[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]In March [1985] Van appeared on The Tube, that cauldron of live Rock from Newcastle, and gave his all for three songs from the new album [A Sense of Wonder], in blue woolly pullover and truculent air, filmed from below and playing a big sparkling guitar. His tour band played their socks off, and Van shared lead duties with Arty McGlynn.
-Brian Hinton (Celtic Crossroads)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The Tube – C4 TV,
Tyne Tees TV Studios
Newcastle upon Tyne
March 29, 1985
Some of the musicians I was working with very early on were very good, but they didn’t want to leave home, so they didn’t go any further…. but I did [want to leave home] or I felt like I had to
~Van Morrison
Exile
Wikipedia: Exile means to be away from one’s home (i.e. city, state or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return. It can be a form of punishment and solitude.
Exile i a key theme in Morrison’s work & he also named his recording company ‘Exile’.
His foremost song about exile has to be “Too Long in Exile” – the title cut from his 1993 double album.
Robert Christgau – review of the album:
You know, exile — like Joyce and Shaw and Wilde and, oh yeah, Alex Haley. All on account of those “Bigtime Operators” who bugged his phone back when he was green. Now getting on to grizzled, he seeks guidance from the kas of Doc Pomus and King Pleasure and “The Lonesome Road,” an unutterably sad spiritual recast as an upbeat vibraphone feature. And especially, on three cuts, his old soulmate John Lee Hooker, who doesn’t come close to sounding overexposed on Them’s “Gloria” and Sonny Boy’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and something new by Van called “Wasted Years,” about how the dumb stuff is behind them now. I don’t know about Hook, but Van’s just jiving–when he wanders “In the Forest,” it’s never a safe bet that he’ll get out. A-
last part of the lyrics:
Too long in exile
You can never go back home again
Too long in exile
You’re about to drive me just insane
Too long in exile, been too long in exile
Just like James Joyce, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Samuel Beckett baby
Too long in exile
Just like Oscar Wilde
Too long in exile
Just like George Best, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Alex Higgins, baby
June 11: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965
“These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!” (original liner notes)
The Angry Young Them is Them’s first album. The album was released in the UK on 11th of June 1965. The band’s lead singer and songwriter was of course Van “The Man” Morrison. He was with Them on only two albums before deciding to go solo.
The opening track Mystic Eyes was from an 8 or 9 minute jam originally, a long intense jam session in the studio with Van making the words up on the spur of the moment. Oh why didn’t they use the long take? Anyway, a good opener.
If You And I Could Be As Two is the next song and itopens with Van’s spoken voice talking (rather angrily) before this wonderful soul ballad continues. Then it is Little Girlwhich is about watching a 14-year-old (!) school girl on her way to school, not very acceptable these days but we need to remember that Van Morrison was only a teenager himself when he sang these words (still no excuse, I know).
Just A Little Bit by Roscoe Gordon is the next one out, Morrison sings great and it is my favorite song of the non Van Morrison penned tracks. Fantastic song!
Then we are in for the weakest track on the album, I Gave My Love a Diamond. That is not a put-down, because it’s a good sixties ballad, it just pales compared to the other songs on the album.
The 1980 is simply stunning! An amazing band complete with two drummers, two keyboard players, and a horn section. The film quality is very crisp with some very intriguiing camera work capturing not only Van, but the incredible support work from the band, and some of their great reactions while making music with one of the most unique, and most passionate live performers of all time. The Reggae infused take on “And It Stoned Me” is worth the price of admission alone.
-E. Muller (amazon.com)
Van Morrison In Performance with Derek Bell & Clive Culbertson In Conversation with Martin Lynch, Professor Bob Welch & Derek Bell Riverside Theatre New University of Ulster Coleraine, Ireland April 20th 1988 Ulster Television Production
“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 know,
In my new world crystal ball,
You know I just can’t free you now,
That’s not my job at all.”
– Van Morrison
His Band and the Street Choir is another beautiful phase in the continuing development of one of the few originals left in rock. In his own mysterious way. Van Morrison continues to shake his head, strum his guitar and to sing his songs. He knows it’s too late to stop now and he quit trying to a long, long time ago. Meanwhile, the song he is singing keeps getting better and better.”
– John Landau, Rolling Stone Magazine (1971)
Morrison is still a brooder–“Why did you leave America?” he asks over and over on the final cut, and though I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about, that sounds like a good all-purpose question/accusation to me–but not an obsessive one, and this is another half-step away from the acoustic late-night misery of Astral Weeks. As befits hits, “Domino” and especially “Blue Money” are more celebratory if no more joyous than anything on Moondance, showing off his loose, allusive white r&b at its most immediate. And while half of side two is comparatively humdrum, I play it anyway. A ~Robert Christgau (Consumer guide)
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