Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on February 28, 1970 on Warner Bros. Records and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.
The album's musical style blends R&B, folk rock, country rock, and also jazz (most obviously on the title track).
The single released was "Come Running" with "Crazy Love" as the B-side, which peaked at #39 on the Pop Singles chart. "Moondance", as a single was not released until 1977 and peaked at #92.
Moondance was critically acclaimed when first released and has proven to be Morrison's most famous album, often appearing on many lists of best albums of all time and among other awards, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[1][2] In 2003, it was ranked #65 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3]
Production
Van Morrison began writing the songs for Moondance about ten months after the release of Astral Weeks. With the arrangements for the music only in his head, he entered the recording studio, where everything on the album except for the basic song structures came to fruition. Without musical charts and with help from the creative innovation of Jeff Labes, Jack Schroer, and Collin Tilton, the album coalesced. All of the "tasteful frills" were generated spontaneously and developed in the A & R Studios in New York. Although most of the vocals were live, Morrison expressed in 1973 that he would have preferred to cut the entire album live. It was the first album where Van Morrison was listed as producer. He remarked, "No one knew what I was looking for except me, so I just did it."[4] Lewis Merenstein (listed as Executive Producer) had brought in Richard Davis, Jay Berliner, and Warren Smith, Jr. from Astral Weeks for the first recording session, but Morrison, according to John Platania, "sort of manipulated the situation and...got rid of them all. For some reason he didn't want those musicians."[5]
In its original vinyl release, the album cover folds out, revealing A Fable, a short tale written by Morrison's then wife, Janet Planet. The fable pertains to a young man and his gifts.[6] The album cover was taken from a photograph by Elliot Landy, the official 1969 Woodstock Festival photographer.[7]
Songs
The opening song, "And It Stoned Me", according to the singer, depicts a true tale of a day in his childhood. The lyrics show that the setting of the song is rural, including references to a county fair and mountain stream.[8]
The title song is mostly acoustic but also includes electric bass and piano, guitar, saxophone, and a flute over-dub played softly behind Morrison's voice, which imitates a saxophone towards the song's end. Brian Hinton says, "This is a rock musician singing jazz not a jazz singer though the music itself has a jazz swing."[8]
"Crazy Love" has Morrison's voice so close to the microphone, that a click of Morrison's tongue hitting the roof of his mouth is picked up.[9] He sings in falsetto, producing a sense of intense intimacy, with the backing of a female chorus.[8]
"Caravan" is about gypsy life and also about the radio. Morrison said, "I'm really fascinated by gypsies. I love them." Musically, one can discern a decided interplay between the guitar and singer's voice. The song opens with Jeff Labes trilling on piano, the drum kit then comes in, whilst Morrison sings the line "And the caravan is on its way". The chorus consists of Morrison and the band singing "La la la la, la la la" repeatedly. John Platania then improvises around Morrison's voice: "[Morrison's] interplay with Platania's softly picked guitar touches the soul."[8]
According to Morrison "Into the Mystic" was originally called "Into the Misty" but as he had thought there was "an ethereal feeling to it" he changed the name. Morrison has also said that some of the songs lyrics could have more than one meaning: "I was born before the Wind" could also be "I was borne before the wind" as well as "Also younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was one" being "All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won". The song opens with Collin Tilton's tenor saxophone, made to imitate a foghorn blowing, and ends with the words "Too Late to Stop Now" — a phrase he would famously use to conclude concert endings in the 1970s. After a dynamic stop-start ending to "Cyprus Avenue", Morrison would bellow this phrase and then stalk from the stage. This phrase also served as the title to his acclaimed 1974 live album.[8] These lyrics have also been used at the end of "Friday's Child" in his concerts.[10]
In Morrison's words, "Come Running" is "a very light type of song. It's not too heavy; it's just a happy-go-lucky song." The song starts with Jeff Labes improvising on piano. The two saxophones then split apart, playing different rhythms during the chorus, and come back together for "You gotta rainbow if you run to me".[8]
The song "These Dreams of You" oddly manages to be simultaneously accusatory and reassuring. The lyrics cover such dream sequences as Ray Charles being shot down, paying dues in Canada, and "his angel from above" cheating while playing cards in the dark, slapping him in the face, ignoring his cries, and walking out on him.[8]
Morrison says he was inspired to write "Brand New Day" after hearing The Band on FM radio playing either "The Weight" or "I Shall Be Released": "I looked up at the sky and the sun started to shine and all of a sudden the song just came through my head. I started to write it down, right from 'When all the dark clouds roll away'."[8] Ritchie Yorke quoted Morrison as saying in 1973 that "Brand New Day" was the song that worked best to his ear and the one with which he felt most in touch.[11]
