Brand New Day

Click on the link below to read a review of Oxford Messed Up: A Novel by Andrea Kayne Kaufman.

Oxford Messed Up

Click on the link below to sample Oxford Messed Up: A Novel by Andrea Kayne Kaufman.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/oxford-messed-up/

Mr. Tambourine Man

Click on the orange link below to read a review of Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/mr-tambourine-man/

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Click on the orange link below to read a review of When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison by Greil Marcus (Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads).

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/when-i-paint-my-masterpiece/

Into the Mystic

Click on the orange link below to read a review of Greil Marcus' book When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/into-the-mystic/

Van Morrison: the reluctant astral light...

This is an article, abridged, originally published by Reuter's UK on June 10, 2009.

LOS ANGELES - Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks," which failed to crack the U.S. or British pop charts when it came out in 1968 is now regarded as one of the greatest musical works of the rock era and is generating new interest more than 40 years (after) its release. Undaunted by the initial commercial setback, the Irish soul singer says he "just moved on" to his next project: The 1970 album "Moondance" whose title track is one of his best-known songs.

If "Astral Weeks" had generated the sales commensurate with its eventual stellar status and transformed him into a huge pop star, Morrison (has) no doubt(s) about his reaction. "I would have quit the business had that happened," he said in an e-mail interview. "I am not one who has ever taken well to fame and what that attracts. It's a drag. I just wanted to be a songwriter and a singer. I did not bargain for all the rest..."

Morrison, now 63, has spent his entire career trying to dodge "all the rest..." in the process becoming one of rock's most unknowable figures. Morrison has earned a reputation as a grumpy old man and has zero tolerance for showbiz frivolity. He even failed to turn up (for) his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1993.

But Morrison remains proud of "Astral Weeks," which ranks at No. 19 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest albums of all time and is now a steady seller. The (original album), recorded in less than two days in New York City with a jazz quartet was a marked departure for the singer of "Gloria" (with Them) and "Brown Eyed Girl."

Morrison had spent years crafting the songs, setting mysterious lyrics referencing his Belfast childhood to multilayered arrangements. The centerpiece was "Madame George," a 10-minute piece whose meaning confounds the writer and his fans to this day.

"I was practicing songwriting... Each composition is a fictional story I made up to work on my craft... The rest of the stories people (create) about my music is fiction(al) as well. I do not... write about me. I write about the collective, the collective unconscious."

While many artists of a certain vintage avoid dwelling on their past glories, Morrison is simply revelling in "Astral Weeks." To mark its 40th anniversary, he performed the album in its entirety at two shows in Los Angeles last November, and released the DVD "Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl." A CD was also released. He has also revived "Astral Weeks" at sold-out shows in London and New York City.

Morrison has been accompanied on stage by an orchestral string section (and) a band comprising two of the veterans from the original "Astral Weeks." Morrison said movie studios have expressed a lot of interest in licensing the live recordings. It helps that the vague lyrics can be applied to virtually any situation. "Any film would be done right by the live versions of these compositions," he said. "Each can tell a story - whatever story one wants to make of it. That is their stuff - not mine."

The Question of Favorite Music, Part IV (in a series)...

Order. The matter of song order on an album is critically important. One of my rules, that I've applied on this site, is that an album can receive a score of 90 points out of 100 only if the songs on it are in perfect order - Which is one of the reasons that Joni Mitchell's For the Roses falls just short of ninety points.

Roses starts with Banquet, probably her least accessible song with its jazz rhythms and odd structure. Roses should have started with the welcoming and friendly See You Sometime ("Pack your suspenders, I'll come meet your plane... I just want to see you again..."), which requires no deep analysis.

But then stop and try to think of the albums you know in which the songs were arranged perfectly. Probably not more than a handful will come to mind... My mind answers with Domino by Van Morrison, The Rising by Bruce Springsteen, Straight Up by Badfinger, Abbey Road by the Beatles, and Medusa by Annie Lennox.

Medusa shows that the artist is sometimes in charge... Lennox took just a few minutes to write down a list of favorite songs she wanted to cover; she then insisted that the songs be recorded in this order... and placed on the resulting album in this order. Good for her.

But sometimes the artist is not in charge. Back in 1986, Peter Gabriel recorded the album So, which he intended to start with the reflective song Red Rain before transitioning into his great single Sledgehammer. The album was to end with the beautiful and even more reflective In Your Eyes.

When So was released, Sledgehammer - as the single - was the first track and In Your Eyes was lost in the middle of the collection... It was to be 14 long years before this placement error was corrected. Today you can buy So and hear it the way Gabriel, as the creating artist, intended you to hear it.

Then there's the matter of, as Bob Seger phrased it, "what to leave in and what to leave out." The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album arrived in good order, but to this day seems overly short at 43 minutes long. Two songs were recorded during the time of the Pepper sessions that might have fit perfectly on the album... Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.

Think about these two songs for a second... They both have the feel and sound, the "voice" of Pepper if you will. Adding them would not have - in my view - taken anything away from the psychedelic theme of Pepper, it would only have made the album stronger. And today's Pepper would be a respectable 51-minute or so road trip CD that would be quite fine to listen to in the car.

I know, some people see Pepper (or, to be more exact, hear it) as a 90-plus point album. To me, because of this missed opportunity, it remains an album to be scored in the realm of 80-or-so points.

Order and inclusion/exclusion. Two small issues of great import in music.

