Saturday, November 13, 2021

Van Morrison & Carl Jung


Saturday afternoon: I am listening again to Van Morrison’s most recent album Latest Record Project. This was prompted by seeing Van in Oxford last week when he sang five of the songs from that album. I don’t mind hearing the new songs, but if it was up to me to decide the setlist my choices might be Duper’s Delight, Tried To Do The Right Thing, It Hurts Me Too, A Few Bars Early and especially Psychoanalysts’ Ball. I think that last song is my favourite on the album. As well as sounding great I also like the interesting lyrics which mention Freud and Jung, ‘Who's got the ball, is it Freud or Jung? or are you just too high strung? or could it be low self-esteem? Then can we analyse your dreams?, nothing is really what it seems’. I find that quite intriguing because it isn’t the first time that Van has alluded to Carl Jung in his songs. In his 2002 song Down The Road Van sings, ‘And I got to be so far away, Oh don't you see, All our memories, dreams and reflections, that keep haunting me’. 
Memories, Dreams & Reflections is a partly autobiographical book by Jung and an associate Aniela JaffĂ© which was first published in Germany in 1962 and an English translation appeared in 1963. 


I had a paperback copy of this book back in the mists of time, many years ago. I can’t remember if I read it or not. Maybe it was a college book that I was supposed to study,  but it shows to me that Van has been influenced by reading Jung over a long period. I have also noticed that he has mentioned Jung in several interviews over the years. In an interview with the Financial Times in 2017 Van was talking about the media and how they misrepresent him.


“It’s what Carl Jung calls projection. They are projecting ideas on to a person they don’t really know, because of something in them. A lot of people project on to me what they think fame is, or they think what I am or what I represent is. That was taken up by the people who write in the rock magazines, “I find them limited in their knowledge of music. I’ve always found that. Whereas in jazz magazines, and blues magazines and classical magazines they’re not as limited, because they have to know what they’re writing about. In rock or pop they don’t really have to know anything. You can just walk in off the street and start writing". 
I can understand why people like Van are wary of the media because they often present an image of a person to the public which can be far from the truth. The audiences then believe what they are told. I remember one night in Bristol many years ago a girl in the audience shouted out between songs, “We love you Van”, and Van replied, “You don’t even know me”. They think the artist on the stage singing the songs is the real person, but it is an act, what Jung would call a persona. It is what gives an introvert like Van the ability to perform and survive in an extrovert business. 

The Way Jung Lovers Do.

Van also said,
“There are some people who become their projection, but I didn’t. I had to work through it. I just studied psychology, basically. I got a book called Man And His Symbols by Carl Jung, which explained it in there.” I think that is why some of the media describe Van as ‘difficult’, because he refuses to play their game and behave how a so-called ‘celebrity’ is expected to be.

Van said in another conversation that I read, “I’ve had that experience, this ‘channeling’ thing. It’s a great idea and it’s one that we all bought into for a minute, back in the 70s. A lot of these ‘new age’ ideas were floating around for a while. I don’t really go for it now. I think it’s all down to you, if you create a song from basically nothing. I mean, you can get ideas and inspiration from various places, from what Jung called the collective unconscious, in dreams etc, so that’s all part of it”. In another interview Van said, “There was a lot of change around that time – 1966/67 – and I was trying to get in everything that was going on. I had a feeling when I was writing Astral Weeks that I was plugging into what Jung called the Collective Unconscious”.


That might hint at the meaning of, 'If I ventured into the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dreams'. I was talking about this myself a couple of weeks ago when I wrote a little piece called The Clicking Clacking Of High Heeled Shoes. In Jungian psychology the collective unconscious is the part of the unconscious mind which is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's unconscious. That is why I think Van must sometimes wonder to himself, why must I always explain? because probably even he doesn’t understand where some of his songs come from, it could be from dreams, or the subconscious mind. What James Joyce would call stream of consciousness. I must say though that I think those types of songs are Van’s best songs, much better than when he sits down to write a rant about how badly he has been ripped off. In the Ritchie Yorke Project Interview of April 21, 2015, Van said, “There's novel reading, and then there's the other kind of reading. Take somebody like Carl Jung, the psychiatrist - now there's somebody worth getting into. With novels, I'm kind of fly by night. It isn't something I can be really consistent with”.


