Hard Nose the Highway is the seventh album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1973 (see 1973 in music). The album contains the U.S. Top Forty hit single "Warm Love" that has also become a fan favourite.[1]
It is his first solo album to contain songs not written by Morrison. A cover version of the song "Bein' Green", usually associated with Kermit the Frog is included, and a take of the traditional song "Purple Heather".
Recording history
Recorded during a series of prolific recording sessions, there was more than enough material to fill a double-album. Morrison proposed the idea to Warner Bros. Records, but he was ultimately convinced to release a single LP. A few leftover tracks were saved or re-recorded for future albums like Veedon Fleece, but most would not see release until 1998's compilation of outtakes, The Philosopher's Stone. Biographer Clinton Heylin suggested that "only 'Warm Love' and 'Hard Nose the Highway' could have sat comfortably alongside 'rejects' like 'Madame Joy', 'Bulbs', 'Spare Me a Little', 'Country Fair', 'Contemplation Rose' and 'Drumshanbo Hustle'."[2]
By Morrison's own account, this was the first album that was completely produced under his complete control. The recording sessions even took place in a recording studio he had built next door to his home in Fairfax, California. He remarked on the album: "As a concept for the album, I was just trying to establish how hard it was to do what I do. Plus there were some lighter things on the other side of it. One side has a kind of hard feeling while the other is soft."[3]
The songs
"Snow in San Anselmo" is the opening song and features the backing vocals of the Oakland Symphony Chamber Chorus. Morrison says the song is, "just a sketch on when it snowed in San Anselmo. It's about the images that were happening when it was snowing there for the first time in thirty years."[4]
"Warm Love" was released as a successful single and was also a favorite concert performance in the 70s. It featured the catchy line, "and it's ever present everywhere, Warm Love."
The title song, "Hard Nose the Highway" is explained by Morrison as: "the theme running through the whole song is 'Seen some hard times' which I have 'Drawn some fine lines' which I definitely have, and 'No time for shoe shines' when you're trying to make a living."[5]
'Wild Children" is actually about the post-war children growing up in other countries and getting their images — from American anti-heroes such as those portrayed by James Dean, Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger and playwright Tennessee Williams.[6]
"The Great Deception" is according to biographer, Richie Yorke: "One of the most stinging indictments from any observer, let alone a rock artist, of the tragic hypocrisy of so many participants in the sub-culture, in particular the big-time rock stars of this era."[7]
"Being Green" is the first non-original composition Morrison had included on any album for Warner Bros. so far and was taken from the popular American children's TV show, Sesame Street, which he must have watched with his young daughter, Shana. He says about his interpretation of the song, "That was just a statement that you don't have to be flamboyant. If somebody doesn't like you just because you're a certain thing, then maybe they're seeing the wrong thing."[8]
A reviewer said about the ten and a half minute "Autumn Song": "I can't deny that it's the funkiest song about the splendors and moods of fall that has ever glided through my ears." [9]
The ending song, "Purple Heather" is the traditional "Wild Mountain Thyme" written by F. McPeake as a variant of Robert Tannahill's "The Braes of Balquhidder", and re-arranged by Morrison.[10]
Reception and reviews
According to Ritchie Yorke, who published his biography, Into the Music in 1975, the album enjoyed rave reviews at the time of release. He cited one dissenting critic Charlie Gillett, who wrote in Let It Rock: "The trouble with Hard Nose the Highway is that although the music is quite often interesting, it doesn't have a convincing emotional basis...Despite the lack of inspiration and of melodic focus, the record is attractive to listen to. But Van Morrison has set high standards for himself and Hard Nose the Highway doesn't live up to them."[11]
Stephen Holden in his 1973 Rolling Stone review said: Hard Nose the Highway is psychologically complex, musically somewhat uneven and lyrically excellent. Its surface pleasures are a little less than those of St. Dominic's Preview and a great deal less than those of Tupelo Honey, while its lyric depths are richer and more accessible than those of either predecessor. The major theme of Hard Nose is nostalgia, briefly but firmly counter-pointed by disillusion."[12]
Later assessments in The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979) and The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) were less generous. In the former, Hard Nose was listed as Morrison's only one-star album to date; reviewer Dave Marsh called it "a failed sidestep, a compromise between the visionary demands of Morrison's work and his desire for a broad-based audience."[13] In the later edition, Paul Evans called the record the "vaguest and weakest" of Morrison's 1970s output.[14]
Track listing
All songs written by Van Morrison, unless otherwise noted.
Side one
- "Snow in San Anselmo" – 4:33
- "Warm Love" – 3:22
- "Hard Nose the Highway" – 5:12
- "Wild Children" – 4:19
- "The Great Deception" – 4:50
Side two
- "Bein' Green" (Joe Raposo) – 4:20
- "Autumn Song" – 10:34
- "Purple Heather" (Traditional) – 5:42
Personnel
The Caledonia Soul Orchestra
Additional musicians
- Jules Broussard - tenor saxophone, flute
- Marty David - bass on "Warm Love", "Hard Nose the Highway" and "Autumn Song"
- Jackie De Shannon - backing vocals on "Warm Love" and "Hard Nose the Highway"
- Joe Ellis - trumpet on "Hard Nose the Highway" and "Bein' Green"
- Michael Girling - violin
- Gary Mallaber - vibraphone, drums
- Zaven Melikian - violin
- Rick Schlosser - drums
- John Tenney - violin
Production
- Producer: Van Morrison
- Engineers: Neil Schwartz, Jim Stern
- Arrangers: Van Morrison, Jeff Labes (strings), Jack Schroer, (horns)
- Album Cover Art: Rob Springett
Charts
Album
Billboard (North America)
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1974 |
The Billboard 200 |
27 |
UK Album Chart (United Kingdom)
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1974 |
UK Album Chart |
22 |
Notes
- ^ Hinton. Celtic Crossroads. p.149
- ^ Heylin Clinton, Can You Feel the Silence? p.266
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p.99
- ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads, p. 149
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 104
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 105
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 106
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 108
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 109
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 110
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music, pp. 110-111
- ^ "Hard Nose the Highway review". rollingstone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/vanmorrison/albums/album/115555/review/5943915/hard_nose_the_highway. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- ^ Dave Marsh and John Swenson, eds., The Rolling Stone Record Guide. New York, Random House, 1979.
- ^ Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, eds., The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York, Random House, 1992.
References
