Tore Down a la Rimbaud

Infobox Single
Name = Tore Down a la Rimbaud


Caption =
Artist = Van Morrison
from Album = A Sense of Wonder
A-side = "Tore Down a la Rimbaud"
B-side = Haunts of Ancient Peace (live)
Released = 1985
Format = 12" single
Recorded = 1983
Genre = Celtic, Rock & Roll
Length = 4:09
Label = Mercury Records
Writer = Van Morrison
Producer = Van Morrison
Certification =
Chart position =

• #19 U.S. Mainstream Rock

Last single = "A Sense of Wonder"
(1984)
This single = "Tore Down a la Rimbaud"
(1985)
Next single = "Ivory Tower"
(1986)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = A Sense of Wonder
Type = studio
prev_track =
prev_no =
this_track = "Tore Down a la Rimbaud"
track_no = 1
next_track = "Ancient of Days"
next_no = 2"Tore Down a la Rimbaud" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1985 album, "A Sense of Wonder".

The title of the song derives from French poet Arthur Rimbaud who became famous for his poetry at the age of fifteen in 1869 and who quit writing six years later. Morrison had begun writing the song in 1975 during the three year professionally inactive time period after he released the album, "Veedon Fleece".

Morrison was quoted as saying: [Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence? p.308]

[It was] during the period... between "Veedon Fleece" and "A Period of Transition" [that] I started "Tore Down a la Rimbaud" - after I read that [Rimbaud] stopped writing altogether when he was twenty-six, became an arms dealer or something. He never wrote a line after that. Ironically, that sorta got me writing again. Took a long time to finish, though - eight years before I got the rest of the lines. That's the longest I've ever carried a song around.

Van Morrison on "Tore Down a la Rimbaud"

:"I'd been reading him [Rimbaud] when I got the original idea. The idea is ten or twelve years old, and I just rewrote it. I wasn't writing anything at all and I really didn't understand why. Sometimes I get over a block by just sitting down at a typewriter and typing what I've just done." [Collis, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, p161]

Appearance on other albums

*A re-mastered version is included on the 2007 Compilation album, "Still on Top - The Greatest Hits".

Personnel on original release

*Van Morrison - piano, vocals
*John Allair - organ
*Bob Doll - trumpet
*Tom Donlinger - drums
*Pee Wee Ellis - tenor saxophone
*David Hayes - bass
*Pauline Lazano - backing vocals
*Chris Michie - guitar
*Bianca Thornton - backing vocals

Notes

References

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

External links

* [http://www.vanmorrison.co.uk/?m=Content&Content(record_id)=b2950180e54389f3cf9d93ad908ac00e# Lyrics and audio sample] 1980s, A Sense of Wonder
* [http://www.vanmorrison.co.uk/?m=Content&Content(record_id)=87598adf0759073fe56d361a31238249# Video: Tore Down a la Rimbaud, 1985]