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I was a little kid when Gloria was first released, but it was a big deal in its day, that's for sure. The song that really made me sit up and take notice of Van was Wild Night. All the girls walk by
Dressed up for each other
Did John Mellencamp cover this song? Youtube brings a bunch of videos that credit Wild Night to Mellencamp--how funny, reminds me of the kids who think that Alien Ant Farm originated Smooth Criminal.
Anyway, I like this guy's Wild Night cover.
Like Neil Young, Van has never been one to stay with one particular style of music for long. Musically he is all over the board. He never has gone multi platinum with any of his recordings (and there are a lot of them), but I don't think that's his thing anyway. To me, his music seems more like personal statements.
When you're talking about his strongest album, you definitely have to point to Moondance, his 1970 lp. To this day, you can count on AOR radio to always play more cuts off that lp than his others. And great songs they were; Moondance, Into The Mystic, Crazy Love, and Caravan. The one song that is a bigger surprise is Come Running, surprisingly that song was pressed as a 45 in 1977, 7 years after the album Moondance hit the record stores.
IMO he is also a very private person. I rarely see much in regards to interviews with him. And in regards to touring, he doesn't do a huge amount of that either. Still he is a huge talent. One of my favorite songs of his was his performance at The Bands final concert in November 1976, released on vinyl and cd. He does a great job on "Caravan". I remember reading (don't remember which magazine) that for the most part he is uncomfortable being on stage, explaining the reason why he doesn't tour a huge amount. I am not sure if that is true or not.
I personally like Van Morrison, but I say one thing during his live concert of Astral Weeks, at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back, I'm sorry but I could not understand a word that man said! I've listened to the original album and I kinda like it, very free flowing music with plenty of emphasis on imagery, but nowadays the poor man's just hard to understand. Otherwise, I'd definitely say he's a legend.
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