Mystic Avenue: January 2010

Tell Us How You Got Into Listening To Van's Music
We like to hear how and when you started listening to Van's music. Was it a particular song that did it or an album? Send us your story and we'll post it on the blog along with other stories. You can post your story in the comments section below & we'll then put it in post or you can email it to vanmorrisonnews{@}yahoo.com
Thanks.
-John

Your Stories:
It was "Moondance" first and then, in quick succession, "Street Choir" and "Astral Weeks." I had been hearing Van on late-night FM radio and reading about him in Rolling Stone, and I was hooked immediately. Have been ever since. By the time Van appeared at the Troubador in L.A. in 1973, I had everything I could get my hands on from Them-time on. My girlfriend Laura Greenwood and I attended two of the Troubador shows, parts of which went into the "Too Late to Stop Now" LP. In fact, the second, slightly higher-pitched female scream that slips in there just after Van finishes "Domino" is Laura.

The Troub was tiny and every seat was great. Laura and I sat in the "last row," up on a small platform, maybe 30 to 40 feet from the stage and right next to a back door leading to the restrooms and the stair for the balcony. Shortly before the show was to begin a small, seemingly nondescript man stepped out of the doorway and stood next to me, his right shoulder almost brushing my left. He stood there looking straight ahead as though he might be waiting for something. It was as though I could feel heat or energy coming from him, but he was standing too close for it to be comfortable to look at him directly. Frankly, I didn't think much of it. A few moments later someone - probably Doug Weston - encouraged us to welcome Van Morrison and the man standing next to me in a cool stitched leather coat headed for the stage. By then the band was cooking and I never gave it another thought. That's how it was back then - before you knew what someone looked like ahead of time because of the internet or MTV. Plus Van was really a chameleon in those days. Although we were still in high school, Laura and I began following Van "up the highway, down the highway," because he began playing gigs all over Southern California - L.A., Santa Monica, San Diego, Irvine, Anaheim, Santa Barbara, Oxnard and more.

And I have to say this because I get really cranky about reviewers and "fans" talking about how temperamental Van is. It's his music, damn it, it's up to him to do with it what he wants! I twice saw what others might call temperamental shows and they are among my favorite musical memories. One was in San Diego when, in the middle of "I've Been Working," Van up and left the stage and didn't come back for ages. Finally one of the musicians left the stage, presumably to bring Van back on, which he did after awhile. And man, did Van pull out the stops after that! He blew the place down. The other time was in Anaheim when he got fed up with people shouting from the audience. At one point he walked away from the microphone and began singing with no amplification. And you could hear him beautifully - especially when everybody quit yelling so they could figure out what was going on. Later, Van decided to crawl up on the piano and lie there for awhile until he figured out what he wanted to do next - which was to leave. It took forever for the audience to bring him back, but - just as in San Diego - when he came back, he started in all over again, playing an extra long and extra hot encore of at least 4 songs, I think it was.

Laura was a beginning photographer then - this was an age when you could just bring your camera and shoot. She got some wonderful images, of which I still have a few copies. Laura never published them and she died in 1993. If the webmaster can put these up, I have attached 8 photos that have never been published or seen by anyone other than Laura Greenwood, my friends and I.

1st and 2nd photos - Oxnard, CA, February 12, 1974
3rd & 5th photos- Shrine Auditorium, L.A., October 5, 1973
4th, 6th, 7th 8th photos- Troubador, L.A., May 24 and/or 27, 1973.
-John F.

Thank you John for you story these great photos taken by Laura. (John G.)

I wasn't much of a Van fan growing up in the seventies. I gravitated more to Zeppelin, Paul Rodgers, Gregg Allman and so forth. Van seemed to belong to a different generation, and while I was a huge Jeff Beck fusion fan, I found what little I knew of Van Morrison to be too jazzy for my tastes. Or certainly too brass heavy and not nearly enough guitar.

Ironically, it took the Chieftains to get me to buy a Van record, and it was a great one. While I knew he could sing, I was enraptured by his performance on Carrickfergus. Such power and tone.

This was followed shortly by the release of Avalon Sunset, and that did it. I couldn't believe how naive I had been towards this reclusive artist. Hymns to the Silence solidified it for me.

Because I was late to the game, I have always held Van's nineties work in a higher stead than the earlier material, great as it was. I just love the resonance of his voice in the later songs.

In recent years, I have had the privilege to finally attend his shows. And I am thankful that when I finally did, I was up on just about his entire catalogue and thoroughly enjoyed whatever he chose to play.

