1995 interview with Van Morrison
The following interview comes from a Polygram promotional CD, catalog number PRSAD 00117 which features questions/answers and songs from Days Like This. The jewel box has no artwork aside from a white sticker with black lettering (same typeface as the Days Like This CD and singles). MR: From what I've heard, would I be right in saying that this thing is one or your best albums for years? What do you think? VM: Well, it's good. I think it's good. MR: Why did you call the album Days Like This? VM: Oh, it was just named after one of the songs. I couldn't find any other title that sort of... that felt right. (song: "Days Like This") MR: Do you believe that every day, say, is different? VM: Yeah. I think so, yeah. MR: How about every day for you? VM: Well, it's... you know, there's typical patterns and then there's some days are good and some days... The song is basically about you win some, you lose some. MR: And do you write from your subconscious? VM: (cough/sigh) Um... (long pause) I think that's where it comes from originally. It, uh... It can be anything: ideas; it can be what somebody says; it can be, uh, from a... You get an idea from a book, you know, a line. Something you forgot about years ago. It can come from anywhere. Some of it's conscious and some of it's mainly unconscious. MR: So with this album, Days Like This, are there any songs where the music came before the lyrics? VM: Um... (long pause) No, oddly enough, no. All the songs I wrote on this one came lyrically first. MR: Are there times sometimes when lyrics come into your head and you can't get them out? Like as if you've got... The only way you can get them out is to write them out? VM: Well that's what happens. You, you know... It starts... You get like a... You get like a couple lines and they just keep coming in your head. So you get these ideas stuck and you can either reject them or write them. MR: When are you most inspired? VM: Um... It varies. It can be... I mean, I can be inspired, say, if I'm depressed. Something can come out of that. Or if I'm like high or elated. Something can come out of that. Or in the middle, sometimes in the middle. There's no set formula. (song: "Raincheck") MR: Tell me exactly what is the meaning to you of "Raincheck"? VM: Um... Well, you know, "Raincheck" is having the ability to be objective about it and, and, and sort of step back and say, "Well, I can either accept the thing or reject the thing or I can think about it or I can come back to it later on or whatever. That's what it means for me. MR: Are you in a position then to choose, to come and go as you please? VM: Well, I am in terms of my career situation, yeah. As far as that goes, 'cause I work very heard and I put a lot of time in. So it gives me the opportunity to be able to, you know, either do it or not do it depending on, you know... So it's... I'm not controlled by, sort of, the critics. You know, or the media... MR: But were you ever controlled by the critics? VM: Oh yeah! When I started out, sure. For years. You had to say, you had to do this, you had to do that. So, I mean, if you're around long enough, then you don't have to be controlled by that. (song: "Russian Roulette") MR: Do you believe that as people we persecute ourselves? VM: Oh yeah. I think so. Yeah. MR: That's something about "Russian Roulette", that we do it to our own selves. VM: Yeah, we're always playing with our own minds. "Should I do it, shouldn't I do it?" You know? MR: Do you think more so the Irish? Or is it a universal thing? VM: Well, I think more Irish. (song: "Songwriter") MR: Do you have to work at being a songwriter? VM: Oh yeah. MR: So it just doesn't come natural? VM: It comes natural but you still have to work at it because you must keep coming up with things, you know? MR: Your song "Ancient Highway"... What mood were you trying to evoke in this song? VM: It was getting out of the rat race. It's sort of like... It relates to one of my... Well another song I wrote, you see, it keeps coming back to patterns again. I wrote a song called "Alan Watts Blues" and it's sort of relatable to that song. It's about just trying to get out of the rat race, basically. MR: There's a Ray Charles feel to it. VM: Yeah, well the closest I can get, there's a picture in, oddly enough, in a book called, um, I hate the term, but "Rock Dreams." It's paintings of, like, loads of people. There's a painting of Ray Charles in a car, driving through the desert. And it's called "The Fugitive's Dream" or something like this. MR: That might be awkward for Ray Charles to drive. VM: Exactly. But he does drive. He's a pilot as well. Ray Charles is a pilot. MR: Would you go up in the air with him? VM: Yeah. I don't know. MR: The blues is a big issue with you. VM: Yeah. I was born with the blues. And my blue suede shoes. That's from the song. When I was growing up the theory was, um, only black people can sing the blues because they've been, like, oppressed, right? But I mean a lot more races than black people have been oppressed in the world. And a lot more people have felt oppressed. So it's got nothing to do with black, white. I mean Junior Wells says, "I don't care if you're white, I don't want to fight." I don't care if you're purple, green... You know... Lavender. Turquoise. People are people, you know? MR: So the blues then didn't originate then, say, in South America or it originated perhaps... VM: No, the guys that wrote the books on the blues like, Paul Oliver was one of the main guys, and a guy called Samuel Charters... Um, and Samuel Charters wrote another book called Roots of the Blues recently, about five years ago, six years ago, where he says that he traced it to Portugal. MR: Portugal. VM: Portugal. Traced the blues to Portugal. And, um, blues have always been around. They've always been around. It's not a question of race. They've always been around. All races. MR: The song "Perfect Fit". VM: Yeah. That's... Well, that's one of those more, like, ideal sort of songs. You know? MR: So you are idealistic still? VM: Oh yeah. Still. You know. ...just, never learn. (song: "Perfect Fit") The books referred to are:
I do know that neither book is considered by experts to be a definitive statement on the blues in general nor on its origins in particular, and I know the Portugal idea has not caught on. If anyone is interested in reading about the blues (sort of like dancing about architecture, as Thelonious Monk once said about writing about jazz), I'd recommend a couple of more recent works:
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