Van Considering Biographical Documentary

Van takes an aisle seat
Van Morrison says he has "put aside all the documentary material" he has on hand to allow a filmmaker to create a proper doc portrait along the lines of Martin Scorsese's Dylan doc, "No Direction Home."

"I have all this material collected and I realized we weren't getting past 1968," Van Morrison told Daily Variety. "We were really squeezing everything in. It was getting very complicated and I realized, 'I need someone to collaborate with,' so I just put it all aside for now."

Morrison has had movies on his mind lately. EMI released on Feb. 13 "Van Morrison at the Movies: The Soundtrack Hits," a compilation of 19 of the more than 70 Morrison songs that have graced films.

It's a potent reminder of the role the Belfast-born star's music has played on screen over the past few decades.

Morrison's system today is to "watch a clip of the movie" before granting approval, a process he says is made easier "when top directors ask to use one of your songs. If Neil Jordan wants to use a song, you can be pretty sure he's going to use it appropriately and he's going to be sensitive to the material." Morrison says it wasn't always so and like his early career music biz travails, "back in the 70s my songs were just turning up in films I knew nothing about. The songs were just being used indiscriminately and I had no say in it."

Over the past two decades, however, Morrison has no complaints and points to films such as Oscar best pic "As Good As It Gets," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and Neil Jordan's most recent film "Breakfast on Pluto" as positive examples of films using his songs.

"It's great now," says Morrison, who was winding down this morning from Wednesday night's Gibson Amphitheatre sell-out show and before tonight's Oscar Wilde Awards at the Wilshire Ebell Theater where he is being honored for "Irish literary contributions to film," alongside scribes Terry George and William Monahan.

Morrison has regularly expressed his love of culture - mostly literary and musical - in his songs. References to Coleridge, Yeats and Kerouac bop up regularly alongside tips of the porkpie hat to Jackie Wilson, Big Bill Broonzy and Gene Vincent.

Until now, however, Morrison's cinematic influences and filmmaking heroes haven't popped up much in the press or on the disc or stage. He quickly rejects the tag "movie buff," but then demonstrates that he's not surprisingly, a rather sophisticated movie viewer. Saturday matinees in Belfast were filled with pics such as "The Cisco Kid and Hopalong Cassidy," but by his teens Morrison had moved on to heavier fare.

"I love Hitchcock and Welles and Brando. 'On the Waterfront' was the big one, you know, the taxi scene with Brando and Rod Steiger. 'I coulda been a contender.' And 'Rebel Without a Cause' was way ahead of its time."

Euro faves on Morrison's list include Alain Resnais's "Last Year at Marienbad," Jean Cocteau's "Blood of a Poet" and "everything by Fellini."

"If you see anything with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson or Joe Pesci, you know it's going to be good," he said, and not surprisingly, Nicholson and Pesci were in the audience the last time he played the amphitheater. Closer to his Irish home he cites director Jim Sheridan and thesp Daniel Day-Lewis as "two of the greats."

Morrison has never appeared in a film. Tantalizingly, he answers affirmatively when asked if he would consider being involved in one. "It was a long time ago, but there was talk about doing a movie around 'Astral Weeks.' It's one that lends itself the most to being a film. It's probably the most cinematic."

Van Interview Coup For BBC

Publicity-shy singing legend Van Morrison usually lets his music do the talking.
But in a broadcasting coup, BBC Northern Ireland has managed to persuade the reclusive star to give his first telly interview in years.
Details of the scoop are still hush-hush but Sunday Life can confirm 'Van the Man' has recently filmed an interview with the Beeb's Mike Edgar.
Mike, the Beeb's head of entertainment, events & sport, has a musical background himself, once playing drums for Eighties outfit Cruella de Ville.
Said a BBC NI spokeswoman: "I know that the interview has taken place. It has been filmed for TV, but there are no plans yet on exactly when it will be shown."
Last Christmas, a Nashville concert by the 61-year-old was one of the highlights of Radio Ulster's programme schedule.
And in August 2005 the station celebrated his 60th birthday with a Van Morrison Day.
During more than 40 years in the spotlight, Morrison has given very few media interviews.
There are only a handful of local TV appearances to his name.
In September 2005, Morrison was named as the worst interviewee in music journalism history by The Independent newspaper.
-John McGurk

Winnipeg 01-Mar-07 Concert Review

Morrison offers choice pickings from his oh-so-rich musical past

He rarely makes eye contact, he hates having his picture taken and his concerts last just 90 minutes -- not a second more.

So after all these years -- not to mention all those eccentricities -- is Van Morrison still capable of delivering on his decades-old hype? You better believe it.

Belfast Cowboy, blue-eyed soulster and all-round musical genius, Van the Man treated a crowd of 11,000 to a truly wild night yesterday, picking and choosing a masterful set list from his storied back catalogue of genre-straddling, spiritually inspired sonic odysseys.

And even though we know he had a clock on stage with him, counting down the minutes till his contractual obligations were through, we still couldn't help hanging on every word.

Though fans had been instructed to arrive at MTS Centre by no later than 7:30 p.m. -- or risk having to wait until the next song break to be seated -- the 61-year-old Irishman waited a good 20 minutes after that before finally making his entrance, giving his stellar 10-piece band a chance to warm up with countrified versions of My Own Business and T-Bone Shuffle.

When he arrived onstage, nattily attired in a black jacket and grey fedora, Morrison was blowing soulfully into a tenor sax, trading licks with his trumpet player and organist before launching into the lyrics of Wavelength, from the 1978 album of the same name.

Morrison's voice -- one of the most distinctive in the history of rock -- is still in fine form, retaining every shred of the wind-instrument-lodged-in-the-windpipe quality that's made him such an unflappable icon for so many generations.

After Wavelength came All Work and No Play, on which Morrison indulged in some jazzy interplay with his trio of backup singers, jerking his body back with every syllable of the chorus before segueing neatly into Stranded, which benefited last night from some nifty organ noodling, doo-wop harmonies and a slide guitar solo cribbed from the '60s gem Sleepwalk.

A brassy trumpet solo lifted Whinin' Boy Moan skyward, a heavenly scat solo shot Little Village even higher and by the time Morrison dropped his froggy growl down to a whisper on the blue-collar hymn Cleaning Windows and then fired it back up again for a Be-Bop-a-Lula refrain at the end, it was as if the show had been transformed into some sort of classic rock church service, with the Celtic iconoclast serving as preacher and saviour.

Van drew smiles from his singers with a spoken-word interlude midway through In the Midnight, tipped his hat to his early days with a fiery version of Baby Please Don't Go and even -- can it be? -- cracked a joke before launching into the worldweary anthem Days Like This.

Played for president

"This is a song we played for the president," he smiled, addressing the crowd for the first and only time. "Of the United Farmworkers Association."

There were hits, too -- a sexed-up Moondance, and the now-obligatory closers Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria.

But for our money, the evening's high point came when Morrison took the jazz standard St. James Infirmary from a barely-audible blues trill to an epiphany of sax and brass, the vertical stage lights behind him exploding with colour until they resembled nothing less than a neon pipe organ.

