Backstreet JellyPOLL: ILM Van Morrison Poll Discussion Thread

Are you ready to venture into the slipstream? Can you hear Them calling, way up from Oregon? Have you got your pen and notebook ready?

I think it's about time for us to begin the ILM Van Morrison poll.

Submit your top 30 Van Morrison songs, and your top 5 albums. Everything from Them to his newest record is eligible. Deadline is end of day August 1, 2017. Standard scoring, blah blah blah.

Please send your ballots via electronic mail to ilmvanmorrisonpoll at gmail dot com

Use this thread to advocate for any songs, albums, or anything else Van-related that crosses your mind. This is going to be a good time!!!!!!!

holy shit

is this the thread for rhapsodic appreciation of Veedon Fleece?

all threads are for the rhapsodic appreciation of veedon fleece iirc

glad this poll didn't happen before most of his catalog became available digitally

Well this isn't going to be difficult at all.

I'm curious for the albums poll. The Veedon Fleece has undergone an On The Beach-esque surge in popularity in recent years. Or maybe On The Beach has undergone a Veedon Fleece.

Also, all votes for Veedon Fleece will be discounted unless it's referred to as The Veedon Fleece.

Also, I'm not sure there's any act more conducive to POLL-style puns. The guy has a zillion.

if anyone needs a guide to the '80s and early '90s van records i wrote one a few years ago http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/astral-years-a-seekers-guide-to-van-morrison-in-the-80-1700003646

essentially no van ballot is complete without

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxA0UWDkVNI

imo

Thanks, that's a fantastic blog. Van's 80s were better than he gets credit for. How about the 90s? The Healing Game is good, but I haven't heard much else.

Also, this is an incredible story by Glen Hansard about the first time he crossed paths with Van Morrison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29abxJgCyOI

Van is a weird dude

I'm not really into polls but I'm up for this one

Can we include Them material?

POLLer on the threshold

Did Ye Get POLLed

Can we include Them material?

Yes of course.

I only 'found' Summertime in England last year, but I think it'll be in my top 5. And thanks for the 80s primer - don't know that period at all.

this is going to be awesome.

I made a CD-R in '15 out of Brad's '80s selections on a beach road trip to the west coast of Florida – damn, it was perfect.

With such a vast and varied catalog, hard for me to guess what's relatively obscure and worth touting on this thread. Example: Moonshine Whiskey. It's on Tupelo Honey but I only really know it from various live performances. Anyhow, it's worth your consideration ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyqIED-yBbE

feelin Brad on Summertime in England, essential

i don't even know how to do this poll

BTW - Are live versions (particularly stuff from It's Too Late to Stop Now and also "Caravan" from The Last Waltz) eligible or only studio stuff?

also, for way late period albums, I'd encourage people to check out Magic Time, it's worth a listen

the new one (keep me singing) is good too but not sure anything that would crack a list

always bring this one out — might be my favorite Van deep cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_YMPV3Y8sk

i like this one off Magic Time, Van and lions are a good combo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_gPYg6ZT4Y

Tyler OTM about Contemplation Rose. Not Supposed To Break Down also highly recommended.

Would be really hard to narrow down to 30 cuts just from Van in the 70s.

BTW - Are live versions (particularly stuff from It's Too Late to Stop Now and also "Caravan" from The Last Waltz) eligible or only studio stuff?

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, July 18, 2017 8:57 AM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean i'll leave this up to kornruelz but i think it'd be best to fold live versions into a song's total points, while noting a certain no. of ppl voted for a specific live performance in parentheses or something)

BTW - Are live versions (particularly stuff from It's Too Late to Stop Now and also "Caravan" from The Last Waltz) eligible or only studio stuff?

Similar to how it was done on Talking Heads poll, I'll combine live and studio together. So if you vote for Caravan from Last Waltz, just specifiy it and I'll note all the live versions receiving votes during the rollout.

I'll be giving this a vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_X5M_bWNIY

"good craic (an Irish term for conversation)"

I hate to be pedantic Brad but "craic" generally means fun times and joviality

i'll definitely forward it to my editor two years ago

iirc i took that definition from wikipedia but at some point the adjectives i employed before "conversation" ("jovial"? was potentially one of them) got deleted, idk

Oh man I am not enjoying Wavelength at all.

xpost Love me some Into the Music from the following year. What's up with Wavelength?

