Lit Up Inside: Selected Lyrics

Van Morrison is one of a handful of truly iconic twentieth century artists. Along with Bob Dylan, he was one of the first contemporary lyricists to infuse a serious poetic sensibility into popular music. A colossal influence on a wide range of fellow musicians, he has been a singular beacon of artistic integrity, soulful conviction and musical excellence. One of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, Morrison has been following his muse in an uncompromising way since the early Sixties. He has explored soul, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock and roll, Celtic folk, pop balladry and more, forging a distinctive amalgam that has Morrison s unvarnished passion at its core. He has referred to his music as Caledonia soul, reflecting his deep immersion in American roots music and Ulster-Scots. This personal selection of what Morrison himself has judged to be his most important and enduring lyrical work will stand as a landmark public statement from an otherwise intensely private artist, an intimate and very intentional view onto what Morrison himself esteems as his creative contribution. The introduction by Eamonn Hughes, of Queen s University, Belfast, gives a career-long overview of the creative influences Morrison has absorbed and channeled through the years, and the forewords by poet David Meltzer and novelist Ian Rankin provide an appreciation of the writer s craft demonstrated in Morrison s evocative, timeless lyrics. A must for any fan, and a solid introduction to this singular, iconic talent. "'Tupelo Honey' has always existed and Van Morrison was merely the vessel and the earthly vehicle for it."Bob Dylan "I know of no music that is more lucid, feelable, hearable, seeable, touchable, no music you can experience more intensely than this. Not just moments, but extended . . . periods of experience which convey the feel of what films could be: a form or perception which no longer burls itself blindly on meanings and definitions, but allows the sensuous to take over and grow . . . where indeed something does become indescribable."Wim Wenders, filmmaker "No other Irish poets-writing either in verse or in music--have come within a Honda's roar of Patrick Kavanagh and Van Morrison"Paul Durcan Van Morrison, aka Van the Man, is a famous Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. He began his professional musical career in 1958 and is still active to this day. He can play guitar, harmonica, saxophone, keyboard, drums, tamourine, and ukulele. His music genres range from rock to country to gospel to blues. He has received 6 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rockand Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Songerwriters Hall of Fame. "

About the Author :
(Source Credit: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) One of the greatest singers of all time, Van Morrison has been following his muse in an uncompromising way since the early Sixties. His career has been a model of artistic consistency and workmanlike devotion. He has explored soul, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock and roll, Celtic folk, pop balladry and more, forging a distinctive amalgam that has Morrison s unvarnished passion at its core. He has referred to his music as Caledonia soul, reflecting his deep immersion in American roots music and Irish mysticism. An obvious influence on fellow musicians ranging from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger to Sinead O Connor and U2, Morrison has been a singular beacon of artistic integrity, soulful conviction and musical excellence. With a minimum of hype or fanfare, working with the discipline of a craftsman and the creativity of a driven artist, he has amassed one of the worthiest and most massive bodies of recorded work in modern times. Heedless of trends and immune to fashion, Morrison has always created music with a defiant purity of intent. At one extreme, he has made raw, driving blues-rock with the British Invasion-era group Them. At the other, he has produced some of the most transcendent, inspirational music of the modern era as a solo artist. Like Bob Dylan, he was one of the first contemporary lyricists who aspired to emplace a serious, poetical sensibility in popular music. Morrison s discography numbers more than 40 albums. The most notable among them include the jazzy, mystical song cycle Astral Weeks; the swinging, soulful classics Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir, and Tupelo Honey; the deeply personal and revelatory Saint Dominic s Preview and Veedon Fleece; and the visionary and spiritual-minded Common One, A Sense of Wonder, Avalon Sunset, Enlightenment and Hymns to the Silence. Over the decades he has also released some exceptional live albums, including 1974 s It s Too Late to Stop Now, while various later projects have found him delving into skiffle, country and jazz. Elements of mysticism, earthiness, religiosity and Celtic roots can be found throughout Morrison work. His artistic outlook is broad and borderless, encompassing influences that include not only musicians but also poets and painters. On the musical side, many of his primary touchstones have been American blues, soul and jazz icons. Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Mose Allison and Lead Belly rank prominently among them. On the literary side, Morrison has hailed such mystics and visionaries as William Blake, John Donne and William Butler Yeats. All of those figures and many more have been mentioned by Morrison in various songs. George Ivan ( Van ) Morrison was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as World War II drew to a close. He grew up in a household filled with music. His shipyard-worker father collected records, and his mother sang. The Morrisons consorted with the local folk-music community, including the renowned McPeake Family of spirited Irish folksingers. Morrison claims to have listened to blues records since I was two or three. As a pre-teen, he got caught up in the skiffle craze, which swept the U.K. in 1956. Strongly drawn to music, Morrison dropped out of school when he was 15 to become a full-time musician. He joined the Monarchs, a hard-working local R&B band who played military bases around Europe. He already knew how to play guitar, and he taught himself to play saxophone and harmonica, too. It s worth noting that on a personal level, Morrison has maintained a wary distance from the music industry and trappings of celebrity. He is a public artist and a complex, insistently private individual. His relationship with the press has been chilly and combative. In 1994, Van Morrison became the first living inductee not to attend his own induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Morrison has steadfastly rejected the mantle of rock star. As he succinctly stated in a letter to an Irish newspaper, What I am is a singer and songwriter who does blues, soul, jazz, etc. His antipathy toward the music business and the media has been the subject of numerous songs. In one of them, the title track from Keep It Simple, he