28 Van Morrison Quotes on Music

Van Morrison quotes on music

1. Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

2. With Moondance, I wrote the melody first. I played the melody on a soprano sax and I knew I had a song so I wrote lyrics to go with the melody. That's the way I wrote that one. I don't really have any words to particularly describe the song, sophisticated is probably the word I'm looking for. For me, Moondance is a sophisticated song. Frank Sinatra wouldn't be out of place singing that.

3. Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, 'I'm starting here'...the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me.

6. When I was fifteen, I became a professional musician. I got involved with people and did certain things which led me to start making records and touring. And leaving Belfast and going to London and America, one thing led to another and I got caught up in the life that I'm living now...I was very young and i followed something. (1993)

8. Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity.

10. There is one thing I don't understand about Astral Weeks. Of all the records I have ever made that one is definitely not rock. You could throw that record at the wall, take it to music colleges, analyze it to death. Nobody is going to tell me that it is a rock album. Why they keep calling it one I have no idea.

12. I've never been comfortable working live, and I'm still not. I was always more music-oriented and less star-oriented, which is why I've never been comfortable on big stages in big halls.

13. The people I was listening to never sold a lot of records. John Lee Hooker was never on the charts, so I was never in it from a commercial point of view. Other people expected things from my records, but I never did.

25. Turn up your radio and let me hear the song Switch on your electric light Then we can get down to what is really wrong I long to hold you tight so I can feel you Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you.

26. And it stoned me to my soul Stoned me just like Jelly Roll And it stoned me And it stoned me to my soul Stoned me just like goin home And it stoned me.

30. By the winding stream we shall lie and dream We'll make dreams come true if we want them to Yes all will come play the pipes and drum Sing a happy song and we'll sing along.

35. And all the girls walk by Dressed up for each other And the boys do the boogie-woogie On the corner of the street And the people passin' by Just stare in wild wonder And the inside juke-box Roars out just like thunder.

52. Some people spend their time just runnin' round in circles Always chasing some exotic bird I prefer to spend some time just listening for that special something That I've never ever heard I like a new song to sing, another show or somewhere entirely different to be But baby you make me feel so free.

54. When you hear the music ringin' in your soul And you feel it in your heart and it grows and grows And it comes from the backstreet rock & roll and the healing has begun I want you to put on your pretty summer dress You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest And I wanna make love to you yes, yes, yes and the healing has begun.

57. Open your arms in the early mornin' When the light comes shinin' through Can't you hear my heart beat just for you? It's beating so wild, honey. And light comes shinin' Singin' my song And the band is playin' And the music is tried and true.

79. I'd love to write another song Baby especially for you I'd love to write another song And feel things bright and new In poetry I'd carve it well I'd even make it rhyme I'd love to write another song Just to get some peace of mind.

90. Albums are not the whole picture. You really need to go to loads of gigs to get the whole picture. That's really what it's about.

93. Every performance is different. That's the beauty of it.

94. Hearing the blues changed my life.

97. I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple.

101. Music has been taken over by commercialism or capitalism or whatever it is.

107. My first impression of Van Morrison was that he was a terrific singer. No, I take that back. I thought he was a really dirty singer. Everything he did had a real big pair of balls to it.

108. Van Morrison is interested, obsessed with how much musical or verbal information he can compress into a small space, and, almost, conversely, how far he can spread one note, word, sound, or picture.

109. He has this great poetic and fantastic voice and what I love about Van, and what I forget to do sometimes is, well I can tell when Van is just like drifting into sort of a zone he just drifts into a place where the whole world is shut out and you can tell that he's in that spot. It's almost a dream-like, trance-like state, singing sometimes. That's really what music is all about. It's almost a jazz concept if you know what I mean - you just kinda go out and you're just wingin' it and I love that about Van, he will risk that, he will go on and on and on and he won't fade the ending before the magic happens, as it were.

110. Morrison remains a singer who can be compared to no other performer in the history of rock 'n' roll, a singer who can not be pinned down, dismissed or fitted into anyone's expectations. He is a conundrum.

111. They asked me to come to New York to help celebrate Van's induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. I went because I see Van as one of the cats that has kept the faith. Like me, he's always himself - he stays true to the music that means the most to him. It meant a lot to sing 'Crazy Love' on stage that evening.

112. Van Morrison should be friggin' canonized

114. I love Van Morrison because he always seems to be searching, never found. I don't know about his personal life but in his music he gives the listener only a question. The answer lies elsewhere to be attained someday