Countdown clock be damned -- we loved every second of it.

****1/2

Setlist:

1) My Own Business (band only)

2) T-Bone Shuffle (band only)

3) Wavelength

4) All Work and No Play

5) Stranded

6) Whinin' Boy Moan/Symphony Sid

7) Domino

8) Little Village

9) They Sold Me Out

10) Cleaning Windows

11) In the Midnight

12) Baby Please Don't Go

13) Days Like This

14) Moondance

15) St. James Infirmary

16) Goin' Down Geneva/Brand New Cadillac

17) Help Me

18) Brown Eyed Girl

19) Gloria

Concert Review Edmonton 28-Feb-07

Van Morrison's soulful swoon captures crowd

There's nothing quite like Van Morrison's soulful, scratchy pipes to ease the loss of a beloved friend or Oiler.

His bluesy vocals and heartbroken lyrics seemed to embody the city's collective pain as he counselled 12,000 fans at Rexall Place on a cold Wednesday night.

"Little darlin', come with me / Won't you help me share my load," he gargled on the opening song, Bright Side of the Road, a country-flavoured number with hints of Louis Armstrong.

"I can't stop wanting you / It's useless to say / So I just live my life / In dreams of yesterday," he cooed on a show-stopping rendition of I Can't Stop Loving You, featuring a mournful lap steel guitar and '30s-style backup singers.

Yet Morrison, dressed like a classier Blues Brother, also offered touches of lightness -- "Is this a gun in my pocket or am I glad to see you?" he joked -- and tough love.

"No pain, no gain," he barked on All Work and No Play, a quiet, loose song on the verge of disappearing into the air like a puff of smoke.

Well, maybe not always.

Morrison's 97-minute set was far from painful -- except for the fact local fans had to wait more than 30 years to hear him perform classics such as Moondance, Domino, Brown Eyed Girl, and the soul stomper, Gloria, which he saved for last.

It was his first appearance in our city, despite Terry Wickham's best efforts to coerce the Irish legend to play the Folk Fest over the last 10 years.

Thankfully, at 61, Morrison isn't yet one of those nostalgia acts on the verge of decline like some of our younger metal friends, say, Vince Neil and Mick Mars of Motley Crue.

While Van the Man's songs certainly conjured up memories of years and hair follicles gone by, he's still at the top of his game.

He plays sax, harmonica and his voice is sharp and dexterous as ever -- ranging from growly to pillow soft, from mumbly to stuttery, repeating words or phrases for dramatic effect.

"Every every every every day," he bellowed on Stranded, a gorgeous slow dance perfect for '60s proms.

Morrison may not be the most charismatic performer -- nor does he like to be the centre of attention -- but his songs don't require any hammy, 'Look-at-me!" gimmicks such as split kicks or microphone twirls.

Instead, his toe-tapping arrangements, scented with country, rhythm and blues, jazz, Celtic folk, even Hawaiian notes, tend to inspire moments of reverie, when you just want to close your eyes and let Enlightenment's sad harmonica or Domino's trumpet blasts carry you away.

Still, Morrison seemed to be enjoying himself more than he did at recent shows in Calgary and Vancouver, according to reports.

He repeatedly thanked the crowd at Rexall and tried to kid around by picking up a guitar and playing There Was An Old Woman before launching into Brown Eyed Girl.

He also giddily conducted his band of crackerjack musicians, 10 men and women, as they showed off their consummate skills on lap steel, fiddle, organ and guitar.

If only they had played for another 90 minutes.
-Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal

Van panned?

Divided opinions over Van Morrison's first-ever Edmonton show

an the Man panned? Say it isn't so.

But Van Morrison's concert at Rexall Place on Wednesday night, his first-ever Edmonton appearance, left at least some people unhappy in the sold-out crowd of 12,500.

"That was totally brutal, the longest 90 minutes I have ever spent in that coliseum," writes Clint K.

"I kept thinking, 'When's he going to kick it up a notch?' But that never happened. He played three marquee songs at the end - and butchered them all. And everything at half volume.

"Five bucks, maybe $10 - that's what it was worth, not $250 a pair for nosebleeds. Never again."

Ouch.

Fort McMurray's Robert Ash writes:

"Although I'm a huge Van Morrison fan, I found it hard to believe that this supposedly great singer can put on a show and play little or none of the great songs that fans expect to hear, just because he was in a rush to make his way to another venue.

"Some of the music he played was good, but his failure to do an encore was a blow. For the money fans paid, we deserved more.

"If there is a next time, I'll stay home with a CD."

How good the concert was, it seems, had a lot to do with where you were sitting. The closer and, correspondingly, more expensive the seats were, the better things sounded.

It might also fit into a larger debate about concert sound at Rexall and whether people want it clear or loud. Finding that happy medium between the two represents every sound tech's quest - or nightmare.

And if you took umbrage to Morrison's standoffish demeanour, dearth of hits, "short" show for big money and no encore, maybe you're not a true Van Morrison fan after all. If you were, you'd know to expect all that going in.

"I thought it was great," says Stony Plain Records president Holger Petersen, who had "good" seats. "I can see where people are coming from. He is kind of a polarizing performer, but I thought it was very typical of a Morrison show."

Petersen's seen Morrison a few times now and contends that we saw him on a good day.

"I saw him many years ago and he actually had a hissy fit on stage - he kicked a monitor and threw his mike stand down," Petersen recalls.

"It was very much against the grain of every other show that happens at a venue like (Rexall). The energy is in his voice. It's great that there's room in the industry for a show like that."

Folk fest producer Terry Wickham said the concert was pretty much what he expected.

"It wasn't my favourite song selection," Wickham says, "but he obviously had a tight band and everyone I talked to enjoyed it."
-YURI WUENSCH, SUN MEDIA

Setlist:

It's My Business (Band)
Bright Side
All Work and No Play
Stranded
Whining Boy Moan
In The Midnight
Playhouse
I Can't Stop Loving You
Moondance
Don't You Make Me High
Enlightenment
Domino
One Irish Rover
Goin Down Geneva>Brand New Cadillac
Precious Time
Help Me
There Was An Old Woman>Brown Eyed Girl
Star of the County Down
Gloria

Concert Review Calgary 27-Feb-07

Van cruises the 'Dome
Van Morrison sold out the Saddledome Tuesday night. Attendance: 14,000

Based on his reputation, fans in the know were braced for two extreme scenarios Tuesday when the legendary Van Morrison visited Calgary for a gig at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Best case scenario, they were in for a truly moving evening, with the poet of Celtic soul delivering on the promise of such brilliant, untouchable works as Moondance and Tupelo Honey in this, his first Calgary appearance.

Then there was that other possibility -- that we'd get the notoriously cantankerous Van. The sullen performer who has been known to rush through sets, aloof from his audience, refusing to play his most beloved songs. With ticket prices hovering around $132.50, that would have made for many a disappointed fan.

To be sure, smiles and warm crowd interaction has seldom been Morrison's style, and they were in short supply Tuesday night. When Van the Man muttered "Thank you" after the second song, an audience member joked "My God, he responded!"

