Van Morrison
 

When I was younger my dad had three Van Morrison albums, Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic's Preview, and Veedon Fleece. I've heard them over the years, and I always like them, but never listened terribly closely to them. Outside of that, I knew his hits (Brown Eyed Girl, Moondance, etc), but never looked further into his catalog.

Today I was driving down to San Diego and threw on those three albums. Holy fucking hell! I've been completely missing out. Every single song wasn't just good, they were all fantastic! I can't believe I never paid attention to the intricacies of the music, the way he plays with melody, rhythm, and tone, and just the overall awesomeness of his music.

As soon as I was able to get an internet connection I went on Amazon and got the MP3 versions of Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band And The Street Choir, Wavelength, Into The Music, Common One, and Back On Top. So far these have all been great as well. And since I'm going to be in New York at the end of February, I got a ticket to see him live at Madison Square Garden.

Listening to all this music has been like a revelation. Anyone else here a Van Morrison fan?

Re: Van Morrison
 

Until he found religion, he was absolutely brilliant. Christian version of Cat Stevens.

Re: Van Morrison
 

Yeah, he's awesome and for someone who didn't grow up knowing his non-singles it's been fun hearing each album for the first time. I didn't hear Tupelo Honey until 10 years ago (after listening to Moondance for 10 years before that) and was blown away. Tupelo is still my favorite of his recordings.

Re: Van Morrison
 

All the ones listed are fantastic. Likewise, his last one "Pay the Devil" is incredible. But that one does require you to like country.

Re: Van Morrison
 

He's amazing. Love everything he has done. Even songs that are just adequate are elevated by his voice.

Re: Van Morrison
 

Astral Weeks is still one of my favorite albums of all time. But yeah, once he found religion it all went downhill.

Re: Van Morrison
 

A warning about seeing him live though - he is wildly inconsistent. It could be one of the best shows you've ever seen or one of the worst - seriously, sometimes he'll just randomly yell and make dog noises in the middle of a song for no apparent reason. But being at MSG, maybe he'll behave.

Re: Van Morrison
 

Love, "Into the Mystic"...

Re: Van Morrison
 

I'm only in New York for a few days, and his show happens to coincide, so I figured I'd take the chance. Thanks for the heads up, though.

Re: Van Morrison
 

It sucked SO bad that they yanked the videos of him and Bob Dylan at the Acropolis doing old folk tunes and whatnot. It was filmed for some BBC show they did on Van. 'One Irish Rover' and 'Foreign Window' were particularly amazing, they are the only two I've seen. I wish so much I had grabbed the MP4s before they yanked them.

There is no way to buy those videos or songs. And they were amazing.

Equally bad was them yanking the purely acoustic stuff Van and John Lee Hooker did sitting on a porch over looking a pond down in the delta. 'Livin' In The Past' was particularly amazing. Wish I had grabbed them too.

Van Morrison's estate is very anti-youtube.

Maybe you haven't heard this, this is a taste of what John and Van are like together.

Re: Van Morrison
 

If you're still alive, I don't think you have an estate, do you?

Re: Van Morrison
 

Right. I think he lives in an apartment.

Re: Van Morrison
 

Astral Weeks might possibly by the greatest album ever made.