Van Morrison & Dr. John

When I lived in Peterborough back in the mid 1970’s we used to have all night music sessions at a friends house when his parents were away. A character called Graham used to dominate the proceedings and make everyone listen to his music heroes who were Captain Beefheart and Dr. John aka The Night Tripper or the Gris-Gris man. That was my introduction to the music of Dr. John, although In 1969 I liked a record by Marsha Hunt called Walk On Gilded Splinters but I didn’t know back then that it was written by Dr. John. It was in 1979 that I first saw the film The Last Waltz and Dr. John sang Such A Night. Van Morrison stole the show in that film when he sang Caravan.

I can’t claim to have ever been a huge fan of Dr. John because I didn’t ever see him in concert or buy any of his albums. I mainly liked him because of his collaborations with Van Morrison. I think they first met at the Last Waltz concert and became friendly and Van invited Dr. John to co-produce his A Period Of Transition album of 1977. This is what Dr. John said about that.

“During the filming of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's tribute to The Band, I became friendly with Van Morrison. While we was hanging out, Van mentioned to me that he wanted to do a record of the old R&B stuff that had inspired him. We threw it around for a while, and later he called to hire me as producer and asked if I could get a rhythm section hooked up to come to England. 

I managed to hijack part of Stevie Wonder's rhythm section--Ollie Brown on drums and Reggie McBride on bass, plus Ray Parker, Jr., on rhythm guitar, along with myself on piano. These guys were absolutely happening at the time; they'd just finished recording Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life, and were considered one of the hipper rhythm sections. We flew over, went up to meet Van in Oxford, and we were sitting at the table eating when Ray Parker started getting nervous 'cause his guitar hadn't come through customs. A high-strung person, Ray began to laugh, which is how he acts when he gets in a new situation that sets him at angles. At one point, Van got the idea that Ray was laughing at him--he'd missed the origin of Ray's hilarity. We wound up the next day with Van firing Ray Parker. Now, this was a time when Ray was playing on sessions with Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and heaps of other stars. He'd cancelled stuff like that to come do the gig with Van, and Van shot him down before he even got started. Suddenly we ain't got a guitarist, and Ray's pissed with me because I'm the one who contracted him. I told Reggie and Ollie, "Look, guys, we're going to make this record no matter what," and even though they were a little weirded out, they stuck it out because they wanted to go through with it. 

We all hung in there because Van just draws in musicians on account of his powerful singing; he may not have the best personality to deal with people, but the mystical quality of his voice could make you go through hell in dealing with him. During the session I have strange memories of him auditioning a lot of guitar players--a group that included many of the premier players of England, who had driven up from London to Oxford to make the gig. There were players all over the studio; I'd give one guy a downbeat, he'd hit one note, and Van would cut him off--"Next!" It went on and on like that: The whole Chris Barber Band came there to play on a tune, and they all got axed real fast, too. It was one long continual confusement, and it all came out of the Ray Parker fiasco. We never did find a steady player, so Van and I ended up splitting the guitar duties ourselves. We finally used Marlo Henderson, who along with Reggie and Ollie was a member of Stevie Wonder's recording band. Marlo recorded his lead guitar parts during overdubbing sessions later in LA. 

The same troubles hampered our work throughout these sessions. I had written some horn charts for the album and came to the studio ready to do the horns, but Van had fired most of the horn section! We had to wing it with just Jerry Jumonville and Joel Peskin on saxes, a sudden change of direction that made the horn charts useless, because I had written them for six horns. I shouldn't have been surprised at all this. I'd heard stories about how difficult Van could be from Stuart Levine and Joe Sample and the Jazz Crusaders, who had collaborated with Van on an album not long before. At the time, the Jazz Crusaders were the premier band in the land, but whatever went down, apparently it wasn't right on the nail enough for Van. After they finished the record, Van changed his mind, decided he didn't like the album, and erased it. He's probably one of the few guys that I ever felt like punching out in the middle of a session, but I didn't do it--not because I didn't feel like it but because I respected his singing so much. I really did get that mad at him sometimes; he's a very hard guy to deal with, but he has a thing about him that I iust dig. His music is powerful. He's a mystical cat and I got to respect that in him. I figure the more talent there is in people, the bigger pain in the ass they usually are”.

Despite the difficulties in that recording Van and the doctor became firm friends. They did gigs together. I have a bootleg somewhere called The Wonderland Tapes from a concert they did  in The Netherlands. Van even mentions him in the song Russian Roulette on the Days Like This album of 1995. ‘I think that you've caught on, that you've been used and all, I'm going down New Orleans, I've got to see Dr. John, Got my mojo working everything will be fine. Stop playing Russian Roulette with my mind’. Dr. John popped up again when he appeared on the Skiffle Sessions album of 1998 with Van and Lonnie Donegan. I think that came about purely by coincidence because Dr. John happened to be playing at another venue in Belfast at the same time and came along to Van’s gig and played piano on some of the tracks. Dr. John also co-wrote the song Quality Street on the Hymns To The Silence album of 1991. If you scroll down you can see a fabulous video of Van singing Moondance on an American TV show. As well as Dr. John it also features Carlos Santana, George Benson, Etta James Tom Scott and others. It really is brilliant.

I think because of his friendship with Dr. John and his admiration for other musicians from New Orleans Van has always had a special affinity with that great city which is why he might have contributed the song Blue And Green to an album to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The two of them remained firm friends right to the end and I’m sure Van must be upset today to hear that his friend has passed away.