Other birthdays this week . . . . . . Van Morrison 81

 

With John Lee

Don’t Look Back

Autumn it is, so a Van Morrison song about September . . . .

 When The Leaves Come Falling Down

Van MorrisonBack On Top

Van Morrison – Back On Top (1999)

HERBERG DE KELDER

Van Morrison, Chet Baker Live At Ronnie Scott's - Send in The Clowns (Stephen Sondheim) 1986

Van Morrison and Chet Baker Send In the Clowns, Live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London 1986

Van Morrison and Chet Baker together, doing Stephen Sondheim!!!!!

Who’d a THUNK IT?! 

whatever next singing with Lonnie Donegan and the Chris Barber Jazz Band? oh wait a sec . . . .  😉

written for Glynnis Johns you know!

which reminds me the first time I ever heard it sung was by Johns on something like the Parkinson show (interview programme in the UK) it took my breath away and whilst I had always loved Glynnis’ work, that it was written FOR her never occurred to me until she had died I don’t think

 

Glynis Johns - BBC The Parkinson Show 1974 

Birthdays| Van Morrison - Happy 80th

 If I must well I must happy 80th Birthday to the grumpy ole curmudgeon himself . . . back in better times . . . . . one might even say his prime . . . an old favourite and single found in the bargain Ex-Jukebox bins . . . . . for pennies

Bulbs - Live at Montreux 1974

45 minutes in Montreux . . .

All you gotta remember after all it’s all showbiz!!

Good Morning . . . Captain and otherwise!

The Skiffle Sessions: Live In Belfast

Good Morning Blues

Muleskinner Blues

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: Forum Theatre, Malvern UK, 2003 - The Last Knockings . . . . . | Albums That Should Exist

 

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: Live and Exclusive, Forum Theatre, Malvern, Britain, 11-25-2003

Paul says: Finally, here's the last BBC album from Van Morrison. It's a BBC concert from 2003.

As I mentioned in previous write-ups, I think Morrison was great in the 1960s and 70s especially, and he even had a musical renaissance in the 1990s in my opinion, but he slowly turned into a reactionary asshole who also was just musically repeating himself, to the point that some of his more recent albums (like "Latest Record Project, Volume 1" in 2021) have to be some of the most critically panned albums by any famous artist, period. So at some point I had to step away from his music, and that point is right around the time of his concert. Mind you, this concert is fine by itself. But I don't have enough interest to post even more BBC material that's out there in the years after this, sorry.

Anyway, in October 2003, Morrison released the studio album "What's Wrong with This Picture?" Many of the songs here are from that. Plus there are some classics from earlier in his career.  

I have to just say I couldn’t agree more with Paul here and had pretty much given up listening to him especially anything since the execrable Latest Record Project, Volume 1 : dreadful, truly awful! Phoned in album like so many performances! and I will not listen to any further pontification from the poor old boy. Turning into a laughable old curmudgeon was of course always going to be his destiny but heck its hard to hear. Put on St Dominic’s or Astral Weeks and go down Hyndforthe Street or Cypress Avenue and talk a walk through happier times . . . . . I’m off to clean my windows

This unreleased album is 57 minutes long.

01 talk (Van Morrison)
02 Whining Boy Moan (Van Morrison)
03 Once in a Blue Moon (Van Morrison)
04 What's Wrong with This Picture (Van Morrison)
05 Little Village (Van Morrison)
06 Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison)
07 Listen to the Lion (Van Morrison)
08 Goldfish Bowl (Van Morrison)
09 Stop Drinking (Van Morrison)
10 It's All in the Game (Van Morrison)
11 Gloria (Van Morrison)
12 talk (Van Morrison)

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Ireland, 1997 | Albums That Should Exist

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Ireland, 2-3-1997

Paul says: Here's another Van Morrison BBC album. This time, it's a concert from 1997.

I'm not a big fan of Morrison's music in the 1980's, where he leaned more into New Age sounds with more overt Christian messaging. But in my opinion he rebounded in the 1990s, with more of a focus on rootsy R&B and jazz. His renaissance continued with the album "The Healing Game," released in April 1997. A Rolling Stone Magazine article in 2019 listed the album as one of his ten best, the only album on that list from after 1980.

Although this concert took place a couple of months prior to the release of that album, he already was playing songs from it: "Fire in the Belly," "Rough God Goes Riding," "If You Love Me," "Sometimes We Cry," "Burning Ground," and "The Healing Game."