"Wavelength" is kinda poor. I was listening to "Common One" earlier and I think it's Top 5 quality

I agree, Wavelength is dull, but Into the Music is a real return to form, especially the first side. Apart from the odd track, the 80s were not good - plodding, repetitive, predictable. For deep '70s cuts, I would single out You're My Woman from Tupelo Honey, Snow in St Anselmo and Wild Children from Hard Nose the Highway, I've Been Working from Street Choir, the title track of St Dominic's Preview and Into the Mystic from Moondance. Veedon Fleece is just about perfect. The real high points, for me, are the transitions from Linden Arden Stole the Highlights into the falsetto of Who Was the Masked Man, and his vocal delivery on You Don't Pull No Punches. Check out the strings and flue arrangement on that track too.

flute, not flue, there are no musical chimneys

"Craic" is fake Irish of course. To be even more pedantic .

I'm going to be even more pedantic now. Van is from Ulster - Ulster Scots, if you prefer, though I don't - and 'craic' or, more properly, 'crack' would have meant conversation/chat to someone from his background, though it's possible he's using it in its more modern Irish form.

oh god now i'm reliving my research on that piece lol

Yes, ignore all that and get into the music instead, doyouseewhatididthere...

the second side of into the music where all the songs blend into each other exquisite, especially in fall

er.. is exquisite*

y'all...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMf-0OuUy9k

One of my very favorite songs of his is Wonderful Remark, from the King of Comedy film and his ubiquitous greatest hits CD from the late 80s.

There's a longer version of Wonderful Remark on the Philosopher's Stone compilation, but IMHO you can't beat the 80s one.

that was a wonderful remark kornrulez

Circa 1991, I taped (off the radio) a King Biscuit live show from the Wavelength era. It was among my very favorite tapes. An aging boombox ate it for lunch a few years later. Nowadays, when I chance to hear anything from that album, I mourn for that lost cassette. I don't know if it's available and I confess I haven't looked much. But I recall that "Wavelength," "Kingdom Hall," and "Checkin' It Out" were uberclassic in that performance.

"Wonderful Remark" is essential imo.

so is "Cleaning Windows."

Question for Van heads: in that lost live "Wavelength" he does this thing of calling out random numbers, to immense crowd satisfaction. I never knew what was going on.

One can hear this also in "Cleaning Windows." Does it refer, like, to specific horn breaks? Seats in the audience? WTF?

Okay I figgered out that I was thinking of the long interlude in "Caravan" from this Bottom Line show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApC0ZnMpWhc

Listen at 54:20 or so. There's a bunch of ad lib and some numbers and I... still don't get it. Surely this is A Thing.

I love this one, horn parts at the end are sublime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ln-H2HV6o0

^^^ yep

i have no idea how i'm going to do this

Every time you find yet another '90s album in your collection, take a shot.

hymns to the silence is wonderful if a little uneven. even a sense of wonder which imo is prob his least good '80s record has the really lovely title track

Another 80s tune to check out: Higher Than The World.

This is going to be a fascinating poll. Prob lots of tunes that make it onto the countdown with only a few votes.

i really love this little tribute to van's san francisco of the mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxB2Gbkv-mo

"A Period of Transition" is unfairly maligned. This tune is so classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riqzRE6St_8

This is going to be a fascinating poll. Prob lots of tunes that make it onto the countdown with only a few votes.

Yes. I don't think we're going to get a ton of ballots for this.

I'll just set up a few sock accounts and "want a danish" is going to run the table.

Also it's been ages since I've heard the 80's version but my recollection is that the Philosopher's Stone "Wonderful Remark" wipes the floor with the rerecording.

I can see by the look on your face.....thats you've got ring worm

It's a very common disease.

if anyone needs a guide to the '80s and early '90s van records i wrote one a few years ago http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/astral-years-a-seekers-guide-to-van-morrison-in-the-80-1700003646🕸

Excellent piece brad

Thanks, that's a fantastic blog. Van's 80s were better than he gets credit for. How about the 90s? The Healing Game is good, but I haven't heard much else.

I'll have to dig out the recording of his Glastonbury set in 86 which I saw. Some great performances: no guru, full force gale, iirc summertime in England

"Have I Told You Lately" is lazy writing but I LOVE "Why Must I Always Explain."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTN06FiglEE

sorry i thought the thread needed more high kicks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdZLTnRnHs8

Fully intend to vote in this - I'm a fairly casual fan but I'm slowly going through Brad's '80s picks and the stuff mentioned here, already discovered some great songs (some of which are not at all what I'd expect from any era of Van Morrison).

Found the 87 Glastonbury recording. Awesome.

Lots of great live Van up on YouTube. Here are a few full concerts.

Montreaux 1980
Winterland 1974
Pacific High Studio 1971
Ulster Hall with the Chieftains 1988

Hope everyone had a great weekend listening to plenty of Van.

