Teebs Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 He is a master of this: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/31/a-duel-with-van-morrison-is-this-a-psychiatric-examination-it-sounds-like-one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 And a fantastic comment from BTL: Interview with Spike Milligan - Spike: "Van, now that's a strange name. The only other Van I knew was Van Driver. Van: actually laughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Back in the day, at a talk given by a chap who had at one point been in Van Morrison's band, a story was told regarding the last day of the tour, when before the gig each member of the band took one of Van's harmonicas, and wiped it up the crack of their derriere, then replaced it back on the rack. Such was the regard in which he was held. A challenging man to work for/with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 1 hour ago, MacDaddy said: Back in the day, at a talk given by a chap who had at one point been in Van Morrison's band, a story was told regarding the last day of the tour, when before the gig each member of the band took one of Van's harmonicas, and wiped it up the crack of their derriere, then replaced it back on the rack. Such was the regard in which he was held. A challenging man to work for/with. I heard that story too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 1 hour ago, Burns-bass said: I heard that story too. +1 Apparently VM had the habit of starting the soundcheck, then disappearing for a while leaving the band onstage not knowing what was going on. This happened a lot during the tour so revenge was sought I believe. May be true, maybe not... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 What a prize pink torpedo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 (edited) Having read the article it's clear that the journo went in there demanding lots of revelatory detail and philosophical musings from The Great Man. When she didn't get it she threw a strop. Let's look at just one of those exchanges. Journo asks Morrison why the band played Moondance and Brown Eyed Girl the previous night: Quote “Cos those are the ones the band learned,” he says, when asked why he chose to unveil those two. “I don’t know, is this a psychiatric examination?” It is not. “It sounds like one,” he says. “The band learned those two songs, so those are the ones they knew. There’s not really any great intellectual Bernard Levin debate, you know. It’s just, it’s just … it’s just music, that’s all it is." “You’re making a big thing about it and it’s not a big deal,” he continues. “It’s what I do. I don’t know what you do, you’re probably a journalist, that’s what you do.” This is not about me, I tell him. “Well, what are ya? Are you a journalist, what are ya?” He looks at me with a kind of disdain. I dutifully reel off the various components of my career. “OK, well, I do music,” he says. “I sing and I write songs and I do gigs. So to me that’s not interesting. You’re trying to make it very, very interesting and something it’s not. Playing gigs is very practical. It’s very repetitive. And it’s no big deal. I’ve been doing it all my life.” For a moment I consider telling him to grow up. I'm no fan of either Morrison or his music but it seems pretty clear to me that the journo didn't get what she wanted so she's turned the interview into a hatchet job. The most revealing bit's here: Quote (Instead) I look him in the eye and tell him that I am not trying to psychoanalyse him, that his music has simply meant more to me than any other throughout my life. There is something that moves across his face but I could not name it. “Aehhh,” he breathes. What the journo exemplifies here is the notion of 'fan ownership' - the idea that because one is a fan the artist owes you something in return - in fatal combination with the commonplace but entirely idiotic idea that an artist's music must by default be motivated by analysable philosophical principles. In other words, the fool's notion that everything has to have a meaning. Morrison's position is that he just does what he does. Quote "I don’t need to probe what I do. You know?” His voice is flinty. “It comes naturally. It is what it is, as they say. There’s not a lot of intellectual pondering about what I’m doing, it’s very kind of instinctive and intuitive, and that’s it.” Frankly, I think most of us here would agree with this position and if some journo insisted on viewing us through the prism of their own expectations and kept telling us that 'there must be more to it' then I think we'd probably be even less accommodating than the old curmudgeon. Perhaps this is why Van's got the permanent hump. I'd be the same. Edited October 31, 2019 by skankdelvar 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
songofthewind Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Why does he do interviews, then? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 (edited) 12 minutes ago, songofthewind said: Why does he do interviews, then? Contractual obligations? Record company / management pressure? Doesn't really matter. Van Morrison interviews are always like pulling teeth and I suspect that the journo went in there without having read many of his previous encounters with the media. If she'd troubled to prepare herself she'd have known what to expect and planned accordingly. Instead, she fell into the same trap that most journos do, which is to assume that he's going to be impressed by their assumed 'understanding' of his work and will therefore open up to them where he hasn't with anyone else. Edited October 31, 2019 by skankdelvar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 To be fair, I think she was trying to do the exact opposite of that and actually tried to engage him about the practicalities of his job rather than trying to tease out any hidden meanings. And she successfully called his bluff too (or rather he tried and failed to call hers) when the topic shifted onto his preferred jazz musicians. I'd wager that the journalist knew *exactly* what to expect and was taking a circumspect approach. Despite this Van, artlessly and irrelevantly, used all his standard "defenses"... I mean, does asking about why a couple of old songs have been exhumed really count as a "psychiatric interview" or "intellectual debate"? It almost sounds like he nearly let the facade slip when the journalist in desperation actually appealed to some sort of personal connection - the exact opposite of how many of his interviews play out. I'm a huge fan of his music but I've not read one word about Morrison that suggests he's anything other than a deeply unpleasant man who revels in being contrary. And I don't buy that he only entertains interviewers under record company duress: this is a man who has kept some of his finest work out of print for years in order to maintain industry grudges. And I'm fairly certain that the same old lags will be buying his current LP regardless of whether the broadsheets run a feature on it or not. I can only read him one of two ways: he's either constantly reaching out to connect (hence his massive output) but is uncomfortable with/embarrassed by this OR he genuinely is joylessly doing the only job he can, and just happens to be brilliant at it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 To be fair to Van (whom I don't much like), he's not the music world's only - er - difficult interviewee. Our brother BC-er Mickeyboro often relates his disappointment on interviewing one of his musical heroes, Mr Warren Zevon. Likewise, I remember George Thorogood giving an interviewer a hard time. 