Van Morrison on Guitar

[Rockysdad]

Van Morrison is great, have been a big fan of his music for a long time. I'll +1 on "Have I Told You Lately", great song, Crazy Love , Brown Eyed Girl is kinda fun.

[gwlee7]

Originally Posted by Malcolm Kindnes

Just one word "Moondance"

Played in a psychedelic improv cover band that played this song back in the day. Never knew if it was going to be the 4 minute or the 14 minute version. Good times.

[Kh1967]

I am a huge Van Morrison fan. If I could only listen to one, it would be him.

Anyway, Tupelo Honey and Rough God Goes Riding...two of my faves.

[nedley]

Another vote for Tupelo honey

[stephenT]

When I saw he title "Van Morrison on Guitar" i thought this might be about Van's guitar playing. He's actually a pretty decent acoustic player and plays a telecaster from time to time. Plays a bit of sax. I have a old demo recording of Van, just him on acoustic, bass and drums doing songs for the Tupelo Honey album.

We still play Van songs in the band I work in, we'll rotate a dozen Van songs. Been a fan since I first heard him w/ Them and "Here Comes the Night".

[Muddslide]

Originally Posted by Logdy

I love into the mystic, I just can’t figure out the rhythm.

Hey, make it your own. Go by feel. Van Morrison already does his version of it, right?

I do And It Stoned Me and Into The Mystic (not well, but with heart I hope!)

Astral Weeks is one of my favorite albums, but there's nothing on it I would try to cover.

[flaggerphil]

I like Brown Eyed Girl and play it quite frequently. Moon Dance is another favorite.

[Malcolm Kindnes]

Originally Posted by MrDB

Tupelo Honey is a great song and not at all hard to learn.

Another good one.

[Malcolm Kindnes]

Originally Posted by gwlee7

Played in a psychedelic improv cover band that played this song back in the day. Never knew if it was going to be the 4 minute or the 14 minute version. Good times.

Indeed, it was originally written as an instrumental.

[Malcolm Kindnes]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

He's a pretty fair guitar player too.

Not the best recording, but I think it serves to illustrate.

This is not a very good version of "into the mystic" the emotion is lacking. The original was in Eb to accommodate the saxophone, and the rhythm was very different.
The thing about Van is, like Dylan, he gets tired of playing the same old favourites and consequently changes them around a bit. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

[rokdog49]

I really like Van Morrison and most of his stuff. We perform "Into The Mystic".
I would say he's a singer-songwriter who plays guitar.

[Malcolm Kindnes]

[QUOTE
I would say he's a singer-songwriter who plays guitar. [/QUOTE]

Absolutely, he's certainly not a guitarist. He dabbles on guitar, sax and piano to arrange his wonderful soul music.
When you see him live, he's almost like one of the old band leaders, he holds it all together beautifully.

[westman]

love Van's bluesy version of this fine traditional song-
- oh, he's on drums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLCYH36ahpE

[Roseland67]

Originally Posted by Athens

Another vote for Into the Mystic.

My wife loves that tune,


I play it in C however-
As I prefer the open string resonance on the E, F#m, G
walk up Before foghorn

[Ludere]

Thank you all for reminding me what a great talent Van Morrison is. Solid and soulful ... one of the greats.

... oh, and thanks for sending me off to watch 45 mins of videos when I've got other stuff to do!