A couple of 60s deep cuts to consider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRH8M-VyFHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNaMbru1dQ0

So how about this one off No Guru? Love the stripped down version he did for the One Irish Rover doc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqB6JSiHNg

i'm currently trying to figure out which live version of caravan i should vote number one

The Bottom Line one, of course. He says "radio" as "rajjo" and it's like eight minutes long (but I still don't get the bit with calling out random numbers).

Submitted for your approval, Caledonia Soul Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1ecN3rOoFQ&list=RDb1ecN3rOoFQ#t=825

Montreux 80 is ill

i have listened to this dude's discography to near completion a few times and i have noooo idea how to assemble this ballot

gonna rep for a song he never officially recorded but played live a lot, and which finally appeared on an official van release (the it's too late box) last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lXQn5AbNcw

an amazing song that's sorta buried in the middle of tupelo honey is "you're my woman"

and hard nose the highway gets a bad rep bc of it's really aimless second side but "snow in san anselmo" "warm love" and the title track is the strongest opening of... any van record, i think (moondance and veedon fleece prob rival it)

"Warm Love" is on the comp, no?

It's ever-present everywhere.

Duh.

lol

my brother and i were cracking up over Van's passionate delivery of "WHO'S YOUR SPONSOR!!??" on "I Paid The Price" recently

I think I'm just going to send a top 5 covers list along with my ballot. He recorded too much good stuff to cram into a top 30. I mean he even did an awesome cover of Bein' Green.

^live version that is.

falling in love with all these albums all over again.

the way that young lovers do >>>

Reminder to vote. We're on a record pace with ballots but we need to keep the momentum going.

a period of transition is still....not great. wavelength always surprises me at first though bc i loooooooove "kingdom hall"

the intrusions of non-van production and instrumentation are v refreshing. feels like there are way too many guitars on "kingdom hall" in a good way

it is maybe van's tackiest album tho

Listen at 54:20 or so. There's a bunch of ad lib and some numbers and I... still don't get it. Surely this is A Thing.

― leave your emu at the door (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, July 20, 2017 2:06 PM (one week ago)

Dialling codes - he's caught between 212 and 415 and 011 44 1 - New York, San Francisco, and London (dialling from America, back when the UK code for London was 01 not 020).

Ah! Okay so totally different from the numbers in the outro of "Cleaning Windows." "Number a hundred and thirty six!"

van is from the lodge

michael b is right upthread that "heavy connection" is a good song on period of transition but the other songs really don't pull their weight. i love the production though and i wonder what a more inspired van would've done on a bill withers-sounding record

i will find it v difficult to not vote for every track on common one

wavelength is a great record, i'm calling it. "kingdom hall," the title track, and "take it where you find it" alone

def putting this at an unreasonably high position in my ballot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhHfcrOwBas

Even though this album was singled out in the Kelefa Sanneh rockism article, this song is still worth your time and a spot on your ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u92E-e0t5HY

into the music is a masterpiece really

The "TB Sheets" album has been a real revelation for me. I've always loved the title track (heard it on the radio years ago) but I probably prefer the version of "Madame George" on it to the "Astral Weeks" one.

is that one of those rearranged bang records comps of which there were once 100000 on itunes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.B._Sheets_(album)

ah the answer is yes

the halcyon days when the only van morrison records available digitally were a greatest hits comp and 1000000 variations of the bang records recordings and the funny piss-takes he did to get out of his bang contract

too unfamiliar with this discography to put together a real 30-track ballot but I'm gonna vote anyway

I like Astral Weeks, Common One, and Veedon Fleece

please gimme some album/track recommendations, the longer and spacier the better

doesn't get much longer/spacier than this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz7fWE47N8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2JZ6BiAGj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jGAvi2p1KE

^^ i highly recommend that whole album but that's where it gets real drifty

Listened to common one for the first time today. Really lovely.

Almost Independence Day is a masterpiece and will be way up high on my ballot. Apparently it was inspired by a phone call he got from a bandmate in Them, calling from Oregon in early July. Hence the lyric.

i think st. dominic's preview might be my most-listened to Van album

Any thoughts on what might win? Is Madam George the obvious choice? St Dominic's title track? Redwood Tree? Common One? Christ, this is hard.

i'd say cyprus avenue, or caravan, or into the mystic, or

I would love for Into the Mystic to Win but knowing you doodz it'll prolly be Caravan or Wonderful Remark

Or Jackie Wilson Said

lol I checked out Caravan and was like "oh no, not this one"

hippie overexposure to Moondance runs deep

The "TB Sheets" album has been a real revelation for me.

http://images.45worlds.com/f/ab/van-morrison-tb-sheets-ab.jpg

This edition of TB Sheets means a lot to me for sentimental reasons - and as a concise boil down of the Bang era stuff it really works. But it does miss off one of my faves from this period, available on other unlegit comps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u-CDd2CQEg

Sorry for huge!

xxp yeah that's the one I am familiar with, I had no idea there was a bunch of contract breaking weirdness

The contract breaking weirdness aka 'Garbage Van'

His Band and the Street Choir is way better than I remembered.

