Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBEis a Northern Irish singer, songwriter and musician. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth31 August 1945
CityBelfast, Northern Ireland
I don't feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music, and writing songs. That's what I do. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it.
You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.
Don't want to discuss it, I think it's time for a change You may get disgusted, some think that I'm strange In that case I'll go underground, get some heavy rest Never have to worry, about what is worst and what is best.
I think that there are quite a few acts which have stayed with the basic feelings and that's good. And I see something of a swing back to that. For example there are quite a few people copying my early stuff now. Like it's become a reference point or something.
These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over.
Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing guitar, or a particular chord sequence, or blowing a horn, it's based on improvisation and spontaneity.
I do see value in music criticism. Most of the criticism I have received over the years has been very good.
When you start to analyze [rock 'n' roll], it's only because you don't understand it. You're just not connecting with it once you have to start analyzing it.
I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.
I am about the arrangements and the layers of depth in the music.
Love of the simple is all that I need, I've no time for schism or lovers of greed.
I like to see people reaching back for the roots and for the reason why. Not intellectually, but just for the gut feeling of what it's all about.
Someone once described me as a maverick and that's what I would say. I'm a maverick not by choice but by conviction.
As a developing musician, skiffle became a platform for me to start playing music.