On October 22nd, Warner Brothers will release a five-disc deluxe edition of Van Morrison’s 1970 classic, Moondance. The package will feature a new remaster of the album itself, three discs of previously unreleased music from the recording sessions, and a Blu-Ray Audio disc including high-resolution 48K bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound of the original album.
It’s a pretty sweet set, and one HT reader will end up walking away with a free copy. To win, go to the comments section and post a link to your favorite Van Morrison cover (meaning a cover of a Morrison song by another artist). The commenter who impresses us the most will be Moondance-ing in style.
UPDATE: The deadline for the giveaway now ends Tuesday, October 22nd, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
More details and a full tracklist breakdown are below:
Disc One – Original Album Remastered
1. “And It Stoned Me”
2. “Moondance”
3. “Crazy Love”
4. “Caravan”
5. “Into The Mystic”
6. “Come Running”
7. “These Dreams Of You”
8. “Brand New Day”
9. “Everyone”
10. “Glad Tidings”
Disc Two – All Previously Unreleased
1. “What do we call this Van?”
2. “Caravan” (Take 1)
3. “Caravan” (Takes 2-3)
4. “Caravan” (Take 4)
5. “Caravan” (Takes 5-6)
6. “Caravan” (Take 7)
7. “Caravan” (Take 8)
8. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 1)
9. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 2)
10. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 5)
11. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” (Outtake)
12. “I Shall Sing” (Take 1)
13. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 2-3)
14. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 4-6)
15. “I Shall Sing” (Take 7)
16. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 8-12)
17. “I Shall Sing” (Take 13)
Disc Three – All Previously Unreleased
1. “Into The Mystic” (Take 10)
2. “Into The Mystic” (Take 11)
3. “Into The Mystic” (Takes 12-13)
4. “Into The Mystic” (Takes 14-16)
5. “Into The Mystic” (Take 17)
6. “Brand New Day” (Take 1)
7. “Brand New Day” (Take 2)
8. “Brand New Day” (Take 3)
9. “Brand New Day” (Take 4)
10. “Brand New Day” (Takes 5-6)
11. “Brand New Day” (Take 7)
12. “Glad Tidings (Take 1)
13. “Glad Tidings (Takes 2-4)
14. “Glad Tidings (Takes 7-8)
15. “Glad Tidings (Take 9)
16. “Caravan Redo” (Takes 1-2)
17. “Caravan Redo” (Take 3)
Disc Four – All Previously Unreleased
1. “Come Running” (Take 1)
2. “Come Running” (Take 2)
3. “Come Running” (Takes 3-4)
4. “Come Running” (Take 5)
5. “Come Running” (“Rolling On 4”)
6. “Moondance” (Take 21)
7. “Moondance” (Take 22)
8. “Glad Tidings” (Alt. Version)
9. “These Dreams Of You” (Alt Version)
10. “Crazy Love” (Remix)
11. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 1)
12. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 2)
13. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 3)
14. “Caravan” (Remix)
15. “These Dreams Of You” (Remix)
16. “I Shall Sing” (Mix)
Disc Five – Blu-Ray Audio disc with high-resolution 48K 24 bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound audio of original album (no video)
The deluxe and expanded 2CD editions are available for pre-order on Amazon.)
Rolling Stone is currently streaming an unreleased version of “Into The Mystic.”
37 Responses
Easy, Brock Butler’s cover of Tupelo Honey. Perpetual Groove would occasionally cover the tune but I always thought it was better suited for Brock solo shows. It’s such a tender song that it is perfectly suited for the vulnerability inherent in the one-man-one-guitar show that Brock excelled at. My favorite rendition went unrecorded but this version is a stellar example because Brockly B knocked it out of the park every time. http://archive.org/details/bb2008-11-28.flac16
This whole show is well worth your time actually. I got nostalgic looking at the set list when I pulled it up. Brock shows have always been and remain a true treat.
“And It Stoned Me” Jerry Garcia Band. This made me tear up whenever I heard it played live. What a Great song !!!!
Into the mystic-Warren Haynes
I’ve heard him play this solo, with Govt Mule,,
and with The Dead…gives me chils every time
Wallflowers version of Into the Mystic
My favorite Van cover; love the relaxed, soothing pace:
Jerry Garcia Band
with Bruce Hornsby sitting in for this show only
Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
November 9, 1991
Jerry only played this 5 times, all in Nov. 91
released on “Pure Jerry 7: Hampton Coliseum”
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EThZ1v-yXU
forgot to mention the song name: Bright Side of the Road
Lisa Stansfield’s version of “Friday’s Child”
The great Solomon Burke and “Fast Train”. Van cover soulful extreme
Astral Weeks by Glen Hansard–the greatest cover of Van’s greatest song. Mostly wicked guitar and a sax accompaniment, taped in a 2012 party at South by Southwest. He talks too much in between the lyrics, but who else could cover this song? It is breathtaking here, as AW is every time.
Wherever this glorious music came from in Van’s soul, the bargain was worth it. To my beloved family: please play this song at my funeral when I pass.
