TheSound
An Englishman in New York
Van Morrison
Van Morrison Official Website
Albums :-
Blowin' Your Mind! (1967)
Astral Weeks (1968)
Moondance (1970)
His Band and the Street Choir (1970)
Tupelo Honey (1971)
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
Hard Nose the Highway (1973)
It's Too Late to Stop Now (Live) (1974)
Veedon Fleece (1974)
A Period of Transition (1977)
Wavelength (1978)
Into the Music (1979)
Common One (1980)
Beautiful Vision (1982)
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)
Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast (1984)
A Sense of Wonder (1985)
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986)
Poetic Champions Compose (1987)
Irish Heartbeat (1988)
Avalon Sunset (1989)
Enlightenment (1990)
Hymns to the Silence (1991)
Too Long in Exile (1993)
A Night in San Francisco (Live) (1994)
Days Like This (1995)
How Long Has This Been Going On (1996)
Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (1996)
The Healing Game (1997)
The Philosopher's Stone (1998)
Back on Top (1999)
The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998 (2000)
You Win Again (2000)
Down the Road (2002)
What's Wrong with This Picture? (2003)
Magic Time (2005)
Pay the Devil (2006)
Live at Austin City Limits Festival (Limited edition) (2006)
Keep It Simple (2008)
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (2009)
Van Morrison Official Website
Albums :-
Blowin' Your Mind! (1967)
Astral Weeks (1968)
Moondance (1970)
His Band and the Street Choir (1970)
Tupelo Honey (1971)
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
Hard Nose the Highway (1973)
It's Too Late to Stop Now (Live) (1974)
Veedon Fleece (1974)
A Period of Transition (1977)
Wavelength (1978)
Into the Music (1979)
Common One (1980)
Beautiful Vision (1982)
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)
Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast (1984)
A Sense of Wonder (1985)
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986)
Poetic Champions Compose (1987)
Irish Heartbeat (1988)
Avalon Sunset (1989)
Enlightenment (1990)
Hymns to the Silence (1991)
Too Long in Exile (1993)
A Night in San Francisco (Live) (1994)
Days Like This (1995)
How Long Has This Been Going On (1996)
Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (1996)
The Healing Game (1997)
The Philosopher's Stone (1998)
Back on Top (1999)
The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998 (2000)
You Win Again (2000)
Down the Road (2002)
What's Wrong with This Picture? (2003)
Magic Time (2005)
Pay the Devil (2006)
Live at Austin City Limits Festival (Limited edition) (2006)
Keep It Simple (2008)
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl (2009)
There's no 'official' CRF Van Morrison thread anywhere that I can find - or if there is, it's hidden away or sunk so deep as to be totally inactive. There can’t be many artists to have performed and recorded jazz, rock, R’n’B, blues, country, folk, Celtic, and skiffle music. Fewer still, if any, can claim to have received huge universal critical acclaim in all those genres. I think Van would see himself primarily as a blues singer, though Van is so annoyingly enigmatic and impossible to pin down that I couldn't decide if he should be in the jazz and blues artists board, the 60's board, the folk and celtic board, or the general rock board, so in the end I opted to create one of these blogs for Van The Man...though all are welcome! He remains one of the most elusive rock stars of the modern era, which is another reason in this age of fatuous, shallow celebrity worship, that I love everything he stands for. His music is not easily defined, and he certainly will never be pigeon-holed. In fact in interviews he's often at a loss for words when asked to describe one of his songs, though his blend of spirituality and mysticism in his lyrics suggests that maybe he has some sort of divine intervention going on. One of his old band members, Georgie Fame, once said that people don’t need to know everything about Morrison, he just said "He’s a wonderful Irish poet, and a great musician. What else do you need to know?"
So, I thought I'd start a 'blog' topic for possibly my all time #1 artist....well, definitely either him or The Boss anyway. I have seen Van Morrison in concert several times, both in the UK, the USA, and once quite memorably in his native Ireland, and I have exactly 40 Van Morrison CD's/LP's - which is all of them on official release - so over the coming months I'm going to play through each album a few times, in chronological order, and every so often post a short review of it, though it's not just a 'review' blog, and is open to anyone to post anything on him and his music. I'm actually skipping the years he spent with the band Them, and their records, though that doesn't mean Them can't be talked about here.
Blowin' Your Mind (Released 1967)
1. Brown Eyed Girl
2. He Ain't Give You None
3. TB Sheets
4. Spanish Rose
5. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
6. Ro Ro Rosy
7. Who Drove The Red Sportscar
8. Midnight Special
1. Brown Eyed Girl
2. He Ain't Give You None
3. TB Sheets
4. Spanish Rose
5. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
6. Ro Ro Rosy
7. Who Drove The Red Sportscar
8. Midnight Special
'Blowin' Your Mind' is a pretty bleak, very bluesy album, highlighted by the harrowing track 'T.B. Sheets' - when the album was released against Morrison's wishes, he actually retreated home to Ireland in disgust. But, this his first solo album is remembered mainly for containing the huge 60'***** 'Brown Eyed Girl'....though 45 years after it was released, 'Brown Eyed Girl' still remains one of the greatest and most popular party/dance records ever recorded - if you ever went to a wedding reception party at night, and they didn't play 'Brown Eyed Girl' at the disco, then quite frankly imo it wasn't much of a wedding!! 'Blowin' Your Mind' was actually seen by Van as really just a dry run for his first real masterpiece album, 'Astral Weeks'. Stuff like 'Who Drove the Red Sports Car' looks ahead to that album, and then 'Midnight Special' nods back to Morrison's R&B past. But it's really the agonizing blues song 'T.B. Sheets' - all 9+ minutes of it - that dominates the record, and it's where Van Morrison really first emerges as an artist.
I'd rate this album overall as a 6/10.