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Van Morrison Quotes
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Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and producer. In 2016, he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.

Known as "Van the Man", Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks . Though this album gradually garnered high praise, it was initially a poor seller.

Moondance established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances. He continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains.

Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B, such as the popular singles "Brown Eyed Girl", "Jackie Wilson Said ", "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 the album Astral Weeks and the lesser-known Veedon Fleece and Common One. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul". He has received two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

✵ 31. August 1945
Van Morrison photo
Van Morrison: 100   quotes 4   likes

Van Morrison Quotes

“There's a dream where the contents are visible
Where the poetic champions compose
Will you breathe not a word of this secrecy, and
Will you still be my special rose?”

Van Morrison

Queen of the Slipstream
Song lyrics, Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Dreams

“And you know you gotta go
On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row
Throwing pennies at the bridges down below
And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow
Say goodbye to Madame George
Dry your eye for Madame George
Wonder why for Madame George”

Van Morrison

Madame George
Song lyrics, Astral Weeks (1969)

Training

“Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you.”

Van Morrison

Caravan
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Feeling , Light , Night

“From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
We’ll be lovers once again on the
Bright side of the road”

Van Morrison

Bright Side of the Road
Song lyrics, Into the Music (1979)

Lovers

“The odd time something happens and you go into some kind of enchantment (on stage). But you have to work very hard to get that. Most of the time you're just playing and singing the songs, and there's no guarantee that you are going to get anywhere….”

Van Morrison

As quoted in Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography (2003) by Clinton Heylin

Singing , Time

“I can hear her heart beat from a thousand miles
And the heavens open every time she smiles
And when I come to her that's where I belong
Yet I'm running to her like a river's song.”

Van Morrison

Crazy Love
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Smile , Time , Heart

“Enlightenment says the world is nothing
Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion
And nothing is real.”

Van Morrison

Enlightenment
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)

World , Dreams

“I forgot that love existed, troubled in my mind.
Heartache after heartache, worried all the time.
I forgot that love existed
Then I saw the light
Everyone around me make everything alright.”

Van Morrison

I Forgot That Love Existed
Song lyrics, Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Love , Light , Time

“And this time I forget to slip into your slumber
The light is on the left side of your head
And I'm standing in your doorway
And I'm mumbling and I can't remember the last thing that ran through my head”

Van Morrison

Ballerina
Song lyrics, Astral Weeks (1969)

Light , Time , Forgetting

“I have seen without perceiving
I have been another man
Let me pierce the realm of glamour
So I know just what I am.”

Van Morrison

Dweller on the Threshold.
Song lyrics, Beautiful Vision (1982)

“Oh won't you stay
Stay a while with your own ones
Don't ever stray
Stray so far from your own ones
'Cause the world is so cold
Don't care nothing for your soul
That you share with your own ones.”

Van Morrison

Irish Heartbeat
Song lyrics, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)

World , Soul

“Some people say
You can make it on your own
Oh you can make it if you try
I know better now
You can't stand up alone
Oh baby that is why.I'm real real gone
I can't stand up by myself
Don't you know I need your help
You're a friend of mine
And I'm real real gone.”

Van Morrison

Real Real Gone
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)

People , Help , Baby

“Rave on, down through the industrial revolution
Empiricism, atomic and nuclear age
Rave on down through time and space down through the corridors
Rave on words on printed page.”

Van Morrison

Rave On, John Donne
Song lyrics, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983)

Age , Time

“Like I say, the way I write songs is, you know, inspirational. I have to wait for it to happen. And when it happens I get lines, and I just write them down, you know. I'm not sort of a Tin Pan Alley sort of songwriter. I just sort of write down what I get - without censoring or questioning what it is and what it means, you know. Like later on I look at what it means, but not at the time.”

