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Van Morrison Biography

Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. In 2016, he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.

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Van Morrison Quotes

It was really strange for me when I started to play concerts in America where the audiences were all sitting down.

America, Audiences, Concerts, Down, Play, Sitting Down

You have to remember that writing those sorta songs is not reality, it's more like trance, dream, y'know, like dreamwork. The mythical thing can enter the creating but there's the mythical place and the real place. And there's both. . . I get it between waking and sleeping. Or, when I'm doing something else. I don't sit down and think I'm gonna write about subject X or subject Y. I could be doing something and an impression comes in from outside and the song emerges out of that. It's never thought about or contrived.

Contrived, Dream, Gonna, Real, Remember, Song

I also like to do physical things. I like swimming a lot. I like traveling. Not touring traveling but just plain traveling. I also read a lot. Reading takes up most of my time.

Reading, Swimming, Takes, Things, Touring

There's always got to be a struggle. What else is there? That's what life is made of. I don't know anything else. If there is, tell me about it.

Know, Life, Life Is, Made, Struggle, Tell

I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything.

Apply, Jazz, Understood, Worked

My ambition when I started out was to play two or three gigs a week. And that's what I'm doing.

Ambition, Gigs, Play, Two

Like I said, basically I'm a rocker. That's about it. Things that I've done away from that-branches that I've gotten into off of that - are just other streams, other things that I can do.

Away, Branches, Done, Gotten, Like, Said

I was just getting tired of the image bullshit. . . that man of mystery trip and what have you. What's that all about?

Bullshit, Men, Mystery, Tired, Trip

My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.

Down, Musically, Paper, Sometimes, Thinking

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.

Play, Pop, Set, Singer, Song, Together

We might think that we're really intellectual and we're going to check out the library to research the meaning every time somebody puts out a new record. It's still primitive stuff. It's the same now as it was at the beginning. It's no different now. Rock 'n' roll is spirit music-it's just coming through people.

People, Research, Rocks, Stuff, Thinking

When I started out in this business, I was a performer before I was a songwriter, I was a performer before I was recording. Performing is the roots. That's where it all came from. You didn't start out doing it because you wanted to make an album.

Albums, Performer, Performing, Roots, Songwriter, Start

The trip had become boring. It wasn't exciting anymore to totally be a singer
songwriter because it wasn't working for me.

Anymore, Boring, Exciting, Singers, Totally

I'm still basically the same as I always was. I still listen to the same people. That's where I'm coming from.

Coming, Listen, People, Same, Stills

I was like one of those newspapers, those periodicals. There's all different kinds of alcoholics. There's the everyday kind: that's the consistent one. That's what people think an alcoholic is-but an alcoholic is basically just someone who's allergic to alcohol. That's all it means. It's just an allergy.

Allergy, Kinds, Mean, Newspapers, People, Thinking

The whole trip that happened in the late 60s and 70s was kind of a throwback to a lot of folk styles. I got into it as well 'cause I started with the folk styles.

Causes, Happened, Kind, Style, Styles, Trip

Then it evolved into more of a ballad style singer
songwriter thing. And there was a conflict in trying to merge the two styles with the same band behind me. 'Cause the musicians that I would need to do ballad-oriented tunes would require musicians who were more into jazz.

Evolved, Merge, Style, Styles, Trying, Two

The fact I wasn't getting off made me realize that I really had to take a hard look at it and at the type of music that I played, which ranges from ballads to country type stuff to rock and rhythm 'n' blues. It takes in a wider spectrum.

Country, Look, Looks, Rhythm, Rocks

You take stuff from different places, and sometimes you stick a line in because it rhymes, not because it makes sense.

Different, Line, Lines, Places, Rhymes, Rhyming

Way across the country where the hillside mountains glide, the dynamo of your smile caressed the barefoot virgin child.

Across, Child, Children, Country, Hillside, Your Smile

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