George Ivan Morrison was born on 31 August 1945 in Belfast. As a teenager, the young musician already started performing in local bands. He can play several instruments, including piano, guitar and saxophone. In the mid-fifties, he got the nickname Van (short for Ivan) which stuck. He found his inspiration in his father's record collection, which introduced him to blues, gospel, country and soul. Especially Ray Charles and Solomon Burke made a deep impression. In April 1964, he responded to an advertisement for a new band looking for musicians. This band was eventually named Them, after the horror film of the same name. The band broke through in their home country in 1965 with the song Gloria, written by Morrison. The song became a top 3 hit in the Netherlands two years later.
Brown Eyed Girl
After the split with Them, Morrison sought an American record label. He hastily signed a contract with Bang Records. He later regretted this, as he never saw a penny from the album Blowin’ Your Mind!. He was generally unhappy with the cover and Bang Records fell short in other areas as well. However, the single Brown Eyed Girl became a big hit. Initially, the song was called Brown-Skinned Girl, but Morrison seemed wiser to change the lyrics. In the Netherlands, it was Morrison's first and biggest hit. After the debacle with Bang Records, he was freed from his contract by the much larger Warner Bros., where Morrison released the album Astral Weeks in 1968. The record was not an immediate success but set the tone for the musician's later albums.
Moondance
Morrison's third album Moondance did not produce any hits in the Netherlands when it was released in 1970, but it would eventually become a classic. Besides the jazzy title track, songs like Crazy Love, And It Stoned Me and Into The Mystic grew over the years into his most beloved pieces. The album itself sold very well in our country and peaked in the top 10. The song Domino, found on Morrison's fourth solo album His Band And The Street Choir, was his second hit in the Netherlands in 1971. One of Morrison's best-selling albums in both the Netherlands and the US is Saint Dominic's Preview from 1972, which includes the single Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile). It only became a real big hit ten years later, but then in the version by Dexys Midnight Runners.
Bright Side Of The Road
Throughout the seventies, Van Morrison remained productive, releasing almost yearly new albums, although his record sales gradually declined. He seemed unable to cope with the new disco music that emerged in the mid-seventies. Unlike many of his colleagues, including Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart and The Beach Boys, Van The Man resisted the temptation to ride the wave of disco's success. A truly big hit during the disco era never materialised, although the cheerful Bright Side Of The Road, from the album Into The Music, was a frequently played song on the radio in 1979. In August of that year, he performed at Ahoy, Rotterdam. Afterwards, his album sales began to pick up again.
Have I Told You Lately
Van Morrison continued to release albums throughout the eighties, with Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart from 1983 and Poetic Champions Compose from 1987 selling particularly well. In 1988, he made the folk album Irish Heartbeat with The Chieftains. There was no sign of Morrison in the charts during those years until the summer of 1989, when the gentle ballad Have I Told You Lately appeared. This was his first top 20 hit in eighteen years. The album Avalon Sunset reached the top 10 of the album chart in 1989. A new generation thus got to know the singer and his old work was compiled on a well-selling Best Of CD in 1990. In June of that year, he even appeared at Pinkpop, alongside artists like Nick Cave, Urban Dance Squad and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Top 2000
Van Morrison has 4 songs in the Top 2000 of 2020:
Sunday Morning Classic: Astral Weeks
On 7 November 2021, Van the Man was our guest as Sunday Morning Classic with the album Astral Weeks.
Astral Weeks is Van Morrison's second solo album and was released in November 1968. It was recorded in two days with several renowned jazz musicians from New York at the then Century Sound Studios. The album is an unusual mix of folk, blues and jazz. Over the years, the album gained more and more appreciation and has achieved cult status. Astral Weeks ranks high on many lists as one of the best albums of all time. In the latest list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it is placed 19th.
During the first recording session for the album on 25 September 1968, the song Astral Weeks was the last of four recorded before that date. John Payne, the flautist who worked with Morrison, said it was the first time he had ever heard it, and although the song may sound rehearsed, it was actually captured in a single take.
Morrison described the song "Astral Weeks" as: "like the transformation of energy, or moving from one source to another where it is reborn as a rebirth. I remember reading that you have to die to be born. It's one of those songs where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's basically what the song says." Morrison told Steve Turner that he was working on the song in 1966 in Belfast when he visited painter Cecil McCartney who had drawings about astral projection "and that's why I called it 'Astral Weeks'."
Source: NPO and Wikipedia photo: ArtSiegel
Below is a small selection from the vast oeuvre of Van Morrison.
