A touch of AM pop, so-called blue-eyed soul and rhythm and blues are means of describing the sound I hear when thinking about the music of Van Morrison of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The mid-October release of 1971’s Tupelo Honey album inspires me to share today’s look into this album.
Wild Night charted 28th in the United States, as confirmed here by Songfacts. The song is “one of [Van Morrison]’s few songs with mass appeal, and proof that he could write a terrific Pop song whenever he desired.” Musicians performing on this song included Ronnie Montrose of Denver, Colorado on electric guitar, John McFee of Santa Cruz, California on pedal steel guitar, Jack Schroer of Ohio on saxophone and Luis Gasca of Houston, Texas on trumpet.
(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball takes a less serious look at how life’s loose ends can make accomplishing your goals difficult. The musicality and ease of the song’s tone bely the song title, which feels deliberately silly with a side of endearing.
The piano opening for Old Old Woodstock catches my heart every time that I hear it. The feeling is one of a father that travels a bit too much, not unlike a musician might. The gladness of this song is coming home to the familiar feelings of place, home and the love of family. The sense of fatherhood is clear from the lyrics as well.
Starting a New Life feels intimate, like a band offering that you might get from a local group of musicians aiming to make their name after practicing in their basement and playing Saturday night’s at weddings or bars. The sound is for the pure love of the result, which is part of the charm that draws me to this song that invokes a sense of spring.
You’re My Woman is a clear love song Van Morrison wrote to his wife. Slow in tempo and sung in a soulful yet sincere voice, the song gives very clear thanks while inviting romantic interludes as well.
Tupelo Honey continues with an exceptionally clear tone of love tempered like a hymn by the organ accompaniment that begins and persists through the song. Charting 47th in the United States, as mentioned here, some additional context for the song’s central metaphor is in order. “Tupelo honey is honey made from the sweet flowers of the tupelo tree, which grows abundantly in swampy areas of the Southern United States,” as mentioned by Songfacts. The sincere and sustained passion of this song with top notch musical production makes this my favorite song on the album.
A sensibility that shares something with American country music greets you with the song I Wanna Roo You. The subtext of the song is not subtle in communicating what I take to be Morrison‘s desire for passionate undressed expression with his wife.
When That Evening Sun Goes Down dials back the lust of I Wanna Roo You. While sticking with a playful country beat, the song is a love song Morrison sings to his wife. The touching devotion of this song calls upon spending the day in support of the family with a desire to emotionally connect with his wife afterward.
Moonshine Whiskey is an interesting approach to music making for this album that charms me more than I logically think it should. Lyrically, the song invokes the lyrical qualities of Tupelo Honey, the song, while granting a distinct sense of Texas country through multiple changes in the direction of the song. That the song almost offers a tour of the album with scores of instruments, harmonies and expressions of what’s called southern love simply works. A truly unique and charming effect ends the Tupelo Honey album with more oomph and uplift that I was expecting.
Matt – Saturday, October 15, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 