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 1999 - 2005 (plus controversy !)

 

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 1999-2005

Here's another volume of Van Morrison performing for the BBC. This time, it's a collection of BBC TV performances.

Everything here comes from different episodes of the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland." That's just by chance, as these were all the BBC sessions from the time period that I could find. The first two songs are from a 1999 episode. The next five are from another 1999 episode, a special year end celebration one. The three after that are from a 2000 episode. The last song is from a 2005 episode.

On many of these songs, Morrison shared the stage with some special guests. For the 1999 year-end episode (tracks 3 through 7), Morrison sang duets with Lonnie Donegan on three songs. Donegan was the "King of Skiffle" in the 1950s. The skiffle was a form of folk music that was extremely popular in Britain for a few years. Note that on one of the songs, "Midnight Special," Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music also joined Morrison and Donegan in singing different verses. For the 2000 episode (tracks 8 through 10), Morrison was prominently backed on vocals by Linda Gail Lewis. A duet album starring Morrison and Lewis was released in 2000.

There's one song I chose not to include from the 2005 session: "They Sold Me Out." I was fine with it at first, until I clearly heard the lyrics. They sound suspiciously antisemitic to me, and I don't want to further spread them. Even if they're not, the whole conceit of the song, in which he likens himself to being persecuted just like Jesus, is both ridiculous and offensive. Here's an article if you want a hint of the controversy this song caused:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/27/van-morrisons-lyrical-antisemitism/

In fact, this is basically when I reach the limit of what I can take from Morrison's declining career. Musically, he was repeating himself, and lyrically he was turning into a grumpy old man. Things would reach an all time low with his 2021 album "Latest Record Project: Volume 1," which has to be one of the worst albums of all time by a famous musical act. (At the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, it gets a 1.77 on a 1 to 5 scale as I write this in 2025, which is a shockingly low number for that site.)*

The music on this album I still like. He's helped a lot by the support of Lonnie Donegan and Linda Gail Lewis. But after this, I only plan on posting one more BBC album from him (although there are others), which is a concert from 2003. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Back on Top (Van Morrison)
02 When the Leaves Come Falling Down (Van Morrison)
03 Precious Time (Van Morrison)
04 Lost John (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
05 I Wanna Go Home [Sloop John B.] (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
06 Philosopher's Stone (Van Morrison)
07 Midnight Special (Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Bryan Ferry)
08 Let's Talk about Us (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
09 Real Gone Lover (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
10 No Way Pedro (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
11 Celtic New Year (Van Morrison)

* totally agree with Paul here and have begin to not take much notice of the sad old get but for a back catalogue that is almost peerless , his contemporary grouch is a curmudgeonly old reactionary right winger just a step too far 

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