But, thankfully, the 61-year-old Irishman put on a show that would only disappoint those fans who had never listened beyond the singer's radio hits.

Backed up by an eight-piece band plus backup singers, who shifted from country to blues to jazz so seamlessly one could barely notice the genre divide, Morrison -- looking dapper and dark in a suit, shades and fedora -- opened the show with a countrified Bright Side of the Road.

His delivery on that one was fairly unenthusiastic and mumble-mouthed, raising worries this would set the evening's tone.

Next came a bit of bluesy swing, Morrison working magic on the saxophone, the soul power in the room building ever so slowly.

Then, though it was hard to pinpoint exactly when, you realized you were drawn in, because, when Morrison locks into a groove, his voice is a treasure, a gruff emotive growl that somehow evokes romance on par with the finest crooners.

Morrison is definitely indulging his country-soul muse these days, in keeping with his latest album, Pay The Devil.

His rendition of Big Blue Diamonds off that album invoked George Jones-vibes in a major way. His low-key version of the hit Real Real Gone -- in which he tastefully added a few bars of Sam Cooke's You Send Me -- and a tasty take on the jazzy classic Moondance were also cut with country, with a cool, honky-tonk break on the fiddle in the latter tune.

A laid-back version of Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) brought smiles to everyone in the 'Dome it seemed and, by then, midway through the show, Van Morrison had the audience eating from his hand.

Other highlights included a bit of Irish-flavoured drinking music that had the audience in fighting form, an irresistible, bass-groovy spin through Wild Nights and a run at Brown Eyed Girl that felt rousing given the crowd's enthusiastic response, even if Morrison played it ever so smoothly.

The night ended with a spirited version of the rocker Gloria, from Morrison's earliest days with Them.

Here, the whole band tore into the anthem with fire, raves coming from the backup singers and blazing harmonica licks from Van the Man himself.

When the house lights came back on at the 90 minute mark, the crowd was most certainly left wanting more.

And while some expressed mild dismay there was no encore, the majority seemed to agree they had been treated to a fine and classy showing by one of the all-time greats.
-Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald

Saddledome, Calgary - February 27, 2007

CALGARY - When you have enormous talent, there's apparently no need for the niceties.
Or chit-chat.
Or even for eye contact.

That was the case when Van Morrison hit the stage in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Saddledome last night, for the first Calgary show of his 40-year career.

That the Belfast rock-and-soul artist remains one of the most influential in rock history cannot be argued.

What is more fascinating, however, is his ability to still draw a packed house despite the public admission he's not a fan of the attention.


But Morrison is a pro at hiding his dislike of performing, and in turn puts on a great concert.

Last night's 90-minute show started sharply at 7:30 p.m., surprising latecomers who may have assumed there'd be an opening act.

His namesake band started things off with the blues number It's My Own business, before the lights finally dimmed, and the 61-year-old main attraction hit the stage.

After huffing a moment or two on his trusty harmonica, Morrison belted out a vocally impressive, Bright Side of the Road, which received a standing ovation.

Van the Man's last CD was the country blues Pay The Devil, released almost a year ago, which he followed up this month with Van Morrison at the
Movies: Soundtrack Hits, featuring 19 songs from the nearly 50 he's had in films.

Last night's show was sprinkled with tunes from both, including Wild Night, from Thelma and Louise, and Moondance from An American Werewolf in London ,
and topped off with the crowd-favourites Brown Eyed Girl (a song Morrison refused to play until recently) and the 1964 hit Gloria.

There were also a few surprises, including the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer's pleasing cover of Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Loving You, and a snippet of Sam Cooke's You Send Me, to conclude Real Real Gone.

The set went over well with the mostly middle-aged crowd, but it did not nor could not adequately highlight Morrison's brilliant catalogue.

While his distinctive voice remains powerful, it was at times overshadowed by that aforementioned dislike for performing live, which was evident from
the start.

Morrison seemed detached, turning his back on the audience and wandering into the wings during his band's solo performances. He rarely acknowledged
the room with anything more than a quick thank you or in introducing the next song.

Morrison seemed more than willing to share all his glory with his 10-piece entourage, which included two backup singers, remaining happily in the
shadows.

While stepping up, he seemed most comfortable showing off his skills on the sax and keyboards.

There were, however, a few moments when the Irish cowboy seemed to find joy onstage.

At times, he appeared overwhelmed by the music, closing his eyes and bouncing to the beat.

This was a feeling certainly shared by his Calgary fans, who waited a lifetime to see the legend live
in our city.

And while another show in another time may have
been more satisfying, this one in this place was a
great taste of what Morrison will be remembered for
-- his ability to move people with his voice and
lyrics, even with his back turned.
- TARA MERRIN

Setlist:

It's Your Business (Band)
Bright Side of the Road
All Work No Play
Stranded
Big Blue Diamonds
Real Real Gone
Jackie Wilson
Moondance
Days Like This
Don't Worry About A Thing
Cleaning Windows> Be Bop a Lula
In the Midnight
Playhouse
Help Me
Wild Night
Star of the County Down
Brown eyed Girl
Gloria

Concert Review Vancouver 26-Feb-07

The Belfast Cowboy delivers a knock-out show

The night started with palpable tension as Van Morrison took the stage at GM Place Monday without a hello or even a smile.

The 13,000 fans filling the stadium applauded politely and let out some brief cheers, but the majority of the sold-out crowd remained seated and sedate as the Belfast Cowboy sauntered on stage and immediately launched into Bright Side of the Road.

Despite his legendary status and his unfaltering fan base, most people in the audience Monday night were likely wondering the same thing as the middle-aged woman lining up to get to her seat promptly by 7:30 p.m. -- as strictly instructed on the tickets: “Which persona do you think we’ll see tonight?” she asked her companion.

Initially, it looked like we were in for a night of reluctant performing from one of music’s most notoriously grumpy artists. Wearing mirrored glasses that masked his mood and a fedora to further hide any emotion, the 61-year-old superstar sounded almost bored and actually looked a tad bitter as he sang the upbeat hit from his 1979 album, Into the Music.

But as much as he’s known for his moods, Morrison is also known to be a consummate professional on the stage.

So while he may have appeared disinterested for the opener, it turned out that he was merely warming up for a knock-out show that moved with unstoppable momentum once it got rolling.

Morrison is perpetually producing new music and has said in past interviews that he doesn’t want to become a nostalgia act that only performs his old hits. So when the second song he and his eight-piece band played was the popular Days Like This, it simply appeared that he was getting the nostalgia tunes out of the way.

And indeed, he moved into the surprisingly comfortable -- but less familiar -- country twang of There Stands the Glass, from his most recent album of new material, Pay the Devil. The female pedal steel guitar player in Morrison’s outstanding band showed off her remarkable skills before the tune moved seamlessly to a gorgeous melancholy fiddle solo.