Atlantic City 2005, Virginia 2006 and DC 2009 are nights I will not soon forget.

For Van Morrison on this Thanksgiving holiday, I quote Neil Young:

"Long may you run"
-Ed (Washington)

For me and my husband it started in 2007 after listening to the 'Astral Weeks' album for the very first time. Nothing was the same anymore after that ... Since then we got the entire Van cd / dvd back catalogue we could get hold of. And went to each Van gig within reach. The bug has hit us for good and will stay, I'm sure of that. Although we found out after some time that there is a lot more good music other than Van's to discover. The journey isn't over yet ...
-Petra S.

I got here in stages. Back in '78, Wavelength was the first song of Van's that captured my attention. I bought the album and listened to it frequently. I remained interested and listened attentively through the 80's, but the only other record of his I bought was Beautiful Vision. The next stage hit in the early 90's with the release of Hymms to the... See More Silence. I snapped it up after reading a rave review in Time Magazine, listened to it often, and followed it up with purchases of Moondance, Tupelo Honey, Too Long in Exile, Best Of Vol. 1, Enlightenment and Days Like This. By then I was an enthusiastic fan but not yet over the top. The final, serious-fan stage came with the release of The Healing Game and my discovery of the Van-L list, which occurred about a month apart in 1997. The good people of Van-L helped me develop a deeper appreciation of Van's contributions as well as a healthy wariness about Van, personally. The contrast seems to work. I don't look up to the guy but have tremendous respect for his music. He is a unique artist- true to his vision and immensely talented. My journey through his body of work helped me discover a lot of excellent music by other artists and also encouraged me to start playing several instruments. It changed a part of my life.
-Steve L.

Wavelength was my first introduction to Van .....I was hooked !!! 1978.....Then came Common One....a little bit different but was very interested.....when I could afford to buy records I started to buy it all I didn't even know Brown Eyed Girl was Van's until the 90's .......by then I was listening to everything.....without a doubt he is the best singer, songwriter , musician....performer.......OF ALL TIME!!!!!I don't even think the others would argue that!!!!!
-Shelley M.

For me and my wife (then girlfriend) it started with his Philadelphia Academy of Music concert in May of 1972. I was 17, and she was 15; one of the early defining BIG concerts of my life loving music and probably her first. That was the still memorable beginning of a life long (ever since) love of his music. He had his full brass complement of... See More players and a fantastic group of back up singers.To me it was the Van of his Band and the Street Choir. He never removed his dark shades at any point in the the show, but it didn't matter. We were smitten and that was that. Been that ever since!
-Sean O.

I always loved Into the Mystic and Brown Eyed Girl, and a while back my sweetheart introduced me to Avalon Sunset, then came Hymns to the Silence and A Night in San Francisco... powerful. I walked down the aisle to These Are The Days. 3 years later almost to the day, we find ourselves at the Hollywood Bowl, sharing in that transcendent experience.

I am grateful that Van has the courage to share his sublime poetry and music.
-Melanie H.

The first time I remember hearing Van was Moondance on the radio when I was in college. I loved the voice and styling (at the time I was into Kenny Rankin and Al Jarreau) and I immediately went out and started to buy his albums, Moondance first, followed quickly by His Band and Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, Hard Nose the Highway, Veedon Fleece, Into the Music, and Common One, all on vinyl. Eventually I got It's Too Late To Stop Now and that basically lived on my turntable for months.

I can still remember going to the local record store and looking at this huge selection of albums but only having enough money to buy one or two at a time.
So I didn't get into the albums strictly chronologically; I just picked one or two at a time that looked the most interesting. Which was kind of fascinating about Van; with his huge catalog, I could buy one album from the early 70's and another from the 80's. Each album was an eye-opener and amazing in its own way and I just couldn't hear that voice enough. Since this was the time of albums, the side one/side two aspect was central to the experience, as in side two of Into the Music. There was something special about flipping over the record knowing what was to come next.

My interest has waned here and there, but I always seem to come back to Van, always look forward to seeing him live and hearing his latest album.
-Michael F.

By turning up my Radio!
-Graham R.

I grew up in Northern Ireland, through all that Van Morrison grew up in. I knew all the old hits and liked them, but they had turned into overplayed pop songs.

Then, I went to a concert in Belfast in 1999 and saw Van play The Philosophers Stone. As they say in Belfast – that changed “the lot”. Even the old songs mean more now.

