Van Morrison
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Van Morrison
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George Ivan Morrison OBE (generally known as Van Morrison) (born August 31, 1945) is a singer-songwriter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He plays a variety of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica, keyboards, drums, and saxophone. Featuring his characteristic growl — a unique mix of throaty folk, blues, Irish, scat, and Celtic influences — Morrison is widely considered one of the most unusual and influential vocalists in the history of rock and roll.
Sourced
- Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
- Times (London, July 6, 1990)
- With Moondance, I wrote the melody first. I played the melody on a soprano sax and I knew I had a song so I wrote lyrics to go with the melody. That's the way I wrote that one. I don't really have any words to particularly describe the song, sophisticated is probably the word I'm looking for. For me, Moondance is a sophisticated song. Frank Sinatra wouldn't be out of place singing that.
- Hinton, Brian, Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X, p. 106-107 (1997)
- Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here'...the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me.
- Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
- Like I say, the way I write songs is, you know, inspirational. I have to wait for it to happen. And when it happens I get lines, and I just write them down, you know. I'm not sort of a Tin Pan Alley sort of songwriter. I just sort of write down what I get - without censoring or questioning what it is and what it means, you know. Like later on I look at what it means, but not at the time.
- Nights in Copenhagen with Van Morrison:1985 interview by Al Jones
- The odd time something happens and you go into some kind of enchantment (on stage). But you have to work very hard to get that. Most of the time you're just playing and singing the songs, and there's no guarantee that you are going to get anywhere....
- When I was fifteen, I became a professional musician. I got involved with people and did certain things which led me to start making records and touring. And leaving Belfast and going to London and America, one thing led to another and I got caught up in the life that I'm living now...I was very young and i followed something. (1993)
- Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
- Where I feel this has cost me is in the personality situation, where you're expected to be a personality. You not only have to write and record, but you have to go out and sell it. Well, I'm not a salesman, and I'm very bad at selling things. If I had to do that for a living, I'd probably be completely broke. I can't sell myself. And I don't even want to. That's something that's not going to change.
- 1987 Musician Magazine Interview
- Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity.
- March 1978 Hot Press Interview by Dermot Stokes
- Someone once described me as a maverick and that's what I would say. I'm a maverick not by choice but by conviction.
- Turner, Steve (1993). Too Late to Stop Now, Viking Penguin, ISBN 0-670-85147-7
An Oral History of Popular Music (1989)
Smith, Joe, Off The Record An Oral History of Popular Music, Warner Books, Inc., ISBN 0-446-51232-X- There is one thing I don't understand about Astral Weeks. Of all the records I have ever made that one is definitely not rock. You could throw that record at the wall, take it to music colleges, analyze it to death. Nobody is going to tell me that it is a rock album. Why they keep calling it one I have no idea.
- People think I'm eccentric, cranky. If I'm eccentric because I've never been into mainstream things, then I am eccentric.
- I've never been comfortable working live, and I'm still not. I was always more music-oriented and less star-oriented, which is why I've never been comfortable on big stages in big halls.
- The people I was listening to never sold a lot of records. John Lee Hooker was never on the charts, so I was never in it from a commercial point of view. Other people expected things from my records, but I never did.
- I don't think I will ever mellow out. I think if you mellow out, you get eaten up. You become like a commodity. So I don't think I will mellow out. It is not in my blood.
Blowin' Your Mind! (1967)
- Hey where did we go,
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow,
Playin' a new game,
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.
- So hard to find my way,
Now that I'm all on my own.
I saw you just the other day,
My how you have grown,
Cast my memory back there, Lord
Sometimes I'm overcome thinking 'bout
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium with you
My brown eyed girl
You my brown eyed girl.
Astral Weeks (1969)
- Got a home on high
Ain't nothing but a stranger in this world
I'm nothing but a stranger in this world
I got a home on high
In another land
So far away
- Way over on the railroad,
Tomorrow all the tipping trucks will unload together,
Every scrapbook stuck with glue,
And I'll stand beside you,
Beside you, child.- Beside You
- The dynamo of your smile caressed a barefoot virgin child to wander.
