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.
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