"Everyone" opens with Jeff Labes' clavinet in 6/8 time. A flute comes in, playing the melody after Morrison has sung four lines, with Jack Schroer playing the harmony underneath on soprano saxophone. Although Morrison says the song is just a song of hope, Brian Hinton says its lyrics suggest a more troubled meaning, as 1969 was the year in which civil war broke out in Belfast.[8]
The album's closing song, "Glad Tidings", has a bouncy beat but the lyrics, like "Into the Mystic", remain largely impenetrable: "And they'll lay you down low and easy" could be about murder or love.[8] Rolling Stone magazine reviewers Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs have suggested that the song is the most vital on the album by saying: "Perhaps 'Glad Tidings'... is the song that most makes one want to come back to this album without even thinking about it."[12]
Reception
Critical response
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Ralph J. Gleason noted: "It is really in the quality of his sound that Van Morrison's impact comes through most strongly. He wails. He wails as the jazz musicians speak of wailing, as the gypsies, as the Gaels and the old folks in every culture speak of it. He gets a quality of intensity in that wail which really hooks your mind, carries you along with his voice as it rises and falls in long, soaring lines."[13] Jon Landau considered the album's only flaw to be that of perfection. "Things fell into place so perfectly I wished there was more room to breathe. Morrison has a great voice and on Moondance he found a home for it."[14] Rolling Stone's critics Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs jointly reviewed it and concluded: "Moondance is an album of musical invention and lyrical confidence; the strong moods of "Into the Mystic" and the fine, epic brilliance of "Caravan" will carry it past many good records we'll forget in the next few years."[13]
Awards and accolades
In the media
The songs from the album have remained popular to the present day. "Moondance" was used over the love scene in An American Werewolf in London, and it was a recurring theme in August Rush. "Glad Tidings" was prominently featured in The Sopranos Season 5 finale ("All Due Respect"). "Everyone" was used over the closing scene and end credits of Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums.[19]
Track listing
All songs written by Van Morrison.
Side one
- "And It Stoned Me" – 4:30
- "Moondance" – 4:35
- "Crazy Love" – 2:34
- "Caravan" – 4:57
- "Into the Mystic" – 3:25
Side two
- "Come Running" – 2:30
- "These Dreams of You" – 3:50
- "Brand New Day" – 5:09
- "Everyone" – 3:31
- "Glad Tidings" – 3:13
Chart history
Album
Billboard (North America)
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1970 |
Pop Albums |
29 |
UK Album Chart (United Kingdom)
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1970 |
UK Album Chart |
32 |
Singles
Billboard (North America)
| Year |
Single |
Chart |
Position |
| 1970 |
"Come Running" |
Pop Singles |
39 |
| 1977 |
"Moondance" |
Pop Singles |
92 |
Personnel
Musicians
Production
- Producer: Van Morrison
- Executive Producer: Lewis Merenstein
- Engineers: Steve Friedberg, Tony May, Elliot Scheirer, Neil Schwartz, Shelly Yakus
- Photographer: Elliot Landy
- Designer: Bob Cato
Notes
- ^ Best of All Time Lists acclaimedmusic.net
- ^ Eskow, Gary (2005-04-01). "Classic Tracks: Van Morrison's Moondance". http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_van_morrisons_moondance/. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ "(65) Moondance". Rolling Stone Magazine online. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6598002/65_moondance. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music. pp. 70-83
- ^ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence. p. 215
- ^ A Fable by Janet Planet
- ^ "Van Morrison, Woodstock, NY, 1969, ‘Moondance’ album cover shot". landyvision.com. http://www.landyvision.com/Slideshow/source/136.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hinton. Celtic Crossroads. pp. 106-111.
- ^ Collis, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. p.118
- ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads. p. 133
- ^ Yorke, Into the Music. p. 83
- ^ Marcus, Greil and Bangs, Lester (1970-03-19). "Moondance Music Review". Rolling Stone Magazine. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/vanmorrison/albums/album/296755/review/19517922/moondance. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
- ^ a b Yorke. Into the Music. p. 82.
- ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads. p. 111
- ^ "65 Moondance". Rolling Stone. 2003-11-01. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6598002/.
- ^ "885 All Time Greatest Albums". http://xpn.org/music/885ATGA.php. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
- ^ Tyrangiel, Josh (2006-11-13). "The All-TIME 100 Albums: Moondance". Time. http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/0,27693,Moondance,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
- ^ "NARM The Definitive 200". Retrieved: 22 March 2007
- ^ "Van Morrison filmography". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0607341/. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
References
- Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
- Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X
- Yorke, Ritchie (1975). Into The Music, London:Charisma Books , ISBN 0-85947-013-X
- Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0
- DeWitt, Howard A. (1983). Van Morrison: The Mystic's Music, Horizon Books, ISBN 0-938840-02-9
External links