Van has always known that music has healing properties, that is why several songs are about healing. What he wants to understand is why music heals, and has spent a lot of time trying to find the answer. He even organised a weekend course in 1987 at Loughborough University called The Secret Heart Of Music in order to explore this very subject. In the Village voice 2009 he said, “If you study psychology and philosophy, and you look at various types of religion, what you find out is that people call this these different names, “Carl Jung would look at it one way, and Alfred Adler would look at it another way. Aristotle would maybe look at it a different way, Sartre would look at it some other way, and Beckett would look at it a different way. If you go through all this, what I end up with is energy, and I can’t name it, and no one can really say what this energy is, so the healing thing is tapping into that energy, because I can’t find a name for it, and I can’t find it in any books. There was a time when I read everything I could get my hands on because I was looking to find out what this is, is anybody writing about this energy? not really.”


I thought of buying a copy of Man And His Symbols by Carl Jung to find out more about what Van is on about, but I didn’t in the end because I thought that I would probably just read a few pages and lose interest, which often happens with me. I did watch a fascinating interview with Jung though when he talked to John Freeman in a 1959 BBC TV programme called Face To Face. I have shared it below if you want to see it. I was pleased to see that Jung wasn’t a stuffy intellectual professor type at all, but came over as a kindly, humorous, friendly, sort of a person who answered the questions in a simple open way. One thing I really liked was when Freeman asked Jung if he believed there was such a thing as God. Jung replied, “I don’t have to believe it, I know it”. Anyway, I can’t think of anything else to say now about Van and the father of analytical psychology, but I urge you to watch the video interview with Jung  because I found it very interesting indeed.

Viaducts Of Your Dreams. (By Mal)

Face To Face | Carl Gustav Jung (1959)

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Dedicated To The Bird We Love by Oriental Sunshine.


The last couple of days I have been listening to an album which arrived on Monday called Dedicated To The Bird We Love by an obscure group from Norway called Oriental Sunshine. As you know, I like discovering music of merit that most people have never heard of. I was talking recently to a muso friend of mine about psychedelic folk bands of the past, and he said I should check out Oriental Sunshine. I looked for them on eBay and found a copy of their one and only album which was released in Norway in 1970. The Bird in the title refers to The Beatles Blackbird. It only sold a few copies, and sadly the band broke up that same year. I think even in their own country most people have never heard of them. 


I was pleased to see that this reissue from 2006 is on the Sunbeam label. This is a UK record label that specialises in reissuing long forgotten music from the past that they feel deserves to be discovered by a new audience. I have bought CDs previously on Sunbeam including the likes of Linda Perhacs and Blossom Toes and never been disappointed. Oriental Sunshine began in the city of Bergen when singer and guitarist Nina Johansen met guitar and sitar player Rune Walle. They were later joined by an Indian musician called Satnam Singh who played bamboo flute, and tablas. He didn’t speak Norwegian, so they spoke and sang in English. The album also features organ, bass, and drums. 


The band entered a TV show competition called Talent 69 and to their surprise they won it. This led to the album being recorded in Oslo the following year. Shortly after its release tragedy stuck when Nina’s father died suddenly. She was so upset by this event she couldn’t sing anymore, and the group disbanded. This one little gem of an album is their only legacy. The opening track Across Your Life features Nina’s distinctive voice. (I can see that she was influenced by Joni Mitchell). accompanied by sitar and flute. The production and engineering are excellent on the album. The sound of the ocean has been mixed into the song to great effect. 


Mother Nature
was issued as a single and you can see them perform it on the talent show in a video on youtube, but I don’t think it is as good as on the album which just has flute accompaniment, not like the orchestral TV version. The next track Look At Me reminded me of an Irish folk duo of that era called Tir An Nog who I like and have written about previously. Unless again features the guitar and vocals of Nina who also wrote most of the songs. Land Of Wisdom is steeped in eastern mysticism which was obviously a big influence on this group. Let It Be My Birth features Rune on vocals. Nina sings Can Anybody Tell which has a long instrumental section with sitar and organ to the fore. Visions is an atmospheric languid dreamy song, again featuring Nina, and My Way To Be Hurt has some nice acoustic guitar. Where You Went (Tum Kahan Gaye) features Satnam on vocals singing in Indian. The final track I’m Going is a very short song again featuring the ethereal voice of Nina.