- Beside You
- And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
'Hey, it's me, I'm dynamite
And I don't know why'
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again
- Yonder comes my lady
Rainbow ribbons in her hair
Yonder comes my lady
Rainbow ribbons in her hair
Six white horses and a carriage
She's returning from the fair
- And you know you gotta go
On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row
Throwing pennies at the bridges down below
And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow
Say goodbye to Madame George
Dry your eye for Madame George
Wonder why for Madame George
- And this time I forget to slip into your slumber
The light is on the left side of your head
And I'm standing in your doorway
And I'm mumbling and I can't remember the last thing that ran through my head
- Saw you early this morning
With your brand new boy and your Cadillac
Saw you early this morning
With your brand new boy and your Cadillac
You're gone for something
And I know you won't be back
Moondance (1970)
- Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance,
With the stars up above in your eyes.
A fantabulous night to make romance,
'Neath the cover of October skies.
- I can hear her heart beat from a thousand miles
And the heavens open everytime she smiles
And when I come to her that's where I belong
Yet I'm running to her like a river's song.
- Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you.
- And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin home
And it stoned me.
- Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic.
- And when that foghorn blows,
I will be coming home,
When that foghorn blows,
I wanna hear it, I don't have to fear it,
And I wanna rock your gypsy soul,
Just like way back in the days of old,
And magnificently we will fold
Into the mystic.
- My back was up against the wall
And you slowly just walked away
You never really heard my call
When I cried out that way
With my face against the sun
You pointed out for me to go
Then you said I was the one
Had to reap what you did sow.
- When all the dark clouds roll away
And the sun begins to shine
I see my freedom from across the way
And it comes right in on time
Well it shines so bright and it gives so much light
And it comes from the sky above
Makes me feel so free makes me feel like me
And lights my life with love.
- By the winding stream we shall lie and dream
We'll make dreams come true if we want them to
Yes all will come play the pipes and drum
Sing a happy song and we'll sing along.
- And they'll talk to you while you're in trances
And you'll visualize not taking any chances
But meet them halfway with love, peace and persuasion
And expect them to rise for the occasion.
His Band and the Street Choir (1970)
- Don't want to discuss it, I think it's time for a change
You may get disgusted, some think that I'm strange
In that case I'll go underground, get some heavy rest
Never have to worry, about what is worst and what is best.
- Someone to hold onto
And keep me from all fear
Someone to be my guiding light
And keep me ever dear
To keep me from my selfishness
To keep me from my sorrow
To lead me on to givingness
So I can see a new tomorrow.- If I Ever Needed Someone
- Why did you leave America?
Why did you let me down?
And now that things seem better off,
Why do you come around?
You know I just can't see you now
In my new world crystal ball.
You know I just can't free you now,
That's not my job at all.- Street Choir
Tupelo Honey (1971)
- And all the girls walk by
Dressed up for each other
And the boys do the boogie-woogie
On the corner of the street
And the people passin' by
Just stare in wild wonder
And the inside juke-box
Roars out just like thunder.
- Waiting for the sun to shine
And you know sometimes it gets so painful
Just like talking to yourself
When everything don't seem to have no rhyme or reason we all go
Do do loo do do, do do loo do do
Waiting for the sun to shine.- (Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball
- You can't stop us on the road to freedom
You can't stop us 'cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor intent on chivalry.
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
- I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven
I'm in heaven when you smile, when you smile.
- Laying underneath the stars
Can be so much fun
Especially when you're feeling good
When you're with the one you love.- Gypsy
- And I shall search my soul,
I shall search my very soul,
For the lion,
For the lion,
For the lion,
For the lion inside me.- Listen to the Lion
- And we're sailing, we're sailing,
Way up to Caledonia,
We're from Denmark.- Listen to the Lion
- Oh redwood tree,
Please let us under,
When we were young we used to go,
Under the redwood tree,
And it smelled like rain,
Maybe even thunder,
Won't you keep us from all harm,
Wonderful redwood tree.- Redwood Tree
Hard Nose the Highway (1973)
- Look at the ivy on the cold clinging wall
Look at the flowers and the green grass so tall
It's not a matter of when push comes to shove
It's just an hour on the wings of a dove.
- Put your money where your mouth is
Then we can get something going
In order to win you must be prepared to lose sometime
And leave one or two cards showing.- Hard Nose the Highway
- Did you ever hear about the great deception?
Well the plastic revolutionaries take the money and run.
Have you ever been down to love city?
