Van Morrison was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up listening to his father’s collection of jazz records.
He learned to play the guitar, saxophone, and harmonica as a teen.
He dropped out of school at the age of 15 to join an R&B band as a saxophonist.
He achieved local, and eventually national, success for his band, Them, for hits like “Don’t Start Crying Now” and “Gloria”.
Morrison pursued a solo career and gained popularity. One of his well known songs is “Brown Eyed Girl”. The song was originally supposed to be titled “Brown Skinned Girl”, which would depict an interracial relationship, but it was changed to make it more playable for the radio in 60s.
His music style has ranged from jazz and strings to R&B to rock ‘n’ roll.
Morrison is actually a very introverted individual who rarely gives interviews, and finds it difficult to explain his own lyrics.
He stopped performing for a period of time because of frustration with manipulation in the music industry.
His various albums often reflected his spiritual beliefs at that particular time.
Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
He looks up to artists such as Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Timeline
1945: Van Morrison is born as George Ivan Morrison in Belfast
1960: Morrison drops out of school to join the band the Monarchs
1965: Morrison’s band, Them, scores hit singles “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Here Comes the Night”
1966: Them disbands after an unsuccessful U.S. tour
1967: Morrison’s solo career hit “Brown Eyed Girl” reaches the U.S. Top 10
1968: Morrison came out with Astral Weeks, still considered one of his most powerful works
1970: His next album, Moondance, had a more R&B sound, traded for his previous jazz and strings stye
1985: Morrison released A Sense of Wonder, which displayed his continuing spiritual journey
1993: Morrison is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1996: His song “Days Like This” is adopted as a peace anthem for Northern Ireland and Morrison receives an Order of the British Empire title
Present: Morrison’s body of work continues to grow and change today
Video Footage of Van Morrison Perfoming "Have I Told You Lately"
Song Analysis: “Madame George”
Van Morrison is ultimately one of the most well-known and celebrated artists of his time. He can play a variety of instruments, including guitar, saxophone, and the harmonica. In addition to that, Morrison also has a talent as an emotionally evocative songwriter and poet. His songs frequently feature numerous poetic devices, both simple and sophisticated. This combination provides for a great understanding for the listener. Morrison’s songs are often really stories: told through poetry and set to a smooth jazz sound. While the majority of his songs exemplify Morrison’s love of poetry, “Madame George” is full of various poetic devices, from onomatopoeia to imagery.
“Madame George” starts off with a quick allusion to one of Morrison’s other well known songs, “Cyprus Avenue”. Morrison writes, “Down on Cyprus Avenue, with a childlike vision leaping into view”. This line also features personification, suggesting that a vision or idea can be “leaping” . The song proceeds to say “clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe”, which is an example of onomatopoeia. The line of “Ford & Fitzroy, Madame George” shows the first of many uses of alliteration in the song. A simile takes form in the line, “the cool night air like Shalimar” , and also local color because of the mention of Shalimar, a town in Ireland, where Van Morrison is originally from. An example of imagery in the song comes from the line, “kids out in the street collecting bottle-tops”; it is easy to imagine children playing in a road looking around for bottle-tops. “Sitting on a sofa” is another example of alliteration, specifically of consonance. Another line, “On that train from Dublin up to Sandy Row”, shows yet even more of Morrison’s frequent use of local color. “The rain, hail, sleet, and snow” is also an example of imagery. You do not have to look hard to find the clear use of poetic devices in Morrison’s writing.
“Madame George” is just one of many Van Morrison songs that are known for the poetic writing style. He has known to influence more modern artists such as Bruce Springsteen, the Counting Crows, and Elvis Costello. Although he has a reputation for being introverted, gruff, and stubborn, Morrison’s songwriting has the essence of a soulful man who dreams of love. He refused to let critics pin-point his religious beliefs through his music, but his writing always had a mystic and spiritual feel. It is said that one of his major themes in writing was the healing power of music. Van Morrison can be argued to be the best musical poet of his generation.
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