For me being a Vannatic for 35 years or so Harry Manx’s cover of Crazy is amazing here is the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2Adby5UDI
My favorite Van cover has got to be Cleaning Windows by The Bridge. This is one of many great versions from an exceptional show at the Canal Club in Richmond, VA.
http://archive.org/details/bridge2008-02-16.flac.16
Cris Jacobs soulfully makes this song his own and the band, tight and loose in all the right spots as ever, absolutely kills it.
Come back Bridge, come back!!!
Oh, now I understand. The space listed for website was to include a link to the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRczuT-OFxk
My favorite Van cover would have to be Aaron Neville doing “Crazy Love.”
Glen Hansard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MDG3pWK5CY
“The Way Young Lovers Do” by Maria McKee (on her 1993 album “You Gotta Sin To Get Saved”) – she does the song justice and makes it her own at the same time (the essence of any great cover version).
When Van Morrison reaches that special place, his musical zenith, there’s usually a combination of intensity, beauty, madness and flying strings. Kevin Rowland and Dexy’s Midnight Runners get to that space with their cover of Jackie Wilson Said.
heres a gem performed by shana Morrison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFUHb4rZF8s
Jimi Hendrix cover of Gloria! Awesome!!!
Here’s website for Jimi Hendrix – Gloria
http://youtu.be/FBG9RsP5ltk
…sorry only 1 cover of a VM song that cuts the mustard;Bob Seger `I`ve Been Working` on the `Live Bullet`album 1976.
Most artists should proceed with extreme caution when approaching a VM song:they simply don`t have the moxie and so overstreach or go too timidly.
The bottom line is leave VM songs alone because 9 times out of 10 no-one hits the sweet spot except Bob Seger IMHO.
He knows he is half-way to nailing it because of their similarities but does not try and push it tooo hard;Bob knows his comfort zone and knows the champ cannot be beat!!
http://youtu.be/k9sxfPvQqVo
..for me the only cover that does it is Ben E King’s version
of ‘And it Stoned Me’It sends shivers up an down my spine and thats what musics all about.
An easy call — the Waterboys doing The Healing Has Begun (out of their own song The Thrill Is Gone) at Glastonbury in 1986: http://youtu.be/xD9zYZpIMfo (audio only)
Fiddler Steve Wickham had just joined the band in 1986, and in the liner notes to the Live Adventures of the Waterboys CD they talk about listening obsessively to Van’s glorious violin-driven Into The Music album on their tour bus at the time. Not many people can channel the ecstatic intensity that Van can call down (and the 2nd half of Into The Music is as ecstatically intense as Van ever got in the studio), but the Waterboys were the right folks at the right time.
Their version of Sweet Thing on the Fisherman’s Blues album is pretty spot-on, too — and also elicited my all-time favorite Grumpy Van quote, from when a Rolling Stone interviewer asked him what he thought of their version: “Well, it’s not as good as mine, now, is it?”
Sweet Thing as performed by the Waterboys – Passionate and powerful
http://youtu.be/Be3OkvBZaIY – As i said – Sweet Thing 🙂
A very little known, but oh so sweet cover of Van’s Crazy Love, by the late Nadieh, a Dutch singer/songwriter. From her album Eye On The Waves.
http://www.driezendesign.nl/nadieh/Crazylove.mp3
its been already mentioned, but well worth mentioning again – Sweet Thing, The Waterboys
Being that Van’s Sweet Thing is the one song that touches my heart more than any other song, ever, I was astonished that the Waterboy’s version could affect me the same way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChgoOmBKp4
oh, and then there’s and Glen Hansard’s Astral Weeks and Warren Hayne’s Into the Mystic too!
but since I only have one vote, it must go to the Waterboy’s Sweet Thing
I always like the way Maria McKee did the Van songs on You Gotta Sin to get saved. This is my favorite.
Maria McKee – My Lonely Sad Eyes live – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8xTWDAKktM
Jan 22, 2011 – Maria McKee performs the Van Morrison song “My Lonely Sad Eyes” live. … Maria McKee – My Lonely Sad Eyes live. selinakyle·187 videos
I was fortunate to have caught Van at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the mid 1990’s. He had Cassandra Wilson join him on stage there for a song or two.
Cassandra had covered Van’s Crazy Love a year or two earlier on one of her albums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqOHwJJsY_k&sns=em
I have always found that Van brings something unique to songs he covers, but most covers of his songs pale in comparison to the original. Cassandra has a unique take on Crazy Love here that I think is quite different than the original, but that Van would consider a worthy compliment.
Elvis Costello’s version of Full Force Gale is sublime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO3ZeE9d_IM
I should have stated Elvis Costello and the Voice Squad singing Full Force Gale
This is something I’ve found and liked…http://youtu.be/pv-FvVOZ4xQ
Joe Cocker steals Into the Mystic from the Belfast Cowboy !
Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ version of Jackie Wilson Said. People covering Morrison tend to focus on the big ballads. But Dexy’s, in full Celtic Soul Brothers flight, bring out the soul stomper side that was more evident in Van’s early seventies albums.
One of the sweetest I remember hearing on the radio was Bobby McFerrin’s fun version of “Moondance.” I still think it gets the feel and jazziness right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9p_KqVCQs
Awesome contest!