Van Morrison’s 50 Greatest Songs Countdown – #48 Did Ye Get Healed?

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]I want to know did you get the feelin’
Did you get it down in your soul
I want to know did you get the feelin’
And did the feelin’ grow[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

TOC

  1. Facts
  2. Quotes
  3. Lyrics
  4. Live versions

–

Facts

Wikipedia:

From his 1987 album, Poetic Champions Compose. In 1987 it was released as a single.

Musicians

  • Van Morrison – vocals, alto saxophone
  • June Boyce – backing vocals
  • Neil Drinkwater – piano
  • Martin Drover – flugelhorn
  • Roy Jones – drums, percussion
  • Steve Pearce – bass guitar

Production

Live:

  • Known Performances: 468
  • First performance: June 21, 1987 Glastonbury Festival, Somerset, England
  • Last performance: February 7, 2020 in Las Vegas, US

Here are the Glastonbury 1987 version:

And here the Las Vegas 2020 version:

–

Quotes

“Music is like a healing thing, and we are all being healed. I’m being healed. That’s what I know, what I feel. It’s what I’m going through and we all go through. Any kind of art or music is involved in healing, whether it’s rock `n’ roll or classical music, it’s all healing. People go to a rock and roll show and they come away feeling better. All this is just the foreground, but the background is something else..”
–> Van Morrison, to Chris Welch in 1979

“This is a very compact, managed and concise sound, its brightly metronomic rhythm allowing all the elements – voice, sax, brass (featuring some lovely Bacharach/Alpert trumpet at the close), piano, organ – to stand clean and clear of each other while forming a very satisfyingly unified thought. The song exists as a series of questions, addressed by the singer to the listener, but also to himself, with the song functioning as a tool of self-analysis. Morrison is always looking for some indication of how the `spirit moves him; not out of narcissism but out of a sense that it is himself that he is best qualified to judge. So the set of enquires in the lyric of `Did Ye Get Healed?’ are matched with the urgency and buoyancy of the recent convert, a zealous energy and need to share what has been found. The musical directness and focus of the song and its arrangement is testament to this desire for clarity.”
–> Peter Mills – Hymns to the Silence: Inside the Words and Music of Van Morrison

“A powerful statement of transcendence confirming that the spiritual dimension to his (Morrison’s) music was now an overwhelming priority.”
–> Johnny Rogan – Van Morrison: No Surrender (2006)

“.. a born again anthem in which he steps away from the humanism of “No Guru No Method No Teacher” and rededicates himself to a higher calling. It’s a peppy affair of genial horns and lovely staccato backing vocals the you can imagine being belted out at revival meetings.”
–> Peter Watts  – The Ultimate Music Guide – Van Morrison – UNCUT Magazine

” My own personal favourite [from the album] is the final song with vocals, Did Ya Get Healed?  It starts off with some light brass that is as catchy as Hell. Add to all this a vibrant, enthused sounding Van and you are onto a winner. The whole thing sounds like an effortless slice of fun helped by an enthusiastic backing singer (June Boyce – if my reading of the very small CD print is correct). I would have thought this would be an ideal album closer. The song has one of the quickest tempos on the record – and very welcome it is too.
–> Mark Holmes – Van Morrison 20 Best Albums: A Guide

–

Lyrics

I want to know did you get the feelin’
Did you get it down in your soul
I want to know did you get the feelin’
And did the feelin’ grow

Sometimes, when the spirit moves me
I can do many wondrous things
I want to know when the spirit moves you
Did ye get healed

I begin to realize
It manifest in my life
In oh, so many ways
Every day I want to talk about it
And walk about it
Everyday I want to be closer

I want to know did you get the feelin’
Did you get it down in your soul
I want to know did you get the feelin’
Oh did ye get healed

I begin to realize
Magic in my life
See it manifest in oh, so many ways
Every day is gettin’ better and better
I want to be daily walking close

It gets stronger when you get the feelin’
When you get it down in your soul
And it makes you feel good
And it makes you feel whole

When the spirit moves you
And it fills you through and through
Every morning and at the break of day
Did ye get healed

–

Live versions

Stadtpark, Imst Tirol, Austria – July 15, 1989

 

Civic Opera House, Chicago – April 21, 1993

 

Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, California – December 1993

 

Cambridge UK – April, 1995

 

Fox Theater, Oakland – Jan 20, 2016

 

Hamburg, Germany – June 11, 2019

 

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

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

Sources

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.