Artists who have appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine is our prompt for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. What a fantastic subject suggested by our host Jim Adams! It was fun just scrolling through the list going back to the 1960s. My choice is probably my most favorite artist of all time, Van Morrison. He appeared on issue #62 July 9, 1970. The song I picked is ‘Someone Like You’, a favorite of mine. It was written and recorded much later than the magazine issue.
The Song
“Someone Like You” is a song written by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison and recorded on his seventeenth studio album, Poetic Champions Compose (1987). It has become a wedding and movie classic and the song subsequently furnished the framework for one of Morrison’s most popular classics and love ballads, “Have I Told You Lately”, released in 1989.
In 1987, the single charted at number 28 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary in the U.S.In 2019, it peaked at #1 on the Ireland radio airplay chart.
Only the Lonely (1991) Prelude to a Kiss (1992) French Kiss (1995) One Fine Day (1996) Someone Like You (2001) Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) American Sniper (2014)
Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett was a huge fan of Van Morrison. When the actress was dying of cancer and too sick to attend one of his concerts, the Irish singer taped it especially for her. It was one of the last things she ever watched.
I've been searching a long time
Someone exactly like you
I've been traveling all around the world
Waiting for you to come through
Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you
I've been travelin' a hard road
Baby, lookin' for someone exactly like you
I've been carryin' my heavy load
Waiting for the light to come shining through
Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you
I've been doin' some soul searching
To find out where you're at
I've been up and down the highway
In all kinds of foreign lands
Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you
I've been all around the world
Marching to the beat of a different drum
But just lately I have realized
Maybe the best is yet to come
Someone like you makes it all worth while
Someone like you keeps me satisfied
Someone exactly like you
Someone exactly like you
Someone exactly like you
Writer/s: Van Morrison
Publisher: BMG Rights Management
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Welcome to another Song Lyric Sunday post! This week we have been given the prompts of Carnival, Festival, Gala, Jamboree and Party suggested by Lady A.
I have chosen a song that I have liked for some time called “Carnival” by Natalie Merchant. It has a moody sound that appeals to me so hope you like it.
Just for fun, and because I have not used a Van Morrison song in a long time, I am indulging myself today. His song, “And It Stoned Me” begins with the line “Half a mile from the county fair” Albeit just one line referencing a carnival but it fits the prompt. It is also one of my favorite Morrison songs, Enjoy them both!
The Song
Natalie Merchant grew up in rural Jamestown, New York, which is in the western part of the state south of Buffalo. That’s where she formed 10,000 Maniacs in 1981, a group she was with until 1993 when she left to go solo. This track from her first album is what she calls her “New York song,” as it’s written about New York City.
Merchant explained in a VH1 Storytellers appearance: “‘Carnival’ really evokes for me what it’s like to walk down any avenue in the City. I grew up in the country, so the nearest thing I ever experienced to walking down the street in New York before I was 16 and I came here for the first time was a carnival – the Stockton Gala Days actually. I’d never seen people walking down the street eating before – that was a bizarre experience. We in the country sit down to take our meals – that just blew me away.
Something else I’d never seen before were the gentlemen with the two-sided placards that hand out invitations to peep shows, but I never seemed to get one – they always picked the guys around me. It’s an amazing city, but what I love about it even more than places like Los Angeles is that everybody at sometime has to deal with other people. It’s not a car culture here. I like that: people have to rub against each other. I like to take the subway, I like to study people’s faces, try to imagine their stories. In the song, I see the city as a stage, as a spectacle, as a carnival, and as a madhouse, because sometimes it is that, it’s a totally insane place to live. When I was 16 and I visited for the first time, I said, ‘I’m going to live here someday.’ You’ve got to be careful what you wish for because sometimes it comes true.”
This song was played at the funeral of serial killer Aileen Wuornos as part of her final request. She had listened to the song and the entire album Tigerlily continually while on death row. When confronted with this, Natalie was initially shocked but gave permission to use the song in the documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, saying that “It’s very odd to think of the places my music can go once it leaves my hands. If it gave her some solace, I have to be grateful.” Wuornos was also the subject of the film Monster.
Merchant performed this song, along with “Wonder,” on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by David Schwimmer in 1995.