This album has two sources. The first ten songs are from a BBC radio broadcast, which was also filmed and shown on TV. Apparently, it's not just from February 3, 1997. There are some songs from February 2nd, but I don't know which is which. Luckily for us, in the filming of this concert, there were some outtakes that leaked to the public. I found those on YouTube, and added them in as the last four songs. The song order for the whole thing is scrambled compared to the actual order performed in concert, so I just stuck those four at the end. 

Overall, the sound quality is excellent. However, one of the extra songs, "Tupelo Honey - Why Must I Always Explain," was suddenly cut off before the song ended. Luckily, the song dropped off to a near end about ten seconds prior to that. Probably it would have built back up before finishing. But I just cut it off at that point, and then added in some cheering from the end of other songs to give it more of a natural sounding ending. 

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 Days like This 
02 Fire in the Belly 
03 Rough God Goes Riding 
04 Into the Mystic 
05 Sometimes We Cry 
06 Enlightenment 
07 It Once Was My Life
08 If You Love Me 
09 The Healing Game 
10 See Me Through - Soldier of Fortune - Burning Ground 
11 The Waiting Game
12 Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby
13 Vanlose Stairway 
14 Tupelo Honey - Why Must I Always Explain 

largely because I so agree with Paul here and didn’t enjoy the Christian messaging in his eighties work but here . . . . . .the return to form echoes those of our Bobby’s recovery from a time when those took advantage of the vulnerable . . . . like they so often do! 

Enjoy!

Van Morrison Pro Footage Outtake part 1, Vanlose Stairway Belfast, Feb 1997

2 shows were filmed at  the  Waterfront Hall , Belfast  on 2nd and 3rd February 1997 , for use as a Promotional film  for Van`s latest album The Healing Game.

A film was released called Back On The Corner, featuring a mix of songs from the two nights.

This is one of a series of Outtakes, not used in the final cut.

Van Morrison – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica

Haji Ahkba – flugelhorn

Robin Aspland – piano

Alec Dankworth – double bass

Geoff Dunn – drums, percussion

Pee Wee Ellis – soprano and baritone saxophones, background vocals

Georgie Fame – Hammond organ, background vocals

Leo Green – tenor saxophone, background vocals

Matt Holland – trumpet, background vocals

Ronnie Johnson – electric guitar

Brian Kennedy – background vocals

Katie Kissoon – background vocals

 Ralph Salmins – percussion

Nicky Scott – bass guitar

Van Morrison - The Bottom Line, New York 1978 (Updated) FLOPPY BOOT STOMP / SO MANY ROADS

Not forgetting Van Morrison at NEW YORK’s BOTTOM LINE 1978 A Speedy Special at FLOPPY BOOT STOMP

It’s ACE!

 

Albums That Should Exist - Van Morrison - The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA USA 1974

Van Morrison - The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA, 7-29-1974 

Paul says : Before I post more BBC albums by Van Morrison, I have to post this concert. I just found it, and I'm very glad I did, because the sound quality is exceptional, especially for the time period.

As for the performance, the fact that it's from 1974 should tell you all you need to know. Morrison was on fire in concert during that era. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about a live album he recorded a year earlier: "Frequently named as one of the best live albums ever, 'It's Too Late to Stop Now' was recorded during what has often been said to be the singer's greatest phase as a live performer." He was still in that groove in 1974.

This is from an FM radio broadcast. One can tell by the introduction by a DJ named Tom Donahue. No doubt, that explains the sound quality. I made a few subtle audio editing tricks to improve the sound quality a little more.

Also, most versions of this bootleg have appeared without the last song, "Gloria." But I managed to track that down from a different source of the same show and add it in.

In terms of song selection, this is pretty similar to "It's Too Late to Stop Now" and some other live stuff I've posted from him from this time period. But see above about how he was at his performing peak around this time. Note that this concert took place a few months before the release of his 1974 album "Veedon Fleece," so there are no songs here from that. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long.

01 talk by Tom Donahue 
02 Heathrow Shuffle [Instrumental] 
03 Ain't Nothing You Can Do
04 Warm Love
05 Snow in Anselmo 
06 Help Me 
07 Into the Mystic 
08 I Believe to My Soul
09 Moondance
10 Foggy Mountain Top 
11 Street Choir 
12 Listen to the Lion
13 I've Been Working
14 I Just Want to Make Love to You
15 Gloria 

Now I haven’t been posting much Van Morrison lately since his mad cap diatribes and anti-vaxxer stance and throwaway rubbish recent albums and yet. . . I still hold that my favourite live album of all time is prolly Too Late To Stop Now and as Paul says this is as good a quality as that so here goes . . . 

