Van Morrison Quotes
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Large audiences did not suit my low-key approach.
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When I started studying tenor saxophone as a kid in Belfast, I did so with a guy named George Cassidy, who was also a big inspiration.
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I'll tell you what does impress me: the fact that a lot of the cats who were our idols are still out there doing it. That impresses me very much.
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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.
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People think I'm eccentric, cranky. If I'm eccentric because I've never been into mainstream things, then I am eccentric.
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I am about the arrangements and the layers of depth in the music.
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Singing is my profession - there is no plan B.
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I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.
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Well I've got to get out of the rat-race now I'm tired of the ways of mice and men And the empires all turning into rust again. Out of everything nothing remains the same That's why I'm cloud hidden Cloud hidden Whereabouts unknown.
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Joyous Sound evolved from a gospel influence. Actually it evolved out of sitting at a piano and just picking out a riff, a gospel type riff. It just seemed to come joyously-something about the song, about living in another place of joyous sounds. I'm not quite sure-that's one I'm trying to analyze. It just came out.
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These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over.
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I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.
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I have seen without perceiving I have been another man Let me pierce the realm of glamour So I know just what I am.
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The Eternal Kansas City song came from a dream sequence. It was actually kind of weird. I had this dream about a Kansas City type of thing while I was up at Stevie Winwood's place near Cheltenham, in Britain. I went into this small town and I was walking along and this dream thing was still in my head.
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I wanted to find out why I wasn't getting off on what I was doing and try and make some sense out of the evolution of it.
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If you're putting somebody down, you're doing it because you're just seeing a part of yourself that you don't like. That's all that is.
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The future is keeping you out of the present time.
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Have I told you lately that I love you, have I told you lately there's no one above you. Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness, ease my troubles, that's what you do.
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I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. That's what I do. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it.
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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.
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I think we're going a bit too fast at the minute. The rate we're going is like we're going over the edge of the hill.
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You've got to separate the singer and the songs.
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I don't think nostalgia has to be negative.
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I'm very lucky, I'm happy with life because my experiences led me to do what I had to do. I don't have any regrets whatsoever.