The Lyrics
Well, I've walked these streets
A virtual stage, it seemed to me
Makeup on their faces
Actors took their places next to me
Well, I've walked these streets
In a carnival, of sights to see
All the cheap thrill seekers vendors and the dealers
They crowded around me
Have I been blind have I been lost
Inside myself and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?
Well, I've walked these streets
In a spectacle of wealth and poverty
In the diamond markets the scarlet welcome carpet
That they just rolled out for me
And I've walked these streets
In the madhouse asylum they can be
Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet
On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
Have I been blind, have I been lost
Inside myself and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen
Have I been wrong, have I been wise
To shut my eyes and play along
Hypnotized, paralyzed by what my eyes have found
By what my eyes have seen
What they have seen?
Have I been blind
Have I been lost
Have I been wrong
Have I been wise
Have I been strong
Have I been hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have found
In that great street carnival
Have I been blind
Have I been lost
Have I been wrong
Have I been wise
Have I been strong
Have I been hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have found
In that great street carnival
In that carnival
Writer/s: PETER ANDERS SVENSSON, MAGNUS SVENINGSSON, NINA PERSSON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Courtesy of Songfacts
Van Morrison
The Song
The song is about an experience Morrison had when he was 12 years old. After a day of fishing outside a village named Ballystockart in his native Ireland, Morrison and his friends stopped in one of the village’s houses, where they saw an old man sitting inside. In Steven Turner’s Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now, Morrison describes him as “dark weather-beaten.”
Morrison and his friends asked the man for water, and he gave them some he’d gotten from a nearby stream. As Morrison drank the stream water he slipped into mystical experience. “Time stood still,” he says in Too Late to Stop Now. “For five minutes everything was really quiet and I was in this other dimension. “That’s what the song is about.” “And It Stoned Me” is the first track on Van Morrison’s third album, Moondance. He recorded the song at Warner Publishing Studio in New York City in the summer of 1969. In the chorus, Morrison sings, “stoned me just like Jelly Roll,” most likely referring to jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton. Morrison listened to Morton with his father while growing up.
“Jelly roll” was also once common African American slang for a women’s genitalia, which is what Morton’s name covertly referenced. On the back cover of the original vinyl release of Moondance, the song is incorrectly presented as “Stoned Me” rather than “And It Stoned Me.” Morrison made at least one other song that mentions Ballystockart with “A Sense Of Wonder,” though in that case he refers to the road rather than the townland.
The Lyrics
Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain came pourin' down
Me and Billy standin' there
With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin' rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin' wet
With our backs against the fence
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Hope it don't rain all day
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me
Then the rain let up and the sun came up
And we were gettin' dry
Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
So we jumped right in and the driver grinned
And he dropped us up the road
Yeah, we looked at the swim and we jumped right in
Not to mention fishing poles
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Let it run all over me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me
On the way back home we sang a song
But our throats were getting dry
Then we saw the man from across the road
With the sunshine in his eyes
Well he lived all alone in his own little home
With a great big gallon jar
There were bottles too, one for me and you
And he said Hey! There you are
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Get it myself from the mountain stream
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll
And it stoned me
And it stoned me to my soul
Stoned me just like goin' home
And it stoned me
Writer/s: VAN MORRISON
Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Courtesy of Songfacts
Happy New Year everyone! This week Jim Adams has prompted us with PG for Song Lyric Sunday. Not PG rated, but a song that starts with the letter “P” or “G”. I missed last Sunday’s Challenge because of the holidays so I have chosen two songs today. I have had both in my mind for a while and was just waiting for the right prompt, and here it is! Two of my all time favorites. “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones and “Gloria” by Van Morrison (THEM). I hope you enjoy them.
This is written from the viewpoint of a person who is depressed; he wants everything to turn black to match his mood. There was no specific inspiration for the lyrics. When asked at the time why he wrote a song about death, Mick Jagger replied: “I don’t know. It’s been done before. It’s not an original thought by any means. It all depends on how you do it.” The song seems to be about a lover who died:
“I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black” – The hearse and limos.
“With flowers and my love both never to come back” – The flowers from the funeral and her in the hearse. He talks about his heart being black because of his loss.