Van Morrison

"Nights in Copenhagen with Van Morrison" (1985) interview by Al Jones

Way , Question , Time , Waiting

“Showed me pictures in the gallery
Showed me novels on the shelf
Put my hands across the table
Gave me knowledge of myself.
Showed me visions, showed me nightmares
Gave me dreams that never end
Showed me light out of the tunnel
When there was darkness all around instead.”

Van Morrison

Tore Down a la Rimbaud.
Song lyrics, A Sense of Wonder (1985)

Dreams , Knowledge , Light

“You know what they're writing about
Baby you know what they're writing about
It's a thing called love down through the ages
Makes you wanna cry sometimes
Makes you feel like you wanna lay down and die sometimes
Makes you high sometimes
But when you really get in it lifts you right up.”

Van Morrison

You Know What They're Writing About
Song lyrics, Into the Music (1979)

Love , Age , Feeling , Baby

“I was lost and double crossed,
With my hands behind my back.
I was longtime hurt and thrown in the dirt,
Shoved out on the railroad track.
I've been used, abused and so confused,
And I had nowhere to run.
But I stood and looked,
And my eyes got hooked
On that beautiful morning sun.”

Van Morrison

Brand New Day
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Beauty , Sun , Hurt

“Music is spiritual. The music business is not.”

Van Morrison

The Times [London] (6 July 1990)

Music , Business

“Well it's a marvellous night for a moondance,
With the stars up above in your eyes.
A fantabulous night to make romance,
'Neath the cover of October skies.”

Van Morrison

Moondance
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Star , Night

“I've been travellin' a hard road
Baby lookin' for someone exactly like you
I've been carryin' my heavy load
Waiting for the light to come shining through
Someone like you
Make it all worth while
Someone like you
Make me satisfied
Someone exactly like you.”

Van Morrison

Someone Like You
Song lyrics, Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Light , Waiting , Baby

“And they'll talk to you while you're in trances
And you'll visualize not taking any chances
But meet them halfway with love, peace and persuasion
And expect them to rise for the occasion.”

Van Morrison

Glad Tidings
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Love , Peace , Chance

“The way you see me walking on
That's why I'm telling you in song
There's only one way to get ahead
You've got to give it up instead
Start all over again.”

Van Morrison

Start All Over Again
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)

Way

“Hey where did we go,
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow,
Playin' a new game,
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.”

Van Morrison

Brown Eyed Girl
Song lyrics, Blowin' Your Mind! (1967)

Girl , Game , Heart

“When you hear the music ringin' in your soul
And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows
And it comes from the backstreet rock & roll and the healing has begun
I want you to put on your pretty summer dress
You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest
And I wanna make love to you yes, yes, yes and the healing has begun.”

Van Morrison

And the Healing Has Begun
Song lyrics, Into the Music (1979)

Love , Making love , Music , Feeling

“Let go into the mystery
Let yourself go
You've got to open up your heart
That's all I know
Trust what I say and do what you're told
Baby, and all your dirt will turn
Into gold.”

Van Morrison

The Mystery
Song lyrics, Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Heart , Baby

“Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here'… the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me.”

Van Morrison

As quoted in Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography (2003) by Clinton Heylin<!-- Chicago Review Press -->

Music , Feeling

“Walkin' on a city street who would think you could ever be touched
By a total stranger, not me
But when you came up to me that day and I listened to your story
It reminded me so much of myself
It wasn't what you said but the way it felt to me
About a search and a journey just like mine.”

Van Morrison

Angeliou
Song lyrics, Into the Music (1979)

Way , Search , Thinking

“The dynamo of your smile caressed a barefoot virgin child to wander.”

Van Morrison

Beside You
Song lyrics, Astral Weeks (1969)

Smile

“Did you ever hear about the great deception?
Well the plastic revolutionaries take the money and run.
Have you ever been down to love city?
Where they rip you off with a smile,
And it don't take a gun.”

Van Morrison

The Great Deception
Song lyrics, Hard Nose the Highway (1973)

Love , Money , Smile