Morrison showed off the breadth of his repertoire, playing a tune (which I admittedly cannot identify -- he’s released more than 40 albums) that had his two blonde back-up singers be-bopping, giving the scene at GM Place a Prairie Home Companion feel to it. He got bluesy and his vocals loosened with Cleaning Windows, a hit single about one of his first jobs from his 1982 album Beautiful Vision. And further into the show -- a few songs after the crowd showed its appreciation for Moondance, another hit -- he even delved into a bit of funk.

Camera phones were strictly forbidden, which is a rare restriction from concerts today, but lighters could be seen flickering throughout the audience. A white-haired man who looked to be in his 60s lit a joint after Moondance and passed it to the young gay couple behind him and then to a female stranger several seats away.

And by the time Van the Man got to Wild Night -- another of the sing-along hits featured on the recently released compilation, called Van Morrison at the Movies -- the stadium felt a bit like a massive campfire sing-along.

He pulled out his sax and harmonica for some memorable instrumental moments, but it was his strong and distinctive voice that had people uttering comments like, “He’s really givin’ her, eh?”

After Wild Night, he played a string of hits that had the crowd exponentially more excited with each familiar phrase. The saxophone came back out for Have I Told You Lately? while couples reached arms around each other’s shoulders. The clapping became frenzied and the sing-along brought thousands more into the fold with Jackie Wilson Said.

Everyone was one their feet when he launched next into Brown Eyed Girl and the audience’s good luck became almost unbelievable when he began Gloria. But as soon as the audience reached the second or third spelling of G-L-O-R-I-A, Van said a brief “thank you” and exited stage left while everyone kept singing along with the band.

There was no encore and the show lasted just 90 minutes, but if I’m not mistaken, there was a glimmer of a smile from the superstar as he closed out the show with 13,000-strong singing along with him.

Who wouldn’t be pleased to leave a crowd like that only wanting more?
-Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun

New DVD By Jools Holland Features Van

Beat Route: Around the World With Jools Holland

Featuring Jools Holland, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Ruben González, Compay Segundo, Des’ree, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks

This three-hour DVD presentation of the complete BBC TV series, Beat Route, takes top music television presenter, Jools Holland (The Tube, Later with Jools Holland) and places him in six major cities around the world to delve ‘under the skin’ of each location. The result is a stunning mix of music, travel and culture, with each city revealed through Jools’ inimitable wit and personality. Jools meets many celebrated musicians, listens to their music and jams with the best of them.

From the urban blues of Chicago, the flamenco of Seville and the folklore of Budapest, to the riverside bars of Dublin, 1950s Cadillacs in Havana and girl bands in Beirut, Beat Route paints a vivid and engrossing picture of urban identity. Whether it’s a brief encounter with a dating agency run out of the back of a Chicago cab, or a musical collaboration in an old square in Havana, Beat Route pays homage to some of the world’s most fascinating and diverse locations.

Concert Review San Rafael 23-Feb-07

Beloved tunes redeem aloof Van Morrison at Marin Center show

Van Morrison revisited Marin, his old hometown, for the second time in a year Friday night, turning in a prosaic performance for a sellout crowd at the Marin Center that was rescued at the very end by a couple of old girlfriends - "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Gloria."

The Belfast rocker seemed to have trouble working up enthusiasm for this concert, perhaps a letdown from the night before in Los Angeles, when Al
Pacino presented him with the Oscar Wilde Award honoring Irish writing in film at a pre-Oscar party at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre hosted by the U.S.-Irish Alliance.

Morrison's songs have been featured in nearly 50 films. His newest album, "Van Morrison at the Movies," is a collection of 19 of them, several of
which he sang at Friday's concert in the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, among them "Wonderful Remark" from "King of Comedy," "Wild Night" from "Thelma & Louise," "Into the Mystic" (sung by
daughter Shana Morrison) from "Patch Adams," "Bright Side of the Road" from "Fever Pitch," "Real Real Gone" from "Donovan Quick" and "Moondance"
from "An American Werewolf in London."

Morrison was last in Marin in March 2006, when he performed an intimate show at the West Marin roadhouse Rancho Nicasio, the first date on an American tour promoting his country/western CD "Pay the Devil." On Friday night, he tossed off the boozy ballad "There Stands the Glass."

For last year's tour, he traveled with a 13-piece band that he has reduced to a still substantial 10, including three backup singers and the exuberant
white-haired keyboardist John Allair, considered Marin's first rock star from his teenage years playing sock hops in the 1950s.


A 61-year-old member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the notoriously petulant superstar began his hour-and-45-minute show precisely at 7:30, early by most standards. There were a lot of empty seats at showtime, with fans straggling in through the first few songs.

He had on what has become his signature ensemble - dark suit and matching fedora. He looks like he has shed a few pounds, but he's still the same old Van the Man - mildly misanthropic, seldom speaking to the audience, turning his back on them, abandoning the mike to noodle on a keyboard, leaving the stage to let his guitar player introduce the band. He does manage small doses of humor, though, doing a Satchmo impression on one song, bleating like a sheep on another.

He joined voices with his daughter, Shana, one of Marin's most popular female singers, on "Sometimes We Cry" and "Wild Night." She beamed at him, and I thought I heard him mumble something like "I love her" when they were finished. I'd like to think I did, anyway.

He never picked up a guitar all night, preferring to punctuate his hornlike vocals with alto sax solos and blasts on harmonica.

Morrison lived in Marin during his intensely creative "Tupelo Honey" period in the 1970s, when his genius was just starting to bloom, but you wouldn't know it from him. He rarely gives interviews and never talks about his history here during a concert, but I can fill in a blank or two.


The first time I reviewed him at the Marin Vets was in March 1973, a long time ago. (Jesse Colin Young opened that show, and Jackie DeShannon sang backup vocals). But some things never change. "Morrison's much-publicized disdain for live performance was evident from the start," I wrote, "stalking off the stage after the first few lines" of "St. Dominic's Preview."

For a man with such a brilliant catalog of mystical, insightful and poetic songs to go with a jazzy singing style that is entirely his own,
Morrison's set list for this show was disappointingly pedestrian, relying on blues shuffles and repetitious bar band solos by the members of his group to fill the time. He can be incredibly hip one moment and annoyingly corny the next, when, for example, his three backup singers chime in with square vocal harmonies straight out of Lawrence Welk.

I, for one, would love to see Morrison be less lazy and assemble a band that could do justice to his deepest material. What a gift he could give if he dug into his greatest songs, showing some feeling rather than just going through the motions like he did Friday night, hiding behind his blas} bluesman facade.

He knows his status as a rock legend is secure, that he can get away with pretty much anything. He got a standing ovation, for instance, for just
walking onstage. His mostly middle-aged fans ate it up when he ended with "Brown Eyed Girl" and a rousing encore rendition of "Gloria." Everyone
seemed to go away happy and satisfied. I wonder if he did.
-Paul Liberatore

Setlist:
1. Own Business (Ned and band)
2. Into the Mystic (Shana and band)
3. Wonderful Remark
4. Real Real Gone/You Send Me
5. I Don't Worry About A Thing
6. Stranded
7. Bright Side of the Road
8. Foggy Mountaintop
9. Dead or Alive
10. There Stands The Glass
11. Cleaning Windows/ Be Bob a Lula
12. Sometimes We Cry (duet with Shana)
13. Moondance
14. I Can't Stop Loving You
15. Wild Night (duet with Shana)
16. Don't Strart Crying Now/ Custard Pie
17. Precious Time
18. St. James Infirmary
19. Help Me
20. Brown Eyed Girl ("this is the money song.. I didn't get any")
21. Gloria


Art was strolling around before the show and look who he bumped into! Thanks again for your excellent photos above!