“I could not foresee this thing happening to you” – It was an unexpected and sudden death
.
“If I look hard enough into the setting sun, my love will laugh with me before the morning comes” – This refers to her in Heaven.
The Rolling Stones wrote this as a much slower, conventional soul song. When Bill Wyman began fooling around on the organ during the session doing a takeoff of their original as a spoof of music played at Jewish weddings. Co-manager Eric Easton (who had been an organist), and Charlie Watts joined in and improvised a double-time drum pattern, echoing the rhythm heard in some Middle Eastern dances. This new more upbeat rhythm was then used in the recording as a counterpoint to the morbid lyrics.
On this track, Stones guitarist Brian Jones played the sitar, which was introduced to pop music by The Beatles on their 1965 song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). Jones made good television by balancing the instrument on his lap during appearances.
Keith Richards explained how this song came together: “We were in Fiji for about three days. They make sitars and all sorts of Indian stuff. Sitars are made out of watermelons or pumpkins or something smashed so they go hard. They’re very brittle and you have to be careful how you handle them. We had the sitars, we thought we’d try them out in the studio. To get the right sound on ‘Paint It Black’ we found the sitar fitted perfectly. We tried a guitar but you can’t bend it enough.”
This was used as the theme song for Tour Of Duty, a CBS show about the Vietnam War that ran from 1987-1989.
On the single, there is a comma before the word “black” in the title, rendering it, “Paint It, Black.” This of course changes the context, implying that a person named “Black” is being implored to paint. While some fans interpreted this as a statement on race relations, it’s far more likely that the rogue comma was the result of a clerical error, something not uncommon in the ’60s.
Mick Jagger on the song’s psychedelic sound: “That was the time of lots of acid. It has sitars on it. It’s like the beginnings of miserable psychedelia. That’s what the Rolling Stones started – maybe we should have a revival of that.”
U2 did a cover for the 7″ B-side of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” and used some of it in live versions of “Bad.” Other artists who have covered the song include Deep Purple, Vanessa Carlton, GOB, Tea Party, Jonny Lang, Face to Face, Earth Crisis, W.A.S.P., Rage, Glenn Tipton, Elliott Smith, Eternal Afflict, Anvil, and Risa Song.
Jack Nitzsche played keyboards. Besides working with The Stones, Nitzsche arranged records for Phil Spector and scored many movies. Nitzsche had an unfortunate moment when he appeared on the TV show Cops after being arrested for waving a gun at a guy who stole his hat. He died of a heart attack in 2000 at age 63.
The Stones former manager Allen Klein owned the publishing rights to this song. In 1965, The Stones hired him and signed a deal they would later regret. With Klein controlling their money, The Stones signed over the publishing rights to all the songs they wrote up to 1969. Every time this is used in a commercial or TV show, Klein’s estate (he died in 2009) gets paid.
This is featured in the closing credits of the movie The Devil’s Advocate. It is also heard at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s movie Full Metal Jacket, where it serves as an allegory of the sorrow of the sudden death in the song relating to the emotional death of the men in the film, and of all men in war.
Brian Jones had a lot of input into this song, but was left off the songwriting credits (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the credited writers). Jones did the arrangements for “Paint It Black” and many other songs around this time, but according to Keith Richards, he never presented a finished song to the group, which kept him off the credits.
Jones was a founding member of the Stones and key to their early success. He was still going strong when this song was released in 1966, but fell off a year later when his drug use caught up to him and his girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, left him for Richards. By June 1969, he was a liability, and the Stones fired him. Less than a month later he drowned in his swimming pool at age 27.
His notable contributions to the group include lead guitar on “Get Off of My Cloud” and recorder on “Ruby Tuesday,” but his work on “Paint It Black” may have been his greatest musical achievement. “Brian’s sitar line not only makes the song happen but also turns it into a timeless classic,” Danny Garcia, director of the film Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones, told Songfacts.
Paint if Black Lyrics
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love, both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a newborn baby it just happens ev'ryday
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and I must have it painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black
No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me before the morning comes
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I want to see your face painted black, black as night, black as coal
Don't want to see the sun, flying high in the sky
I want to see it painted, painted, painted, painted black, yea
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Paint It Black"
Courtesy of Songfacts
For “Gloria” I chose Van’s version from The Essential Van Morrison as he sounds so great here.