-Dave M. (Big Clem)

I bought two cheap "cut-out" vinyls spring 1982, since listening to Van Morrison was briefly mentioned in Swedish novelist Ulf Lundell's debut novel Jack (yes, title refers to Kerouac). Into the Music and Summertime in England. As I remember it, it took me several months before I was hooked, but by the end of 1982 I had the whole catalog. And some vinyls -- and quite a few tapes... 1983 was a bit boring, the first 'new' record I bought was Inarticulate Speech, followed by seeing a very boring first concert in Stockholm.

1984 was exciting, going to several concerts in Belfast, Van doing Astral Weeks' stuff. An absolute highlight was getting No Guru in the mail some weeks before its release. I just cried that Saturday morning with my coffee. And played it very loud at night with my Jamesons. For me the most amazing albums are Astral Weeks, Veedon Fleece, Into the Music, Summertime in England and No Guru. I also like The Healing Game a lot. Keep it Simple is his best in years. But there are so many good songs over all these years... "The Story of Them" for example!!! Live-wise I will never forget Belfast 1984, perhaps even more remarkable were the shows in the Grand Opera House in 1989. The Georgie Fame injection around those years was an energy-booster!! I love the VHS Beacon Theatre video from around 1990 -- but could anybody send me a DVD with better sound and picture?!! Love the video from Waterfront 1997. Love the recording from Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, 2008. Love The Man.

"What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you' ll find out when you reach the top, you're on the bottom." Van quoting Bob at Rockpalazt 1982...

That’s it. From an unedited Wolf.
-Ulf C.

After college graduation in the mid-70s some friends rented a New Jersey shore house and they only had two scratchy albums.... Mahavishnu Orchestra Wings of Fire and Moondance. We would listen to them when we drank beer after being on the beach all day and again late at night after the bars closed. That was my first immersion into Van and dabbled for the next 10 years picking up a used album here and there so his music was always in the mix. In 1990 I had lunch at a friends apartment and she played Avalon Sunset. At the same time another friend recommended Common One and from there I was hooked. I delved deeper into Van's work and all that I had missed. Astral Weeks in particular simply blew me away. I was never sure of the appeal of his music to me until I recently heard him quoted as saying how much he internalizes the music as if he is singing to himself. It all made sense ..."I wanna know did you get the feelin'? Did you get it down in your soul?". Yes I did.
-Anonymous

As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's I'd come across a few of Van's on the radio now and then (the usual suspects such as Brown Eyed Girl, Domino etc) but nothing really grabbed my attention all that much.

Then one day around 1980 I stopped into my local hole in the wall record shop (now since long gone) and the guy running the place was playing something that really connected with me. I took a peek behind the counter where the album cover was propped up against the wall next to the record player and it was Common One by that Van Morrison fellow. Hmmm, I didn't know he made music like this, maybe I'll have to check into this guy a bit more...

Here it is 30 years, dozens of official albums and numerous amazing shows later, and I'm thankful for that day when I happened to walk into that little record store at just the right moment.
-John in Las Vegas

I've been hooked since 1971 at the ripe old age of 8 when my older sisters bought "Street Choir"!!! I was fascinated that a fellow Irishman could sing the blues with such conviction and started to dig deeper to find out more about this amazing singer...a journey that has taken me on an odyssey through Blues, Jazz, Gospel...over 40 albums,50 live shows culminating in Astral Weeks Live at the Garden in February...truly music on a different level!!! Van, I salute you for forging great art and "turnin lead into gold"!!
-Anonymous

I remember loving Moondance and buying the 8 track for my groovy VW while in High School. I can still see it and the rest is Van and happy listening history.
-Susan S.

Believe it or not, I only bumped into Van's music a couple of years ago when I was putting together a Tom Jones compilation CD for my sister. I was mesmerized by Van's portion of the Tom/Van duet, Sometimes We Cry. I couldn't get enough of it, so I began to listen to anything done by Van to get an idea of his range. I first gravitated to his more recent stuff, feeling more comfortable with his deeper timbred voice but before long I adjusted to the early Van voice and I've bought just about everything he ever did, including all his remastered albums. Van is now the favorite artist of both my sister and me and we don't know how we managed to live on this planet as long as we have without realizing who Van was. It's not that we hadn't ever heard and loved Brown-Eyed Girl or Gloria or Domino or Days Like This. It's that, thanks to FM radio that plays 10 songs in a row without ever telling you the name of the artist or the name of the song, we managed to stay "Van ignorant" for 40 plus years! Sorry, Van! But we're sure making up for it now! :-)
-Marilyn M. Boston, MA

My mum was ill. It was late 2005 in Liverpool and the weather was grim.
On my way back to the hospital, 'And It Stoned Me' came on my personal CD.
Don't get me wrong, I'd loved Van for years: 'Astral Weeks', 'Moondance', 'Best Of'... that sorta' thing. I was in my early 20s.