Al Pacino On Van: "The Soundtrack To All Our Lives" As Hollywood Roles Out The Green Carpet

Van Morrison, Terry George and Bill Monahan honored in LA

Al Pacino Presents Award to Van Morrison, Roma Downey Emcees; Stars Light Up the Green Carpet

It was a fantabulous night to make music and mingle with the stars at the second annual "Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film" awards party sponsored by the US-Ireland Alliance. Multi-award winning singer/songwriter Van Morrison, 2007 Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Monahan, and writer/director Terry George were honored at the star-studded event at the Wilshire Ebell in Los Angeles, California. Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino, who presented the Oscar Wilde award to Morrison, compared the legendary musician to the Irish playwright, describing the two artists as "visionaries who push boundaries."

Morrison, who treated the party guests to an intimate 45-minute private concert following the awards ceremony, was joined on stage by his daughter, Shana, a fantastic singer in her own right, rhythm and blues legend Solomon Burke, who, with Van, rocked the crowd with a rendition of "Stand By Me," and Chieftains front man Paddy Moloney. Towards the end of the concert, Grammy nominated singer Maura O'Connell came up on stage and sang "Crazy Love," with Van. When Van and his band left the stage, Shana and her band, San Francisco-based Caledonia, took over.

Actress Roma Downey emceed the pre-Academy Awards® party, which drew more than 400 VIPs, despite the rain. Major sponsors of the annual event are Quinlan Private, American Airlines, Culture Ireland and the Irish Film Board. The Oscar Wilde event was created to "bring together leaders in the Irish film community with their Hollywood counterparts at a fun, casual Irish party," according to Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance.

And in keeping with that vision, this year's event brought a host of Hollywood and Irish film heavyweights who showed up to hail the trio of honorees. Some of the stars spotted walking the "green" carpet were: Fionnula Flanagan who presented the award to Terry George, Orlando Bloom, Charlize Theron, Mark Burnett, Stuart Townsend, Andie McDowell, Colm Meaney, Rachel Griffiths, Eric Stoltz, Bruno Maddox, who presented the award to William Monahan, and multi-Grammy Award winning music producer David Foster. Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook served on this year's Host Committee, as did HBO Films President Colin & Elizabeth Callender, Anjelica Huston, Fionnula Flanagan and past honorees Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and David Holmes (who recently finished composing the original music for Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 13). Another Academy Award nominated guest was Irish American Mark Fergus, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Children of Men. Among those over from Ireland were Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Chairman of Culture Ireland, Irish Film Board CEO Simon Perry, and best-selling author Cecelia Ahern, whose book, P.S. I Love You, is currently being made into a film starring Hilary Swank.


Al Pacino jokingly remarked that he didn't understand a word that Van said when they first met over twenty years in London, but noted "somehow I could feel what he meant through his body language and was taken by his sensitivity and kindness." Pacino has recently been in Dublin working on his upcoming docudrama on the life of Oscar Wilde and his masterpiece Salome. In presenting the award to Van, Pacino described the musician as a "descendant of a long line of Irish balladeers: poets and writers whose lyrical words read like music: Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, and O'Casey."


A native of Belfast, Ireland, Van Morrison has one of the most enduring and consistently impressive careers in music history. His music is included in nearly fifty films, including the recently released Scorsese film, The Departed, as well as Breakfast on Pluto, What A Girl Wants, The Royal Tenenbaums, Bridget Jones's Diary, One Fine Day, When a Man Loves a Woman, Prelude to a Kiss, Thelma & Louise, An Officer and a Gentleman, Proof of Life, and As Good as It Gets.

Terry George and William Monahan were also recognized for the power of their writing in film. Fionnula Flanagan, who presented the Oscar Wilde award to George, said that Terry "is like a compass that always points true north, true north in the sense of guiding us to the truth." The acclaimed Belfast-born film writer, who wrote the script for Hotel Rwanda, has often woven Northern Ireland themes into his work. Frequently collaborating with Jim Sheridan, his credits include The Boxer, Some Mother's Son and In the Name of the Father, all starring Daniel Day Lewis, as well as Hart's War and A Bright Shining Lie. He is currently at work on Reservation Road - which he wrote and is directing – starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino. George also recently wrapped The Waterhouse, currently in post-production.


William Monahan has received wide acclaim, including a 2007 Oscar and a Writers Guild of America award, for his screenplay for The Departed, the Martin Scorsese-directed film about the Irish American mafia that stars Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. Upon accepting his award, the scriptwriter looked out at the audience and said, "receiving this award from the US-Ireland Alliance, in this roomful of people, makes me feel like I've made it." Monahan is currently at work on the feature film, Penetration, which will be directed by Ridley Scott. He previously collaborated with Scott on the film Kingdom of Heaven, which was Monahan's first produced screenplay. Monahan is also the author of the acclaimed novel, Light House: A Trifle.

The evening's emcee, Derry, Northern Ireland-born Roma Downey, began the evening speaking of the influence Van Morrison's music has played in her life. Downey is an accomplished actress and producer, best known for her role as "Monica," the principal character in the long-running TV series, Touched By An Angel. She can currently be seen in "A Picasso" at the Geffen Playhouse.

Record company, EMI, presented each guest with a copy of the recently released Van Morrison At The Movies: Soundtrack Hits – a first time collection of Mr. Morrison's best-known songs that have been featured in films. In addition to such favorites as "Gloria" from The Outsiders, "Wild Night" from Thelma & Louise, and "Brown Eyed Girl" from Born On The Fourth Of July, the new collection includes a previously unreleased live version of "Moondance" from An American Werewolf In London, recorded live with strings in 1986 at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre.


Guests feasted on food provided by Kensington Caterer's Richard Mooney, originally from Limerick, Ireland. Other contributors to the event included River Films, Tiffany & Co., Baileys, Lily O'Briens, Food America, Bushmills, Hot Irishman, Boru Vodka, Kerrygold, Guinness, Harp, Sunset Marquis, Le Brea Bakery, Oronoco, Three Thieves and Laura Lee Designs.
We bring together leaders in arts and culture in the U.S. and the island of Ireland.



From Belfast to Hollywood

"I love acting," said a burly Irish dandy quoting Oscar Wilde as he pointed out Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Andie MacDowell, Orlando Bloom, John Lynch and Fionnula Flanagan at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on Thursday. "It is so much more real than life."


Pacino presented an Oscar Wilde award to Belfast-born Van Morrison during an evening that honored Irish writing in film and featured the wee Oronoco "Wilde" mojito.