Them was a garage band from Belfast. “Gloria” was written by Van Morrison, who was their lead singer. The song is about a girl who comes by for (presumably) sexual encounters.
The recorded version is a tidy two and a half minutes with nothing explicit, but when Them (and later The Doors) would perform the song live, it often became an extended jam with Morrison going into more graphic, spoken-word detail about the encounter. Anyone who wondered just what happened when a groupie came by to see a willing rock star was given a first-hand account.
According to Van Morrison, the song was titled after his cousin Gloria, who was 13 years older. The song is not about her though. In December 1964, this was released as the B-side of the Them single “Baby Please Don’ t Go,” which was a cover of a blues standard. “Gloria” gained traction when it became a highlight of the group’s live shows, sometimes developing into a 20-minute jam.
The song got little airplay in England, but found a following in America among the same garage rock audience that loved “Louie Louie.” In the US, it was first released (as the B-side) in March 1965, but was reissued as the A-side of the single in April 1966, which is when it charted at #71. It became the most well known song for the group, despite its humble beginnings.
At this stage in their career, session musicians played on Them’s records instead of the actual band, although Van Morrison did the real singing. One of these session players was Jimmy Page, who played guitar on this song. He did a lot of studio work before going on to fame with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.
The Shadows of Knight made a version that hit #10 in the US two years later. It became a very popular song to cover because it’s easy to play on guitar and contains an anthemic chorus (G-L-O-R-I-A).
Some of the other groups to record the song include I ragazzi del sole (1966), Blues Magoos (1967), Patti Smith (1975, with a line from her poem Oath added at the beginning: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”), The Doors (1983), Count Five (1991), Eddie & The Hot Rods (1997), Rickie Lee Jones (2001), Simple Minds (2001) and Popa Chubby (2001).
GLORIA - Lyrics
Like to tell you 'bout my baby
You know she comes around
Just 'bout five feet-four
A-from her head to the ground
You know she comes around here
At just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
She make me feel all right
And her name is G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I'm gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I'm gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
She comes around here
Just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
I want to say she make me feel all right
Comes a-walkin' down my street
Then she comes up to my house
She knock upon my door
And then she comes to my room
Yeah, and she make me feel all right
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I'm gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I'm gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
So good
Gloria!
All right
Feels so good
Gloria!
All right, yeah
Writer/s: Van Morrison
Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
This week for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has encouraged us to “do our own thing”. We get to choose an artist and song to share with you. Most of you know that I am a big Van Morrison fan so I’m excited as I can share one of my all time favorite songs “Moondance”. It is from the album of the same name which was released in 1970. To me the song is so polished and it’s lively jazz feel makes it very special. Moondance is 50 years old and still sounds amazing. Van Morrison is to me the complete artist, writing and performing songs and sounding as good today, if not better, than he ever did. It’s as if his music is transcending time.
Moondance is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, OBE, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in her birthday honors in 2015. It was released on 27 January 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album Astral Weeks (1968), Morrison moved with his wife, Janet Planet, to a home on a mountain top in the Catskills near Woodstock, a hamlet in upstate New York with an artistic community. According to Planet, he was influenced by Bob Dylan, who had just moved out of town when Morrison arrived. “Van fully intended to become Dylan’s best friend”, Planet recalled. “Every time we’d drive past Dylan’s house … Van would just stare wistfully out the window at the gravel road leading to Dylan’s place. He thought Dylan was the only contemporary worthy of his attention.”
The album found Morrison abandoning the abstract folk jazz compositions of Astral Weeks in favour of more formally composed songs, which he wrote and produced entirely himself. Its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul, jazz, pop, and Irish folk sounds into songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, romantic love, and self-affirmation.
Morrison began writing songs for Moondance in July 1969. Because of Astral Weeks‘s poor sales figures, the singer wanted to produce a record that would be more accessible and appealing to listeners. “I make albums primarily to sell them and if I get too far out a lot of people can’t relate to it”, he later said. “I had to forget about the artistic thing because it didn’t make sense on a practical level. One has to live.” The musicians who went on to record Moondance with Morrison were recruited from Woodstock and would continue working with him for several years, including guitarist John Platania, saxophonist Jack Schroer, and keyboardist Jef Labes. The singer left after the Woodstock music festival in August attracted an influx of people to the area.