Where they rip you off with a smile,
And it don't take a gun.- The Great Deception
- Leaves of brown they fall to the ground.
And it's here, over there leaves around.
Shut the door, dim the lights and relax.
What is more, your desire or the facts?- Autumn Song
Veedon Fleece (1974)
- Fair play to you,
Kilarney's lakes are so blue,
And the architecture I'm taking in with my mind,
So fine.- Fair Play
- And there's only one man knows way to go,
And we say 'Geronimo.'- Fair Play
- Hi-ho, silver! Tit for tat!
And I love you for that.- Fair Play
- Linden Arden stole the highlights
With one hand tied behind his back.
Loved the morning sun and whiskey
Ran like water in his veins.
Loved to go to church on Sunday,
Even though he was a drinkin' man.
When the boys came to San Francisco,
They were looking for his life.
But he found out where they were drinking,
Met them face to face outside.
Cleaved their heads off with a hatchet,
Lord, he was a drinkin' man.
And when somebody tried to get above him,
He just took the law into his own hands.
Linden Arden stole the highlights,
And they put his fingers through the glass.
He had heard all those stories many, many times before,
And he did not care, nor know, to ask.
And he loved the little children like they were his very own.
You say 'Someday, he may get lonely,
Now he's livin', livin' with a gun.'- Linden Arden Stole the Highlights
- When the ghost comes round at midnight
Well you both can have some fun
He can drive you mad, he can make you sad
He can keep you from the sun
When they take him down, he'll be both safe and sound
And the hand does fit the glove
And no matter what they tell you,
There's good and evil in everyone.- Who Was That Masked Man
- Come here my love
And I will lift my spirits high for you
I'd like to fly away and spend a day or two
Just contemplating the fields and leaves and talking about nothing
Just layin' down in shades of effervescent, effervescent odors
And shades of time and tide.- Come Here My Love
A Period of Transition (1977)
- Well let them take you for a clown
And they're bound to bring you down.
You got to make it through the world if you can.
Think they're doing you wrong
But you got here on your own.
You got to make it through the world if you can.- You Gotta Make It Through the World
- In the land of a thousand dances,
I dance with you.
I was out I was taking my chances
When dreams came true
When you came into my dream
Like from a whisper to a scream.- Heavy Connection
Wavelength (1978)
- And I shall get to know you
In these lifetimes
In awe and wonder
On down through the years
The nighttime angel spreads her wings around me
I feel the silence
And my doubts are cleared.- Lifetimes
- To Santa Fe
Do you need it?
Can you feel it in the same old way?
I can feel it from the mountain top
Runnin' down to the foamy brine
In a rest'rant 'cross a table top
Looking into a glass of wine
Whispering in the evening breeze
Green leaves glist'ning eucalyptus trees
Can you hear them?
Or get near them?- Santa Fe/Beautiful Obsession
- Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it.- Take It Where You Find It
Into the Music (1979)
- From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
We’ll be lovers once again on the
Bright side of the road
- Some people spend their time just runnin' round in circles
Always chasing some exotic bird
I prefer to spend some time just listening for that special something
That I've never ever heard
I like a new song to sing, another show or somewhere entirely different to be
But baby you make me feel so free.
- Walkin' on a city street who would think you could ever be touched
By a total stranger, not me
But when you came up to me that day and I listened to your story
It reminded me so much of myself
It wasn't what you said but the way it felt to me
About a search and a journey just like mine.- Angeliou
- When you hear the music ringin' in your soul
And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows
And it comes from the backstreet rock & roll and the healing has begun
I want you to put on your pretty summer dress
You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest
And I wanna make love to you yes, yes, yes and the healing has begun.
- You know what they're writing about
Baby you know what they're writing about
It's a thing called love down through the ages
Makes you wanna cry sometimes
Makes you feel like you wanna lay down and die sometimes
Makes you high sometimes
But when you really get in it lifts you right up.- You Know What They're Writing About
Common One (1980)
- Beside the garden walls,
We walk in haunts of ancient peace.
At night we rest and go to sleep
In haunts of ancient peace.
The love and light we seek,
The words we do not need to speak,
Here in this wondrous way we keep
These haunts of ancient peace.- Haunts Of Ancient Peace
- Open your arms in the early mornin'
When the light comes shinin' through
Can't you hear my heart beat just for you?
