# Q interview with Van Morrison



## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

A full interview with the man..... Love the quote " if you can do it for real" " Just do it" 


http://www.cbc.ca/q/uncut.html


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I had the dubious pleasure of interviewing him in 1970, when he was touring in support of Moondance, and busy "getting ripped off" by Warner Brothers. Simply some 15 of the most uncomfortable minutes I have ever experienced in my life. One tough interview. Partly because it was and remains so with him. Partly because I was a whole lot younger and a much poorer interviewer. And partly because I have a really hard time reading Irish people by their tone of voice. It always goes up at the end in a way that makes it hard to tell if they're being sarcastic or not, and of course with him it was doubly hard because the man is just not genial in those situations.

The interview came to an abrupt halt when the entire Jethro Tull band brushed past us in the (narrow) hallway and I looked up and muttered "Oh, I guess you're done", at which point Van thought this referred to him and ambled off.

I saw him in Montreal, about a year or so after that, while he was touring in support of "His Band and the Street Choir", doing tunes like "I've been workin' " and "Domino". Great show, but odd. At one point, he launched into a tune, introducing it as a new song called "I'm weird and I'm strange", and then dashing across the stage to do a few James Brown moves. he seemed to have imbibed a bit, but with him its hard to tell.

But back to Gomeshi's interview. I was unaware how much his childhood had been saturated by blues and jazz. I found that part really interesting. I also found his take on the live version of Astral Weeks interesting too, especially his reasons for doing it in order to have a bit more control.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

mhammer said:


> But back to Gomeshi's interview. I was unaware how much his childhood had been saturated by blues and jazz. I found that part really interesting. I also found his take on the live version of Astral Weeks interesting too, especially his reasons for doing it in order to have a bit more control.


I think that Canadians are unaware of how much jazz/blues had influenced Great Britain. It seems to have had a huge part of a lot of British artists. I find it funny that not much Skiffle music made it back over here. 

Ya he seems still bitter, agreed. It must be frustrating to not even get the royalties to one your biggest hits.


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