After the group disbanded Nina became a teacher, Satnam moved to Denmark and disappeared. Rune has had a long career in music. He was for a while in an American band you may have heard of called The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. It seems a shame that this promising group disbanded so quickly, who knows what they might have achieved. These days this type of music has had a resurgence of interest with such people as Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan and others becoming popular. If you like such music as Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, Incredible String Band, early Fairport Convention, Quintessence, Joni Mitchell, Moody Blues etc, all of whom came into my head while listening to this album, then I think you might enjoy Oriental Sunshine. It would be nice if they got a belated appreciation. I am glad they were recommended to me. You can find them on youtube if interested. Cheers. 

Sunday, November 07, 2021

Review: Van Morrison In Oxford, November 6th 2021.


This is the second time I have stayed in Oxford for a Van Morrison concert. The previous occasion was when me and Kim went to see Van & Joan Armatrading play at Blenheim Palace about fifteen years ago. This time he was in concert at the New Theatre on George Street. I got to Oxford in the afternoon and made my way to my hotel in Wellington Square. I had intended to have a look around the famous Ashmolean Museum, but in the end, I stayed in my room listening to the football. My team Peterborough narrowly lost 1-0 to Fulham. Finally, I made my way to the Wig & Pen pub. After a while fellow Van fans Emer, Jane & Fumiko arrived. The pub was packed and noisy, but we managed to find a corner that was a bit quieter and ordered some food. Eventually we made our way across the road to the theatre. Van and his seven-piece band were promptly on stage at 8.00. There were two different members from the last time I saw Van back in September. I hadn’t seen the new backing singer Elle Cato before. I thought she was an impressive addition to the band. There was also a Hammond organ player sitting behind Paul Moran who I am quite certain is Richard Dunn who played on Van’s most recent album. 


I won’t mention every song because I can’t think of anything to say about a lot of them. I’ll just give you a few thoughts and opinions I had about the show. Van’s voice is as good or better than ever, and he seemed to be in a very good mood. His sax solos were great, and the band are on good form as well. I am always impressed with Dave Keary’s guitar playing and particularly enjoyed his solo during Magic Time. Paul Moran was also very good in that song. Teena Lyle is always excellent and got warm applause for her solos. (See video of Magic Time below)

Elle & Van.

The opening song was Latest Record Project and I quite like it as an upbeat catchy pop song to open the show. Van is also sending a message in the lyrics, ‘Not something from so long ago, not something that you might wanna know, but something I can relate to, In the present, in the present’. It has always been NOW with Van. He doesn’t want to be a nostalgia act and have a show full of songs from fifty years ago. He wants to perform the recent material. His problem is that a lot of fans just want to hear old classics. They aren’t interested in the new songs. There were no extended workshop type improvisational songs in Oxford. That is the transcendental Van that the fans like. Maybe he was pacing himself for the next night in Cardiff. (Or maybe not) Sometimes when he plays two nights running, the second night is better. 

Dave Keary.

For me personally the best songs in Oxford were Foreign Window, Magic Time, Cleaning Windows and In The Midnight. I have heard a lot of the songs too often. I preferred the previous Van show I saw in September at Glastonbury Abbey when at least we got Madame George and St Dominic’s Preview. One thing I really don’t like is the band jam session at the end of the show after Van has left the stage. Why not let Elle Cato sing a song or two? I remember when I first saw Van at the end of the 1970s, he used to let Katie Kissoon sing Crazy Love, it was great. With this jam session ending a lot of the audience think Van is going to return, and when he doesn’t, they leave disappointed. Anyway, after the show we went back to the Wig & Pen for a last drink and tried to remember the setlist. Between the four of us I think we got all the songs, but not necessarily in the right order. I think the others enjoyed the show more than me, and I’m sure most of the audience thought it was great. Maybe, it’s just me, perhaps I have seen him too often. Anyway, after the others left the pub, I had a final drink and found my way back to the hotel, and that was the end of that..........
Setlist: Latest Record Project, Deadbeat Saturday Night, Double Agent, Sometimes We Cry, Symphony Sid, Broken Record, Foreign Window, Thank God For The Blues, Precious Time, Up County Down, Ain’t Gonna Moan No More, Days Like This, Baby Please Don’t Go /Got My Mojo Working, Think Twice Before You Go, Moondance, Cleaning Windows, Wild Night, Whenever God Shines His Light, Magic Time, In The Midnight, Help Me, Brown Eyed Girl, Gloria. 

                              
                                                             A big hand for the band!

Van Morrison, Magic Time. Oxford 2021.

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