Let Us Now Praise Van Morrison

[Zomby Woof]

Favorite album?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. I only have MOONDANCE, which is so beautiful.

I'm no Van expert, so I'm gonna sit this one out. I do so love his voice, though, and the single "Moondance" is one of my favorite songs.

;)

[Zomby Woof]

4. Get the album!

If you love the song, you MUST havethe album. It is FLAWLESS from start to finish. One of the very best albums ever made, an a GREAT way to acquaint someone new to his music. :-)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

6. The album is sitting in my mom's CD rack.

I listened to "Moondance" only once.

Time to go back and listen to the full thing.

;)

[Zomby Woof]

8. It's a late night romantic album

Low lights or candles, and a good drink or two.

My favorite song: "Into The Mystic".

[CrushTheDLC]

2. They aren't worth a shit without David Lee Roth

Oh... nevermind :hide:

[Zomby Woof]

5. HA!

:P

[Mike03]

3. "Wonderful Remark"

I never heard of him until I heard his incredible music under the closing credits of Martin Scorsese's "King of Comedy." The song was "Wonderful Remark." Thanks to a guy who became a movie director, who took pity on me way back in like 1984, I finally learned about that amazing man called Van Morrison.

But I still need a album recommendation. Or better yet, is there a box set?

[Zomby Woof]

7. I don't know of a boxed set

But! "Moondance" is the best album to start with. Or if you want to sample his work from the 60's (including his first work with the band Them) through the recent past, try Volumes 1 and 2 of his "Best of".

Once you get well-acquainted with his work, give "Astral Weeks" a try. It's a lush, complex, deeply moving, breath-taking, incredible masterpiece of amazing music. It is my favorite, although I must rank "Moondance" alongside it at times.

[Redstone]

9. Astral Weeks, by a mile. Maybe the best album ever made.

That little drunken, depressive, red-haired son of a bitch with the reedy, unsteady voice may very well be among the top ten musicians to ever have lived.

Redstone

[Nicole]

10. Moondance

Tupelo Honey was my first album.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. I love everything he's ever done, but I am REALLY partial to

Tupelo Honey even if his other stuff is more critically acclaimed - eh - fuck the critics...they're my ears :D

[Zomby Woof]

14. Tupelo Honey is magnificent

"Oooh, she brings me moonshine whiskey..."

and

"In old old Woodstock..."

and

"When that evening sun goes down..."

and

"I wanna rooooo you..."

and of course,

"She's as sweeeeeet, as Tupelo Honey..."

Not a cut I would skip on it. :D

[speedoo]

12. I heard he was a right winger.

Somebody please tell me that's not true.

edit - spelling

[argyl]

13. Was Van's recording of "Gloria" the origin of the heavy metal "screech"

that is so prevalent in so many bands? I'm not being snarky;I love Van and his phrasing and timbre in that particular song was adapted and was carried to ridiculous extremes in almost all of the hair metal bands of the '80's.

If not him then maybe Roky Ericsson. Course,Roky continued singing in this style and Van moved on.

I'm not being facetious. This has puzzled for quite some time, although hardly to the point of obsession.Feel free to either respond or regard me as a loon.

Weird question out of the way, picking just one piece of work is damn near impossible.For now, either "Astral Weeks","Moondance", or "Tupelo Honey" are as close as I can come to paring down my list, and that's just because I've been playing his older stuff more than his more recent work as of late.

Saw him in Austin at the Armadillo World Headquartes,'72 or'73, IIRC.Originally scheduled to play a Saturday and Sunday show, he came to town a day early so an impromptu Thursday show was scheduled,which sold out quickly by word of mouth.A Sunday and then a Monday show was added as well.A truly great performer.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Well it was Morrison but he was actually called THEM back then

but I think Eric Burden actually beat him to that sound on an international level a few years prior to Gloria being a hit

Of course Burden burned out early and was never the melodic songwriter that Morrison was and is.

[Mendocino]

16. To me, rock has produced only two true musical geniuses,

Van Morrison and Duane Allman.

I voted for Astral Weeks.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. But if I agreed with you, I'd have to leave out Brian Wilson and while

I don't know that I would specifically refer to him as a musical genius, I do regard him as a harmonic genius.

[saltpoint]

17. "She's an angel of the first degree..."

All his work is splendid, cosmic, and beautiful stuff but deep in the summertime give me moonshine whiskey and tupelo honey.