The version of Into the Mystic on vol.3 of Too Late to Stop Now damn near makes me levitate.

Hoping voters remember just how exquisite Linden Arden is ... the interplay between Van's singing and the piano is magic.

man yall I really didn't know there were other van fans around here and generally hold my tongue

I will rep for a fair bit of 90s van. honestly I will say he's still got it. pay the devil was fuckin good. common one knocked me over when i first found it but that was back when just knowing it existed made you a head. wanna say good words here for queen of the slipstream & raglan road. those are giant numbers. along w/be thou my vision from hymns to the silence. fuck yes van morrison.

man I never but never do these poll submission threads but you can expect an email from me in about five minutes here.

OH MY HIGH IN THE ART OF SUFFERING ONE, TAKE A WALK WITH ME

man I never but never do these poll submission threads but you can expect an email from me in about five minutes here.

Somebody do a death metal poll next.

too broad

if somebody did Death or Mercyful Fate I would of course be in for those

I predict my ballot will be the only one with "goin down to monte carlo" but it's so much the quintessential late van song. the band: exquisite. the pace: languid, flowing, effortless. the lyric: bitchy and clumsy. the overall effect: utterly hypnotic.

Xxxxp Tir No Nog is bomb

veedon fleece, you guys

his falsetto is so gorgeous throughout

I'll be following this poll with great interest, but since I'm not familiar with much of his catalogue won't be voting. All the same, I'd like to stan for The Healing Game, which is the Van album I listen to the most:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnIJrbwjlZA

Mostly a boring 68-74 ballot from me, but the thread's sending me back to albums I've never properly listened to. I think maybe I'm ready for taking-it-easy mystic 80/90s Van.

Throwing out a a shout for Naked in the Jungle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Up9okdpcM

My ballot will be last minute FYI

this is too difficult, I can't get a ballot together, but I'll follow the results closely

I hope Them gets some recognition beyond the hits ... there's probably too much solo Van for that to happen

my ballot was pretty boring for the most part because the high canon Van shit is so undeniable. like seriously you're not gonna put at least 3 Astral Weeks tracks on your Van Morrison ballot? seriously? fire that shit up again then, it's just timeless. I feel the same way about a LOT of the canonical van numbers, even though I ride hard for Poetic Champions & Irish Heartbeat & the Healing Game too, what an enjoyable record that is.

this thread is bringing me a lot of joy, I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

yup - I was trying things like leaving off Listen to the Lion because I thought I probably didn't like it as much as I used to, but then I'd put it on and damn.

I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

why?!

I hope Them gets some recognition beyond the hits ... there's probably too much solo Van for that to happen

Late with this, as I've been kind of in and out a bit, but want to urge folks DON'T SLEEP ON THEM! "Baby Please Don't Go", "Mystic Eyes", fuckin' "G-L-O-R-I-A"!

A couple of underrated bangers

"All For Myself" (is that Jimmy Page on guitar?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBF83O-brVQ

"I Can Only Give You Everything" (interpolated by Beck for "Devil's Haircut")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0G1o8xbt4

Overlook His Band and the Street Choir at your own peril, friends. I was looking for the studio version of I've Been Working and found this 9 minute live raveup that can only be described as scorching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0dpNHLLCBs

Real live Them on French TV in '65

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goR8Lf3YH2w

holy shit @ that Orphanage clip. Van running deep on the James Brown records

I often feel apologetic about how much I love Van Morrison

well...like...this is just sort of an example of why van has become as close as I get to a guilty pleasure, but...because he's devoted multiple songs in the past 20 years to how annoying it is to do press work. you know? like...most great artists maybe take a swipe at the press when they're young & drunk but they get over it. van...will never get over it

holy shit @ that Orphanage clip. Van running deep on the James Brown records

Yes! And I bet he was as equally prolific at firing band members.

I will definitely be giving a vote to "mystic eyes"

One of the few artists where I genuinely cannot see how he made a living as a pub singer let alone a comfortable living as a jobbing touring act let alone got rich selling albums let alone enjoys bonafide legend status.