"I didn't understand a word Van said when we first met," admitted Pacino, who's currently directing and starring in "Salomaybe," a behind-the-scenes look at his stage production of Wilde's "Salome." "But I love Van Morrison."

Morrison was equally brief.

"It's a long way from Belfast to Hollywood, and I'm speechless," he said.

"Thanks!"

Everyone else, including honorees writer/director Terry George and Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Monahan, paid homage to Van the Man, whose music is in "The Departed" and almost 50 other films.

"If there were a soundtrack to my life, it's Van and me in a garden wet with rain," said emcee Roma Downey.


Morrison made up for his short trip to the podium during a 45-minute performance that included a "Stand By Me" duet with Solomon Burke, who sang from his wheelchair in the audience, and had MacDowell clapping her hands and singing along with "Brown Eyed Girl." But what really made the actress/model smile was a banner with the Oscar Wilde quote "There are two kinds of tragedy. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it."


Andie MacDowell, Van Morrison and Orlando Bloom (Above Pic)


"That's fitting for Oscar week," MacDowell said to a girlfriend.



Van Morrison honoured for his songs' role in film


Willim Monahan, Orlando Bloom, Van Morrison & Terry George

The Oscars awards season took an unusual Irish twist yesterday, as Van Morrison - not a performer immediately associated with the cinema - won a prize from the US-Ireland Alliance in Los Angeles for his musical contributions to film.

The Belfast born star was one of three recipients of an Oscar Wilde award, intended principally to reward Irish contributions to film writing. And while he may never have penned a film score, he has earned a living over the years granting permission to directors and producers to use his songs in more than 60 movies.


His song Wild Night was featured prominently in Thelma and Louise (though sung by Martha Vandella), and his live duet with Roger Waters on the Pink Floyd classic Comfortably Numb was a memorable part of the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's multi-nominated latest, The Departed. Scorsese has used Morrison's songs quite a bit over the years - T.B. Sheets in Bringing Out The Dead (1999) and Wonderful Remark in The King of Comedy (1983).

The US-Ireland Alliance has worked hard for the past couple of years to make its event as appealing and different as possible. As the organisation's president, Trina Vargo, told Variety: "We're told we're the perfect Oscar-week event because no one is trapped at a dinner table, there are only three awards, no long speeches and you can wear jeans."


Hotel Rwanda director Terry George, from Belfast, was also honoured. Other recipients included William Monahan, the screenwriter on The Departed. Morrison was expected to show up to last night's ceremony with his band. Al Pacino was set to introduce him and Michael Moore, the scabrous documentary maker, was set to introduce George.


Also expected to attend were Helen Mirren, the hot favourite for a best actress Oscar for her work on The Queen, and Mirren's director husband, Taylor Hackford. Mirren appeared in the film Some Mother's Son, which Terry George wrote, and Hackford has used Van Morrison songs in his films.

Ms Vargo said the show's purpose was to bring American and Irish film professionals together. "Just by hanging out together, listening to music and chatting, good things can come from creating a bridge between the two cultures," she said.

Van Left Speechless
Van the Man who accepted his award with about 10 words, said he was “speechless”, but later performed for about 40 minutes,, joined by his daughter Shana, who dueted with him. Al Pacino said he met Van in London 15 years ago and found him to be a man of ”huge heart and great sensitivity.”


There was a strong northern accent in Los Angeles when Terry George spoke about coming form east Belfast and hearing the names of streets he played on named in Van’s songs. Morrison’s music has been used in 50 international movies.

Concert Review Los Angeles 21-Feb-07

Van the Man delivers his best gig in years
Review: A reinvigorated Van Morrison superbly mixes fundamentals and favorites at L.A. show.
By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register

We know he's unpredictable. That's why we come.

Actually, that's half the fun of checking in with Van Morrison whenever he and his expert band roll into one of our local venues, which they seem to do just about every other year anymore, each visit finding the black-clad bunch virtually unchanged. Even Van, almost always spotted in his crime-noir cool suit and hat, looks more or less the same at 61 as he did at 51.

Wednesday night at Gibson Amphitheatre he appeared to have shed a few pounds, that's all, and he was punchier because of it. No shoulder-high kicks revived from his younger days, of course, but at times you could detect a revitalized bark in his playful delivery.

These days more a consummate bandleader than St. Van the Seeker or the spirit-channeling spitfire of yore, he admittedly can seem detached. During solos he'll sit on the edge of organist John Allair's bench with his back to the crowd, or he'll wander to the wings to give quiet instruction to guitarist John Platania about a coming bridge. And he rarely says more to the crowd is "thank you"; this night he added "here's another from the country album" and "wanna do a little Sonny Boy Williamson tune for ya now."

But though the fire has never fully gone out of his mighty roar, there was renewed and palpable heat to his vocals here. It makes sense that sax is his instrument of choice these days, for he sings like Coltrane blows, jazzy runs and improvised asides coloring and restructuring familiar melodies.

He remains a singular, if outwardly subdued, force of nature, one whose ongoing excavation of the music he grew up with – the roots of R&B and country – has become crucial. Though only loyalists and critics have taken notice of his late-career transformation into supreme keeper of the flame, Van Morrison has become arguably the pre-eminent authority on the fundamentals of rock 'n' soul. Even more so than Dylan, perpetually off on his own trip.

All of that said, there was still no telling what Van would present at Gibson. His last proper album was the warm, wonderful "Pay the Devil," a country homage issued by Americana label Lost Highway. But that came out nearly a year ago. His most recent release, in fact, arrived just last week, and it's exactly what it claims to be: "Van Morrison at the Movies," a compendium of classics that have turned up in pictures over the years.

He's never worried much about promoting whatever album is most fresh, but would he offer a fusion of those two titles anyway – part country affair, part memory-lane stroll? Would this set mirror the hits-and-remakes one from last year's Austin City Limits Festival, which was on sale in a tour-exclusive double-disc package at the merch stand?

Indeed, would the sign posted there and elsewhere – that Van starts promptly at 7:30, has no opening act and takes no intermission – turn out to be inflexibly true?

Yes to the first two queries, and just about to the third.

At 7:34 the lights dimmed, his band entered for a warm-up, including a take on "Into the Mystic," one of his best songs, for which his vocalist daughter Shana proved no match. And roughly 10 minutes later Van was on, huffing into his harmonica as he sauntered on singing "Bright Side of the Road," mellifluous ad-libs and a Satchmo impression tumbling from his tongue.

And for the next 90 minutes he was more vibrant than he's been in at least his past five SoCal stops, his voice deeply edifying above the contoured, robust sound of his band, a superb group that (no doubt through Van's guidance) deftly combines every element he's currently exploring.

Country held some prominence, sure, notably in the fiddle work of Tony Fitzgibbon and the remarkable pedal-steel swoons from Cindy Cashdollar, who brought both a modern touch and nostalgic charm (like a taste of "Theme From 'A Summer Place' ") to the weeping instrument. But though a handful of "Devil" dollops featured in the set – alongside a sharp cover of Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" – this was no hootenanny lark. Like Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Van's ensemble encompassed the full spectrum of mid-20th-century American music; it would have sounded as at-home at the Grand Ole Opry or Radio City Music Hall.

