VAN MORRISON Album by Album Discussion: Part 2 (Wavelength 1978 - Enlightenment 1990)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Clarkophile, Nov 26, 2007.

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  1. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC

    Who knows? If that's the case, someone needs to let the man know that his employees are shutting down respectful, if not downright worshipful internet resources about his music. This is viral marketing at its best and most powerful. Whoever is cutting it off is very foolish.

    Tim
     
  2. DJ WILBUR

    DJ WILBUR The Cappuccino Kid

  3. JohnB

    JohnB Senior Member

    So now Van is off limits on Dime as well as YouTube. I can't even begin to tell you how many artists I've first discovered, and then purchased official music of, BECAUSE of dime.

    I've been a loyal fan of Van's for many years, and have purchased all the albums (many of them multiple times) as well as seeking out and purchasing import CD singles, vinyl EPs ect, and had planned to purchase at least some of the upcoming reissues, but I'm seriously rethinking making any future purchases of his work. In the past I couldn't even fathom feeling this way about Van or his music, but with recent developments, like was mentioned by another poster earlier in this thread, I'm getting a bad taste in my mouth. I'll learn whatever is possible regarding the situation, but if these moves are a directive from Van himself, then I'll take my business elsewhere.
     
  4. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC
    Hey, if any of you get offended enough to want to dump your Van collections, I have a few holes, and I'll send you a mailing address. :)

    Sorry, I just can't get all that offended by any of this. By all accounts, quite a few brilliant artists have been complete jerks. Frank Lloyd Wright comes to mind. He was, evidently, a horrible father, a worse husband and a terrible partner to his clients who would shut down work on a project if it wasn't being done exactly his way (except during those times when he really needed the money). Of course his buildings make the work of nearly all of his contemporaries, and most of our contemporaries, look like concrete strip malls, but he was a jerk.

    "Nice guy," or "smart businessman" isn't necesarily in the job description of brilliant, visionary artists.

    Tim
     
  5. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    On a lighter note, throughout the course of this thread I have gotten into the habit of changing my screensaver at work to reflect whatever Van album we've been discussing (with the notable exception of A Period of Transition :laugh: ).

    The cover of the Belfast live album makes very attractive wallpaper.:righton:

    (Why do I feel as though I just fed someone a straight line?:shh: )
     
  6. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    :shh:

    Tom, be careful what you say. You'll get an email from the Web sheriff telling you to take down your screensaver.
     
  7. DJ WILBUR

    DJ WILBUR The Cappuccino Kid

    my thoughts exactly when i read it. haha big brother Van is watching you.

    doesnt it all give you a sense of wonder....coming up soon...
     
  8. butch

    butch Senior Member

    Location:
    ny
    I'm glad you mentioned all this ,one must separate the art from the artist.Van the Man might be more like Morrision the Grouch,but I could care less.Only until, I have to shell out mega greenbacks for one of his shows ...that's where I draw the line!That is where his music suffers from his idosyncratic behavior.Otherwise,Keep on Grumpin',Van the Man ,I'll chill out to No Guru:)
     
  9. jostber

    jostber Forum Resident

    Location:
    Skien, Norway
  10. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC
    Interesting. I didn't read it all but it would appear that what Websherrif is doing on Exile's behalf is going after any and all sites that are sharing Van's work. In the internet age, that's something that can be overdone very quickly - I sure wouldn't have taken down youtube, for example, it's a great marketing tool. And I sure wouldn't go after fan boards printing lyrics in threads. But boards sharing bootleg concerts? To say it is within Van's legal rights to remove all of that stuff from the internet is an understatement, and it might even be a good move if he intends, as other "cult following" artists have, to start making quality live recordings available for "web-only" sales on his official site. Richard Thompson does this. The quality of the work is great and if I were him I wouldn't want it confused with/diluted by a bunch of fan recordings floating around the net.

    At first glace, it appears that this is being pursued a bit over enthusiastically, but it ain't necessarily wrong. If I burn a cd for you it is, technically, piracy, but I'd be happy to oblige and little harm is done to Van's intellectual property rights. If I make a recording of an artists work and make it availble to thousands of people on the internet, I can understand how an artist would be offended and threatened by that. Even if all the parties involved are dedicated fans.

    I like to have some control over the quality of the work with my name on it. And I like to be paid. Evidently, so does Van Morrison. In an effort to do so, I'd guess he probably hired websherrif (or his management did) and gave them orders to get all that crap off of the net (like getting those kids offa his lawn). I seriously doubt if Van is evaluating sites one at a time to determine if the dedication of the fans and the respectfulness of the content means that perhaps he should make an exception and allow them to share illegal, marginal quality examples of his work without his permission.

    You really want him to have time for that? I'd rather have the next record.

    Tim
     
  11. DJ WILBUR

    DJ WILBUR The Cappuccino Kid

    well if we get a plethora of live recordings to purchase soon, then great, i'm all for it. He should make dough off of that, but DIME doesnt allow commercial recordings of any kind, so they do it for uber fans who have the cds and want more.

