Morrison, Van (1945—)
Van Morrison is one of the most gifted singers, performers, composers, and songwriters in the history of popular music. Born August 31, 1945 in Belfast (Northern Ireland),...
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Critical Essay by Ken Emerson
Like the white middle class it entertains, rock music exhibits a certain rootlessness, a lack of a living history. This is rock's greatest asset—it is spon...
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Critical Essay by Jim Miller
Van Morrison is an enigmatic figure. Although he practices the art of a flamboyant soul trouper, he maintains an oddly detached, awkward stage presence. His vision is her...
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Critical Essay by Charles Nicholaus
Van Morrison, I've been thinking lately, is the intellectual's Grateful Dead. They offer an amplified nirvana, fueled by chemicals; he offers the dar...
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Critical Essay by Jonathan Cott
Sometimes, in moments of bewilderment or happiness, you may catch yourself singing or whistling a song whose words, on reflection, explain how things really are with y...
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Critical Essay by Michael Watts
It's paradoxical that "Astral Weeks", Van Morrison's best and most enduring album, should be unrepresentative of his general body of music;...
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Critical Essay by Peter Knobler
People had started talking about Van Morrison in the past tense. In the three years since his last album release [Veedon Fleece] his presence had grown to become some ...
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Critical Essay by Lester Bangs
Who has not been waiting for the next great Van Morrison LP? Whether you thought his last masterpiece was Veedon Fleece or Tupelo Honey or even (what I think) Moondance...
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Critical Essay by Tom Carson
Van Morrison has an extraordinary knack for inventing brick walls to butt his head against, whereas anybody else would just walk right through. If an explanation were ask...
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Critical Essay by Dave Marsh
After Tupelo Honey Van Morrison must have been faced with a choice. He could continue with his domestic tranquility myth, which was as artistically false as it might have...
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Critical Essay by Melody Maker
[In compiling "Them, Featuring Van Morrison Lead Singer", Nick] Tauber has had a relatively easy task in selecting essentially from the two albums that Va...
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Joel Brodsky, whose photography was featured on hundreds of music album covers, has died at age 67, his daughter said.Brodsky died March 1 in Stamford of a heart attack, his daughter, Jill Holt, sa...
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Was it live ... or was it just a stunt for YouTube?A one-time college couple say their melodramatic Valentine's Day breakup _ complete with singers, hundreds of spectators and a profanity-laced tir...
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Today is Friday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2007. There are 122 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Aug. 31, 1886, an earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing 60 people, accordi...
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Forget everything you think you know about the movie musical, one of the more tried-and-true and utterly predictable genres around.With "Once," writer-director John Carney deconstructs it and reinv...
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Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 26-Sept. 1:Aug. 26: Singer Vic Dana is 65. Singer Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson is 61. Singer Bob Cowsill of The Cowsills is 58. Bandleader Branfor...
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London (dpa) - What would a British summer be without its music
festivals, its picnics on the lawn, strawberries and cream, Wimbledon
and cricket?
This year i...
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First things first: "Nimrod," a word stuck with a meaning akin to "fool," more traditionally signifies the warrior spirit. In fact, Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah who founded the city of Bab...
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In a decade that has been marred by travel advisories, it's very nice and reassuring to note that things can change for the better.When the Belfast Agreement, that long-negotiated truce, first brou...
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We all have a soft spot for the music of our youth, but few take it as far as the Long Players.Every few months, this group of busy Nashville session musicians gets together to perform a classic ro...
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Morrison, Van (1945—)
Critical Essay by Ken Emerson
Photographer Joel Brodsky dies