And it was sprinkled with marvelous little surprises: a funky "Cleaning Windows" with a "Be Bop-a-Lula" finish; a gently menacing Mancini-esque arrangement of "Moondance"; a snippet of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" to conclude "Real Real Gone"; a pairing of the jump blues "Don't Start Crying Now" with the delicious double entendres of Sonny Terry's "Custard Pie" that cooked almost as much as the ripping rockabilly of "Playhouse"; the Cab Callaway creep of "Saint James Infirmary"; a winning "Wild Night" even Shana's wan style couldn't dampen.

Then there was the crowd-pleasing encore: "Brown Eyed Girl," which I haven't heard him play in years, and the usual roar of "Gloria." And by 9:20, when most headliners elsewhere were just about to go on, he was gone, having put to bed his best local performance in I don't know how long.

This, you see, is why we come. We never know when a great gig like this will occur.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2248 or bwener@ocregister.com

Another review from Variety
By PHIL GALLO
Presented by House of Blues Concerts. Reviewed Feb. 21, 2007.

Band: Van Morrison, John Allair, George "Crawford" Bell, Sarah Jory, John "Ned" Edwards, Tony Fitzgibbons, Paul Moore, John Platania, Neal Wilkinson, Karen Hamill, Janeen Daly.

Van Morrison's show at the Wiltern last year was pure country. This year it's all about assimilation. "Pay the Devil," a disc dominated by covers of 1950s and '60s post-twang Nashville tunes, exposed a side of Morrison that had only been hinted at over the years, most noticeably 30-odd years ago on "Tupelo Honey." With a different band in tow at the Gibson Amphitheater, Morrison eased into the territory of his idols -- Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and James Brown -- plowing through the boundaries that separate R&B and country.

It was about as American a show as one may ever get from the Belfast Cowboy, who turned in a fine Louis Armstrong impersonation, delivered a few inspired rapid-fire alto sax solos and marvelously mumbled Cooke's "You Send Me" as a coda to "Real Real Gone." His rock 'n' roll choices were limited to "Gloria," "Wild Night" and "Brown-Eyed Girl"; the rest of the night was soaked in blues, jazz and country, but only the most hardcore examples -- "Saint James Infirmary," Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" and his George Jones-inspired composition "Playhouse" -- were blocked from any cross-genre pollination.

Rest of the evening was a throwback to the Charles methodology of the early 1960s: A strong commanding vocal filled with agony and the pursuit of joy; horns and organs that ebb and flow in volume and texture; female voices to soften the blow of the lyrics; and instrumental soloists who echo the timbre of the singer. On Wednesday, Sarah Jory did a spectacular job with weepy pedal steel and dobro solos, even garnering chuckles when she slipped Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk" into "Bright Side of the Road."

The jump blues version of "Moondance" that Morrison's been playing since he cut two jazz-influenced albums for Blue Note and "Bright Side of the Road" were the lone hopeful tunes in the 95-minute set; he allowed daughter Shauna to open the show with a record-perfect version of "Into the Mystic," which she covered rather nicely.

Morrison is not touring. He was in town to accept the U.S.-Ireland Alliance's annual award at its Oscar Wilde party Thursday at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Perf also coincided with EMI's release of "Van Morrison at the Movies," a compilation of the singer's tracks that have appeared in films.

Setlist:
1. Song by Ned and band "My Own Business"
2. Song by Shana M. and band: Into the Mystic
3. Bright Side of the Road
4. Big Blue Diamonds
5. Stranded
6. Real Real Gone/You Send Me
7. I Can't Stop Loving You
8. Moondance
9. Foggy Mountaintop
10. Cleaning Windows/Be Bop a Lula
11. In The Midnight
12. Precious Time
13. There Stands The Glass
14. Playhouse
15. Sometimes We Cry (duet with Shana)
16. Wild Night (duet with Shana)
17. Help Me
18. St. James Infirmary
19. Don't Start Crying Now/Custard Pie
20. Brown Eyed Girl
21. Gloria

Van's "At The Movies" A Hit On Charts

Enters #17 In UK
Also on the album chart, sales in the week of Valentine's Day propelled Phil Collins' 2004 compilation "Love Songs" (Virgin) 19-7, while the new EMI collection "Van Morrison at the Movies -- Soundtrack Hits" entered at No. 17.

Also here's how "At The Movies" did in first week of release...
#9 On Amazon.com

#6 cd universe

#5 Barnes & Noble

#35 U.S. Billboards

#28 In Canada

'Baby Please Don't' Go Riff Was My Work

So who really played one of the greatest riffs in rock 'n' roll?
Classic sound of Baby Please Don't Go was my work,
says Ulster guitarist

Friday, February 16, 2007

By Gary Grattan

An Ulster guitarist is fighting a battle in
cyberspace - to get recognition for recording a
classic rock riff over 40 years ago.

Billy Harrison, former player with Van Morrison's
old band Them, says it's one credit guitar legend
Jimmy Page can't include in his extensive
discography.

Billy, from Belfast, is angry that many internet
sites mistakenly give credit for the main lead
guitar line on Them's cover of Baby Please Don't Go
to Page, who went on to have phenomenal success
with Led Zeppelin.

Page, at the time one of London's brightest young
session guitarists, was brought in by management
and played some rhythm guitar.

"But I definitely recorded the lead riff," said
Billy. "I came up with the riff. I had been playing
it for a year before I recorded it. I had even
arranged the song.

"Yes, Page was at the session. In those days it was
all a case of 'time is money'. Management were very
strict and they had session players there to
augment the music in the hope of saving time in the
studio.

"Personally, I wasn't happy. We might not have been
the greatest musicians in the world, but we all
knew what we were doing.

"When I walked in, Jimmy Page and a session drummer
were sitting in the studio. In my best Belfast
vernacular I asked them what the **** they were
doing there.

"The credit for the recording has been mistakenly
posted on a lot of internet sites. Jimmy Page
himself is not crediting himself with this
recording. It's just a myth that has built up - so
I've started emailing people to put them straight.

"Why shouldn't a wee Belfast man stand up for
himself? Jimmy Page has enough credits - he doesn't
need this one," he joked.

Them formed in Belfast in April 1964. Along with
Morrison and Harrison, the other original band
members were Eric Wrixon (piano and keyboards),
Alan Henderson (bass) and Ronnie Millings on drums.

The group released its first - unsuccessful -
single, One Two Brown Eyes, in August 1964.

The band's managers and producers then hired
session musicians to contribute to recordings of
Baby Please Don't Go, written by Big Joe Williams.
The single, which featured on the now legendary
Gloria as a B-side, was a hit in the UK, reaching
No 10 in December 1964.

Another single, Here Comes the Night/All for
Myself, reached No 2 in Britain the following
February and No 24 in the US three months later.

The band released two albums on Decca, The Angry
Young Them and Them Again, both of which failed to
sell and, in mid- 1966, Morrison left to pursue his
solo career.

