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When that rough god goes riding: listening to Van Morrison PDF

209 Pages·2010·1.087 MB·English
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prints 4-color C, M, (803), K + silver PMS 877. Printer swap process yellow for PMS 803 for all instances (art + type) Glossy lamination Music/BioGraphy w “[A] series of nonfiction short stories…” h —peTer GersTenzanG, e new York TiMes book review n t h a t Greil Marcus r o u G h This book is a quesT G to understand Van Morrison’s particular genius. In his long o career of extraordinary and unclassifiable moments, beginning in 1965 and continu- d ing in full force to this day: sometimes entire songs, sometimes single words or even the G guttural spaces between words that become musical events in themselves. o e s w hen “ [E]xplores moments of contradiction, sublime beauty, audacity, failure, and grace in the r singer-songwriter’s career with a keen ear, weaving the rich thoughtfulness we’ve come i d to expect from one of America’s best cultural critics and historians into an elegantly i that structured series of staccato essays.” —roberT loss, popMaTTers.coM n G “As erudite and opinionated as Morrison is mercurial and expressive.” —Jon breaM, Minneapolis sTar Tribune rouGh “ Superbly fulfills criticism’s primary function: It sends you for the first or 100th time to the works of art on which it muses, better equipped to experience what’s always been there.” G —Jon repp, cleveland plain-dealer r God e listeninG to van Morrison i l Greil Marcus M is the author of Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus, Writings 1968–2010 Goes a (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Shape of Things to Come, Like a Rolling Stone (PublicAffairs, r 2006), The Old Weird America, and other books; a twentieth-century anniversary edition c of his book Lipstick Traces was published in 2009. With Werner Sollors he is the editor of u ridinG A New Literary History of America, published in 2009 by Harvard University Press. Since s 2000 he has taught at Princeton, Berkeley, Minnesota, and the New School in New York; his column “Real Life Rock Top 10” appears regularly in The Believer. He lives in Berkeley. $13.99/$16.50 CAN CCOOVVEERR DPHESOITGONS B©Y GREOTBT GY RIOMMAGES ISBN 978-1-58648-952-6 AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK 51399 visiT www.publicaffairsbooks.coM siGn up for our newsleTTer 9 781586489526 9781586489526-text_Layout 1 1/18/11 10:18 AM Page i Praise for When That Rough God Goes Riding “Writing about the songs of Van Morrison is rightly seen as something of a paradox. Perhaps that’s because, for all his scholarly use of multiple musical styles and his reference to Yeats and Joyce, the Belfast Cowboy’s work is more sensual than it is intellectual. Which makes the renowned rock critic Greil Marcus, who’s written definitively on Elvis and Bob Dylan, the right man to plumb that work. Combining an incantatory prose style with careful reporting and inventive, sometimes in- furiating judgments, Marcus manages to illuminate Morrison’s cerebral soul music—even if, as the singer once claimed, ‘the process is beyond words.’” —Peter Gerstenzang, New York Times Book Review “No critical testimonial is more welcome than this assessment of Morrison’s work by one of America’s most astute cultural critics. . . . Marcus is informed and insightful. Particularly illu- minating are his observations on the tensions between Morri- son’s roles as singer and songwriter, and on Morrison’s ongoing ‘quest for the yarragh’—fleeting, elusive moments of transcen- dence. Morrison’s volatile idiosyncrasy and diverse oeuvremake his career difficult to appraise, but Marcus convinces us of its singular importance.” —Gordon Flagg, Booklist “[Marcus is] literate, brainy, and fearless in making cross-genre comparisons.” —Jeff Baker,Portland Oregonian “Written in prose as free-associative as the music it concerns, When That Rough God Goes Ridingderives energy from the fact that Marcus was present at many of the landmark moments he’s exegizing.” —Ted Scheinman, Washington City Paper 9781586489526-text_Layout 1 1/18/11 10:18 AM Page ii “When That Rough God Goes Riding explores moments of con- tradiction, sublime beauty, audacity, failure, and grace in the singer-songwriter’s career with a keen ear, weaving the rich thoughtfulness we’ve come to expect from one of America’s best cultural critics and historians into an elegantly structured series of staccato essays which reveal Marcus’ fascination with Van Morrison’s music.” —Robert Loss, Popmatters.com “This is the book that Van Morrison’s artistry has long deserved, and The Man’s devotees will celebrate its blend of eloquence, pas- sionate scholarship and soulfulness. [When That Rough