VAN MORRISON No Guru, No Method, No Teacher; 1986 Mercury; 1st US; INNER/LYRICS
$
30
$ 30
Sold For
Feb 25, 2018
Sold Date
Feb 24, 2018
Start Date
1
Number Of Bids
USA
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
VAN MORRISON
NO GURU, NO METHOD,
NO TEACHER
1986, Mercury
422-830 077-1 M-1
1st Edition
- No guru, no method, no teacher, no tunes — like most of his recorded work this decade, the latest epistle from pop's high priest of Celtic mysticism sounds on first approach like another meditative stroll through an outdoor folk-jazz chapel of Astral Weeks design.
- Serene hymns like "Oh the Warm Feeling" and "Foreign Window" are marvels of dynamic understatement.
- Morrison's lyrical equations between spiritual devotion and earthly love are gently buoyed by drummer Baba Trunde's feathery brushwork and the distant hosannas of a female backup quartet.
- It's a fragile, familiar schematic, laid out over haunting, circular melodies airbrushed with acoustic guitars and often abruptly broken up by Morrison's idiosyncratic vocal phrasing.
- But the lakeside calm of this record is fraught with an unexpected tension.
- In the otherwise bucolic "A Town Called Paradise," Morrison rips into the Springsteen-Seger generation of Van disciples ("Copycats ripped off my songs/Copycats ripped off my words/Copycats ripped off my melody") with a venomous grumble that sounds like Mark Knopfler with a toothache.
- "Ivory Tower," an upbeat whack of Stax & roll, is in turn a heated defense of his own uncommon art, not to mention the first real blast of prime "Domino"-style sing-along Morrison in some time.
- "Don't you know the price that I have to pay," he sings in the final verse, chewing on his words with righteous indignation.
- "Do you think that there's nothing to it/You should try it sometime."
- The first side of the album concludes with a vintage Morrison concert standard, and arguably the crowning achievement of the recording.
- “In the Garden” begins with precipitous piano, appearing through the mild steam after a summer afternoon rain.
- This song is one of Morrison’s finest moments, and possibly his greatest composition of the 1980s.
- In the end, though, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (a line from the sweet "Madame George"-like reverie "In the Garden") is Morrison's impatient declaration that his music is not to be confused with religious doctrine, a call to any particular altar.
- "Got to Go Back" reveals the spiritual core of Morrison's work when he recalls schoolboy days communing with Ray Charles records after class — "Oh that love that was within me/You know it carried me through" — and ultimately it is that kind of elemental soul that resonates throughout this album.
- "Breathe it in all the way down," Morrison instructs at one point in "Got to Go Back," "and breathe it out with a radiance."
- Then just bask in the glow.
Track listing
All songs written by Van Morrison
Side one
- "Got to Go Back" – 5:00
- "Oh the Warm Feeling" – 3:16
- "Foreign Window" – 5:20
- "A Town Called Paradise" – 6:13
- "In the Garden" – 5:46
Side two
- "Tir Na Nog" – 7:14
- "Here Comes the Knight" – 3:41
- "Thanks for the Information" – 7:16
- "One Irish Rover" – 3:30
- "Ivory Tower" – 3:34
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