'Why all these questions about guitars? Why can't we talk about baseball?' 'Er - because this is an interview for Guitar World, George' Thing is, some journos expect personal stuff from the interviewee because that's what many of them want to talk about, being rampant narcissists and all. As a result, journos expect everyone to open up about the deep stuff. So, in this instance we have to ask ourself if the journo might be overly pre-occupied with the Inner Artist? Here are Laura Barton's most recent Guardian artist interviews over the last year with headline and sub-head: Carrie Underwood: 'I'd put on a happy face, then go home and fall apart' As she prepares to take Glastonbury by storm, the country star opens a bottle of red wine and talks about the personal tragedy that coloured her new songs Lazarus: the Malawian busker overturning prejudice about albinism Madonna called him ‘a powerful voice of a new generation’ – but musician Lazarus Chigwandali is still coming to terms with hearing himself on record for the first time Sharon Van Etten: ‘The more I let go, the more I progress as a human being’ Known for complex songs about the dark side of love, the acclaimed singer-songwriter is back with a fifth album that explores synths, rock anthems, mental health and motherhood Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on addiction, obsession and politics: 'White men are very fragile' Over 30 years, Tweedy has battled drugs, alcohol and in-fighting to become one of the US’s most revered musicians. Now he has turned his experiences into a memoir and a solo album Beth Ditto: 'I don't think I can act. I'm just really good at talking' The Gossip frontwoman has started acting, and her first role is a ‘redneck loud woman’ in the new Gus Van Sant film. She talks about the real women behind the southern stereotypes. Case closed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I think the whole point of musicians' interviews (outside of the highly technical but usually otherwise mundane/inane ones instrument mags) is to cater to the the very natural need the public have to better understand the people whose art has affected them. The artists themselves often value the opportunity to contextualize and add perspective. So the examples you list above are really the "normal" stuff: artists talking about the things their fans want to know about. This is not some "preoccupation with the inner artist" - this is someone doing the job that people want them to do: the alternative would be the unchallenging, technical, hagiographic approach of the instrument-specific magazines. Van has a long history of not indulging the former approach and often striving to characterize his art as "work", expressing frustration that interviewers (and people in general) are not sufficiently aware of the artists that he apparently holds dear. This interviewer seemed to know this and took a pragmatic approach and yet he still acted like a spoilt child, and didn't even have a pithy retort to hand. As I say above, he has no need to do any interviews - he could have made it part of his current contract or even provided interviewers with a list of pre-approved topics or questions. But he doesn't, he prefers to play the curmudgeon - when it would be far more eloquent (and befitting of his artistic legacy) to say nothing at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Dankology said: I think... You are - of course - entitled to your opinion. I find myself at variance but that's OK because we all have different views and perspectives. Edited October 31, 2019 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) As far as "classic Van" goes, out of the two, this one is the more appealing and by far, the least boring of the pair. Edited November 1, 2019 by leschirons 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 18 minutes ago, leschirons said: "classic Van" goes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky 4000 Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 10 hours ago, MacDaddy said: Back in the day, at a talk given by a chap who had at one point been in Van Morrison's band, a story was told regarding the last day of the tour, when before the gig each member of the band took one of Van's harmonicas, and wiped it up the crack of their derriere, then replaced it back on the rack. Such was the regard in which he was held. A challenging man to work for/with. Ahhhh, that's probably why he once said this in an interview for Smash Hits: Quote Van: I always know when one of my tours is coming to an end. Some people think it's a sixth sense, but it's actually when my harmonicas taste a bit 'anusy'... which is pretty weird when you think about it. 🤣 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikNik Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) 20 hours ago, MacDaddy said: Back in the day, at a talk given by a chap who had at one point been in Van Morrison's band, a story was told regarding the last day of the tour, when before the gig each member of the band took one of Van's harmonicas, and wiped it up the crack of their derriere, then replaced it back on the rack. Such was the regard in which he was held. A challenging man to work for/with. I know that one. It's true. His Musical Director instigated it. Edited November 1, 2019 by NikNik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 I was on the M25 a few weeks ago when I noticed Van Morrison coming up behind me. Then I realised that I was seeing a reversed image in the rear view mirror and it was actually a Morrisons Van. 1 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted November 2, 2019 Share Posted November 2, 2019 What's really revealing about the interview, is at the end Morrison reveals he's been channelling @Teebs all along: Quote In the top left hand corner he has drawn an angry rectangle. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted November 2, 2019 Share Posted November 2, 2019 2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said: What's really revealing about the interview, is at the end Morrison reveals he's been channelling @Teebs all along: Might have been even funnier if he'd said 'an angry rectum', thus hinting he knew about the harmonica incidents...? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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