
    GentleSenator likes this.
  25. el salmon

    el salmon Active Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    Veedon Fleece is my favorite Van album although I listened it so much for a while that I am burnt out on it...
     
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