Good luck to him but rly wtf

wanted to rep for this, every song on veedon fleece is amazing but this song, which is one of the more traditionally arranged songs on the record along with "bulbs," is my favorite. i love the way the verse melody keeps sinking into van's vocalization whirlpool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQnZEkrn7s

Veedon Fleece for me is like you're sitting around thinking I've got Astral Weeks. This is the only album I'm really ever gonna need how can it even get deeper than this, forget it. and then you hear about Veedon Fleece so you find a copy and you think holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

^^^^^^^

dmac, I went from wondering the same thing to understanding that he creates his own aesthetic gravity through sheer force of will. People don't think they like slurry mumbling, or repetitive nonsense, and yet. With druidic mojo Van decrees that this is his jam and you will like it, and the sheer confidence of his delivery and the fact that he keeps doing it convinces one to pay attention. It's a bit like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff in the cartoons - he doesn't fall as long as he doesn't look down. Van doesn't look down, ever.

It's an angle, certainly.

I come not to snark in all seriousness, so it's interesting to hear a take on it that at least acknowledges that he's bovrilish

Re: mumbling and repetitiveness of his vocals. He likes to use his voice like a jazzer might solo on a saxophone.

whoa wait hold on everyone don't submit your ballots without song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOhG7GYmE6Y

er without this song*

beyond that "irish heartbeat" is my favorite song in the entire world. i might prefer the recording with the chieftans but i also might not!

'cause the world is so cold!
don't care nothing about your soul
that you share
with your own ones

taking sides: og "irish heartbeat"'s formation as a gently rotating synth orb vs. chieftans recording which is crisp and embroidered with bagpipes

Veedon Fleece for me is like you're sitting around thinking I've got Astral Weeks. This is the only album I'm really ever gonna need how can it even get deeper than this, forget it. and then you hear about Veedon Fleece so you find a copy and you think holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)

Outer space with beautiful lawns that smell like honey.

astral turf

holy fuck he just took the whole operation into outer space

To me, that's the long songs on Saint Dominic's Preview, particularly Almost Independence Day, where he isn't even burdened by lyrics, just a few repeated phrases. It's perfect.

i always forget how wonderful this song is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvDamp4tvA4

It won't help the voting but, true confessions, I always skip Beside You. Someone up thread used the term bovrilish - no idea what that means exactly but I don't like bovril nor Beside You which has always sounded too strident.

The opening synth burbles at the beginning of "A Sense of Wonder" -- man

gonna send in a ballot before i torture myself about the order too much

'cause the world is so cold!
don't care nothing about your soul
that you share
with your own ones

otmfm

Irish Heartbeat is such an incredible album

prob should be a separate poll for best van morrison horn arrangements but this is my no. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ-ib0euAKk

Thanks for the information
Never give a sucker an even break
And with her everything light becomes heavy
And everything heavy becomes light

People let me tell you, the results of this poll are quite interesting thus far.

Get those ballots in. We were pretty slow there for awhile, but they're starting to come in now.

i love both versions of "wonderful remark" so so so so much

also this song!!!! idek if i can fit it onto my ballot but i really want to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMP9jMJlsks

really enjoying my research here - I can submit a ballot in the evening West Coast time as long as it's before midnight right?

also wanna note that this is the dude who wrote GLORIA which I will certainly vote for

I can submit a ballot in the evening West Coast time as long as it's before midnight right?

Yes.

any consideration of extending by a day?
I just got back in town but have a final 33 to pare down-would like to spend enough time to rank.
Thanks.

Yeah sure why not. Let's extend it through August 2. I'll start the rollout on Wednesday, and finish up on Thursday or Friday depending on how many ballots I get.

i'd say cyprus avenue, or caravan, or into the mystic, or

Cyprus avenue gets my #1

Re: mumbling and repetitiveness of his vocals. He likes to use his voice like a jazzer might solo on a saxophone.

This

completely forgot that fun. did a cover of "queen of the slipstream." it's pretty good imo otherwise i wouldn't subject y'all to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlrmUuukVV0

I should submit a ballot, right?

yes

just submitted mine!

jesus this guy has a lot of good songs...

It is touched on upthread, but one of the enduring mysteries for me is that I am completely in thrall to these songs on subjects I find almost intolerable anywhere else: I am on tour; people are phonies; I'm staring at a 14-year-old girl from a car; those other people are phonies too; Ireland is lovely.