It's beating so wild, honey.
And light comes shinin'
Singin' my song
And the band is playin'
And the music is tried and true.- Wild Honey
Beautiful Vision (1982)
- I have seen without perceiving
I have been another man
Let me pierce the realm of glamour
So I know just what I am.
- What's my line?
I'm happy cleaning windows
Take my time
I'll see you when my love grows
Baby don't let it slide
I'm a working man in my prime
Cleaning windows...
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)
- Rave on, down through the industrial revolution
Empiricism, atomic and nuclear age
Rave on down through time and space down through the corridors
Rave on words on printed page.- Rave On, John Donne
- Oh won't you stay
Stay a while with your own ones
Don't ever stray
Stray so far from your own ones
'Cause the world is so cold
Don't care nothing for your soul
That you share with your own ones.
- Your street, rich street or poor
Used to always be sure, on your street
There's a place in your heart you know from the start
Can't be complete outside of the street
Keep moving on through the joy and the pain
Sometimes you got to look back
To the street again
Would you prefer all those castles in Spain?
Or the view of your street from your window pane?- The Street Only Knew Your Name
A Sense of Wonder (1985)
- Showed me pictures in the gallery
Showed me novels on the shelf
Put my hands across the table
Gave me knowledge of myself.
Showed me visions, showed me nightmares
Gave me dreams that never end
Showed me light out of the tunnel
When there was darkness all around instead.
- I walked in my greatcoat
Down through the days of the leaves.
No before after, yes after before
We were shining our light into the days of blooming wonder
In the eternal presence, in the presence of the flame.- A Sense of Wonder
- There's an angel that's watching right over you
All your trials have not been in vain
Won't you lift your head up to the starry night
Finding strength in the things that remain.- A New Kind of Man
- When a man comes through
He must do what he's supposed to do
When a man comes through.
He can't do what everyone expects him to.- A New Kind of Man
No Guru (1986)
- Got my ticket at the airport
Well I guess I've been marking time
I've been living in another country
That operates along entirely different lines
Keep me away from porter or whiskey
Don't play anything sentimental it'll make me cry
I've got to go back my friend
Is there really any need to ask why?- Got to Go Back
- No Guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost
In the garden wet with rain.
- Thanks for the information
Never give a sucker an even break
When he's breaking through
To a new level of consciousness
There always seems to be more
Obstacles in the way
Thanks for the information I know
It's only a combat zone
Thanks for the memory,
I'll just have
To carry on on my own.- Thanks For the Information
- When you come down
From your Ivory Tower
You will see how it really must be
To be like me, to see like me,
To feel like me.
Poetic Champions Compose (1987)
- Let go into the mystery
Let yourself go
You've got to open up your heart
That's all I know
Trust what I say and do what you're told
Baby, and all your dirt will turn
Into gold.- The Mystery
- There's a dream where the contents are visible
Where the poetic champions compose
Will you breathe not a word of this secrecy, and
Will you still be my special rose?
- I forgot that love existed, troubled in my mind.
Heartache after heartache, worried all the time.
I forgot that love existed
Then I saw the light
Everyone around me make everything alright.- I Forgot That Love Existed
- I've been travellin' a hard road
Baby lookin' for someone exactly like you
I've been carryin' my heavy load
Waiting for the light to come shining through
Someone like you
Make it all worth while
Someone like you
Make me satisfied
Someone exactly like you.
- Well I've got to get out of the rat-race now
I'm tired of the ways of mice and men
And the empires all turning into rust again.
Out of everything nothing remains the same
That's why I'm cloud hidden
Cloud hidden
Whereabouts unknown.- Alan Watts Blues
- Won't you guide me through the dark night of the soul
That I may better understand your way
Let me be just and worthy to receive
All the blessings of the Lord into my life.- Give Me My Rapture
- Sometimes, when the spirit moves me
I can do many wondrous things
I wanna know when the spirit moves you
Did ye get healed?
Avalon Sunset (1989)
- Whenever God shines his light on me
Opens up my eyes so I can see
When I look up in the darkest night
I know everything's going to be alright
In deep confusion, in great despair
When I reach out for him he is there
When I am lonely as I can be
I know that God shines his light on me.
