The Boney 500: Song #3

[T_Bone0806]

3. INTO THE MYSTIC-VAN MORRISON (1970)
Album: Moondance

When I listen to this song, I do not want to be interrupted. I want to close my eyes and be taken away by the music and by Van the Man's magnificent
vocals. This song is spiritual for me, in a very profound way. I have already told some of my loved ones that, when the day comes that such a thing
becomes necessary (hopefully MANY years from now lol), this is the song I want played at the services accompanying my journey "Into The Mystic".
Enough morbidity. Let's talk about the superb combination of instrumentation: the tasteful subtlety of the acoustic guitars, the gentle touches of
the piano and the bass holding it all together in an understated way, the saxes..moving and powerful after the choruses, and PERFECTLY played in a hush
following the line "and when that foghorn blows..". And then there's that vocal I mentioned earlier. Wow. A master at his finest.




Two more days left!

[Ritterskoop]

Great song. I have a similar list, which includes Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".

[ghostjmf]

I love this song. Like so many other Van songs. Reputedly, sadly, like so many other great musicians, he is not so great in real life; the woman he wrote "Brown Eyed Girl" for can't these days stand to hear it when it comes on the radio, in supermarkets, etc.

I've always had a secret conceit that, mystical as Van always is, the local Mystic River (which is *not* very mystical, & is probably named after the Native American word/tribe "Missituck" that Mystic CT is named after) might have had some part in the song, as Van was living in Cambridge, MA around the time he wrote it.

[Vandal]

Excellent choice!

And I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And magnificently we will flow into the mystic

[Estonut]

Reputedly, sadly, like so many other great musicians, he is not so great in real life; the woman he wrote "Brown Eyed Girl" for can't these days stand to hear it when it comes on the radio, in supermarkets, etc.

I can find no support for this on the web. Do you know where you might have heard it?

[SportsFan68]

He is a master. Thanks for this wonderful lesser known song.

[ghostjmf]

Estonut:

Didn't hear it; read it.

There was a long retrospective article a few years ago about Morrison's time in Cambridge. Article was probably in a local publication. Print publication. Boston Phoenix? They folded a few years ago. Boston Magazine? It was too long an article for Improper Bostonian.

If it wasn't local, I'm pretty sure it wasn't NYTimes Mag or New Yorker.

They also interviewed people in the same article who were his backup band for local dates, told they'd be on his next album, then suddenly, they weren't.

[ghostjmf]

Estonut (oh ye of little faith):

I got this on one go from googling "van morrison in cambridge mass":

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-ente ... l-weeks/1/

Article doesn't specifically say Janet Rigsbee Morrison Minto was the inspiration for "Brown Eyed Girl" (though she was his girlfriend at the time he wrote it; she's from CA, not Belfast, her eye color was not given in the article, & in various interviews Morrison has given he has said song was supposed to be "Brown *Skinned* Girl" but his label/radio execs wouldn't have it; Van says a lotta stuff in interviews not borne out by fact-checking, though), but article did say she has to leave the supermarket when the song comes over the sound system.

Article pointedly does not detail the breakup, but gives info from Janet that it was not an amicable, as they always say when it is, one.

[ghostjmf]

Having looked up many articles on Janet Rigsbee Morrison Minto that would be exceedingly tedious to have to type the addresses for into this tablet, please believe me when I report that all articles about Morrison say that he is a loving father to all his kids. There's one story about him propping up Shana, his child w/ Janet, in a crib in the kitchen so he could sing to her at eye-level. Now, no jokes about *Van's* height.

[ghostjmf]

In one of many articles I've looked up, in one of Morrison's interviews he says he was going to call the song "Into the Mysty (or Misty? gotta go back to look up)". Which would make no sense at all, except turns out its a river in Ireland. Which I hope has a more scenic entrance into the ocean than Boston's Mystic River into Boston Harbor. Reportedly the original Rolling Stone review wondered why it was about the grimy Mystic River.

[ghostjmf]

So far I can't find a Mysty or Misty river in Ireland, Northern or Republic of. Morrison never said it was a river, just part of an alternate title. Some fans have thought he meant a river.