Which is just to say I am sitting here regretting not making a song that goes on about 'merry gypsies' my number one.

speaking of "ireland is lovely" here's a song van dedicated to his high school in belfast. prob my favorite song on avalon sunset, can't get enough of those golden autumn days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBao_-FJU8

I think I said this elsewhere but while there are plenty of good songs about California, Van's are pretty much the only ones that make me want to be in California.

I understood Van the vocalist much better when I realized he was a saxophone

I am on tour; people are phonies; I'm staring at a 14-year-old girl from a car; those other people are phonies too; Ireland is lovely.
lol otm -- also "i can't believe i signed that contract"

the first couplet on his latest album might literally be the biggest load of shit ever sung haha:

"I was Mr Nice Guy too long
And I found out that was wrong"

really now

lmao van

One of my favourite scenes in "The Last Waltz" is at the big singalong at the end; Neil Young puts his arm around Van in a gesture of brotherly solidarity. Van visibly recoils/shudders and Neil puts his arm away

I really like this also love the moxie of calling a song "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" like fuck Pink Floyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14VTF3EWqUo

i can imagine van singing "never heard of pink floyd / never got no insight from sigmund freud"

just on its surface Pink Floyd's whole approach to music would be so antithetical to Van

or....holy shit...maybe The Band, Roger Waters and Van doing "Comfortably Numb"??????

fucking Levon singing this song is messing w/ me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFo_E9Fq2k

lmao whut

this is the most bloated thing i've ever seen

Yes. I prefer to think of Van not being aware of any music post Ray Charles, or at least Bob Dylan. Certainly not singing songs from The Wall.

I believe Van's cover of Comfortably Numb was featured prominently in a scene or two from The Sopranos.

though maybe him and Waters are bros cuz they are total grumpy bastards?

i think i'm gonna actually finish my ballot in the next few hours! didn't think i'd ever get here lol

Christ, Tir Na Nog is glorious. This is impossible.

can someone (Brad or anyone) rank in descending order the '80s work?

PCC and Beautiful Vision sound the best to my ears.

common one
no guru
poetic champions
irish heartbeat
beautiful vision
inarticulate speech of the heart
avalon sunset
a sense of wonder

i think that's everything

Common One!

Anyone read the Marcus book?

I believe Van's cover of Comfortably Numb was featured prominently in a scene or two from The Sopranos.

It's what's on the stereo when Christopher and Tony have the wreck that causes the latter to finish off the former before the authorities arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU8nJE6z4DM

"It's The Departed soundtrack. It's fuckin' killer..."

god when hymns to the silence finally gets all of its bitter recriminations against the music industry out of the way and gives itself over to nostalgia and spirituality it's exquisite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eBjVOJ0w_o

take me back
take me back
take me back
take me back

"When the Leaves Come Falling Down" better make some ballads.

and here i thought i had all of his songs about leaves on my ballot

don't forget the recitatives for synth.

i love that there's also a song called "golden autumn day" on back on top. van really consolidating the overarching themes there

He's got no "Desultory Winter Light" in his catalog

First listen to 'Take Me Back' and it is lovely, but I think the issue is the band, which feels a bit pedestrian, a bit plodding. I mean, it's unreasonable to want Richard Davis and Jay Berliner on every album, but still.

slight counterpoint: van's drummer around the time was dave early, who was also sade's unofficial drummer

i think he does wonderful work here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOUilsuZj1E

all right i'm onto the live albums i'm less familiar with and my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN14cvbC8CY

Another super weird collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_f-kOri1w

lol immediately started crying when van sang "my tongue gets.... t-t-t-t-tied" on the live astral weeks, jesus

We all have to comment on Astral Weeks in the shadow of Bangs, but Ballerina is the track that destroys me the most, and it's the 'and this time I forget to slip into your slumber' verse in particular. I think it's the midpoint between His voice as instrument - where the words are secondary to the delivery - and the power of the lyrics themselves. And the bastard was 23.

Heh - I quite like the 'His' typo.

Zappa & Van had history: The Mothers (and The Doors, and Beefheart!) opened for Them on their only US tour w/Morrison in '66.

Ballerina is amazing. All of the album closers seem to be.

man avalon sunset's better than I remembered, huh

xp lol immediately started crying when van sang "my tongue gets.... t-t-t-t-tied"

otm

Avalon Sunset was a tape belonging to my older brother that I used to listen to a lot when I was 13. I felt I had to dislike it since then, cos yknow, Cliff Richard, but its a lovely album

Hey Born To Sing No Plan B is really good.

