Frequently named as one of the best live albums ever, It's Too Late to Stop Now was recorded during what has often been said to be the singer's greatest phase as a live performer. - Wikipedia
Like most Van Morrison records, I also have a copy of CD. This is a really great live set. I have watched a number of live Van Morrison clips on Youtube, and I am sometimes disappointed by how he has reworked material. I would prefer it the way it was recorded, but some artists change it when played live, which I don't always like. But this record is great.
There are a few obscure Van Morison song or album titles. This is one of them. I have no idea what the title means. I also fail to understand the meaning of the cover, if there is one. But, this is a great album. Allmusic makes this statement: "Nevertheless, it marks the end of Morrison's greatest period of creativity and accomplishment" [source]. I suppose that I can live with that, but there was still lots of greatness to come, like Veedon Fleece and Into the Music.
Years ago, I had a copy of this album on 8-track tape. Yes, I am old enough to remember 8-tracks and that makes me a bit sad. Our family had a quite a few of them, from acts like Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, The Hollies, Elvis Presley, etc. In any case, I remember picking up T.B. Sheets at a lawn sale and I listened to it from time-to-time on our family's ugly console stereo system. One day, I went digging into the stacks of tapes, looking for it. I came up empty, scratching me head as to where it could be. So, I asked my mom, since she would sometimes re-organize things and even clean. Once, she even tried to move the fridge and stove to locations that were entirely unfathomable, an effort fueled by manic hysteria unchecked by medication. That, as they say, is another story.
"I threw it in the garbage," she said. I was stunned. It was mine. It turns out that garbage day had passed too. Incredulously, I asked her why. She told me that she found the song T.B. Sheets to be disgusting. Even so, how could she take my property and chuck it into the garbage? It could have been a different line, but I'm guessing that the offending part was:
And I can almost smell your T.B. sheets
And I can almost smell your T.B. sheets
On your sick bed.
The older generations are not suppose to like the music of the younger generation. She didn't understand that.
I have to note that this song also appeared on Van's first LP, as did Brown Eyed Girl. Also, the T.B. Sheets LP contains some earlier versions of two songs that appeared on Astral Weeks.
I recall that she had a similar reaction to Jethro Tull's Aqualung. She came to my bedroom one day and heard this:
Sitting on the park bench --
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot is running down his nose --
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Aqualung
Drying in the cold sun --
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Aqualung
Feeling like a dead duck --
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Whoa, aqualung
She heard that on the radio, and so she couldn't do much about it, expect ask, incredulously: "Do you really like that?" I did.
I still cannot believe that she threw out my tape. In any event, T.B. Sheets was not approved by Van Morrison, so some people refer to this as an unauthorized compilation. I am not sure if unauthorized is the right word, but it was certainly not looked upon favourably by Van. Apart from the title track, it includes Brown Eyed Girl and some early versions of tracks from Astral Weeks. I would add that this pressing sounds really really good.
This record was pressed three times in Canada. I have a copy of the original pressing from 1972. Saint Dominic's Preview ranks in my top five Van records. I find that I don't have much to say about my Van Morrison records, apart from the fact that I like them very much.
By the way, if you hear a little of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here in Van Morrison's Almost Independence Day, just remember that the Van song came first.
Morrison said afterwards that he "wasn't very happy" with it. "It
consisted of songs that were left over from before and that they'd
finally gotten around to using. It wasn't really fresh. It was a whole
bunch of songs that had been hanging around for a while. I was really
trying to make a country and western album." He commented further that he seldom listened to it and had a bad taste in his mouth for both His Band and the Street Choir and Tupelo Honey. [source]
I have to say that I find the above passage mystifying because I really love this record, as well as His Band and the Street Choir. To me, this record is packed with greatness. I have the original Canadian pressing. I once saw a copy at a now defunct (and terrible) Toronto record store for $40! Why? This is not a rare record.
Although initially released in 1970, I have a US pressing from 1973. This was an early attempt by Bang records to milk its Van Morrison cash cow. All of these tracks appear in many other releases, but I picked up a copy anyway. Mine is a little rough, but so it goes.
