Van Morrison: T.B. Sheets (1973)

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.