wrote: "They mocked me 'cause I told it like it was / Wrote about disappointment and greed / Wrote about what we really didn't need in our lives." What it all comes down to is his longstanding contention that it s ultimately only the music that matters. If you want, it s my religion, Morrison said in 2005. I feel I m part of a lineage that goes back to John Lee Hooker and Lead Belly, and it s my duty in a way to carry the lineage on. Eamonn Hughes is Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast's School of English. He was appointed as Assistant Director of the Institute of Irish Studies in 2005 and was its Acting Director in 2007-8. He was one of the founders of the British Association for Irish Studies in 1985 and for the next five years was a member of its Executive Committee. He co-organized the Queen's English Society for many years and sits on the management committee of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, which now organizes literary readings and talks at Queen's University. He was a member of the Combined Arts Committee of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and has been on the Steering Committee of the Between the Lines Literary Festival since its inception in 1996. He is also a regular contributor to Irish cultural publications and broadcasts regularly on arts and culture on BBCNI. He is a member of the Irish Studies Research Forum and of the Postcolonial Studies Research Forum at Queen's. He has lectured on numerous aspects of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies in many countries. A poet at age 11, David Meltzer began his literary career during the Beat heyday in San Francisco and early on took his poetry to jazz for improv wonders, which he continues to astound listeners with today. He is the author of many volumes of poetry including The Clown, The Process, Arrows: Selected Poetry, 1957 1992, No Eyes: Lester Young, Beat Thing, and David's Copy. City Lights in San Francisco published his most recent book, When I Was A Poet, as # 60 in the Pocket Poet's Series. He has also published fiction and essays including Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook and has edited numerous anthologies such as Reading Jazz, Writing Jazz, and San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets. David Meltzer composed, performed and recorded as a singer/songwriter during the 60s and 70s; albums include Serpent Power, whose eponymous 1967 Vanguard Records LP was listed by Rolling Stone as one of the top 40 albums of the Summer of Love (a list which included a number of classic albums released that year, including Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles). He taught in the Humanities and graduate Poetics programs at the New College of California in San Francisco for 30 years. He is now performing in and around the Bay Area with his wife, poet Julie Rogers. In 2011 he received the SF Bay Guardian's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Review :
"Lit Up Inside, a collection of Van Morrison's lyrics that the singer/songwriter specifically wanted published by City Lights and its founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti. . . . This is the only book that Morrison has ever endorsed in an official capacity. It brings together the lyrics of 100 songs from his 50-year, 40-album career. Introduction by Eamonn Hughes; foreword by David Meltzer [and Ian Rankin]."--Publishers Weekly "The big news for devotees of Van Morrison is that he has deigned to authorize a book of his lyrics entitled Lit Up Inside to be published by City Lights. The two hundred page tome will include one-third of the lyrics Morrison has written over the course of his career. --Robert Birnbaum, Our Man in Boston "Music enthusiasts will finally get a glimpse into his creative consciousness with the release of Lit Up Inside, a collection of 100 lyrics curated by Morrison himself. This will be the first literary work published with Morrison's blessing. . . . Morrison chose City Lights to release the book because of the house's consistent commitment to artistic integrity, from the beat generation forward."--Paste Magazine One of rock's more interview-shy luminaries, Van Morrison has always preferred to let his songs speak for themselves--and they ll do just that this fall, when he debuts Lit Up Inside, a collection of selected lyrics spanning his entire career."--Ultimateclassicrock.com "Greil Marcus is not alone in believing that Van has pop music's richest and most expressive voice since Elvis Presley."Russell Leadbetter, The Herald, Scotland "One of the few originals left in rock."Jon Landau, Rolling Stone " ""Lit Up Inside," a collection of Van Morrison's lyrics that the singer/songwriter specifically wanted published by City Lights and its founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti. . . . This is the only book that Morrison has ever endorsed in an official capacity. It brings together the lyrics of 100 songs from his 50-year, 40-album career. Introduction by Eamonn Hughes; foreword by David Meltzer [and Ian Rankin]."--"Publishers Weekly" "The big news for devotees of Van Morrison is that he has deigned to authorize a book of his lyrics entitled "Lit Up Inside" to be published by City Lights. The two hundred page tome will include one-third of the lyrics Morrison has written over the course of his career. --Robert Birnbaum, "Our Man in Boston" "Music enthusiasts will finally get a glimpse into his creative consciousness with the release of "Lit Up Inside," a collection of 100 lyrics curated by Morrison himself. This will be the first literary work published with Morrison's blessing. . . . Morrison chose City Lights to release the book because of the house's consistent commitment to artistic integrity, from the beat generation forward."--"Paste Magazine" One of rock's more interview-shy luminaries, Van Morrison has always preferred to let his songs speak for themselves--and they ll do just that this fall, when he debuts "Lit Up Inside," a collection of selected lyrics spanning his entire career."--"Ultimateclassicrock.com" "Greil Marcus is not alone in believing that Van has pop music's richest and most expressive voice since Elvis Presley."Russell Leadbetter, The Herald, Scotland "One of the few originals left in rock."Jon Landau, "Rolling Stone" " "Tupelo Honey has always existed and Van Morrison was merely the vessel and the earthly vehicle for it."-Bob Dylan "Greil Marcus is not alone in believing that Van has pop music's richest and most expressive voice since Elvis Presley."-Russell Leadbetter, The Herald, Scotland "I know of no music that is more lucid, feelable, hearable, seeable, touchable, no music you can experience more intensely than this. Not just moments, but extended . . . periods of experience which convey the feel of what films could be: a form or perception which no longer burls itself blindly on meanings and definitions, but allows the sensuous to take over and grow . . . where indeed something does become indescribable."-Wim Wenders, filmmaker "One of the few originals left in rock."-Jon Landau, Rolling Stone