Van Morrison Biography, Photos and Posters

Van Morrison

Biography

Born: August 31, 1945
City and Country of Origin: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Music Training:
Awards: 1993 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; 2003 inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame; Grammys 1997 Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, "Don't Look Back;" 1995 Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?"
Top Recordings: "Brown Eyed Girl," "Sweet Thing," "Come Running," "Domino," "Blue Money," "Wild Night," "Have I Told You Lately," "Real Real Gone"
Van Morrison Biography: Irish born singer, George Ivan Morrison is a legendary Grammy Award-winning, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician during the last five decades. He plays a variety of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica, keyboards, drums, and saxophone. Featuring his characteristic growl — a unique mix of throaty folk, blues, Irish, scat, and Celtic influences — Morrison is widely considered one of the most unusual and influential vocalists in the history of rock and roll. Critic Greil Marcus has gone so far as to say that "no white man sings like Van Morrison."

Known as "Van the Man" by his fans, Morrison first rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Northern Irish band, Them, penning their seminal 1964 hit "Gloria". A few years later, Morrison left the band for a successful solo career.

Morrison grew up at 125 Hyndford Street in Bloomfield, East Belfast, Northern Ireland as the pampered, only child of George, a shipyard worker and Violet, a singer. He attined his taste in music from his father's record collection, musch of which had been acquired while working in Detroit, Michigan. He gained his inspriration from artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Ray Charles, Lead Belly and Solomon Burke.

When he was 12 his father bought him a guitar on which young Ivan learned to play rudimentary chords. He formed a band called the Sputniks which played at local movie houses. At 14 he formed a new band Midnight Special with whom he played at a school concert. When he ws turned down by a group called the Thunderbolts he coaxed his father into buying him a saxophone which he taught himself to play. He then joined the group as a sax player.

At 14 when he finished school he took a job as a window cleaner. He also played with the Harry Mack Showband. He would use many of the places and events from his childhood in his lyrics. At 17 he left home to tour Monarchs along with his boyhood friend, George Jones, who later founded the showband Clubsound. He joined a group called The Gamblers in 1964, but before their first performance the group changed its name to Them after a 50s horror flick. Soon Morrison found himself fronting the group which produced a number of hits including the standard "Gloria."

In June of 1966 Them headlined a 3 week residency at the famous Whisky-a-Go-Go where another Morrison, Jim was part of the opening act The Doors. Jim learned a lot from Van and the 2 young singers went on to become good friends.

After a dispute with their manager Morrison was ready to quit the music business, but was persuaded by producer, Bert Berns to go to New York to pursue a solo recording career on Bang REcords. It was from these recording sessions that the hit song "Brown Eyed Girl" emerged. After Bern's death in 1967 Morrison had a contract dispute with Bern's widow. This left Morrison in a malaise, which negatively affected his career, from which he was slow to recover.

After this he re-emerged recording for Warner Bros. Records. His first album for Warner was Astral Weeks which many believe to be his best work. In 1970 Morrison moved to Woodstock, NY and released the album Moondance in 1970. Over the next few years he released several more albums including His Band and the Street Choir.

In 1971, he moved with his family to a hilltop home in Fairfax, California and released another popular album, Tupelo Honey, which produced the hit single "Wild Night." By 1972 Morrison had begun to move in a new direction with both his music and his look. The result of this can be experienced on Saint Dominic's Preview an album which contained 2 top 100 hits Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)" and "Redwood Tree." The album became Morrison's highest charting album.

In 1973 MOrrison divorced his wife of 5 years, actress and model Janet (Planet) Rigsbee with whom he had a daughter, the singer-songwriter, Shana Morrison. Father and daughter have appeared on stage together several times.

After the album Veedon Fleece, in 1974, Morrison took a well deserved 3 year hiatus after 10 consecutive years without a break. Finally, in 1976 Morrison appeared at the farewell concert fotr The Band which took place on Thanksgiving Day. Morrison had good relationship with the group as they were neighbors in Woodstock, NY. The event is chronicled in the 1978 Martin Scorsese landmark concert film The Last Waltz.

The 1977 collaboration album with Dr. John would kick off a prolific period of song making for Morrison. The following year he released Wavelength, the fastest selling album of his career. The opening track "Kingdom Hall," was a biographical sketch of his early life spent around Jehovah's Witnesses and foreshadowed his the religious theme of his next album Into the Music. The album was hailed as a masterpiece.

The 80s signalled a creative swing in Morrison's music with the unclassifiable Common One, recorded in the French Alps. In 1982 he returned to his Belfast roots with Beautiful Vision. Throughout the 80s Morrison's themes focused on spirituality and faith. No Guru, No Method, No Teacher released in 1986 stuck to this trend and earned him enthusiastic reviews from some critics and less favorable reviews from those uncomfortable with his religious content. Morrison continued to record through the decade with albums like Irish Heartbeat, with the Irish group, The Chieftains, and Avalon Sunset, which featured the hit duet with Cliff Richard.

Morrison has continued to perform and record through the 90s with performances like his guest appearance at Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, and his performance in front of 60-80 thousand people for U.S President Bill Clinton's visit to Belfast Ireland on November 30, 1995. He has also recorded albums like Enlightened which produced the hit single "Real Real Gone," The Healing Game, in 1997, The Philosopher's Stone and 1999's Back on Top.

He has also received a number of honorariums like an OBE awarded to him by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his service to music, an honorary doctorate in music from Queen's University in his hometown of Belfast, in 2001, and an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Ulster, in 1997.

Morrison has continued his career into the new millennium with albums like the collaboration with Linda Gail Lewis (Jerry Lee Lewis's sister), You Win Again, Down the Road released in 2002, the blues album What's Wrong with This Picture, and 2005's Magic Time. On April 16, 2007 it was announced by Manhattan EMI that a new 2CD compilation album The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3 will be released on June 11, 2007 UK and on June 12 in the US that will contain 31 tracks, some of which are previously unreleased.

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