Dweller on the Threshold (song)

"Dweller on the Threshold"
Single by Van Morrison
from the album Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast
A-side	"Dweller on the Threshold"
B-side	"Northern Muse (Solid Ground)"
Released	April 1984
Recorded	Summer 1981 at Record Plant Studios, Sausalito, California
Genre	Celtic, Jazz
Length	4:46
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Van Morrison, Hugh Murphy
Producer	Van Morrison
Van Morrison singles chronology
"Celtic Swing" (1983) "Dweller on the Threshold" (1984) "A Sense of Wonder" (1984)
Beautiful Vision track listing "Northern Muse (Solid Ground)" (2) "Dweller on the Threshold" (3) "Beautiful Vision" (4)

"Dweller on the Threshold" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and first released on his 1982 album, Beautiful Vision. It was released as a single on the B-Side in 1982 with the instrumental "Scandinavia" as the "A" tune. Another release in 1984 had "Dweller on the Threshold" as the A-Side.

Recording and composition

The song was recorded for the album on the Beautiful Visions sessions in summer 1981 at the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California.^[1]

The album sleeve states that the lyrics on this song and part of "Aryan Mist" were inspired by the 1950 publication, Glamour —A World Problem by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan master, Djwal Khul, as described in Van Morrision's liner notes for the album.^[2][3] According to the teachings of Bailey, there are a series of what she calls "glamours" which are mental illusions creating a fog that veils the spiritual wanderer from seeing the world as it truly is. He becomes illuminated as a "dweller on the threshold" when the "Angel of Presence" purifies the soul with light. This song was co-written with Morrison's engineer Hugh Murphy.^[4]

Other releases

A live version of this song was performed on the Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast album recorded when Morrison appeared in concert on March 11 and March 12 in 1983. "Dweller on the Threshold" was one of the hit songs that was featured on Morrison's first ever "Best of" albums, The Best of Van Morrison that was released by Polydor in 1990. It is one of the songs remastered and included on Morrison's third compilation album for 2007, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits. It is featured on both the two disc set released in the U.K. on October 22, 2007 and also is one of the twenty-one hits on the single disc released on November 6, 2007 in the U.S. and Canada.

Personnel

• Van Morrison - vocals
• Tom Donlinger - drums
• Pee Wee Ellis - tenor saxophone
• Chris Hayes - guitar
• David Hayes - bass guitar
• Mark Isham - trumpet
• Pauline Lozano - backing vocals
• Chris Michie - guitar
• Annie Stocking - backing vocals
• Bianca Thornton - backing vocals

Notes

1. ^ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p. 524
2. ^ Drury. Music for Inner Space. p. 60. 
3. ^ Milward, John (Mar 4, 1982). Van Morrision Beautiful Vision, 1988. RS 364. Rolling Stone Magazine. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21719. Retrieved 2010-08-04. 
4. ^ Rogan, No Surrender, pp. 336-337

References

• Nevill Drury (1985). Music for Inner Space, Prism Press ISBN 0958975906
• Heylin, Clinton (2003), Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, London: Viking, ISBN 0-670-89321-8
• Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison: No Surrender, London:Vintage Books ISBN 9780099431831