Sunday 10 October 2010

Van Morrison and YouTube




Some time ago all Van Morrison's stuff came off YouTube. There was some sort of more general kerfuffle about YouTube and copyright at about the same time and it is a well known fact that Van the Man protects his commercial interests very fiercely indeed so I assume that he/his commercial people demanded that the (free and therefore problematic) material be removed, no doubt in the belief that making YouTube take down his material was to his commercial advantage. I can only assume that there has been a change of heart in this regard as Van's stuff is back up again. Above is Sweet Thing from the absolutely astonishing Astral Weeks album. Astral Weeks and Moondance just drip with romance and desire. Who could resist with one of those albums as the soundtrack to the evening? Well not many as I recall ;)


Let's liven up the tempo with our man performing Star of the County Down with the Chieftans. If Sweet Thing is silky and seductive, then Star of the County Down fizzes with sheer exuberance.

And then from when Van was just the lead singer with rough edged Belfast band Them, here comes Here Comes The Night. Strange man but a genius...


9 comments:

tony said...

I Was Thinking Of Van Today.You Know, Although I Love his Recorded Music but Every Time I Have Seen Him Live I Have Come Away A Little Disappointed.
'Case In Point.A Few Years Back I Saw Him In Manchester.Solomon Burke Was Supporting Him ,But The Late-Great Just Blew Everybody Away.He Had The Audience Eating Out Of His Hand.
Van Followed....& I Swear He Sulked Throughout His Set.That Night He Was Pale In Comparison.So Much So That Solomon Was Promoted For The Later Concerts On The Tour.Van Ended Up Supporting Solomon.

sybil law said...

I give this post and music two thumbs up.
:)

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

Don't forget that "Gloria" was another of Them's hits.

Unfortunately, by the time I made it up to Norn Iron the music scene had switched to New Wave-Punk. One interesting bit that I remember was seeing a then unknown band playing at a car dealership in the late 70s. You may have heard of them.

U2

Petit fleur said...

Love him dearly, that Van M.

I listen to a radio show on Sundays on our public radio station called Le Show. You would love this guy. His name is Harry Shearer. You can find Postcasts at: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ls

Anyway, he kept making jokes about "Being you" and etc... I felt so in the loop due to your posting of Ms O'Donnell's ad below. Thanks! Made the show ever more funny for me! (His show is like an onion... there's something for everyone, but the more you know, the deeper you can go kind of thing.)
Peace Brother Rabbit.
xo pf

Petit fleur said...

PS Ah, Harry's show is sort of sardonically funny, not so much haha funny... although it is that too sometimes.

Didn't want to give the wrong impression.

white rabbit said...

Tony - I only saw Van The Man once - at least so far - he did rather clump onto the stage like a shop steward come to address the mebership but he was good, It must be said. Like Dylan he apparently turns up body and soul and sometimes in body only. Mind you, when I saw Dylan he was good two.

The best upstaging I saw from a supporting act was Bo Diddley backing UB40. He ripped the place apart - they were okay and that's about it.

Sybil - You are very kind as always :D

Laci - Indeed re Gloria. I was going to post our man performing the same with John Lee Hooker but embedding had been disabled :(

Little Flower - I'll see if I can download podcasts and have a listen!

Mahal said...

It depends on pronunciation. For some orange will rhyme with hinge, singe and binge; for others it will with range or strange. I thought the only English word that had no rhyme in English was ‘silver’; although that does rhyme with the Welsh place name ‘Wylfa’ which, since there is a Wylfa nuclear power station, can be said to have been imported into English.
P.S. ‘lion’ – ‘iron’, 'Zion'.

white rabbit said...

Mahal - dear meeeeeeeeee.... Wylfa? Now that's really pushing your luck. I suspect the debate can run forever with pronunciation being an issue as well as where the boundaries between perfect and near rhyme lies...

Blah.

Etc.

Sarcastic Bastard said...

I dig the Van Man. Dude was cool.