"...even if it's inferior to Moondance, it is still better than eighty per cent of the records you've got in your collection." - John Tobler
His Band And The Street Choir was originally released in 1970. I have a Canadian repressing from 1979, which makes sense because that was the year I really started to buy records in earnest. This record is part of an amazing streak. Blowin' Your Mind was OK, but his next eight or ten records were all brilliant. It's amazing that he had that much creative energy and drive. I think his output has been good overall, but the consistency of the first several records is amazing.
I love this record. It's a less abstract than Astral Weeks, incorporating rhythm and blues, soul, and pop. One would be forgiven for thinking that the record is a greatest hits package. That's how many great songs are on this LP.
Is this the greatest record ever made? Some would argue that it is. It's really hard to argue otherwise. It's a masterpiece, pure and simple. But, it took me a while to get into it. For one thing, I came to it later, after I was already familiar with the ten records that followed it. I remember being a little disappointment when I heard it, and I am not sure why. Perhaps it was because there wasn't an obviously joyous tune, akin to Moondance or Domino or Wild Night or Jackie Wilson Said or Wavelength or even Cleaning Windows.
I have a Canadian pressing from 1979. The first UK pressing goes for a pretty penny.
The record was not initially successful, but has later achieved accolades.
Astral Weeks' critical standing eventually improved greatly, however, and it has since been viewed as one of rock music's greatest and most important records (a reputation Morrison himself has dismissed). It is sometimes referred to as a song cycle or concept album. Critics laud the album's arrangements and songwriting. Morrison's lyrics are often described as impressionistic, hypnotic, and modernist.
It was placed on numerous widely circulated lists of the best albums of
all time and had an enduring effect on both listeners and musicians.
Forty years after the album's release, Morrison performed all eight of
its songs live for the first time during two Hollywood Bowl concerts in November 2008; this performance was later released as a live album. [source]
I have a copy of that live album on CD. There was a vinyl issue, but the price is stupid now. Unless it's repressed, I am out of luck.
George Ivan Morrison, sometimes nicknamed Van the Man, is Ireland's best soul singer and one of my favourite singers of all time. Van's first record contains his most enduring song, Brown Eyed Girl. Others might choose Moondance as his most recognizable tune, and that's fair, I guess. This record also contains T.B. Sheets, a harrowing nine-minute epic that is really the center-piece of the record. But, more on that tune in a later post.
One other thing to note regarding Brown Eyed Girl:
The song's nostalgic lyrics about a former love were considered too suggestive at the time to be played on many radio stations. A radio-edit of the song was released which removed the lyrics "making love in the green grass", replacing them with "laughin' and a-runnin', hey hey" from a previous verse. This edited version appears on some copies of the compilation album The Best of Van Morrison. However the remastered CD seems to have the bowdlerised lyrics in the packaging but the original "racy" lyrics on the disc. Lyrically, it "shows early hints of the idealized pastoral landscapes that would flow through his songs through the decades, a tendency that links him to the Romantic poets, whom Morrison has cited as an influence" according to music journalist Erik Hage. [source]
I have a US pressing from 1973. It sounds fantastic. The album cover sucks. This was not my first Van record. I can't remember which was first. I also have an extensive Van Morrison CD collection. I have met some people who do not like Van Morrison. I just cannot get my head around that. It simply makes no sense.
The Only Way To Go Is Straight Through is a limited edition of 3000 copies, released on RSD 2013, containing:
NYC - The Stone - July 14th, 2012 (21:15)
Brooklyn, NY - Public Assembly - October 17th, 2012 (22:59)
The record company said this:
While this was not the first time that Thurston Moore and Loren Connors
have performed together, a vinyl pressing of their improvised
collaborations is unprecedented. A mere three thousand copies of this
extraordinary LP will be available worldwide ONLY on Record Store Day
(April 20, 2013). The music will not be available in any other format,
on any other day, so we think it will be well worth braving the insanely
long RSD lines to get your hands on a copy. [source]
The funny thing is that I picked up a copy of this record many many days after RSD and it was on sale. So much for the record company hyperbole. Also, you can buy a copy of Discogs for very little cash.
Here's another record from my childhood, which I probably should get rid of. This records has two big hits: Two Tickets to Paradise and Baby Hold On. I should mention that this record sounds amazing.
The opening track on this record - Don't Want No Reds - sounds a bit like ska, though that doesn't hold true for all tracks on the LP. The other thing is that this record is not as funny as the first. While I like this record, I think that the first is better. Some people love this record, but I am ambivalent. Perhaps it has aged poorly.