I got addicted to Ballerina through his live sets. Particularly this one ....

https://youtu.be/mRpLokqyQF0

^formatting fail. That leads to the Pacific High Studio version from 1971. Hard not to hit repeat after listening.

gonna take full advantage of the 1-day extension, 4-5 spots left on my ballot

ok here's a great them song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_-J0wKpSw

i had also never heard "friday's child" before this poll and wow

anyway i submitted my ballot

Zappa & Van had history: The Mothers (and The Doors, and Beefheart!) opened for Them on their only US tour w/Morrison in '66.

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, July 31, 2017 5:30 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jim Morrison was a huge fan of Them (a band I get the sense that any recorded material can't really convey what they were as a force of nature during a small club date in the mid-60s) and also is said to have studied Van's stage moves in Them very carefully and adopted them for his Lizard King dramatics

OK, so tomorrow is the last full day of voting. Please have your ballots in by 12 AM, August 3. Rollout starts on Thursday and we'll finish up on Friday.

the "friday's child" from that pacific high 71 bootleg is unbelievable (as is most of the rest of that show)

http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Van-and-Jim-Morrison.jpg
jim van morrison

(plus sherlock holmes on the sax!)

not enough deerstalkers in music nowadays imo

i regret not voting for "fire in the belly"

Let me tell you, the results of this are pretty surprising thus far.

that is the greatest photo

listening to Enlightenment right now. Dude is so weird, "Cleaning Windows" he goes "I'm a workin' man in my prime (lol you haven't worked a day in yr life Van), CLEANIN' WINDOWS!" then, oddly he just speaks, matter of factly "Number 36" before a sax solo

also really regret not voting for "dweller on the threshold," specifically the faster live version from 1984

"van is a saxophone" theory falls apart on "Almost Independence Day" where he is a guitar and "When Heart is Open" where he is a harmonica

Can't see cleaning windows on my copy of /enlightenment/ but man is it a ropey album

also really regret not voting for "dweller on the threshold," specifically the faster live version from 1984

Will probably make my ballot because of the Glastonbury recording. Such a great set. Most of my post 74 picks will be as a result of that gig

rave on

holy shit that glastonbury 87 setlist is incredible

Sorry summertime in England. The vocal interplay with one of the backing singers towards the end is phenomenal. And the line about Avalon strikes a local chord...

It was a revelatory experience.

I was trying to find time at the weekend to put the tracks somewhere for you all to hear but I ran out of time

i found a bootleg and i'm def gonna listen to it after i finish live at the grand opera house

btw is there a definitive Van Morrison biography/history book?

It's weird for how much I love him I don't really KNOW that much about him.

One thing that I'm curious about as I work through his discography is what occurs from 1974 (Veedon Fleece) to 1977 (A Period of Transition)...like from 68 to 74 he's basically dropping a classic to really good album a year, and while they all have a differences, they all seem of a piece somehow...then there's an uncharacteristic (esp for those days in the industry) gap of 3 years between albums, and then A Period of Transition definitely feels like we're in a different place now, the "classic" era is done or we're evolving into some other era, I guess an aptly named album (if pretty mediocre itself)

does anyone know what was going on w/Van at that point? Or was it just like coming off a historic run like that and being out of gas/worn out?

he became a scientologist for a while in the early 80s: i have a friend who saw him proselytising outside their shopfront in tottenham court road, offering personality tests to passersby

(so he has worked a day in his life)

maybe when he says "136" in "cleaning windows" he's referencing axiom 136 of dianetics: "the mind is plastically capable of recording all efforts and counter-efforts"

There was a scrapped post-Veedon Fleece album that would have used the cover that became The Royal Scam.

this unreleased 75 session popped up a little while ago -- though I don't think any of it has leaked. if you've got 10 grand to spare ...
https://recordmecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/IMG_3379.jpg
https://recordmecca.com/products-page/museum-quality-collectibles/van-morrison-master-tape-of-unreleased-1975-studio-album-9-completely-uncirculated-studio-tracks/
would love to hear "Grits Ain't Groceries" lol

well that explains some of the '75 recordings on philosopher's stone

i found a bootleg and i'm def gonna listen to it after i finish /live at the grand opera house/

Cool. It was fm quality so should sound good. Would be interested in your verdict.

maybe when he says "136" in "cleaning windows" he's referencing axiom 136 of dianetics: "the mind is plastically capable of recording all efforts and counter-efforts"

You're probably right. Nothing is off the table with van.

i'll def need to download a new bootleg bc there's a lot of weird problems with this one, but the audio quality itself is still v good. his band sounds so buoyant in this era, or maybe i'm projecting onto how fun "dweller" and "cleaning windows" sound to play xp

fair amount of van boots yonder: http://www.ousterhout.net/mp3/vm.html

Speaking of unreleased Van, would be nice if he signed off on the live 1968 Astral Weeks tape currently collecting dust at Peter Wolf's house.

the version I knew of "Grits Ain't Groceries" was an ooooold country tune but I'm guessing this was Van's jam in '75

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vel5wqOURMo

Update: Tomorrow is the last day to vote. Right now this thing is a tossup, there is a handful of songs that could easily win, and albums is wide open as well.

