Post by petrolino on Jul 23, 2023 2:51:29 GMT
Van Morrison : '("I Can") Sing A Rainbow'
-
"The guitar wasn’t really that popular until Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt and these guys came along. I connected with that energy, watching them on TV. There was a programme on every night after dinner with Cliff Michelmore [ie. Highlight – an early magazine-type show that followed the 7pm news on BBC TV]. They had a folk singer every night. It would either be Rory McEwen, Rory with Alex McEwen, Cy Grant, Steve Benbow or Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor. I was really into what Rory was doing because my father had the Lead Belly records and Rory threw in a couple of Lead Belly songs. So that was really relatable. Also Steve Benbow played a cross section of Irish folk songs and English folk songs.
Alan Lomax had a radio programme then in the UK, every Sunday I think it was, and I had his American Folk Guitar book from which I was learning to play in the Carter Family style while all this was going on. So originally I wanted to be a folk singer, playing American, Irish, English folk."
- Van Morrison speaking with Billy Bragg in February 2023, MOJO
'Brown Eyed Girl' (1967, 'Blowin' Your Mind!')
- - - - - - -
'The Way Young Lovers Do' (1968, 'Astral Weeks')
'Into The Mystic' (1970, 'Moondance')
'I've Been Working' (1970, 'Street Choir')
'Wild Night' (1971, 'Tupelo Honey')
'Almost Independence Day' (1972, 'Saint Dominic's Preview')
'Hard Nose The Highway' (1973, 'Hard Nose the Highway' ... with Ms. Jackie DeShannon)
'Bulbs' (1974, 'Veedon Fleece')
