What's with Van Morrison?

Talented artist, miserable human being. I'm sure there's a lot of people in the business who've had to deal with Van and probably wouldn't piss on him even if he was on fire. But so what? The guy's created some wonderful music.

 

Van needs a hug!

 

When I think about the expression 'separate the art from the artist', Van is the first who comes to mind.

I enjoy the idyllic scenes he paints in so many of his songs, some really beautiful peaceful places, but it must be a lot of work telling people things they're too lazy to know, to make him so cranky. I just play the records.

 

The problem is Van's made his point about getting ripped off ad naseum. Way back in "Drushambo Hustle" where he subtly expressed puking up his guts at the contract being offered.

Does he think even his most fervent fans want to indulge his ruminations on the record business, which isn't even the record business anymore?

I too am grateful for all the good music he's produced. One of the few people I MIGHT go out of my to see (though might not, based on recent reports of inconsistency).. but I'd be hard pressed to make one decent compilation from his last 5 or 6 cd's.

Time for "Philosophers stone Vol 2" and the Pacific High concert release

 

Van has never had much to say to the audience in his concerts. That's just the way he has always been so far as I can tell. I've seen some great concerts where he didn't say much to the audience.

I have to disagree with some of the comments to the effect of not much is going on with Van the past twenty years.

Let me note that I've had one not so good experience at a Van Morrison concert - it was only about 60 minutes long show in NOLA and he was in a bad mood because of the PA - but I've seen six other great to brilliant concerts. And I'd pay to see him again if he came back through Texas. Touring as Van is doing at his age is something that is extraordinary. And the quality of his band throughout this period has really been impressive with one exception in my experience, namely, the band that came out of the Linda Lewis experiment and played at the NOLA concert I saw.

I disagree with the comments that Van has been phoning it in since Live in SF or that you couldn't find much in his last five to six albums to make a single compilation Cd. I recognize he's put out a few LP's I never play (skiffle sessions being the best example) and I agree he repeats himself on the sack of woe stuff about the recording busines and his lack of privacy etc., but he's put out some great music since Live in SF: The Healing Game, Days Like This, Back on Top, Down the Road, Pay the Devil, Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl, Keep It Simple, and The Philosopher's Stone (I know it's old stuff). These are all albums I play a fair amount and some I play a lot. (I even like the Linda Lewis album - not all the time but it's very good at what it does.)

Measure Van by the totality of his musical accomplishments (even in the past twenty years) and they are extraordinary by any fair standard that takes into account quality and time.

 

That would be great. Huge fan here but saw him once and would rather just listen to my LPs and CDs. Sometimes it's better not to know too much of the behind the scenes stuff!

 

As much as I've been disappointed in Van's lack of interest in his back catalog and cd reissues he pales in comparison to the "flakeyness" of Neil Young.Over a decade now Neil's been constantly saying we are going to see back catalog remasters on DVD-A,cd,vinyl, whatever and For the most part this hasn't materialized.

 

Huge Neil fan too. After seeing him 12 times I think I'm done. Man, I'm attracted to the flakiest artists!

 

Here's his recent interviews

CBS Sunday Morning part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH-fPvur0Sk&feature=related

CBS Sunday Morning part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNunJ-bKPvY&feature=related

Time Magazine 10 questions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVHbUPNcTiU&feature=related

 

He was great in Bonn in 2004.

Wish he could have banned the 2 very irritating women behind me who kept nattering away during a wonderful sax/horn interlude in the middle of "Fair Play"...

 

The Hall of Fame inductions began in 1993 with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Morrison notable for being the first inductee not to attend his own ceremony, so that Robbie Robertson from The Band accepted the award on his behalf.

 

Personally speaking I believe that if you associate yourself with Ron Hubbard's science fiction cult you show enough evidence of being "a bit off".

 

Just so it's clear, at no point did Van become a bona fide Scientologist. He has investigated many faiths and belief systems over the years but has never advocated, nor made an absolute conversion to, anything or anyone. Reading a book, attending a seminar or voicing a sentiment in a song lyric doesn't necessarily mean that one can be inextricably tied to a group. It just means his spiritual quest is never-ending.

 

Didn't Van only ever make one reference to Hubbard (on Inarticulate Speech of the Heart)?

 

I can't believe his lawyers haven't had this thread shut down yet.

 

I really liked No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. To be fair he has been ripped off by other artists, and by record companies.

 

Not totally true. McCartney skipped the Beatles induction, and IIRC, Diana Ross wasn't there for the Supremes. Yes, both acts were represented by members, but prominent participants stayed away, both for lawsuit-related reasons, I think...

 

I took extra care not to mention him by name.

 

Good point. This spiritual search has resulted in some of my favorite VM tunes.

 

He does ... regularly.

Or are you saying he'd feel better if he *only* expressed his anger in song?

 

I've seen him about 20 times since 1982. Mostly very good, with a sprinkling of brilliant transcendent performances - one of which was last year at the Royal Albert Hall whern he played the whole of Astral Weeks - stunning, and completely worth the relatively high ticket price (£200)...

another great, but more (geographically) low key performance, was in Derry in August 2002, when he encored with an impassioned ten minute version of star of the county down....

Going further back, he played some great performances at the Dominion Theatre in London in the mid 80s.

I got into him when i was still at school and saw him give an extraordinary performance on the Rockpalast 1982. I was just getting into Dylan at the time - and to see him completely deconstruct and rebuild Just like a woman was shockingly brilliant - still remember it to this day... most of that concert was taken up with songs from the very strong Beautiful Vision album.

A lot of the posts on this thread do illustrate very clearly that there is more than one answer to the question of what does an audience deserve and have a right to expect from an artist beyond their art? I think I'm with you on that one Mr Morrison.

 

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