Category Archives: Van Morrison

Bob Dylan – Great duets part 3: Friends on stage

A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece. It is often used to describe a composition involving two singers. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo section rather than performing simultaneously.

Part1, Part2

Bob Dylan has done a lot of duets, we have collected some of our favourites and will present them in batches of three. This third post has three duets with people Bob Dylan has described as friends or brothers.

Bob Dylan and Van Morrison – Knocking on Heaven’s Door

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Bob Dylan & Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey/Why Must I Always Explain, Belfast 1991 (video)

bob dylan van morrison 1991 2

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around all the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
She’s as sweet as Tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as Tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

Bob Dylan sings the lyrics to Tupelo Honey and Van Morrison sings the lyrics Why Must I Always Explain.

Why, why must I always explain
Over and over, over again
It’s just a job you know and it’s no sweet lorraine
Tell me why must I always explain (alright)

Dundonald Ice Bowl
Belfast, Northern Ireland
6 February 1991

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Van Morrison (shared vocal)
  • John Jackson (guitar)
  • Cesar Diaz (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Ian Wallace (drums)

Continue reading Bob Dylan & Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey/Why Must I Always Explain, Belfast 1991 (video)

Nov 25: The Last Waltz with The Band and friends was recorded in 1976

Last-Waltz

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 Nov 25: The Last Waltz with The Band and friends was recorded in 1976

Van Morrison & Bob Dylan Performing Together (videos)

bob dylan van morrison

Happy 70th Birthday Van Morrison.

Bob Dylan and Van Morrison have performed together many times, here are some cool videos:

Winterland
San Francisco, California
25 November 1976

They say evrything can be replaced,
Yet every distance is not near.
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here.
I see my light come shining
From the west onto the east.
Any day now, any day how,
I shall be released.

I Shall Be Released (The Last Waltz)

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August 31: Happy 70th Birthday Van Morrison

van1

“Van Morrison is interested, obsessed with how much musical or verbal information he can compress into a small space, and, almost, conversely, how far he can spread one note, word, sound, or picture. To capture one moment, be it a caress or a twitch. He repeats certain phrases to extremes that from anybody else would seem ridiculous, because he’s waiting for a vision to unfold, trying as unobtrusively as possible to nudge it along…It’s the great search, fuelled by the belief that through these musical and mental processes illumination is attainable. Or may at least be glimpsed.”
~Lester Bangs 

Van Morrison, OBE (born George Ivan Morrison; 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as transcendental, while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance and the live album It’s Too Late to Stop Now, are critically acclaimed and appear at the top of many greatest album lists.

van3

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