Here we have one of Van Morrison’s most soulful pieces of music, originally from one of his most underrated albums. Common One was released in 1980 and features six deeply moving extended jazz meditations that hawked back to Morrison’s classic Astral Weeks album in sound and texture. However, unlike Astral Weeks, this record’s release was […]
Today in Rock History – August 31
1965, During a North American tour The Beatles played two shows at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California to a total of 28,700 fans. 1968, The Move, The Pretty Things, The Crazy World Of Aurthur Brown, Orange Bicycle, Jefferson Airplane, Fairport Convention and Tyrannosaurus Rex all appeared at the first Isle Of Wight Festival […]
Today in Rock History – July 22
1963, The Beatles’ first US album, Introducing The Beatles was pressed by Vee-Jay Records, who thought they had obtained the legal rights from EMI affiliate, Trans-Global Records. When it was finally released in January, 1964, Capitol Records would hit Vee Jay with an injunction against manufacturing, distributing, advertising, or otherwise disposing of records by the […]
Today in Rock History – July 20
1965, Bob Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone.” The single becomes his first major hit, reaching number two on the US charts. The song remained on the charts for twelve weeks. It was recorded on June 15th and 16th at Columbia Studio A, on Seventh Avenue in New York. Then session musician Al Kooper improvised […]
Today in Rock History – July 5
1964, The Irish band Them, featuring Van Morrison, record “Gloria.” 1965, The Four Tops record their number five hit “It’s the Same Old Song,” which resembles their number one “I Can’t Help Myself.” 1965, Marty Balin and Paul Kantner formed a Folk-Rock group that would evolve into the Jefferson Airplane, the premier San Francisco psychedelic […]
Today in Rock History – June 20
1966, The Beatles release their album Yesterday & Today, featuring the band wearing butcher’s aprons on the front cover surrounded by decapitated baby dolls. At the time, some of the Beatles defended the use of the Butcher photograph. John Lennon said that it was “as relevant as Vietnam” and McCartney said that their critics were […]
Today in Rock History – June 16
1965, Bob Dylan recorded “Like A Rolling Stone” at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City, during sessions for the forthcoming Highway 61 Revisited album. Session musicians included Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, whose Hammond organ on “Like A Rolling Stone” became one of rock’s most recognizable sounds. 1965, The Who’s manager Chris Stamp goes […]
Today in Rock History – June 12
1964, The Beatles arrived in Adelaide, Australia and were greeted by an estimated 250,000 fans, who lined the ten mile route from the airport to the city center. The group gave their first four shows in Australia at the Centennial Hall, Adelaide over two nights, playing: I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Born To Sing” by Van Morrison
I’m always fascinated by how the record companies approach the marketing of their legacy artists. To the record company, legacy artists are loss leaders, they have name value but don’t sell the number of records they used to. Many of these artists are either kept on their label’s roster for their marquee value, or they […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison and Bob Dylan
Van Morrison is one of the few musicians who can breathe the same rarified air as Bob Dylan…and in my book, he is right up there on the Mt. Rushmore of rock. So here’s a clip of the Belfast bard and his royal Bobness performing one of Van’s classics from the “Moondance” album. The clip […]
