Ivory Tower (Van Morrison song)

Infobox Single
Name = Ivory Tower


Caption =
Artist = Van Morrison
from Album = No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
A-side = "Ivory Tower"
B-side = "A New Kind of Man"
Released = 1986
Format =
Recorded = 1985
Genre = Celtic, Folk rock
Length = 3:34
Label = Mercury Records
Writer = Van Morrison
Producer = Van Morrison
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Tore Down a la Rimbaud"
(1985)
This single = "Ivory Tower"
(1986)
Next single = "Got to Go Back"
(1986)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
Type = studio
prev_track = "One Irish Rover"
prev_no = 9
this_track = "Ivory Tower"
track_no = 10
next_track =
next_no = "Ivory Tower" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1986 album, "No Guru, No Method, No Teacher". The song was also released as a single with the B-side "A New Kind of Man", from his previous album "A Sense of Wonder".

Clinton Heylin writes this about the song "A chorus about how tough "It really must be/ To be me, to see like me, to feel like me" threatens the spirituality self-effacing mood he had previously maintained." [Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p.395] Biographer John Collis takes the same viewpoint by saying "Ivory Tower, totally breakes the mould - it's an r'n'b shaker just like those produced by the Van Morrison of old, though now he suffers from self pity: "Don't you know the price I have to pay/Just to do everything I have to do..." [Collis, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, p166]

Personnel on original release

*Van Morrison - vocal
*June Boyce - backing vocals
*Richie Buckley - tenor saxophone
*Martin Drover - trumpet
*David Hayes - bass
*Rosie Hunter - backing vocals
*Jeff Labes - piano
*Chris Michie - guitar
*John Platania - guitar
*Bianca Thornton - backing vocals
*Jeanie Tracy - backing vocals
*Baba Trunde - drums

Notes

References

*Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
*Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0

External links

* [http://www.vanmorrison.co.uk/?m=Content&Content(record_id)=b2950180e54389f3cf9d93ad908ac00e# Lyrics and audio sample] 1980s, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher