George Ivan Morrison OBE (generally known as Van Morrison) (born 31 August 1945) is a Grammy Award-winning Northern Irish singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician since the late 1950s. He plays a variety of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica, keyboards, drums, and saxophone. Featuring his characteristic growl—a unique mix of folk, blues, soul, jazz, gospel, and Ulster Scots Celtic influences—Morrison is widely considered one of the most unusual and influential vocalists in the history of rock and roll. Critic Greil Marcus has gone so far as to say that "no white man sings like Van Morrison."
Known as "Van the Man" by his fans, Morrison first rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Northern Irish band Them, writing their 1964 garage rock classic hit, "Gloria". A few years later, Morrison left the band and embarked on a successful solo career.
Morrison has pursued an idiosyncratic musical path. Much of his music is tightly structured around the conventions of American soul and R&B, such as the popular singles, "Brown Eyed Girl", "Moondance", "Domino" and "Wild Night". An equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz, and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as his classic album Astral Weeks and lesser known works such as Veedon Fleece and Common One. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic Soul".
Morrison's career, spanning some five decades, has influenced many popular musical artists. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2000, Morrison ranked number twenty-fifth on American cable music channel VH1's list of its "100 Greatest Artists of Rock and Roll",and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Morrison forty-second on their list of "Greatest Artists of All Time". Paste ranked him twentieth in their list of "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" in 2006 and Q ranked him twenty-second on their list of "100 Greatest Singers" in April 2007.
At the age of seventeen, Morrison left home to tour Europe with the group the Monarchs, now calling themselves the International Monarchs. They played in Scotland, London, England and Germany before returning to East Belfast in November 1963 where they disbanded. Morrison connected with Geordie Sproule again and played with him in the Manhattan Showband along with guitarist Herbie Armstrong. When Armstrong auditioned to play with Brian Rossi and the Golden Eagles, Morrison went along and both were hired. As the band was not in need of a saxophonist, Morrison landed his first position as a blues singer, but he soon left to form an R&B club at the Maritime Hotel. Needing a group to perform there, he joined with the members of The Gamblers. Before the first opening night at the Maritime in April 1964, the group changed their name to Them, their name taken from a Fifties horror movie. Morrison soon came to prominence fronting the band, as he was the group's only song-writer. They had a number of chart hits, most notably the rock standard "Gloria", subsequently covered by many artists, including Patti Smith, The Doors, Shadows of Knight, and Jimi Hendrix.
His first album for Warner Bros. Records was Astral Weeks (which he had already performed in several clubs around Boston), a mystical song cycle, considered by many to be his best work. Morrison has said, "When Astral Weeks came out, I was starving, literally." Released in 1968, the album achieved critical acclaim, but it originally received an indifferent response from the public. To this day, it remains in an unclassifiable music genre and has been described variously as hypnotic, meditative, and as possessing a unique musical power. It has been compared to French Impressionism and mystical Celtic poetry. A 2004 Rolling Stone magazine review begins with the words: "This is music of such enigmatic beauty that thirty-five years after its release, Astral Weeks still defies easy, admiring description." In 1979, prominent and influential journalist Lester Bangs wrote one of the best-known reviews in rock music history in Stranded, describing the effect that Astral Weeks had on his life. It has often been placed on the most authoritative lists of best albums of all time. In the 1995 MOJO list of 100 Best Albums, it was listed as number two and was number nineteen on the Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
The early to middle 1990s marked a thirty-year high in Morrison's career with three Top Five UK albums, sold out concerts, and a highly visible public profile, but this period also marked a decline in the critical reception to his work. He found time to release another compilation album, The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two in January 1993 followed by Too Long in Exile another Top Five album in June.
On 14 February 1994, Van Morrison received the BRIT Award for his Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He was presented with the award by former Beirut hostage, John McCarthy, who while testifying to the importance of Morrison's song, "Wonderful Remark" called it "a song that he wrote more than twenty years ago, which was very important to us." Sting, Bob Geldof, Elvis Costello, Bono, and Peter Gabriel provided televised accolades.
Morrison performed before an estimated audience of sixty to eighty thousand people when US President Bill Clinton visited Belfast, Northern Ireland on 30 November 1995. His song "Days Like This" had become the official anthem for the Northern Irish peace movement.
On 14 June 1996, Morrison was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his service to music.
In 1997, Morrison released The Healing Game and the following year, he finally released some of his previously unissued studio recordings in a warmly-received two-disc set, The Philosopher's Stone. His next release, 1999's Back on Top, achieved a modest success, being his highest charting album in the US since 1978's Wavelength.
In July 2001, Morrison received an honorary doctorate in music from Queen's University in his hometown of Belfast. Nine years earlier, in 1992, he had received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Ulster — at the time being the only other university in his native Northern Ireland.
Morrison released a new album, Down the Road in May 2002, which was critically well received and was his highest charting album in the US since 1972's Saint Dominic's Preview. It had a nostalgic tone and was comprised of fifteen tracks that represented the different musical genres that Morrison had covered throughout the years such as R&B, blues, country and folk; one of the tracks was an autobiographical song written as a tribute to his late father George, who had played such a pivotal role in nurturing his early musical tastes.
"In recognition of his unique position as one of the most important songwriters of the past century," Van Morrison was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, at their awards ceremony in New York City in June 2003. Ray Charles presented the award, following a performance during which the pair performed Morrison's "Crazy Love", from the album, Moondance. Morrison's admiration for Charles was evident in the award ceremony and he later wrote an article published in Rolling Stone in 2004, describing Ray Charles' influence on music and on him personally. In the same year, Morrison released What's Wrong with This Picture? on the legendary jazz record label, Blue Note Records. The album would later receive a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
In 2004, his song, "Bright Side of the Road", from his 1979 album Into the Music was featured in the UNESCO advertisements for World Press Freedom Day. In October 2004, Morrison was honored as a BMI ICON at the annual London Awards for his "enduring influence on generations of music makers."
Morrison remains popular with the public: his album, Magic Time, debuted at number twenty-five on the US Billboard 200 charts upon its May 2005 release, some forty years after Morrison first entered the public's eye as the frontman of Them. Rolling Stone listed it as number seventeen on their list of The Top 50 Records of 2005. Later in the year, Morrison also donated a previously unreleased studio track to a charity album, Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now, which raised money for relief efforts intended for Gulf Coast victims devastated by hurricanes, Katrina and Rita.[154] Morrison composed the song, "Blue & Green", featuring the late Foggy Lyttle on guitar. This song was released in 2007 on the album, The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3 and also as a single in the UK. Van Morrison appeared in The Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway Outer Hebrides in the summer of 2005, where he was a headline act at the growing international Celtic music festival.
He released an album with a country music theme, entitled Pay the Devil, on 07 March 2006, which the mayor of Nashville declared as "Van Morrison Day". Morrison appeared for the very first time at the historic Ryman Auditorium that evening to a sold-out crowd. (In fact, the entire Ryman sold out twelve minutes after the tickets went on sale.) Pay the Devil debuted at number twenty-six on The Billboard 200 and peaked at number seven on Top Country Albums. Amazon Best of 2006 Editor's Picks in Country listed the country album at number ten in December 2006. Still promoting the country album, Morrison was the headline act on the first night of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on 15 September 2006. Rolling Stone magazine reviewed this performance as one of the top ten shows of the 2006 festival. In November 2006, a limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival was issued which is sold only at Van Morrison concerts and at the Van Morrison Official website.
Live At Montreux 1980/1974, released in October 2006, was the first ever commercial DVD released by Morrison, though the Pay The Devil CD was re-released in the summer of 2006 with a DVD containing tracks from the Ryman.
In November 2006, Time published their list of The All-TIME 100 Greatest Albums. Two of Van Morrison's albums, 1968's Astral Weeks and 1970's Moondance, were on the list. His continuing popularity with music fans was evident when he was voted as number thirteen on the list of WXPNs 885 All Time Greatest Artists in 2006.
Morrison appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on the first evening on 27 April 2007 as the headline act where his longtime collaborator and friend, Dr. John joined him for one set on stage. On 04 July 2007, he performed at the Ottawa Bluesfest, drawing the largest crowd ever — thirty-five thousand.
A new double CD compilation album The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3 was released in June 2007 containing thirty-one tracks, some of which were previously unreleased. Morrison personally selected the tracks to represent the best of his work from 1993s album Too Long in Exile to the song "Stranded" from the 2005 album Magic Time. On 3 September 2007, Morrison's complete catalogue of albums from 1971 through 2002 were made available exclusively at the ITunes Store in Europe and Australia and during the first week of October 2007, the albums became available at the US ITunes Store.
Still on Top - The Greatest Hits, a thirty-seven track double CD compilation album was released on 22 October 2007 in the UK on the Polydor label with a limited edition three CD digipack box set available on initial release. On 29 October 2007, the album charted at number two on the Official UK Top 75 Albums — his highest UK charting ever. The November release in the US and Canada contains twenty-one of his best-known tracks. The hits that were released on albums with the copyrights owned by Morrison as Exile Productions Ltd. — 1971 and later — have been remastered in 2007.
On 07 and 08 November 2008, Van Morrison will close out the season at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California performing the entire Astral Weeks album besides classic music from his entire career. The Astral Weeks band will feature the original musicians, bassist Richard Davis and guitarist Jay Berliner, who both played on the classic album released forty years previously in November 1968. A live album entitled Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl will result from these two performances. A vinyl LP will be released before Christmas 2008 with a CD version set for January 2009. The releases will be on Morrison's new label, Listen To The Lion Records.