Notes: The book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick, recording engineer, is the source for the fact that Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were recorded during the Sgt. Pepper's sessions. In fact, the first two Pepper songs took three weeks to record, and Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields also took three weeks to record. According to Emerick, "three full weeks (was) a huge amount of studio time in those days."

Also, Emerick alternately refers to the album in question as either Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pepper's or Pepper, as these different versions of the title now seem to be accepted as common usage.

50 of The Best Ever Bands/Musicians...

The Plebeian Music Club (PMC) is a book club that revolves around music rather than books. Recently, the PMC decided to establish a music Hall of Fame (HOF) that will induct fifty musicians/bands into the PMC HOF each year. As is clear from the initial selections listed below, the five PMC electors support good music without regard to strict categories... Some of the inductees would be categorized as rock, some as folk, some as popular, some as soul... It doesn't matter, as music is one of the very best things in life.

Here the 2009 inductees in alpha order:

1. The Animals
2. Badfinger
3. The Band
4. The Beach Boys
5. The Beatles
6. Chuck Berry
7. The Blues Project
8. David Bowie
9. Jackson Browne
10. Buffalo Springfield
11. Kate Bush
12. The Byrds
13. Ray Charles
14. Chicago
15. Bo Diddley
16. Bob Dylan
17. The Eagles
18. The Everly Brothers
19. Peter Gabriel
20. Marvin Gaye
21. The Grateful Dead
22. George Harrison
23. Buddy Holly
24. John Lee Hooker
25. The Jefferson Airplane
26. Elton John
27. Carole King
28. John Lennon
29. The Mamas and the Papas
30. Paul McCartney
31. Joni Mitchell
32. Van Morrison
33. Rick Nelson
34. Gram Parsons
35. Elvis Presley
36. John Prine
37. The Rolling Stones
38. Todd Rundgren
39. Paul Simon
40. Simon and Garfunkel
41. Bruce Springsteen
42. Cat Stevens
43. Barbra Streisand
44. The Traveling Wilburys
45. The Who
46. XTC
47. The Yardbirds
48. Yes
49. Neil Young
50. Warren Zevon

Note: An error was made in the original compiling of this list, and this error has now been corrected.

The poetry of...

If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dreams
Where the mobile steel rims crack
And the ditch and the back roads stop
Could you find me
Would you kiss my eyes
And lay me down
In silence easy,
To be born again.

Van Morrison

Tomorrow Is Not Just St. Patrick's Day... (a reminder)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009, is also the day that Van Morrison, the Belfast-born musician, selected as the release date for the DVD version of Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl. We're looking forward to seeing it.

"If you didn't hear from him, that just means he didn't call..."

Domino: A Retro-Review of One of Van's Best Albums...

A lot of attention has been focused lately on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks album from 1968, which was followed by Moondance. Many of Van's fans would list one of these two releases as their favorite of his but my personal favorite is His Band and the Street Choir from 1970.

Here are some track by track notes on this album whose songs were arranged in perfect order...

Domino - A great rocker and album opener; Van with an 11-piece brass band. John Klinberg's fine bass work is clearer here than on later re-masters.

Crazy Face - A pre-Eagles Desperado-type song. "He stood outside the church yard gate/ And polished up on his .38 and said/ I got it from Jessie James."

Give Me A Kiss - A bouncy number that sounds like Elvis circa 1956. More sweet brass backing from the band.

I've Been Working - Van as a macho soul man. This has always been his best on-stage performance song, and there's just a touch of Tower of Power, War and the Doors in the break.

Call Me Up in Dreamland - Ragtime meets dixieland meets southern Belfast rock. The Band might have sounded like this if they'd been less heavy.

I'll Be Your Lover, Too - His then-wife Janet Planet explained this best: "I have seen Van open these parts of his secret self - his essential core of aloneness I had always feared could never be broken into - and say... yes, come in here... know me." A haunting love poem.

Blue Money - As much as I love Domino, Wild Night and Brown Eyed Girl, this has always been my all-time favorite Morrison single. (I still wonder if this is the song that inspired Steely Dan's Peg?) Every time a "Best of..." Van Morrison collection has been released, many complain because this song was not included. Janet Planet contributes the Linda McCartney-ish background vocal.

Virgo Clowns - A positive take on Jackson Browne's irony. "Now you know exactly who you want to be now. Let your laughter fill the room."

Gypsy Queen - Smooth as a slide across the ice... Van captures the spirit of Motown. Say it's alright. (Van himself said in 2007, "It's always been about soul.")

Sweet Janine - Back to the cradle, with a blues rocker featuring a B.B. King-style guitar lead. Elmore James has nothing on this.

If I Ever Needed Somone - Van's My Sweet Lord. "To keep me from my sorrow/ To lead me on to givingness/ So I can see a new tomorrow."

Street Choir - A great tribute to a long-lost love; one who will not be taken back. "Why did you leave... Why did you let me down/ And now that things seem better... Why do you come around/ You know that I can't see you now."

Like all of rock's best albums, from What's Going On to Graceland to The Rising, this one is life affirming. 89.5 out of 100 points.

Astral Weeks: Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with Van Morrison...

A number of you have both read and called my attention to the very positive reviews of Van Morrison's music concert CD, Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The 40th-anniversary retro version of the classic 1968 album was recorded over two nights in November of 2008. Better late than never. Much better!

What you may not already know is that beginning on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2009, you can order the DVD version from Amazon. Amazon will be the exclusive seller of Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl: The Concert Film ($29.99 list, $19.99 at Amazon) through mid-September of this year.

The wild night is calling. Come on out and dance.