Happy 80th birthday to Van the Man

First four or five albums were great, groundbreaking in the case of Astral Weeks. Spent most of the rest of his career being a miserabilist and whatever the opposite of a crowd pleaser is, culminating in his descent into madness re Covid. Time he packed it in!
 
A superb run of albums in the 80s and 90s. Lost his way a bit for me but his most recent Remembering Now is great.

Astral Weeks is in the top few all time great albums
 
I bought the vinyl 45 of Gloria by Them in 1964 (6/3d) and played it literally to death. No downloads in those days! It was actually the B side of Baby Please Don’t Go.
Love his songs and his voice.
Brown Eyed Girl is, would you believe, just short of 60 years old.
He himself tells the story of his careers teacher who told him: “Ivan, you must be a singer, you are useless at everything else.”
 
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Well I learnt something today that his name is George Ivan hence the Van.
Saw him at Glastonbury 1989.
Remember buying the single “Have I told you lately that I love you?” for a young woman I fancied the arse off when it came out in 1990 or 91. It did the trick.
And then despised Rod Stewart for massacring it a few years later…..
 
dickie davies said:
Went to see him around 25 years ago at the Manchester arena on a St Patrick's day
The place was buzzing and within five minutes of being on stage, he'd drained the place of all atmosphere
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He did the same when I saw him in Manchester about 30 years ago.
Never got the fuss about Astral Weeks but like a lot of his other Albums; Moondance, Wavelength, Hard Nose the Highway etc.
 
dickie davies said:
Went to see him around 25 years ago at the Manchester arena on a St Patrick's day
The place was buzzing and within five minutes of being on stage, he'd drained the place of all atmosphere
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I think I went to that when I was over for 6 weeks because a mate was a fan of his.
I was completely bored to death.
 
Never understood why his albums were so highly rated. They're good but imo nothing special.

On stage, he's one of the worst live acts I've ever seen. Total lack of warmth or personality, just goes through the motions and picks up his money.

I wouldn't go to see him again if you paid me.

Happy Birthday to him.
 
He divides opinions I guess. Saw him live on the1979 tour and that was a great gig.
The 1973 It’s Too Late To Stop Now dvd is fantastic as is the LP/CD taken from it. And the extended versions Vol 2-4 are worth a listen.
Not been as taken by his recent output (make that the last 20 years) but will seek out his recent CD based on the favourable posts above.
 
When I met Mrs 2112 which was now 41 years ago I was full on into Heavy Metal and id go round to her house and she would play Van Morrison, Springsteen, The Waterboys, Green on Red and The Triffids and id hate it, well id hate Van and Springsteen. We eventually got married and over time she wore me down with Van and I grew to love his music. I've just had a quick check and from 1968 - 1990 there are 19 albums in that period whereby at least half a dozen are incredible, another half a dozen that are excellent and another half a dozen that are as good as most other bands normal output, each with some individual moments of brilliance.

Looking at his next 20 albums or so, they were very hit and miss. He left behind the folk inspired spiritual, poetic, philosophical and mythological influences of his native Ireland for a more sustained period of jazz, blues and rhythm and blues and although there was always something to keep you interested with the odd brilliant track that gave a nod to his past, it all just felt too insipid, dull and predictable for me. I can however understand why a musician may want to try something new, especially one so prolific. What I found more surprising about this period of his writing was more and more people seemed to enjoy this in comparison to his past work. Always a sell out concert, more tv appearances and great reviews for albums I considered way below his standard.

More recently a couple of albums find him more back to form with his last one to date 'Remembering Now' a big improvement and a welcome return to his earlier days. I've seen him a few times but only ever once when I thought wow! That was at the Palace Theatre in the 80s where I also saw the legendary Rory Gallagher. I stopped being interested in going to see him live about 35 years ago as he's too unpredictable, boring and cantankerous to waste good money on.

That said those first 18 albums or so remain an incredible output of music that inspired many other great musicians. The brilliant Glen Hansard for one and I thank him for that alone. Some of his more spiritual songs genuinely move me like nobody else's does and the descriptive narratives he includes in many of his songs are an incredible insight into parts of an Ireland long gone. His penchant for singing the same word over and over and over and over again is such a unique style and unmatched. To be included in his band is no mean feat as any musician has to be on top of their game at every moment such is his unpredictably and his band is always a tight unit.

I cannot think of another artist as prolific, good or bad, but just those first 18 album alone are more an achievement than the vast majority of artists ever manage. I can fully understand why people don't get him but for those of us that do then he's unsurpassed.
 
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Blue2112 said:
When I met Mrs 2112 which was now 41 years ago I was full on into Heavy Metal and id go round to her house and she would play Van Morrison, Springsteen, The Waterboys, Green on Red and The Triffids and id hate it, well id hate Van and Springsteen. We eventually got married and over time she wore me down with Van and I grew to love his music. I've just had a quick check and from 1968 - 1990 there are 19 albums in that period whereby at least half a dozen are incredible, another half a dozen that are excellent and another half a dozen that are as good as most other bands normal output, each with some individual moments of brilliance.

He then went into a period of another 20 plus albums which were very hit and miss. The last 10 or so are definitely more miss. In my opinion he left behind the folk inspired spiritual, philosophical and mythological influences of his native Ireland and fell more into a period of jazz, blues and rhythm and blues and although there was always something to keep you interested with the odd brilliant track that gave a nod to his past it all just felt too insipid and dull. I can however understand why a musician may want to try something new, especially one so prolific. What I found more surprising about this period of his writing was more and more people seemed to enjoy this in comparison to his past work. Always a sell out concert, more tv appearances and great reviews for albums I considered way below his standard.

More recently a couple of albums find him more back to form with his last one to date 'Remembering Now' a big improvement and a welcome return to his earlier days. I've seen him a few times but only ever once when I thought wow! That was at the Palace Theatre in the 80s where I also saw the legendary Rory Gallagher. I stopped being interested in going to see him live about 35 years ago as he's too unpredictable, boring and cantankerous to waste good money on.

That said those first 18 albums or so remain an incredible output of music that inspired many other great musicians. The brilliant Glen Hansard for one and I thank him for that alone. Some of his more spiritual songs genuinely move me like nobody else's does and the descriptive narratives he includes in many of his songs are an incredible insight into parts of an Ireland long gone. To be included in his band is no mean feat as any musician has to be on top of their game at every moment such is his unpredictably and his band is always a tight unit.

I cannot think of another artist as prolific, good or bad, but just those first 18 album alone are more an achievement than the vast majority of artists ever manage. I can fully understand why people don't get him but for those of us that do then he's unsurpassed.
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An excellent summary. Always thought in his pomp he could recite a shopping list and imbue it with meaning and emotion
 
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