- I'd love to write another song
Baby especially for you
I'd love to write another song
And feel things bright and new
In poetry I'd carve it well
I'd even make it rhyme
I'd love to write another song
Just to get some peace of mind.- I'd Love to Write Another Song
- Have I told you lately that I love you?
Have I told you there's no one above you?
Fill my heart with gladness,
Take away my sadness,
Ease my troubles, that's what you do.
- I look at the side of your face as the sunlight comes
Streaming through the window in the autumn sunshine
And all the time going to Coney Island I'm thinking,
Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time.
- Ambition will take you
And ride you too far and
Conservatism bring you to boredom once more
Sit down by the river
And watch the stream flow
Recall all the dreams
That you once used to know
The things you've forgotten
That took you away
To pastures not greener but meaner.- I'm Tired Joey Boy
- Whatever it takes to fulfill his mission
That is the way we must go
But you've got to do it your own way
Tear down the old, bring up the new.- When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God?
- These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now.
Enlightenment (1990)
- Some people say
You can make it on your own
Oh you can make it if you try
I know better now
You can't stand up alone
Oh baby that is why.I'm real real gone
I can't stand up by myself
Don't you know I need your help
You're a friend of mine
And I'm real real gone.
- Enlightenment says the world is nothing
Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion
And nothing is real.
- The warm look of radiance on your face
And your heart beating close to mine
And the evening fading in the candle glow
This must be what it's all about
Oh this must be what it's all about
This must be what paradise is like
So quiet in here. So peaceful in here
So quiet in here, yeah, so peaceful in here.- So Quiet In Here
- The way you see me walking on
That's why I'm telling you in song
There's only one way to get ahead
You've got to give it up instead
Start all over again.- Start All Over Again
About Van Morrison
- But there was a definite charisma when Van performed. Van always had something about him. Whether you liked it or not, you could never take away from the fact that he was different from all other human beings, and here he is today, still being different.
- John Wilson as quoted — Hinton, Brian, Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X, p. 60 (1997)
- My first impression of Van Morrison was that he was a terrific singer. No, I take that back. I thought he was a really dirty singer. Everything he did had a real big pair of balls to it.
- Jimmy Page (played as a session musician with Van Morrison's Them band)—Zigzag 27
- Van Morrison is interested, obsessed with how much musical or verbal information he can compress into a small space, and, almost, conversely, how far he can spread one note, word, sound, or picture.
- Lester Bangs - Stranded (1979)
- He has this great poetic and fantastic voice and what I love about Van, and what I forget to do sometimes is, well I can tell when Van is just like drifting into sort of a zone he just drifts into a place where the whole world is shut out and you can tell that he's in that spot. It's almost a dream-like, trance-like state, singing sometimes. That's really what music is all about. It's almost a jazz concept if you know what I mean - you just kinda go out and you're just wingin' it and I love that about Van, he will risk that, he will go on and on and on and he won't fade the ending before the magic happens, as it were.
- Bob Seger - Interview on Later with Bob Costas
- Morrison remains a singer who can be compared to no other performer in the history of rock 'n' roll, a singer who can not be pinned down, dismissed or fitted into anyone's expectations. He is a conundrum.
- The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
- They asked me to come to New York to help celebrate Van's induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. I went because I see Van as one of the cats that has kept the faith. Like me, he's always himself - he stays true to the music that means the most to him. It meant a lot to sing "Crazy Love" on stage that evening.
- Ray Charles - About Ray Charles (Genius Loves Company) by David Ritz
- Van Morrison should be friggin' canonized
- Sinead O'Conner - 1994 Brit awards
- A great Irish poet
- Tom Petty - 09/24/1991, Capital Centre Washington D.C. concert
- I love Van Morrison because he always seems to be searching, never found. I don't know about his personal life but in his music he gives the listener only a question. The answer lies elsewhere to be attained someday
- Glen Hansard - Steve Stockman interview in The Phantom Tollbooth
- He extends himself only to express himself. Alone among rock's great figures — and even in that company he is one of the greatest — Morrison is adamantly inward. And unique. Although he freely crosses musical boundaries —R. and B., Celtic melodies, jazz, rave-up rock, hymns, down-and-dirty blues — he can unfailingly be found in the same strange place: on his own wavelength.
- Jay Cocks-Time Magazine, "Listen to the Lion" 28 October, 1991