Linda Gail Lewis & Van Morrison with 'Real Gone Lover' on The Later Show back in 2000

 Turn it Up!

Happy 79th birthday to Van Morrison!

St Dominic’s Preview - September 2nd 1997

Recorded at Temple Bar Music Centre

Dublin, Ireland 

TURN IT UP!

Happy birthday to the ole grumpy curmudgeon hisself! Born as George Ivan Morrison in Belfast on this day in 1945

"I'm doing stuff that I like. I've been successful as a singer and songwriter for a long time, six decades or something. So I'm just doing stuff that I like to do now, because I think that, to me, that was the whole point of being successful, is doing what you want to do. I mean, that was the whole point, yeah."

so right about now your face should wear a smile . . . . . 

Steve Baltin / Forbes Interview

as frequent visitor Dell posts out my dates are wrong and Van the Man is of course 79 this day and born in 31 August 1945 Belfast City

Don's Tunes

MARY MARTIN | From the Chronicles of Dylan and Van Morrison | A music iconoclast dies

 

"I just saw the NY Times obituary for Mary Martin, who died at age 85: "Turned unknown acts into musical legends" and "A Grammy winner who introduced Bob Dylan to the Band”

I forgot that Bob mentioned her in Chronicles, how she was relentless in getting Bob to hire the Hawks as the polished band he needed (she was not impressed with his backing at the '65 Newport Folk Festival).

And I learned some new things in the obituary. That Mary lost to Bob in a swimming race up in Woodstock, and as consolation, Albert Grossman gave her his cat, "Lord Growing" --the same cat Bob holds on the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home.”

She also signed Van Morrison and guided him to "Moondance."

The NY Times obit is behind a pay-wall, there are others  . . . . 

Billboard Obituary for Martin by John Naslen

Mary Martin Music Catalyst of Giants - Mike Daley Music

Sunday Morning Musics : Sweet Thing - Van Morrison

Sunday morning musics : Van Morrison Into The Mystic (Winterland 1974)

Van Morrison - Into The Mystic - 2/2/1974 - Winterland, 

San Francisco, CA

And someone else asked them for some Van The Man . . . . . . pre meltdown brain fade! Still what WAS Into The Mystic all about? Still made more sense than he does know! Gov Don’t Allow ha ha ha ha ha dumb as soup!

Did you get your shots Ivan!? Better watch out for that outbreak of Whooping Cough eh? 

It’ll kill ya the knows!

Song of The Day | Van Morrison : I’ll Be Your Lover Too | Le Ramasseur De Mégots

I'll Be Your Lover, Too

Another gem from the grumpy ole curmudgeon hisself . . . . . . . 

Le Ramasseur De Mégots

The Reconstructor! | Van Morrison - Not Supposed To Break Down

 THE GRAND CURMUDGEON

Van Morrison - Not Supposed to Break Down (1973)

Van Morrison released his seventh studio album, Hard Nose the Highway, in October 1973 through Warner Bros Records. His first fully self-produced album, it was the product of two batches of sessions, one during August and the other during October 1972. Well received critically, it saw the release of fan favorites such as "Warm Love", "Wild Children" and "Snow in San Anselmo", and odd song choices such as a cover of Kermit the Frog's "Bein' Green" and the traditional "Purple Heather". It didn't sell as well as some of its predecessors, as it didn't feature a clear-cut hit single as something like Moondance did, but it charted relatively well and kept Morrison on the good run of albums he was on in the mid-70s. However, immediately after finishing Hard Nose the Highway, he returned to the studio in November 1972, staying until March 1973 and recording seven new songs, nearly enough for a brand new studio album. With those songs in the can, he then spent most of 1973 touring the United States and Europe with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, something immortalized on the It's Too Late to Stop Now live album. By the time October 1973 rolled around, those songs hadn't yet been released and Van already had a brand new batch of songs, inspired by a trip to his native Ireland. Feeling that it was the strongest collection of songs of the two, he scrapped the late '72 material and released what became known as Veedon Fleece instead, ending up with one of his most revered albums in the process. 

