One of my favourite ways to meditate is listening to music. Listening to details in the music and stay present. Here are 5 great songs for meditation.
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
This film should be played loud!
This is a message on a title card at the beginning of the film. The greatest concert movie ever made. This post concerns the movie, the audio releases have to wait for it’s own post.
Wikipedia:
The Last Waltz was a concert by the rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as the end of The Band’s illustrious touring career, and the concert saw The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Charles and Neil Young.
The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same name, released in 1978. The film features concert performances, scenes shot on a studio soundstage and interviews by Scorsese with members of The Band. A triple-LP soundtrack recording, produced by Rob Fraboni, was issued in 1978. The film was released on DVD in 2002 as was a four-CD box set of the concert and related studio recordings.
Trailer:
I have several versions of the film, and I’ve seen many versions of it. I’ve seen it at the cinema, I’ve played it to death on video casette, I have two DVD releases , a blu-ray release and I’ve seen/heard quite a bit of bootlegs of the show.
This is a film that I’m really passionate about, and I have often wondered if there’s footage, filmed sequences, that is not in the official version. Whatever condition such film would be in was irrelevant, I wanted to see as much as possible of the legendary concert.
Continue reading “November 25: The Last Waltz was recorded in 1976 (full 4h20m concert)”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]And all my love come down
All my love come tumblin’ down
All my love come tumblin’ down
All my love come tumblin’ down
Oh, listen listen
To the lion
Oh, listen listen listen
To the lion…
Inside of me
Oh, oh, oh
—
“And all my love come tumbling down….” An 11-minute journey into music as a distillation of spirit, as Morrison searches his “very soul” for the lion “inside of me”. The music is as delicate as breath on a window pane, looking out on a vision of hope and redemption. Van’s voice scats, breathes, roars, lilts and sways before finally dissolving in a rapturous journey into glossolalia. “And we sailed and we sailed….”
~The Telegraph
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“Listen To The Lion” is one of my favorite Van Morrison songs. Here are 9 different versions.
Wikipedia:
“Listen to the Lion” is a song featured on Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison’s sixth album, Saint Dominic’s Preview (1972). Its poetic musings and “bass-led shuffle” lead back to Astral Weeks territory.
| Released | July 1972 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | Spring/Summer 1971, Columbia Studios, San Francisco |
| Genre | Folk rock, R&B |
| Length | 11:08 |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records |
| Writer | Van Morrison |
| Composer | Van Morrison |
| Producer | Ted Templeman, Van Morrison |
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]..but arguably the best due to Van’s most amazing vocal performance ever. The song is an 11:08 minute soul journey into finding and following your inner voice amid crashing piano, cascading acoustic guitar, and strumming mandolin. That alone makes it a good song, but what takes it to best of all time level is at about the five minute mark Van stops singing words and starts scatting non-stop for the next 3 minutes. He growls, wails, roars, and howls as if possessed and wrestling with the lion inside. After these vocal fireworks the exhausted Van finishes the song barely whispering about sailing on a journey to mystical Caledonia. A fascinating, one of a kind song.
~theframjak (hubpages.com)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Continue reading “Van Morrison: 9 Great versions of “Listen To The Lion””
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 begunAnd 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–
“It starts just like ‘Cyprus Avenue’, no coincidence as the line about ‘songs from way back when’ hints, and with a walk down the avenue (of dreams), to the sound of a haunted violin. A song of full, blazing sex as well as revelation. The healing here is like that in Arthurian myth, the wounded King restored through the action of the Holy Grail, but it is also through as graphic a seduction, almost, as the original live version of “Gloria”
-Brian Hinton (Celtic Crossroads)
This beauty was recorded at the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California in spring 1979. He has performed it live 274 times according to the brilliant website ivan.vanomatic.de.
Here are 5 lovely versions..
Live At The Oasis Centre – Putting The Boot In – Swindon – 1999:
I want you to put on your pretty summer dress
You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest
And I want to make love to you yes, yes, yes, when the healing has begunLouder, when the healing has begun
So good
Whoo
All right, whoo
Yeah
Aah
Whoo
Continue reading “Van Morrison – 5 Wonderful Live Versions of “And The Healing Has Begun””
[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]
Continue reading “Van Morrison – 5 Brilliant Live Performances from 1986”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The band kick into spirited versions of “Tore down A la Rimbaud”, “In The Garden” and “Rave On, John Donne”, before being joined by the might of the Chieftains for a full set. WONDERFUL is the only word.
– Brian Hinton (Celtic Crossroads)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]