    So now that he's taking a stand to release live recordings...where are they????? hahaha...i want them now....from every tour asap.

    if he does one a year, it'd be most disappointing to say the least. So we'll see what he coughs up. I wonder how Universal will feel about this with their reissue campaign and paltry 1-2 bonus cuts and now he's releasing live shows for sale. if you were a fan with the albums already, what would you buy? A cd for 1-2 songs or a live show for what will probably be similar money.
     
  12. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    What is really needed is a live version of "River of Time." I'd send the old codger a few quid to get that.
     
  13. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC
    I'd pay the price of a full album for a lossless download of a live River of Time vamp. It's a killer tune, imprisoned in Yanniisms.

    Tim
     
  14. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC
    I wouldn't expect a bunch of them. If he has the rights to release live material independently, there really isn't much Universal can do except refuse to renew his contract. Which would be fine. Van has a strong, loyal cult following. He'll always have a label if he wants one.

    Tim
     
  15. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    How about a Zappa style "beat the boots." He could eliminate the market for trading and buying boots of live shows by offering them as bundled downloads for a really cheap price. Just provide the caveat that sound quality varies.

    He owns the performance rights. That would be a creative way to fight piracy.
     
  16. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    Van should follow the Grateful Dead's example and start is own archival release program.

    He could even call it Dick's Picks. :angel:
     
  17. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    :laugh: :thumbsup:

    Or "Treasures from the Curmudgeon's Dungeon."
     
  18. elborak

    elborak Forum Resident

    Maybe we should move the discussion of the site crackdown to a new thread and bring this one back to being devoted to the album discussions.

    On that note, I wish to point out that the 12" single of "Cry For Home" with the live "Summertime in England" B-side is still fairly easy to track down on GEMM. It's Mercury MERX132. There's also a 7" single which lacks the "All Saints Day" instrumental but includes the other two songs, although I can't guarantee they are the exact same edits as the 12". That one is MER 132 (no "X").
     
  19. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    Note to DJWilbur: I know we'll be moving on to A Sense of Wonder very soon, William, but could you hold off on that until I can jot down some thoughts on the Belfast album, probably tonight or tomorrow morning?
     
  20. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    Feel free to start a new thread on the topic. Satellite Van discussions don't particularly bother me since presumably we're in this thread to chat about all things Morrisonic. William and I always try to steer the discussion back to the album at hand, but I can totally understand if you want to keep the music/business aspects separate. :righton:

    So has anyone (William, for instance?) played the instrumental version of "All Saints Day"?
     
  21. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast is significant for me in that, as many have already noted, it provides satisfying do-overs of its comparatively limp counterparts on Beautiful Vision. The "Into the Muzak" instrumental tease which acts as a kind of introduction to the album, and presumably the concert, along with an awkward transition into a snippet of "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart," is forgiven once the band kicks into "Dweller on the Threshold." In that moment when That Voice comes in one understands what a genuine thrill it must be to see Van in concert. (And our DJWILBUR has had that pleasure multiple times. Lucky sod.)

    The album's centrepiece is obviously "Rave On, John Donne," which at nine-plus minutes, probably more closely resembles what the Beautiful Vision track was like before it was snipped into a tasty bite-sized morsel. Similar to "Summertime in England," where Van traced a history of influential poets to reassert their relevance in contemporary culture, he reaches down History's throat again, grabs Donne, and foists him into the soullessness of the 1980's in defiance of that decade's spiritual vacuousness. (It is worth mentioning that some of Donne's poetry, like Van in "She Gives Me Religion," "Oh the Warm Feeling" and dozens more, juxtaposed sexual desire with more spiritual concerns and aspirations. It's not hard to understand Van's fascination with him.) I can think of no other artist before or since, with the possible exception of Bob Dylan, who would dare to invoke the name of a 17th Century poet-priest in song.
    Ultimately, the purpose of Van's frenzied, possessed-sounding incantations about understanding "The Oneness" is threefold:
    there is an expressed desire to connect with Donne, with the more immediate audience in the Belfast Opera House ("tonight") and with the larger general population living in the spiritually barren 'eighties.
     
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  22. curbach

    curbach Some guy on the internet

    Location:
    The ATX
    This is indeed one of the special qualities that draws me to Van's work. I was always very intrigued by the work of William Blake and here was Van singing about "William Blake and The Eternals", etc, etc. Leading of course to. . . well, I'll save further comments until we get to Sense Of Wonder :angel:
     
  23. tfarney

    tfarney Active Member

    Location:
    Charlotte,NC
    More literary criticism than rock commentary, that, Tom. But appropriate to the material.

    Tim
     
  24. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night Thread Starter

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    Which should be our new topic tomorrow. I must say that I'm looking forward to that discussion. A Sense of Wonder was a huge step in the right direction; a de-Yannification, if you will.:laugh:
     
  25. jpmosu

    jpmosu a.k.a. Mr. Jones

    Location:
    Ohio, USA

    100% agreement from me. I listened to Sense of Wonder on Friday--it was the album that renewed my interest in Morrison. I particularly love the title track. And for what it's worth, I always felt like Poetic Champions Compose was a bit of relapse of the Yannification tendencies.
     
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