Van recorded an entire album's worth of songs in between the sessions for Hard Nose the Highway and Veedon Fleece which never saw the light of day. These "lost" November 1972/March 1973 sessions carried the same high quality as the great albums Van released during the 1970s, with several of their songs becoming live staples of his, which makes us wonder: why did he not release this album? To right this wrong, we will take all seven songs he recorded in those sessions, alongside others from other sessions in the same time period, and make a brand new album. Hard Nose the Highway outtakes are fair game, as they hail from only a couple of months prior, but anything before that is too early for inclusion. That, unfortunately, means "Wonderful Remark", from the Tupelo Honey sessions of 1971, won't make this reconstruction, but there are three other songs in the compilation that qualify, coming from September 1972. As far as what doesn't make the cut, the great "Sweet Sixteen" cannot be included, as it comes from a standalone April 1973 session after the parameters of this reconstruction, and features Jackie DeShannon on lead vocals, with songwriter Van relegated to backup. The same goes for two songs that were only performed live between May/June 1973: "I Paid the Price" and "No Way", from the It's Too Late to Stop Now box set, two very good songs but that came much too late for us, and thus cannot be included. With that out of the way, here's what our album looks like:

Not Supposed to Break Down (The Philosopher's Stone)

Laughing in the Wind (The Philosopher's Stone)

Madame Joy (The Philosopher's Stone)

Contemplation Rose (The Philosopher's Stone)

Don't Worry About Tomorrow (The Philosopher's Stone)

-

Try for Sleep (The Philosopher's Stone)

Lover's Prayer (The Philosopher's Stone)

Drumshanbo Hustle (The Philosopher's Stone)

Tell Me About Your Love (Back on Top Single)

There, There Child (The Philosopher's Stone)

The Reconstructor

Song of The Day : “It’s Too Late To Stop Now” . . . . . . . . . Van Morrison

 Here’s one he made earlier . . . . . . .1970 Cypress Avenue! Caught one more time . . . 

well it IS Wednesday! back before the wind . . . . . 

after the classic 74 stuff t’other day, here’s another classic from around the time of the best live album ever It’s Too Late To Stop Now!

and it made me wonder if he had actually written ANYTHING after his thirties?! 

he’s 29 here!

AQUARIUM DRUNKARD : LOOKS AT Van Morrison | IRISH HEARTBEAT

Another in the series continuing to look at Van Morrison’s output comes to another favourite album and one, whilst I haven’t played it in a while, contains some of the great songs covered by Van from the Irish [and Northern] songbook (I used to sing the ditty I’ll Tell Me Ma as a child) of course the influence of Paddy and the boys of The Chieftains should not be underestimated and they serve as much more than a back up band here. Some glorious heartfelt stuff . . . . . . . 

Celtic Guru :: Van Morrison In The 80s | Irish Heartbeat

Posted on December 15, 2023

"In many ways, Irish Heartbeat was Van Morrison’s reawakening. He was opening himself up once more to the idea of collaborating; giving up the singular vision which he had been pursuing for a collective one. This also spawned a reawakening in the public eye. Though Morrison seemed able to confer directly with his core audience with any output, it was this record that grabbed the ears of the masses once more.”

  j rooney

Now while I don’t agree with the author here it is worth a read for sure and make your own mind up

Irish Heartbeat

Shenandoah - Jools Holland Show

I’ll Tell Me Ma

AQUARIUM DRUNKARD ALBUM PROFILES :: Celtic Guru :: Van Morrison In The 80s | Poetic Champions Compose

Celtic Guru :: Van Morrison In The 80s | Poetic Champions Compose

Posted on September 28, 2023

In a run of overlooked records, there is one absolute sleeper in Van Morrison’s catalog. Coming in at the end of an era – a string of releases that showcased an artist in constant transition, attaining pinnacle after pinnacle, and pushing his craft into a realm that, while never expected, certainly doesn’t surprise the close observer of Van’s arc – is a release that only the most adherent of followers seem to dare give a spin. As if perfected, Van leans in on the methods established on No Guru, No Method, No Teacher and Sense of Wonder, trading spiritual loftiness for down-to-earth conviction and subject matter that tends to focus on the absolutes of the human condition instead of the singular mystic vision of the artist.

another in the album profiles of the Ole Curmudgeon hisself!

Robbie Robertson CLIP OF THE DAY - here with Martin Scorsese

 

Robbie and The "Maestro"

go on click it . . . .you know you want to!

You know we’ve all done it but here Robbie makes it always look cool!

Here, here, here listen to THIS!

we will miss you Robbie!

RIP Robbie Robertson.

Robbie, Martin and Peter Hayden (film maker of the documentary from whence . . . etc etc

 . . . . we gotta go

The Last Waltz