"Van Morrison is interested, obsessed with how much musical or verbal information he can compress into a small space, and, almost, conversely, how far he can spread one note, word, sound, or picture. To capture one moment, be it a caress or a twitch. He repeats certain phrases to extremes that from anybody else would seem ridiculous, because he's waiting for a vision to unfold, trying as unobtrusively as possible to nudge it along...It's the great search, fueled by the belief that through these musical and mental processes illumination is attainable. Or may at least be glimpsed."
–Lester Bangs (the late American music journalist, author and musician, who wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and has been called one of the "most influential" voices in rock criticism).
From the 'RevisionRadio Manifesto & Visionary Recital'
The experimental format of RE-VISION RADIO is a seamless remixing of argument & song, dialectics & music, or logos & mythos; in other words, philosophical essays are put to music, producing the Orphic Essay-with-Soundtrack. Thus Everybody Knows, since there’s a song hermetically hidden in an essay and, conversely, an essay waiting to be revealed in a song, that RE-VISION RADIO puts its philosophy best in song—as the lyric goes: “That’s why I’m telling you in song.” (Van Morrison) In mixing and remixing the noetic texts of Philosophy with the poetic texts of Song, RE-VISION RADIO offers its listeners an Orphic soundscape; an eclectic medley of the esoteric and the popular, high academic culture and low pop-culture—high argument & deep song—not from the Ivory Tower, but from “that tower down the track”: the Tower of Song. Because Everybody Knows that to really grok the meaning of a song context is everything, RE-VISION RADIO’s musical essays contextualize its songs, and, conversely, its songs compose its essay. . . . Everybody Knows the Musekal PhiloSophy heard on RE-VISION RADIO means that a Song is as good as an Argument/Essay. In fact, through the Orphic Essay-with-Soundtrack, they are in dialectical relationship; that is, there's a song waiting to be amplified out of an essay and, conversely, there's an essay waiting to be unpacked in a song lyric. Thus, the Orphic Essay-with Soundtrack is a work in prose that has "poetic characteristics such as vivid imagery and concentrated expression"—as heard in the Tower of Song.
(For the full text of the "RevisionRadio Manifesto & Visionary Recital," go to the "Re-Vision Radio" page #5.)
Early Photos of "Van The Man"
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Portraits of "Van The Man"
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Images of Van Morrison bootleg albums, gig posters, videos, books, & other collectobilia
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For the Van Morrison birthday trubute, the GS played (with an set-up intro by Lester Bangs) the version of Van's "Cypress Avenue" from the It's Too Late To Stop Now live album. But the GS's favorite version is not recorded on any album; it's from Van's 1979 concerts in Dublin and Belfast. This again demonstaretes that Van has to be seen and heard live to appreciate the kind of shamanic musician he is, becuase of his incantational and improvisational style.
artwork by Gypsy Scholar
"Celtic Soul" is a take off from Van Morrison's own designation of "Caledonia Soul Music." There’s a bootleg album entitled Van Morrison Meets Bob Dylan and John Lee Hooker (1970), which contains the track, “Caledonia Soul Music” [16:18]. (Though unreleased, this song was supposed to be an outtake of a recording session Van did at Pacific High Studios in 1971.)
The name "Caledonia" has played a prominent role in Van's life and career. Biographer Ritchie Yorke had pointed out already by 1975 that Van Morrison has referred to Caledonia so many times in his career that he "seems to be obsessed with the word". In his 2009 biography, Erik Hage found that "Morrison seemed deeply interested in his paternal Scottish roots during his early career, and later in the ancient countryside of England, hence his repeated use of the term Caledonia (an ancient Roman name for Scotland/northern Britain)". As well as being his daughter Shana's middle name, it's the name of his first production company, his studio, his publishing company, two of his backing groups, his parents' record store in Fairfax, California in the 1970s. Morrison used "Caledonia" in what has been called a quintessential Van Morrison moment in the song, "Listen to the Lion" with the lyrics, "And we sail, and we sail, way up to Caledonia". As late as 2008, Morrison used "Caledonia" as a mantra in the live performance of the song, "Astral Weeks" recorded at the two Hollywood Bowl concerts.
Van also created The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, his backup band, in 1973. The band was named after an eighteen-minute instrumental outtake on the His Band and the Street Choir album. In 1973 Van Morrison and the Caledonia Soul Orchestra went on a three-month tour of the United States, and Europe the result of which was the seminal live double album It's Too Late to Stop Now. The title is taken from the last line in the lyrics in one of Morrison's songs: "Into the Mystic" from the 1970 Moondance album.
Van the Man's Natal Chart
Van The Man: a Virgo musician
One interviewer noted that Van used to record in a Bay Area studio called Tres Virgos and added that he was a Virgo, and so asked: Does astrology interest you? Van only replied that it interested him a little bit. Pressing the question, the interviewer noted that many great musicians were also born under the sign of Virgo—for instance, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. This time Van replied: “It seems to be. You’re right there. It’s a good sign for musicians from the point of view of getting shapes on things, because Virgos have that analytical thing going. Very often, when you’re making steps in arranging music, you have to analyze the various stages, and that Virgo thing is helpful."
By the way, Van's fourth solo album, His Band and the Street Choir, released on November 15, 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, was originally titled Virgo's Fool, but was renamed by Warner Bros. without Morrison's consent. The album contains a track entitled "Virgo Clowns."
See this video of "The Van Morrison Trail," which charts the singer's east Belfast life from Cyprus Avenue to The Hollow, Hyndford Street and more.Click here
