[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]When I was a young boy
Back in Orangefield
I used to gaze out
My classroom window and dream
And then go home and listen to Ray sing
“I believe to my soul” after school,
Oh that love that was within me
You know it carried me through
Well it lifted me up and it filled me
Meditation contemplation too

Oh we’ve got to go back
Got to go back
Got to go back
Got to go back
For the healing, go on with the dreaming
-Van Morrison (Got To Go Back)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

I´ll try a new series of posts on Van Morrison cherry picking some of my favourite performances sorted by year. Here are some awesome songs from 1986…

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]On the road with my sword
And my shield in my hand
Pressing on to the new day
This love will surely last forever
This love will surely last always[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Here Comes the Knight – RDS Arena, Dublin, Ireland – May 17, 1986

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]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.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Lark Ascending / Haunts of Ancient Peace – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA – July 26, 1986

–

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]We were standing in the kingdom
And by the mansion gate
We stood enraptured by the silence
As the birds sang their heavenly song
In Tir Na Nog[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Tir Na Nog @ De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands – September 28, 1986

–

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]Well – its actually in one of the songs. Where there’s a song on the album called “In the Garden” where I actually take, uhm, I take you through the meditation program. From about half way through the song until the end. But I take you through a DEFINITE meditation process. Which is a form of transcendental meditation. Its not TM. So forget about that. That takes you right from the middle to the end. Uhm, and there’s some sort of, you know, uhm, (pause) …what you should have, if you listen to the thing carefully, you should have gotten yourself some sort of tranquillity by the time you get to the end. So when this happens in the song, I say, “And I turn to you and I said, ‘No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. Just you and I and nature, and the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost'”. So really – you have to do the whole line to know what it means. And we were going put the rest [the whole line] on the album. But we realized that would be too long. But that’s the whole thing. “No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. Just you and I and nature, and the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”. Its the whole thing in a nutshell. Its much longer than THAT. So that’s what it is saying.
-Van Morrison (to Mick Brown 1986)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The streets are always wet with rain
After a summer shower when I saw you standin’
In the garden in the garden wet with rain[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

In The Garden – Carre Theatre, Amsterdam – 29 September, 1986

–

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]And we’ll walk down the avenue again
And we’ll sing all the songs from way back when
And we’ll walk down the avenue again and the healing has begun

And we’ll walk down the avenue in style
And we’ll walk down the avenue and we’ll smile
And we’ll say “baby, ain’t it all worthwhile?” when the healing has begun[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

And the Healing Has Begun – Carre Theatre, Amsterdam – 29 September, 1986

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_style=”outline” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-link” css_animation=”bounceIn”]
Check out:

• Van Morrison posts @ borntolisten.com

[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

-Egil