VAN MORRISON-" RINGWORM"

Quite a few of us know Van Morrison (or George Ivan Morrison, as his mum knew him) and certainly a few of us have loved his music over the years. His ever changing style has been characterised in general by tight structural arrangements and sometimes complex chord patterns. His hits over the years spanning the popular Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria(with the Band " Them"), Moondance, Domino, Tupelo Honey etc

Van Morrison's collaborations with some of the worlds greatest artistes is the stuff of legend- with names like John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan/Robbie Robertson (The Band), Cliff Richard, our favourite- Mark Knopfler, Oumou Sangare (from Mali) to name but a few. He'd also been an influence to some of the world's most popular acts- Bruce Springsteen (who he accused of ripping him off), Bob Seger (who agreed that Springsteen had ripped off Van Morrison), Patti Smith, U2, Rod Stewart, John Cougar Mellencamp, Joan Armatrading and many more. There has been little doubt of his immense stature and musical proficiency.

It was thus with some shock that I came across (a couple of years ago) what has been described as his most profound composition- a track from a recent release of recordings done under the Bang Record Label sometime in 1967. Bang Records being the second label he recorded with - as the Band "Them". To cut a long story short, these are the lyrics-

“I can see by the look on your face that you’ve got ringworm. I’m very sorry but I’ve got to tell you, you’ve got ringworm. It’s a very common disease. Actually, you’re very lucky to have ringworm, cos you may have had something else…..aarrgghh, whoo hoo, hoooo......." (scrappy Guitar strumming and then it ends).

Its difficult to convey the true character of this song unless you hear it. This is a performance of which if you heard it down at your local pub, you would dig deep into your pocket and give the Band all you had in there to persuade them to shut up and go home. However, after listening to this track several times in a bid to understand its rationale, I was compelled to concede its incredible charm and potency.

The fact is that at the time the recording was made, Van Morrison was totally fed up with the record label but was obliged to record the album contractually, hence the recordings were a potent way of sticking his middle finger at the record company but complying with his contractual obligation to record. In short it was pure genius!!. There is no coincidence that the recordings of which this song is one, were never released till the late 1990's thirty years after being recorded. I recall one of the tracks on the recording, consists of Van Morrison grunting and strumming his Guitar tunelessly from beginning till its sorry end- fantasti.

A distinctive trait of this great musician has always been his authenticity, the guy has always worn his heart on his sleeve and (as a true Irishman) been led by his convictions. I was not disappointed.

I've included a link to a site that streams the song. Its definitely worth a listen.

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/0509/van/11_-_Van_Morrison_-_Ring_Worm.mp3

If the link doen't work, then copy and paste.