Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece - what a great album!

Looks like it's a surname,
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-e...ry-of-the-colonial-gentry--volume-1-kru.shtml

In this link there is a certain Norman de VEEDON.
There is also a Baron Veedon but we are talking about 14th century !!!
Seems like a variation of the VENDON surname.

http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-e...-colonial-gentry-in-two-volumes-vol-kru.shtml

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Veedon Fleece as it is, but I've always seen Bulbs & Cul de Sac as an interlude from the feel of the rest of the LP. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

My alternate suggestions were just to give an idea what VF might have sounded like if those two tunes hadn't been added (for whatever reason - maybe Warner's insistence though there's no real evidence AFAIK). I wouldn't actually prefer the LP that way. Apart from anything the original Cul de Sac version doesn't really sound finished.

I would suggest tracking down the first version of 'Street Theory' though if you haven't heard it - it's completely different from the much later version on TPS, much better in my opinion and would have a been a great bonus on the VF reissue.

(though listening again I do have niggling doubts that it was recorded at the Nov 73 sessions -apparently there was another version recorded in April 74 but it doesn't really fit that either, I don't know…)

 

One of favorite Van releases - easy top 5 for me - Also, this period - say, from Astral Weeks thru Veedon is easily my favorite - he was firing on all cylinders and bursting at the seams with creativity.

 

I said earlier that Cul-de-sac could be my favorite song on the lp. I was forgetting Linden Arden and Bulbs. Yeah, Bulbs, that's it.

 

I'm spinning a 1D/1C copy now that sounds pretty sweet. Just a little surface noise in the quietest passages, but it doesn't take away from the music.

 

I've a lovely pink stickered promo LP. Burbank label with PROMOTION NOT FOR SALE printed. Nice.

 

About a month ago I sat down and pretty carefully checked out and compared 4 US LP copies of this I had acquired over the years, all of which visually look pretty clean. Nothing new from what other people have said, but they were all noisy at some level. (One of them I have since given away, so can't comment on that one anymore, but it wasn't any better than the ones I kept.)

Copy 1: 1C/1C - some crackle on side A, worse in the outer tracks. Side B - crackle all the way through.

Copy 2: 1C/1A - "about the same crackle as other copies". Side B was quieter than other copies, but still not perfect.

Copy 3: 1C/1A - side A with "noise, worse in outer tracks". Side B with some noise but better than side A.

So, basically, as far as I can figure, most US copies of this album are noisy, as many others have noted, maybe with some specific patterns of noise (outer tracks worse on side A). Although some people on this thread have apparently found quiet playing copies, I have not. I have never had a UK copy.

I will say along with others that the original US CD sounds very enjoyable to me. Probably this is the way to go for people intolerant of noisy LPs. I have never had any other CD issue of the album.

Fantastic music!

 

I bought 2 nice-looking copies of "Veedon Fleece" in a used record store, hoping that one of them would be fairly quiet. To my astonishment, they were both as quiet as the best '70s pressing of any record I've ever had. I'd read it was a notoriously crackly LP. Sometimes you luck out (and most times you don't).

 

I would love to have an original Warner Bros. cd of this. They must be pretty rare, I've only come across the 2008 ? remaster. I want the early WB.

Or the early European/UK Polydor.

 

Astonishingly great album. Although Van Morrison IS considered one of the greats, he doesn't seem to be mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles, Dylan or the Stones - and I think he's right up there with them. He's certainly more consistent (if one counts solo Beatles). He somehow managed to create a type of music that is all his own - that "Celtic Soul" thing - that captures something so beautiful and intangible. Structurally, many of his songs are just simple blues progressions, but his vocal phrasing, melodies, lyrics and arrangements transcend the genre and elevate his songs into something totally unique and impossible to imitate. "Veedon Fleece," like "Astral Weeks" and many, many others ("Common One," "No Guru") are unlike any music on Earth. I've mentioned this before, but I've made a playlist of, literally, EVERYTHING Van Morrison ever recorded (official or not) with about 450 song on it which I play on random shuffle and it's remarkable how timeless, coherent and consistent his work is. It all sounds of one piece and virtually every song that pops up next is a joy to listen to. Very few artists have a body of work THAT good.

 

The Van Morrison Insurance Policy for the Soul (In 5 Parts)

 

I read that this morning, good read, lots of it I could relate to. Thanks for sharing.

 

I was going to include this record on the most recent "best comfort albums" thread. Listening to it is like consuming a chicken pot pie....

 

Folks post from time to time about albums that they feel have been short changed. Why isn’t this album considered at least as classic as his others? It doesn’t even appear to be in print. Thank you Youtube.

 

I think it actually gets pretty high ratings among Morrison fans. It's certainly always been in my top 5.

L.

 

Better than Astral Weeks!

 

Van's in top form on Veedon. The Van LP that pulled me in. Now I have 15 or more. These are too hard to find.

 

One of his best records.

 

you don't pull no punches.

is a brilliant album and one of a kind, its in my top 5 van albums

 

But...but...

I knew well-versed Van fans dig it. And thanks for the responses, but does Van not like it or something? I’ve owned his usual suspects for years but didn’t know about this gem until joining this wonderful forum a couple years ago. Crazy to me. (Born in ‘71, fwiw)

 

It’s a terrific album.

 

One of my favorite Van albums, all of my friends who are into Van think highly of it and have for decades, and it seems to be critically well respected. But it is a bit under the radar, perhaps because Astral Weeks gets a lot more notice and is possibly the most similar of his albums, and it hurts (and is a shame) that it has been out of print for most of the last decade or two. It was easy to find back in the late 1980s or early 1990s when I picked it up on CD.

 

Thanks Rob. Yeah, it looks like it was last released in the mid-90’s. Maybe it’s the Bushmills talkin’, but it seems an obvious album to have in circulation. Oh well, at least I know I’m not nuts (I think).

 

I just think this is one of many Van Morrison CDs that are presently OOP on physical media. It and many others can be downloaded from iTunes, etc. I don't know why this is, but I assume it has something to do with catalog management on the label's side and not with any particular distain that Morrison has for the album (or the others that are unavailable physically right now). Does anyone know the details?

L.

 

I never warmed to it years ago but see it praised on here from time to time. I'll have to get it out for a couple of spins.