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

Seems the UK release date for the new album is still March 17th in the UK... Now I gotta track down an import.

 

Does Van Morrison ever do These Are The Days in concert? It's a shame if he doesn't.

 

This is good news. I'll be able to get into La Zona Rosa a lot cheaper than I can catch his show at the Austin Music Hall. Frankly, I would not expect too big a crowd for Van at SXSW. SXSW is not really about established artists, and he'll be competing for attention with lots of hot up and coming acts. I'm guessing La Zona Rosa holds about 300 people tops, so this could be very interesting. . .

 

i imagine all 300 spots to be full with many hoping to get in too. I could be wrong, but the crowd I know going to this, will all be wanting to see this show for sure.....

please let us know how the shows are. glad to know someone in this thread can attend that.

 

He had me at "proof positive of a paucity of ideas for our paunchy patron"

Tim

 

I heard Entrainment on WMMM in Madison WI last Thursday morning. I dig it. Nice and mellow with a very sparce instrument arrangement. Glad there are stations around (AAA) that will still play new music by him.

 

I was giggling like a schoolgirl as I typed that line, Tim.

 

It's good to know you enjoyed yourself that much .

Tim

 

I've preordered my copy from Amazon.ca. (along with the upcoming Thank You Friends: Ardent Records comp ) but release day isn't until April 1st for Van.

Woof.

 

Keep It Simple song samples here:

http://www.musicload.de/album/3190237_2/van-morrison/keep-it-simple/item.html

 

Danke schoen, Craig!

 

So I've revisited the album this week to try to find some merit in the second half and I will grudgingly give some credit to this song and "Memories". Just a tad bizarrely, Tom? Durcan delivers his lines as if he has just learned the English language from an ESL textbook and has never heard it spoken before. Gotta love "telefunken, telefunken", and the instrumental backing is quite strong, so I'm giving it a passing grade but I wouldn't wanna play it for someone who didn't know Van. "Memories" is pleasant enough and a serviceable closer. "Start All Over Again" and "She's My Baby" still do nothing for me.

 

Hey Y'all,

Not to get off on Enlighenment too much...

But my buddy and I watched Van's Montreux DVD today as research for our (now delayed) special...

Man, what a stunned double disc!

I'm sure somewhere in these 1899 and counting Van post this has already been covered (say maybe around his 74 or 80 albums?) But I just gotta comment on it.

The 1980 show was stunning. Only seen Van video on The Last Waltz before this. He mezmorized me... start to finish... and what a band, PeeWee and Mark were like twin brothers of different mothers, and they soared together. The whole band cooked and locking into some serious grooves, and what a set it was... and leading it all was That Vox, what a stunning instrument, coming from a funny little, moody irish man... I have seen the light and I Believe... amen brother...


and then we went to 74 (wisely sequenced second) and a whole nother van emerged... and still a great show, Bulbs and Naked in the Jungle were my faves, smoking rockers... great instrumentals, dallas grooved, and so did pete wingfeild... van took no prisoners, played no faves...

Any Van fans (or just good music fans) out there that havent see this dvd set, make it a plan to buy, borrow, or view it somewhere, sometime soon...


Back to In The Garden...

 

Maybe I was downplaying the weirdness of it a little bit, wasn't I? Okay, you win, it's freakin' odd!

 

his delivery reminds me of one of those toys from when I was a kid, you'd pull a string and the toy would "talk", but in a very odd disjointed way. I think it might have been a "speak and spell", or something like that.

OMD used a toy like this on the Genetic Engineering track....anyway, thats what his performance reminds me of.

 

http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/...ource=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=080227

Wolfgangs vault is streaming a cool Van Morrison Concert from 1974 at the above link....

Add Track Time
Introduction2:13
Heathrow Shuffle3:58
Ain't Nothing You Can Do3:19
Warm Love 3:48
Snow In San Anselmo4:56
Help Me3:38
Into The Mystic4:52
I Believe To My Soul
Moondance6:08
Foggy Mountain Top6:08
Street Choir5:21
Listen To The Lion9:17
I've Been Working7:03
I Just Want To Make Love To You

Van Morrison - vocals, guitar, sax, harmonica
Brian Marnel - guitar
Mario Cippolina - bass
John Farey - keyboards
Brian Hogan - sax
John Colla - sax
Bill Gibson - drums

One of the most enigmatic songwriters of our time, Van Morrison first gained recognition as the lead singer of the Northern Irish band Them, writing their seminal 1964 hit "Gloria." When Morrison began pursuing his own career in the late 1960s, he began a long journey down one of the most idiosyncratic musical paths in history, becoming one of the most distinctive and influential vocalists in all of modern music. His synthesis of folk, blues, jazz, and Celtic influences is utterly unique. Although stylistically diverse, Morrison’s greatest songs fall into two loosely defined categories: his popular hits, such as "Brown Eyed Girl," "Moondance," "Domino," and "Wild Night" are tightly structured around the stylistic conventions of American soul and R&B; but an equal and more compelling catalogue consists of spiritually-inspired forays into Celtic tradition, jazz, and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as his second album Astral Weeks and lesser-known works like Veedon Fleece. Hypnotic, meditative, and uniquely powerful, Morrison's music has always defied classifications. Morrison is a true innovator that has produced one of the most spiritually transcendent bodies of work of any musician of the rock era.

