"The great Irish poet, the Bard of Belfast” - Bob Dylan on Van Morrison, Theme Time Radio Hour.
George Ivan Morrison, OBE, was born on August 31, 1945. Van the Man and Bob Dylan have been friends and mutual admirers for decades.
Morrison grew up in Belfast, Ireland. His father, George, traveled to Detroit in the early 1950s, and brought back a massive and diverse collection of vinyl, which educated and influenced the younger Morrison.
Dick Rowe - the man who turned down the Beatles - signed Morrison's band, Them, to Decca Records. They had a string of hit singles, including "Baby Please Don't Go"/"Gloria", "Here Comes The Night", "Mystic Eyes", and a cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". This recording was sampled by Beck on his 1996 track, "Jack-Ass".
After Morrison left Them, the band's producer Bert Burns convinced him to come to New York to record in 1967. The sessions produced Morrison's most popular song. "Brown-Eyed Girl". Burns died suddenly on December 30, 1967, and Morrison was soon involved in some contractual disputes. He moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he hung out with DJ and future J. Geils singer Peter Wolf, who promoted Morrison on his radio program. (Wolf also hung out with Dylan in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s.)
To be continued . . .
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