Tag Archives: Van Morrison

Great albums, Music Calendar, Van Morrison

June 11: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965

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Them- The Angry Young- Frontal

June 11: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965

“These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!” (original liner notes)

The Angry Young Them is Them’s  first album. The album was released in the UK on 11th of  June 1965. The band’s lead singer and songwriter was of course Van “The Man”  Morrison. He was with Them on only two albums before deciding to go solo.

Them

The opening track Mystic Eyes was from an 8 or 9 minute jam originally, a long intense  jam session in the studio with Van making the words up on the spur of the moment. Oh why didn’t they use the long take? Anyway, a good opener.

If You And I Could Be As Two is the next song and it opens with Van’s spoken voice talking (rather angrily) before this wonderful soul ballad continues. Then it is Little Girl which is about watching a 14-year-old (!) school girl on her way to school,  not very acceptable these days but we need to remember that Van Morrison was only a teenager himself when he sang these words (still no excuse, I know).

Just A Little Bit by Roscoe Gordon is the next one out, Morrison sings great and it is my favorite song of the non Van Morrison penned tracks. Fantastic song!

Then we are in for the weakest track on the album, I Gave My Love a Diamond. That is not a put-down, because it’s a good sixties ballad, it just pales compared to the other songs on the album.

Continue reading June 11: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965 →

Great albums, List

Great Albums articles @ alldylan.com

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blood-on-the-tracks-album-cover

Great Albums articles @ alldylan.com

Randy_Newman-Good_Old_Boys-Frontal Bob_Dylan_-_Highway_61_Revisited Bone Machine 1 ryan adams heartbreaker bob dylan love & theft
 warren_zevon-sentimental_hygiene(virgin)  bruce springsteen born to run  the-dirty-south  Kris_Kristofferson-The_Austin_Sessions-Frontal  Bob Dylan slow train
 stage fright  kind-of-blue  The Who - Whos-Next  Jonathan_Wilson-Gentle_Spirit-Frontal  another side of Bob Dylan

 

Here are the posts we’ve created in this category so far…. there are many to come…

1950’s

1960’s

john-lennon-plastic-ono-band van morrison Moondance Elvis Presley On Stage crosby stills nash young- deja vu His+Band+and+The+Street+Choir+s
 The_who_live_at_leeds  WorkingmansDead_Cover  Black-Sabbath-LP-Paranoid-cover  american-beauty  f-i-could-only-remember-my-name
 curtis-mayfield-roots  Who_-_whos_next  Elvis_Country  Aretha Franklin Live At Fillmore West  the_rolling_stones_-_sticky_fingers
 Marvin Gaye - whatsgoing allman brothers fillmore east  Merle Haggard Someday We'll Look Back  Coat of Many Colors_Dolly Parton  PaulSimon-Front

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

2000’s

2010’s

–

Egil & Hallgeir

 

 

Great albums, Music Calendar, Van Morrison

Feb 28: Van Morrison released the album Moondance in 1970

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van morrison Moondance

In Moondance, Morrison bursts forth in warm Technicolor. The Van Morrison that the public would come to know and recognize over the decades—Van the Man, the Belfast Cowboy, etc—essentially makes his first appearance on Moondance.
~Erik Hage

This is Van Morrison’s 6th Symphony; like Beethoven’s equivalent, it’s fixated on the power of nature, but rather than merely sitting in awe, it finds spirituality and redemption in the most basic of things. The pinnacle of Van The Man’s career, and maybe, of non-American soul in general.
~Nick Butler

And It Stoned Me:

And It Stoned Me (live @ Montreux 1980):

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Great albums, Great Bands, Music Calendar, Van Morrison

Jan 21: Them Again by Them was released in 1966

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THEM_again

Them Again is the second album by Them, lead by singer and songwriter Van Morrison. The album was released by Decca Records in the UK on 21 January 1966 but it failed to chart. In the U.S. it was released in April 1966 where it peaked at #138 on the Billboard charts.

Released 21 January 1966 (UK), April 1966 (USA)
Genre Rock
Length 48:21Decca (UK), Parrot PA 61008; PAS 71008 (USA)
Producer Tommy Scott

It’s a great record and often overlooked and unfavourably compared to Them’s debut. It is allmost as good. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

Two of the original Van Morrison songs included on the album, “My Lonely Sad Eyes” and “Hey Girl”, can be seen as precursors to the poetic musings of Morrison’s later Astral Weeks album, released in 1968. “My Lonely Sad Eyes” begins with the words, “Fill me my cup, and I’ll drink your sparkling wine/Pretend that everything is fine, ’til I see your sad eyes.” The title implies that the sad eyes belong to the singer but the lyrics address the singer’s love interest. It reminds me of Rolling Stones at their most soulful.

My Lonely Sad Eyes:

The song “Hey Girl” has a pastoral feel to it, enhanced by the addition of flutes and in Brian Hinton’s opinion is a “dry run for ‘Cyprus Avenue'” from Astral Weeks.

Hey Girl:

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions, Van Morrison

Videos of the day: Van Morrison – Just Like A Woman (Bob Dylan) 3 takes

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Photo: Jarle Vines (Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0)
Photo: Jarle Vines (Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0)

“Just Like a Woman” is a song written by Bob Dylan and first released on his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde.  It was also released as a single in the U.S. during August 1966 and peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Just Like a Woman has been covered by a variety of different bands and artists,among them are Radka Toneff, Roberta Flack, Manfred Mann, Nina Simone, The Byrds, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Jeff Buckley, Rod Stewart, Counting Crows, Gregg Allman and Richie Havens. Today we hear and listens to Van Morrisons takes on this beautiful song.

Three incredible performances in a 30 year time span. I love that jazzy feeling that he infuses his interpretations with.

Van Morrison – Just Like A Woman (live 1974, Winterland, San Francisco):

Continue reading Videos of the day: Van Morrison – Just Like A Woman (Bob Dylan) 3 takes →