But Them's combination of garage rock and blues
proved a major influence on the next generation of
rock musicians, and the group's best-known singles
are known worldwide.

NY Daily News: 100 Greatest Love Songs

The 100 Greatest Love Songs
Some may find them smug, or sappy, or overplayed. But the songs here have probably made more lovers misty than any music in memory. So how did we go about compiling this list of all-time hand-holding odes? Eligible songs had to have endured at least a decade in the public consciousness, if not two or three. And they had to have been popular enough to have ranked among the top 20 pop songs in whatever year they were released.

98. "Have I Told You Lately" Van Morrison

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone.

Reviews of Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits

Soundtrack.net
Reviewed by Matt Millstein
February 12th, 2007

Van Morrison is one of the greatest singer/songwriters of the past forty years. Morrison's songwriting abilities are second to none and his voice and style is completely original and recognizable. His music can range from upbeat rhythm-and-blues-drenched rock n' roll to slow, schmaltzy, adult contemporary. The new compilation Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits illustrates this range in the Irish singer's repertoire with total clarity. It is impressive how much Morrison's vast catalog has been appropriated by modern cinema. This album is not short - it is made up of nineteen songs, all from major motion pictures and nearly all of the songs are recognizable. There's nothing edgy about this album; it is smooth sailing from start to finish. The album covers the some of the early part of Morrison's career, exemplified by songs like "Gloria" and "Caravan", but it is also heavy on softer, adult contemporary love songs like "Have I Told You Lately" and "Hungry For Your Love", indicative of the latter part of his career. Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits was released by Manhattan Records a subsidiary of EMI/Capitol Records which specializes in adult contemporary albums, so the song selection isn't surprising.

Each song on this abum is matched up with a film. "Gloria" is part of the soundtrack for the movie The Outsiders, "Wild Night"is from the movie Thelma and Louise,"Caravan" from The Last Waltz, "Have I Told You Lately" from One Fine Day, "Real Real Gone" from Donovan Quick, "Into the Mystic" from Patch Adams, and "Days Like This" from As Good As it Gets, among others. "Comfortably Numb" is the only cover song on the album and it is quite an oddity. The track comes from the Roger Waters album, The Wall: Live in Berlin, 1990 and Waters, as well as members of The Band, assist Morrison on this rendition. To hear Van Morrison singing one of the classic Pink Floyd songs from The Wall is slightly jarring, but it works just the same - there's something novel and unique about this rendition. Comfortably Numb which was featured in the recent Martin Scorsese film The Departed comes as the last song on the album and is a fitting ending. "Caravan" is also from a Scorsese film, The Last Waltz, the concert film chronicling The Band's final concert, so it's amusing that "Caravan" and "Comfortably Numb" have similar musical personnel.

A number of the most well known songs on the album are live versions. "Caravan" is the exact version Morrison played in The Last Waltz concertand "Comfortably Numb" is from The Wall: Live in Berlin,1990. "Caravan", "Domino", "Moondance", "Into the Mystic" and "Comfortably Numb" are all fine live tracks, however none of them showcase Morrison at his "live" best. The studio versions of "Domino", "Moondance", "Into the Mystic" and "Caravan" are all among Morrison's studio best, so the bar is set pretty high. All are radio and fan favorites from the classic Van Morrison albums; Moondance and His Band and the Street Choir. Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits would have turned out better if the only live song on the album was "Comfortably Numb", because the song has a uniqueness that the other live tracks do not.

There are some great studio chestnuts from the latter part of Morrison's career like "Real Real Gone" from the Enlightenment album and "Days Like This" from the album of the same name. Both songs are from 90's albums. Van Morrison still puts on a good high energy live show, but his studio work is that of a gracefully aging artist. Listening to this album makes me want to listen to the early albums: Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir, Saint Dominicks Preview and Tupelo Honey; the best of Morrison is embedded in the albums of his prolific early career. Greatest hits packages will never be able represent the great Irish singer like his classic albums do. They lack the continuity and flow that moves from song to song.

Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits isn't a bad collection, it just isn't one I would choose. There are other hits packages that showcase the depth of Morrison's career with more balance,and for me nothing beats the early albums like Astral Weeks. I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone but a die-hard fan, or a lover of easy listening/ adult contemporary rock.

The Daily Texan
Van Morrison
Van Morrison At the Movies: Soundtrack Hits
Manhattan Records

3.5 stars

The only artist that deserves an "at the movies" comp is Kenny Loggins, considering that his three best songs came from films ("Caddyshack," "Footloose" and "Top Gun"). But Kenny Loggins sucks, and Van Morrison is one of the greatest artists of all time. So why give him the soundtrack treatment?

Even though calling an album Soundtrack Hits and releasing it the week before the Oscars is one of the sleaziest marketing schemes in recent memory, the album is surprisingly invaluable to even the biggest Van Morrison fans. His Greatest Hits compilation from 1998 is awful, haphazardly sequencing 1960s gems next to 1980s pop schlop.

Morrison has released a number of essential albums, so this compilation accepts the challenge of picking a single disc's worth of material and reinvents the wheel. Recent live versions of his two biggest hits, "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Moondance," are included instead of the originals, giving everyone a chance to discover these tunes again. "Jackie Wilson Said" (three minutes of perfect, perfect, perfect blue-eyed soul) is here too, along with his surprisingly awesome performance of "Comfortably Numb" with Roger Waters, best known from that scene in "The Departed" when Leonardo DiCaprio sleeps with Matt Damon's fiance.

The live version of "Caravan" from Martin Scorsese's seminal "The Last Waltz" finds Van the Man at the peak of his live powers. Rent the DVD to see Morrison wear his coolest pair of sequined bell bottoms and share a mic with Bob Dylan.

At the end of the day, Soundtrack Hits is the best single-disc introduction to Van Morrison on the market. Not only does it give a chronological overview of one of music's most frustratingly prolific songwriters, but also it breathes new life into old material by exchanging AM radio burnouts with live cuts and alternate takes. Highly Recommended.

Kenny Loggins will be performing at the One World Theatre on March 3. Tickets are $600, or $1000 for the meet and greet.

- Zach Ernst

Denver Post
While this is little more than a greedy repackaging of Morrison's music - live versions and covers too - it's still a potent and nostalgic walk down memory lane with Morrison and his storied career.

Starting with one of Morrison's early hits (with his band Them), "Gloria," and that same group's Big Joe Williams cover, "Baby, Please Don't Go," this compilation catches Morrison at his finest - particularly in the live arena. The live takes of "Domino," "Moondance," "Caravan," "Into the Mystic" and the cover "Comfortably Numb" are taken from movies as varied as 1981's "An American Werewolf in London," 1998's "Patch Adams" and 2006's "The Departed," but the recordings capture Morrison's inimitable vocals with pristine clarity and surprising depth.

"Irish Heartbeat," recorded with the Chieftains, is a nice inclusion from the film "The Matchmaker." It's easy to forget about the magic connection between the Belfast-born Morrison and the instrumentation of his homeland, but this lively portrait is a powerful reminder.|Ricardo Baca