XP Also a career-making hit (under the title "All Around The World") for Little Willie John in the mid-'50s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XHC-qZXOyI

working my way through the discography

Wavelength is pretty bad

i disagree!!!

i couldn't find room for it on my ballot but i really love "take it where you find it" and how it slowly loosens into this enormous gospel song

I'm to the title track now and it's my fav so far. It's funny I was like "Is Garth Hudson on this?" and it turns out he was, he's so distinctive, esp once he gets into synths, in fact this is a good song

Venice USA was such a pastiche of late period Band it turned me off tho

Wavelength album is uneven but utterly key imo.

Checkin' It Out > Kingdom Hall > Wavelength > Natalia > Hungry for Your Love

kornrulez is there a time cut-off tomorrow (2nd Aug)? I'm on GMT.

holy crap at the opening...

https://youtu.be/Ndt3bVNcug0

on to Into the Music, really good so far...I love "Full Force Gale", seems like he's trying to get back to the Caledonia Soul Orchestra sound here but a bit more modern

"rave on john donne" merging into "did ye get healed" at the end of the '87 glastonbury show = a+

into the music is def a return to form in composition and production, it makes a lot more sense as a follow-up to veedon fleece than a period of transition does, and it sounds so crisp

Van is going to kill you if you meet him by those pylons, i think. or maybe love you forever? but also maybe kill you?

kornrulez is there a time cut-off tomorrow (2nd Aug)? I'm on GMT.

Officially the cutoff 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, August 3. That's 6 hours behind GMT. But I'm not going to be able to check the ballots until around 9am August 3.

How many people still have to vote?

me, will send this evening

Speaking of cleaning windows, I never took in that the first line in St Dominic's Preview was about just that: "shammy cleaning all the windows..."

St Dominic's is very high on my ballot. Here's a lovely mellow version from his Belfast 1979 show, I believe the first time he's back in Belfast in many many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igK2ME-0jh4

Into the Music is a top three Van album

"Bright side of the road" is the go-to Van song for Irish radio even more than "Brown Eyed Girl". I'm kinda sick of it esp the Dairylea girl backing vox. It put me off listening to "into the music" tbh

In the USA radio it's either Domino or Wild Night. Brown Eyed Girl is easily his biggest hit here but it's been relegated to oldies status.

...and/or "Moondance"--I was amazed to discover it wasn't a single since it was such a radio staple.

/kornrulez is there a time cut-off tomorrow (2nd Aug)? I'm on GMT./

Officially the cutoff 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, August 3. That's 6 hours behind GMT. But I'm not going to be able to check the ballots until around 9am August 3.

Great thanks i will be sending my ballot tonight.

I'm almost done!

I'm being lazy but does someone have a link to the Glastonbury set?

will send at noon PST

sent

Holy mackerel, this thing is going to be close. If you haven't voted, please do so. Your ballot will decide the winner fer sure.

Sent.

Holy mackerel, this thing is going to be close. If you haven't voted, please do so. Your ballot will decide the winner fer sure.

Coming soon. With a coat so old. In the garden. With the leaves all wet with rain.

I'm almost done!

I'm being lazy but does someone have a link to the Glastonbury set?

I don't know how ilx mail works but I could help

I VOTED! (NO FAKE NEWS)

waiting for the rollout to start is a form of suffering so fine

^dwelling on the threshold

I'm trying hard to make this whole thing blend.

Rollout begins tomorrow for sure

I'm caught one more time waiting

Kornrulez it will come through

Sent!

this is exciting

turn it up!

Kornrulez it will come through

― wtev,

Did I get your ballot, wtev? The Caravan is packing up and ready to move.

/Kornrulez it will come through

― wtev,/

Did I get your ballot, wtev? The Caravan is packing up and ready to move.

Yes you emailed me last night at 2.27 Manchester time

Sorry my earlier post was written while I was listening to summertime in England. /a man who comes through/

OK so we are done.

22 ballots.
16 albums.
154 songs.
Lots of surprises to come.

Yes!

http://i.imgur.com/fg8RYPw.jpg

Just testing that out. Apologies for the crude art direction.

Linden Arden POLL the Highlights--ILM Van Morrison Poll Results