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It's the same thing as a primitive of Africans, Indians, nomads or whatever - when they start getting up and doing their ritual and doing the dance, it's just what's coming through. It's the spirit. Rock 'n' roll is still primitive.
Van Morrison -
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.
Van Morrison
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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.
Van Morrison -
I was just getting tired of the image bullshit...that man of mystery trip and what have you. What's that all about?
Van Morrison -
I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.
Van Morrison -
I deliberately try not to cater for the commercial market, so I can't see myself in competition, you know, with second or third generation rock stars.
Van Morrison -
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.
Van Morrison -
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.
Van Morrison
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Won't You guide me through the dark night of the soul That I may better understand Your way... Let me purify my thoughts and words and deeds That I may be a vehicle for Thee... Give me my rapture today.
Van Morrison -
You learn to read the audiences after a while, and there are all different kinds of gigs.
Van Morrison -
The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on.
Van Morrison -
When I first started drinking, everybody was doing it. That was before they discovered marijuana and all that. It was the late 50s, early 60s - it was the beginnings of the rock 'n' roll era. The main drink was like wine. And even that was a romantic throwback to something.
Van Morrison -
I put out records to this day that are not necessarily in a sequence of anything. Some could be written a while back, some not. There is no set pattern.
Van Morrison -
I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.
Van Morrison
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A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.
Van Morrison -
[Touring] is not necessarily a priority. It's just a part of who I am as a performer. That's obviously why I'm doing it; why I'm in this business is part of me has to perform.
Van Morrison -
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.
Van Morrison -
My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me.
Van Morrison -
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.
Van Morrison -
My thinking musically has always been more advanced - it is difficult to get it down onto paper sometimes, even now.
Van Morrison
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When I started you were more in touch with the people you were playing to. There wasn't the distance or the separation that there is now.
Van Morrison -
There's a million things that come through when you put songs together and it's kind of difficult to pinpoint exactly what triggers it on every occasion. It's just like somebody writing a screenplay or something like that.
Van Morrison -
What you see is what you get.
Van Morrison -
I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.
Van Morrison