But I was about to realise how wide the water really was. And deep.
George Ivan Morrison's music has affected everything I do since that September afternoon. The wind was biting through me, but it didn't matter. Van was singing something about "jelly roll" and I just knew. Slowly but surely over the following few months, I filled the spaces in my Van collection.

'It's Too Late To Stop Now' and 'Into The Music' had always been on my list, but now I dived in. Head first. My own music changed too - out went the Telecaster and Springsteen impersonations. I picked up an acoustic guitar and wrote the best music of my life.

'Saint Dominic's Preview', 'Street Choir', 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' and 'Veedon Fleece' followed. All touching me somewhere previously buried deep, deep down in my soul. It's the little things...
The way he sings "to you" on 'Fair Play'. The violins on the Soul Orchestra's 'Caravan'. Everything about 'And The Healing Has Begun'. The unadulterated couldn't-give-a-fuck pop of 'Domino'. The way the band shifts on Saint Dominic's Preview's "and we gazed upon...". And the euphoric rush I get when 'Celtic Swing' comes on.

All life is there. And that's the important thing. Life. Van Morrison is what it is to be alive.
Vital.
-Alan O.Hare, Liverpool (cheers John! love the blog, thank you...)

I started listening to Van when I was in elementary school in the mid 90s. I remember washing my mom's car in the summer and playing "Jackie Wilson Said" on cassette. I would point my fingers in the air and sing the intro "da da da da duh!" and dance as my red hair went flying. Now, I am 20 years old, and sometimes the youngest fan at Van shows. My dad and I love listening to Van when we drive together.
"Wavelength" is our favorite to rock out to, but "Carrying a Torch" is our best fist-pounding singing fest. To woo me, my now-boyfriend learned to play "Sweet Thing" on the banjo. I took him to a Van show and now he's hooked too.
-CJ Lotz

I first saw Van live in England at the legendary Knebworth Festival 1974. I was on my very first holiday in England together with my best friend and our own first car! In Brighton we saw this concert poster of Knebworth with the Headliners Allman Brothers and Doobie Brothers. And The Van Morrison Show. This was the start to listen to many Van's vinyl albums. He was not my absolute favourite at that time but it was slowly growing from year to year. When the CD's were coming in the 80s I bought every released Van album, later every remastered edition. And with the help of a friend I was connected to the famous Van group some years ago. There I got all
the many wonderful shows including the 1974 Knebworth show, where it all starts for me.
-Ray, Germany

"It was the 60's...how could I remember any details? I do know he was still with THEM."
-Mary B.

I heard Van's voice probably from the age of 11 or 12 on the radio and my older sister had a couple of albums. I didn’t think much of him, he was ok, kind of a voice that was quirky, and rhythms that kind of swung but not totally. Years passed, and having read a lot about music his name kept popping up referencing his influence but I did not have a desire to listen. Anyway around 1981 while listening to the radio, Natalia came on. I really liked it. So weeks later I went out to by the album but could not remember the song name. Not knowing what to buy I bought "Into The Music". It took a couple of listens, but when I heard side two of that album my music listening was changed forever. I had never heard music so deep, intense and dynamically extreme. No one I had ever heard before or since was so literarily "into the music." It also seemed that I could personally relate to what he was singing about. I listened to that album daily for a long time, then went and bought his whole back catalog a few at a time while also moving ahead. Needless to say I was blown away by his body of work. Around 1985/1986 I was beginning to lose a little steam, and was not looking that forward to his next album, and in fact delayed buying it for some time. Being in a record store one day and seeing nothing that interested me, I settled for No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. When I heard for the first time I knew right then that this guy was the greatest songwriter/singer I had ever heard before or since. And the amazing thing is that there was no one like him, he stood alone. I have listened ever since, and "A Night In San Francisco" was another high point for me. I don't know if I will ever get as exhilarated by the music as I once did, but I will be listening - and it doesn't matter if I do or not because Van's music has given me more than anyone else's.
-Phil, CT

Back in '82 I was bicycling across the US (Virginia to Oregon) with a group of 10. Walkman's were just introduced to the market. I purchased one and made lots of music to take with me (no Van). After the first few weeks, somewhere around Missouri, I started trading cassettes with another rider. He was loaded with Van. By the time we got to Wyoming... See More, Beautiful Vision became the sound track for the rest of the trip. It was the only tape I'd listen to- over and over and over. I'd never heard anything like it before and it made every pedal stroke throughout the Rockies something incredibly special. Van's music became a part of me and never left.
-Wanda M.