Moondance was an immediate critical and commercial success. It helped establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music, while several of its songs became staples on FM radio in the early 1970s. Among the most acclaimed records in history, Moondance frequently ranks in professional listings of the greatest albums. In 2013, the album’s remastered deluxe edition was released to similar acclaim.
Although the album never topped the record charts, it sold continuously for the next 40 years of its release, particularly after its digitally remastered reissue in 1990. In 1996, Moondance was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having shipped three million copies in the US.
In the years following the original release, Moondance has been frequently ranked as one of the greatest albums ever. In 1978, it was voted the 22nd best album of all time in Paul Gambaccini’s poll of 50 prominent American and English rock critics. Christgau, one of the critics polled, named it the 7th best album of the 1970s in The Village Voice the following year. In a retrospective review, Nick Butler from Sputnikmusic considered Moondance to be the peak of Morrison’s career and “maybe of non-American soul in general”, while Spin deemed it “the great white soul album” in an essay accompanying the magazine’s 1989 list of the all-time 25 greatest albums, on which Moondance was ranked 21st. In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2003, it was placed at number 65 on Rolling Stone‘s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (It was ranked 66th in a 2012 revised list.) The album was also included in the 2000 edition of Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums (where it placed at number 79), the music reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005), and Time magazine’s 2006 list of the “All-TIME 100 Albums”. The following year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named Moondance one of their “Definitive 200” albums, ranking it 72nd. In 2009, Hot Press polled numerous Irish recording artists and bands, who voted it the 11th best Irish album of all time. Based on such rankings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists it as the 96th most acclaimed album in history.
“The album would solidify Van Morrison as an FM radio mainstay, act as a midwife for the burgeoning genre of ‘soft rock,’ and help usher in the ’70s in America, where the beautiful hippie couples of the late ’60s would soundtrack their developing newfound domestic comfort with the sweet sounds of Morrison’s mystical love-anthems.”
I’ve been waiting to share probably my most favorite Van Morrison song with you and this is the week! Jim Adams, our host of Song Lyric Sunday, prompted us with the elements. Air, Fire, Earth and Water. I have gone with water and Van Morrison’s “Into The Mystic”. It has a beautiful poetic verse and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
This is about a sailor at sea thinking about returning to his lover, who is back on land. Normally a foghorn signals danger, but in this case it means he is close to home and his love.
There is room for interpretation beyond the superficial meaning. It might be interpreted as expressing an understanding that life is finite (the ship sailing on its round trip) and must be lived to its fullest (“I want to rock your Gypsy soul”), and an acceptance of its inevitable end (“We will magnificently float into the mystic, when the foghorn blows I will be coming home”). When you have seen the world and loved someone, you should have no reason to fear the end because you have lived your life to the fullest.
The original title was “Into the Misty.” According to Morrison, he couldn’t decide whether the first line should be “We were born before the wind” or “We were borne before the wind.” This was played in the 1989 Mary Stuart Masterson movie Immediate Family. She played a woman who was young and pregnant and planning to give her baby to Glenn Close and James Woods, who couldn’t have a baby of their own.
According to a BBC survey, because of this song’s cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations.
This week Jim Adams has prompted us with Freeze/Cold/Ice for Song Lyric Sunday. For some reason I found this very difficult. I found some songs but they weren’t speaking to me. After some digging I come up with this early Van Morrison number called “Cold Wind In August” from his 1977 Period of Transition album.
Van Morrison is one of my favorite artists. He, to this day, is still performing and recording high quality work. I’ll never tire of listening to him. Hope you enjoy it too.
Have a great Sunday!