In 1974, at the time of this intimate club performance, Morrison had recently recorded one of the most introspective and ambitious albums of his career, Veedon Fleece. He had also completed a European tour, including a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival days before, and had just returned home to California. His double live album, It's Too Late To Stop Now, which had been recorded the previous year, was receiving ecstatic reviews, but despite having performed for nearly 10 years, Morrison began experiencing stage fright. Still compelled to perform, he had begun gigging in local clubs, regaining his ability to connect with an audience. This performance, recorded at the Orphanage in San Francisco before an intimate audience, was his final club gig. To preserve the moment for posterity, the evening was filmed with a half dozen song excerpts being televised on the local PBS station. These broadcast excerpts have been treasured by collectors ever since, and have been bootlegged extensively, but here for the first time ever is the complete show, containing all 13 songs performed at the late show that memorable evening.

With a new, young band comprised of the members of Soundhole, Morrison kicks off the show playing sax on the stormy "Heathrow Shuffle" before belting out "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" (one of the many highlights of It's Too Late To Stop Now). A double dose of Hard Nose The Highway tracks follows, with relaxed takes on "Warm Love" and "Snow In San Anselmo." Over the course of the next hour, Morrison delivers an intriguing cross section of material, including songs from the recent live album (a threatening cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" and the brassy "I Believe To My Soul); a pair of classics from the Moondance album (the ethereal "Into The Mystic" and an extended improvisation on the title track); and an unusual cover, "Foggy Mountain Top" aka "T For Texas," just for fun. Throughout, Morrison punches out his vocals like a honking saxophone, regularly leaning on blues- and jazz-based variations. When words are inadequate he scat sings both melody and rhythm.

However, it is the final half hour of this set, most of which has never been heard by non-attendees, that is most captivating. "Street Choir," which can be perceived as a self-defining song for this group of musicians, is taken at a slower tempo, sounding simmering and sultry. Then comes "Listen To The Lion," the tour-de-force performance of the evening. Here Morrison begins truly channeling the whims of his own muse, connecting the mythic power of his musical vision and his incendiary vocal delivery. Near the end, his spiraling repetitions of whispers and wails bypass language altogether, articulating emotion beyond the scope of any literal meaning.

To end the set, Morrison and the band deliver a smoldering take on "I've Been Working," with Morrison sounding as happy as he ever has and with the group creating a glorious rush of sound behind him. The crowd clamors for more and Morrison obliges by returning to the stage for a thoroughly engaging encore romp through "I Just Want To Make Love To You" that proves his harp blowing to be as original as his vocal delivery. This ends the night and concludes the club-gigging phase of Morrison's career.

Morrison's moodiness has been well documented, and tales of his frustration with his audience, his band, and himself are plentiful. While this performance is quite strong, occasionally brilliant, what becomes clear is that the audience’s enjoyment is irrelevant. Morrison employs the audience, the repertoire, and the artistic craftsmanship of his band to create an environment that ultimately makes his time on stage a rewarding and cathartic experience for him alone. Notoriously difficult and eccentric, this approach to performing and Morrison's rejection of commercial trends and industry fashions has barred him from superstar recognition, but has gained him a large and dedicated cult following that has endured throughout his prolific career.

 

Our man Heylin doesn't like Enlightenment, calling it "a thin piece of work and a worrying indication that the man had simply run out of new themes to address."
He completely rejects any idea of their being a unifying concept holding all of Van's music together, choosing instead to see the recurrence of words and phrases as reflecting a paucity of ideas from our paunchy patron :

I think he underestimates Van's vision here, but maybe that's just me.

 

are we sure he's not talking about "Hymns To The Silence"?

 

No, the album previous, previous, previous, previous, way, way, way, way, way way way back, previous.

 

well, sounds like he's talking about Hymns to me....

more on Hymns on Friday, in the meantime, seems we're light on enlightening conversation on the current topic....

 

Oh, the album with the line:
"SIDNEY BECHET!...Sunday afternoons in winter."

 

I mentioned previous previous previous previous that I LOVE Hymns, so maybe I should just quit reading for the next few weeks.

 

Not at all, we're just having fun. Why would you quit reading? We want to hear opinions.
I really like a lot of Hymns (read: CD 2), but I think DJWILBUR has some bones to pick with our churlish chum on CD1.

 

I may be joining the DJ in picking those bones , but the album certainly has it's moments.

 

once upon a time I LOVED Hymns too....and Tom stuck me with Disc One, (SO BLAME TOM) not my prefered half of the silence....so, disc one might get some thrashing from me, but I would love to see what you think of this album. Just cause I'm not feeling something, doesnt mean, I cant be persuaded and hear something differently from your observations of it....

as Connie Francis once sang "don't ever leave me"...stick around....