I always loved Van’s songs and music, since my teenager times, so, those albums from the seventies had a big influence, mainly Moondance, St. Dominics Preview, Veedon Fleece and so on. Anyway I really dig all Van’s releases, (like the extraordinary Poetic Champions, Sense of Wonder, for example, and also the more recent ones), and I admit that, due to his unlimited talent and genius, as a composer, Van is the kind of musician that can play/sing whatever he likes because he is always good!

I do miss his live shows, because, through the years I only managed to see him live twice, more than 15 years ago, so I keep wishing he stops by my neighbourhood…
-Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal (congratulations for the excellent site!)

Well it stared about '64 or '65 when I heard "One, two brown eyes", "Mystic Eyes" and of course "Gloria". Being from the midwest there was actually a band called the Shadows of Night who were getting airplay with Gloria which was not as good as Them's but confused this 13 year old boy until I figured it out. For some reason Van's music has consistently, with little exception, been the soundtrack for my life. Not on a conscience level or planned, but when I started looking back after many, many years it just seems to have done that. So much information or direction seemed to come in right on time. Hints of things, names of people to read or explore, ideas that lead to a process of information gathering that could nudge me one way or another. That's what he gave me that helped shape who I am. The music itself has been marvelous, but it was the timeliness of the information or direction I received that has been valuable to me. Yeats, Beckett, Heaney, Wordsworth & Coleridge and on and on. Anyway, The father and daughter dance at both my daughters weddings were to Van songs, their choice not mine. My grandaughter even listens to Van. My grandaughter, Christ I getting old. Well, that should be more than you care to know ,but you asked. "Though lovers be lost love shall not, and death shall have no dominion." Mr. Thomas.
-Mike M.

When i was in jr. high in the hinterlands of New Mexico, usa, (c 1965) i borrowed someone's 45 of Gloria by the Shadows of Knight, not knowing it was a VM composition... still have it. Then, on radio, remember Mystic Eyes, Brown Eyed Girl later heard Moondance and both Van and Johnny Rivers' versions of Into the Mystic, which i thought was the coolest song ever. Liked Jackie Wilson Said on the radio and bought St Dom's Preview and really enjoyed the whole album. I was living in LA then and there was alot of buzz on the radio (KMET-FM) about Van, and they played lots of songs from the Moondance and St Dom's albums. He must have recently done his 73 Troubadour stand. 28 years later, 2001, went to a Dylan concert which lead to dylan bootleg trades which led to VM bootleg trades. e.g: Fillmore W 70, Troubadour 73, Amsterdam 86, Dublin 95, and later, Montreux 90, Malvern 03 and i was blown away. now have about 30 official cds, 175 boots, thinking about seeing him for the first time in Dallas next month, Jan 2010. looks like i've been a fan for almost 45 years...
-George S.

Well I was seventeen at the time back in 1978, living in rural Cheshire, UK. I was brought up on Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell, which was no bad thing (still listen to them today). I had gone down the old farts music route from a teenager getting in to the Beatles, Black Sabbath, then Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.
I remember being at a friends house and reading the NME on the critics choice top 10 albums of all time. I knew all of them (had most) except number 4, which was an album called Astral Weeks by a Van Morrison. I was somewhat surprised as I had never heard of the man - I assumed he was American. A week or so later I was in our local independent record store and saw Astral Weeks for sale and was intrigued by the cover and the song titles so decided to take a punt.I rode home on my bike clutching the LP (like many before) and put it on the player in my room when I got back.I was completely bowled over on first play - it was so different from any other music I had heard and it connected like no other music had previously - I called my Dad to come and listen but it had no effect on him. For months I played the album and got lost in it as if I was transported to a sad film where I was the main actor. My journey started.
My next purchase was Moondance, and although it seems impossible to me now, it was a massive disappointment at the time - where had the loose free flowing style of Astral Weeks gone????? I now play Moondance more often than Astral Weeks and believe Side one (of the album as it was) to be the finest song cycle on any album. I headed to see the man at the Edinburgh Rock festival the following year and have seen him over fifty times since (when he's good live there's no one better).
I love lots of music but Van is still way ahead of the pack (followed by J.Cash, Nina, Dick Gaughan etc). His latest albums are not up with his best but still contain enough gems for me to keep coming back and the voice although greatly changed is still magnificent.
-David B

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