Lyrics - Cold Wind In August Van Morrison
I waited for you You waited for me That it seemed like, seemed like a mighty long time
Baby I had to have you Oh, I had to have you Come rain, rain or shine
It was a cold wind in August Shivers up and down my spine I was standin' in your garden In the California pine
I was standing shivering I've got the fever in the rain But I can't come on back to see you Again and again and again
I said I, I had to have you Baby I had to have you Come rain, come rain or shine
It was a cold wind in August Shivers up and down my spine And I was standing in your garden
In the California pine California pine
It was a cold wind in August Shivers up and down my spine I was standin' in your garden In the California pine In the California pine It was a cold wind in August I was pushed on through September Oh pushin' through September In the rain
Pushin' through, pushin' through September In the rain
Ooh It was a cold wind in August Shivers up and down my spine I was standin', standin' in your garden In the California pine
This week Helen Vahdati's Song Lyric Sunday is "Girls" and I am choosing Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. How can you feel anything but happy when you hear this song?
Lyrics Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Hey, where did we go Days when the rains came ? Down in the hollow Playing a new game, Laughing and a-running, hey, hey, Skipping and a-jumping In the misty morning fog with Our, our hearts a-thumping And you, my brown-eyed girl, You, my brown-eyed girl.
Whatever happened To Tuesday and so slow Going down to the old mine with a Transistor radio. Standing in the sunlight laughing Hide behind a rainbow's wall, Slipping and a-sliding All along the waterfall With you, my brown-eyed girl, You, my brown-eyed girl.
Do you remember when we used to sing Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah Just like that Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah La dee dah.
So hard to find my way Now that I'm all on my own. I saw you just the other day, My, how you have grown! Cast my memory back there, Lord, Sometime I'm overcome thinking about Making love in the green grass Behind the stadium With you, my brown-eyed girl, You, my brown-eyed girl.
Do you remember when we used to sing Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah Laying in the green grass Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah Dee dah dee dah dee dah dee dah dee dah dee Sha la la la la la la la la la la la la Dee dah la dee dah la dee dah la D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d...
My first thoughts were to go for the soul songs of the 60s. Sam and Dave, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding etc. but I opted for Van Morrison’s song Soul. The lyrics are his beautiful poetry …
Soul is a feeling, feeling deep within
Soul is not the color of your skin
Soul is the essence, essence from within”
It is where everything begins
It is the right choice for me.
Have a great day!
Lyrics
Soul
Van Morrison
Soul is a feeling, feeling deep within
Soul is not the color of your skin
Soul is the essence, essence from within
It is where everything begins
Soul is what you’ve been through
What’s true for you
Where you going to
What you’re gonna do
Soul is your station for the folk of your nation
Something that you wear with pride
Soul can be your vision or something that is hidden
It’s not something that you gotta hide
Soul is what you’ve been through
What’s true for you
Where you going to
What you’re gonna do
Soul can be your station for the folk of your nation
Something that you wear with pride
Soul can be your vision it can be your religion
Something that you just can’t hide
Soul is a feeling, feeling deep within
Soul is not the color of your skin
Soul is the essence, essence from within
Soul is where everything begins
Out on the highways and the by-ways all alone
I’m still searching for, searching for my home
Up in the morning, up in the morning out on the road
And my head is aching and my hands are cold
And I’m looking for the silver lining, silver lining in the clouds
And I’m searching for and
I’m searching for the philosophers stone
And it’s a hard road, Its a hard road daddy-o
When my job is turning lead into gold
He was born in the back street, born in the back street Jelly Roll
I’m on the road again and I’m searching for
The philosophers stone
Can you hear that engine
Woe can you hear that engine drone
Well I’m on the road again and I’m searching for
Searching for the philosophers stone
Up in the morning, up in the morning
When the streets are white with snow
It’s a hard road, it’s a hard road daddy-o
Up in the morning, up in the morning
Out on the job
Well you’ve got me searching for
Searching for, the philosophers stone
Even my best friends, even my best friends they don’t know
That my job is turning lead into gold
When you hear that engine, when you hear that engine drone
I’m on the road again and I’m searching for the philosophers stone
It’s a hard road even my best friends they don’t know
And I’m searching for, searching for the philosophers stone
According to Wikipedia
The Philosopher’s Stone (album) The Philosopher’s Stone is a compilation album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison released in 1998 (see 1998 in music). The songs released on this 2-CD thirty-track album were previously unreleased outtakes from 1969 to 1988.