God Goes Riding] superbly fulfills criticism’s primary function: It sends you for the first or 100th time to the works of art on which it muses, better equipped to experience what’s always been there.” —Jon Repp, Cleveland Plain-Dealer “[Marcus’] ability to couple shrewd music criticism, historical perspective, and broader genre analysis makes his work an adventurous read. . . . Marcus doesn’t attempt to tidily summa- rize Morrison’s life and career, but he does provide plenty of thought-provoking insights into this enigmatic performer, and his slipstream of references results in a fascinating meditation on Morrison’s oeuvre. You wind up wanting to pull out and listen to your Morrison albums and hunt down the many boot- leg recordings that Marcus references here, searching for that elusive yarragh.” —Michael Berick, San Francisco Chronicle “Marcus is a smart respite from the raging stupidity and anti- intellectualism on every front, and yet knows how to have rock ‘n’ roll fun at the same time.” —Michael Simmons, LA Weekly 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 1/25/10 9:39 AM Page iii WHEN THAT ROUGH GOD GOES RIDING LISTENING TO VAN MORRISON GREIL MARCUS PublicAffairs New York 9781586489526-text_Layout 1 1/18/11 3:18 PM Page iv Copyright © 2010 by Greil Marcus Hardcover first published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Paperback first published in 2011 in the United States by PublicAffairs All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. “It’s All in the Game” lyrics by Carl Sigman, music by Charles Gates Dawes. Copyright © 1951 (renewed) by Music Sales Corporation. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at thePerseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Designed by Trish Wilkinson Text set in 11.5 Minion Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marcus, Greil. When that rough god goes riding : listening to Van Morrison / Greil Marcus. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-58648-821-5 (alk. paper) 1. Morrison, Van, 1945– —Criticism and interpretation. 2. Rock music—History and criticism. I. Title. ML420.M63M37 2010 782.42164092—dc22 2010001656 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58648-952-6 E-book ISBN: 978-1-61039-018-7 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 1/25/10 9:39 AM Page v CONTENTS Northern Muse. Greek Theatre, Berkeley. 3 May 2009 ix Introduction 1 PART ONE A GRIMY CINDERELLA IN A PURPLE STAGE SUIT Mystic Eyes. 1965 15 Tupelo Honey. 1971 18 Baby Please Don’t Go. 1965 23 John Brown’s Body. 1975 27 Caravan. The Last Waltz. 1976 29 It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue. 1966 36 PART TWO I’M GOING TO MY GRAVE WITH THIS RECORD Astral Weeks. 1968 43 Almost Independence Day. 1972. Listen to the Lion. 1972. Caledonia Soul Music. 1970 63 v 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 4/21/10 3:06 PM Page vi vi CONTENTS Moonshine Whiskey. 1971 73 Just Like a Woman. 1971 74 The Last Laugh, on Mark Knopfler, Sailing to Philadelphia. 2000 80 PART THREE A BELIEF IN THE BLUES AS A KIND OF CURSE ONE PUTS ON ONESELF Common One. 1980 . . . Tell Me Something. 1996 85 Linden Arden Stole the Highlights. 1974 96 Breakfast on Pluto. 2005 100 The Healing Game. 1997 110 PART FOUR THERE WAS NO FALSE FACE THE SONG COULD NOT ERASE Into the Music. 1979 125 Friday’s Child. 1971 134 Madame George. 1968 140 Saint Dominic’s Preview. 1996 157 Sweet Thing. 1968 163 Take Me Back.1991. Jennifer Jason Leigh, 1995 166 Mystic Eyes. Greek Theatre, Berkeley. 2009 175 Behind the Ritual. 2008 178 Acknowledgments 185 Index 187 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 1/25/10 9:39 AM Page vii For Dave Marsh 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 1/25/10 9:39 AM Page viii 9781586488215-text_Layout 1 1/25/10 9:39 AM Page ix NORTHERN MUSE. GREEK THEATRE, BERKELEY. 3 MAY 2009 T he fourteen-pieceband assembled for a concert in which Van Morrison was to perform the whole of his forty-one- year-old album Astral Weeks so dominated the stage you might not have even noticed the figure seated at the piano; the sound Morrison made when he opened his mouth seemed to come out of nowhere. It was huge; it silenced everything around it, pulled every other sound around it into itself—Morrison’s own fingers on the keys, the chatter in the crowd that was still going on because there was no announcement that anything was about to start, cars on the street, the ambient noise of the century-old open-air stone amphitheatre, where in 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt spoke, where in 1906 Sarah Bernhardt appeared to cheer on San Francisco as it dug out of its ruins, where in 1964 the student leader Mario Savio rose to speak to the ix

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