THE FIRST-EVER CAREER-SPANNING SINGLE DISC GREATEST HITS COLLECTION FROM ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS OF OUR TIME One of the best-selling albums of the Nineties, the five-times-platinum, 1990-issued The Best Of Van Morrison, is out of print. For a new, career-spanning collection from the singer-songwriter ranked in the top half of both Vh1's "100 Greatest Artists Of Rock And Roll" and Rolling Stone's "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time," only one man could possibly handpick the tracks and oversee their mastering -- Van Morrison himself. That is what the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has done for Still On Top - The Greatest Hits. Spanning his work from 1964 to 2005 on a handful of different record labels, Still On Top - The Greatest Hits celebrates a singer who has influenced everyone from Bruce Springsteen and The Doors' Jim Morrison to Tom Petty and Elvis Costello. Van the Man has been hailed as one of "popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk produced perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock & roll canon" (All Music Guide).
Newly remastered sound and expanded packaging including lyrics of the Two CD set reissue of the 1994 album, recorded live A Night in San Francisco by Van Morrison. In contrast to these commercially-successful but not always critically acclaimed albums, the 1994 live double album, A Night in San Francisco was a "tour-de-force", clearly demonstrating Morrison's talents and his influences in equal measure and reached #8 on the UK charts. The Rolling Stone magazine review states the album stands as: "the culmination of a career's worth of soul-searching that finds Morrison's eyes turned toward heaven and his feet planted firmly on the ground."
Newly remastered sound and expanded packaging including lyrics of the 1997 album Healing Game by Van Morrison. The album was recorded in Dublin Ireland. The title song "The Healing Game" is about the tradition of Belfast street singing. Van Morrison in Q magazine said, "People find it incredible when I tell them that people used to sing and play music in the street. I think there's a whole oral tradition that's disappeared. 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' follows the children's book, The Wind in the Willows closely and Paddy Moloney plays uillean pipes with Phil Coulter on piano. On "Burning Ground" the singer relives a common scene from his childhood when jute was shipped to Belfast from India
2008 newly remastered sound and expanded packaging including lyrics of the 1974 album Veedon Fleece the eighth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. The cover photograph picturing Morrison with two Irish Wolfhounds was taken at the Sutton House Hotel, a converted mansion overlooking Dublin Bay, where Morrison first stayed upon arriving in Ireland for a vacation. The opening track, "Fair Play" derived its name from Morrison's Irish friend, Donall Corvin's habit of using the Irish colloquialism "fair play to you" as a wry compliment.
Van Morrison "No Guru, No Method, No Teacher"
$8.58NEW
Newly remastered sound and expanded packaging including lyrics of No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, an album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1986. The song "In the Garden" was a favorite fan concert performance and per Morrison, "I take you through a definite meditation process which is a form of transcendental meditation." This album was hailed by most critics as a return to form. John Wilde in Sounds remarks, "the crescendos here are never dampened by their subtle nature and never fall short of blinding. The whole album aches with a steady stream of sorrow."
On April 1st, Lost Highway will proudly release Keep It Simple, the new album from Van Morrison. Keep It Simple is Morrison's first album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he composed all 11 songs specifically for one album.
In the interim the legendary artist had a year that may be unprecedented for any living artist, having released three separate collections of his hits, with the latest, Still On Top entering the UK charts at #2 and selling platinum, proving the ongoing appetite for his unrivalled work.
His music has always incorporated the widely varied influences he heard and absorbed since his childhood days on the streets of Belfast- long before the bands of his youth and his initial breakthrough with the band he started early on- called "Them."
On Keep It Simple, Morrison honors all those varied influences - Ulster-Scots Celtic, Jazz, Folk, Blues, Country, Soul and Gospel - and an added surprise of a mighty Ukelele -most times melding them all together at once creating his unmistakable signature sound.
In some of these songs Morrison addresses the propaganda of the myth perpetrating rock music world. There is a definite theme that recurs throughout the album, especially in the title track.
In keeping with that idea, Keep It Simple does not boast the big horns or expected string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty.
Van Morrison "Still on Top: The Greatest Hits"
$19.22
STILL ON TOP: THE GREATEST HITS is a career-spanning anthology of hits by mercurial Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Starting with two key tracks by his Rolling Stones-like 1960s band, Them--"Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night"--the set passes over Morrison's legendary 1968 album, ASTRAL WEEKS, a jazzy mood piece that works best as a whole, but otherwise cherry-picks a ton of FM radio classics. "Wild Nights," "Domino," "Moondance," and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" are among the many highlights, presented in remastered sound.
Van Morrison "It's Too Late To Stop Now: Live (2CD)"
$12.63
Navigating Van Morrison's extensive catalog since 1993 is a formidable task even diehard fans might not want to attempt. The Irish icon has flirted with blues, jazz, country, pop, Celtic, and his own style of indescribable into-the-mystic spiritually-oriented poetic folk on his numerous releases, making for quite a thorny culling assignment. So the EMI brass were probably ecstatic when the singer took the job himself. He weeds through a dozen or so albums released since Volume 2's mile-marker, and adds a clutch of previously unavailable mixes, rarities, and live tracks. The result: a nearly two-and-a-half-hour, 31-track double-disc set as sprawling, eclectic, and tenacious as Morrison's vision and discography. From occasionally rambling but spirited duets with veterans Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Wells, Georgie Fame, Lonnie Donegan, B.B. King, the Chieftains, Ray Charles, and even Tom Jones to concert versions of hits such as "Moondance" and an impressive take on Sinatra's classic "That's Life," along with hidden gems like "Steal My Heart Away," this is a beautifully assembled and sequenced collection. It presents most of this multitalented auteur's facets and softens his often crusty exterior by showing his appreciation for the journeymen that helped develop the trail that Morrison then blazed in his own distinctive style. --Hal Horowitz
Van Morrison went a long way towards defining his wild Irish heart with his first two classic albums: the brooding, introspective Astral Weeks (1968), and the expansive, swinging Moondance. If the first was the work of a poet, its sequel was the statement of a musician and bandleader. Moondance is that rare rock album where the band has buffed the arrangements to perfection, and where the sax solos instead of the guitar. The band puts out a jazzy shuffle on "Moondance" and plays it soulful on "These Dreams of You." The album includes both Morrison's most romantic ballad ("Crazy Love") and his most haunting ("Into the Mystic"). "And It Stoned Me" rolled off Morrison's tongue like a favorite fable, while "Caravan" told a tale full of emotional intrigue. Moondance stood out in the rock world of 1970 like a grownup in a kiddie matinee. --John Milward
Never mind that Van Morrison is one of the most indelible songwriters of the 20th century--take each album on its own terms. On 1968's seminal Astral Weeks, a twentysomething Van Morrison can be found belting his gospelly, bluesy vocals in just as fine a form as he would be 20 years hence. In the sociopolitical context of the times, the album cried out about such ubiquitous '60s themes as cultural oppression and social upheaval. But it is Morrison's vocal dexterity and passion that maintains such timeless appeal. Take tracks like "Madame George" or "Cyprus Avenue" and you'll find such beautiful mourning, it'll be clear why modern songwriter Sinéad O'Connor once publicly exclaimed: "Van Morrison should be friggin' canonized." --Nick Heil
