Blowin' Your Mind!

Infobox Album
Name = Blowin' Your Mind!
Type = studio
Artist = Van Morrison

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Released = 1967
Recorded = March 28-29, 1967
Genre = Rock
Length = 51:33
Label = Epic/Legacy
Producer = Bert Berns
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:4ae67ui0h0jj link]
Last album =
This album = "Blowin' Your Mind"
(1967)
Next album = "Astral Weeks"
(1968)
Misc = Singles
Name =Blowin' Your Mind!
Type =studio
Single 1 =Brown Eyed Girl" b/w "Goodbye Baby
Single 1 date =
Single 2 =Ro Ro Rosey" b/w "Chick-A-Boom
Single 2 date =
Single 3 =Spanish Rose" b/w "Midnight Special
Single 3 date =
Single 4 =
Single 4 date =

"Blowin' Your Mind!" is the solo debut album by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, recorded on the 28th and 29th of March, 1967 and contained his first solo pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl". It was included by Rolling Stone as one of the "40 Essential Albums of 1967". [web cite |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/15327933/the_40_essential_albums_of_1967/photo/26/large |title=40 Essential Albums of 1967 |publisher=rollingstone.com |accessdate=2008-08-06]

Recording and release history

Morrison does not regard this record as a true album, as Bert Berns compiled and released it without Morrison's consent. A few months previously, Morrison signed a contract that surrendered virtually all control of the material he would record with Bang Records. The songs were recorded in March 1967 and had been intended to be released on four separate singles. The album jacket became notorious as a model of bad taste. It featured a strange swirl of circling brown vines (and drug connotation) surrounding a sweaty looking Morrison. Greil Marcus described it as a "monstrously offensive, super psychedelic far out out-of-sight exploding" design. [Hinton. 1997. p78] Morrison's then-wife, Janet Planet said "He never has been, never will be anything approaching a psychedelic user - wants nothing to do with it, wants nothing to do with any drug of any kind" [Heylin. 2003. p158] As the singer recalls, "I got a call saying it was an album coming out and this is the cover. And I saw the cover and I almost threw up, you know." [Rogan. 2006. p204] Later, after Berns' death, Morrison would express his displeasure on the "nonsense song" he included on the contractual obligation recording session. It was entitled, "Blow In Your Nose" and includes the words, "We put an album together / We're releasing it next week / It's a gorgeous album cover/ You should see it / It's groovy." [web cite |url=http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/0509/van/18_-_Van_Morrison_-_Blow_In_Your_Nose.mp3 |title= Van Morrison's Contractual Obligation |publisher=blogfiles.wfmu.org|date=2008-09-28 |accessdate=2008-08-06]

ongs and reviews

Of the eight songs on the album, all were composed by Morrison except "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" and the last song, Midnight Special. Clinton Heylin contends that the first side of the album "makes for one of the great single-sided albums in rock", [Heylin. 2003. p158] whereas Greil Marcus the album's most hostile critic, found it "painfully boring, made up of three sweet minutes of "Brown Eyed Girl" and ... the sprawling, sensation dulling "T.B. Sheets". [Hinton. 1997. p79] "He Ain't Give You None" is an urban tale of "lust, jealousy and sexual disgust." It references Notting Hill Gate and Curzon Street in London England places Morrison would have been familiar with when he lived there during his earlier touring days. It contains the words, "You can leave now if you don't like what is happening." Brian Hinton compares "the delighted comtempt of the singer, the song's graveyard pace, the stately organ and stinging guitar" to the "Highway 61" period of Bob Dylan. [Hinton. 1997. p80]

Track listing

All songs by Van Morrison except as noted.

ide one

#"Brown Eyed Girl" – 3:03
#"He Ain't Give You None" – 5:13
#"T.B. Sheets" – 9:44

ide two

#"Spanish Rose" – 3:06
#"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" (Wes Farrell, Bert Russell) – 2:57
#"Ro Ro Rosey" – 3:03
#"Who Drove the Red Sports Car?" – 5:35
#"Midnight Special" (traditional) – 2:51

1994 CD reissue bonus tracks (alternate takes)

#"Spanish Rose" – 3:38
#"Ro Ro Rosey" – 3:09
#"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" (Farrell, Russell) – 2:39
#"Who Drove the Red Sports Car?" – 3:49
#"Midnight Special" (traditional) – 2:46

Charts

Album - Billboard

Singles - Billboard

Notes

References

*Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
*Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X
*Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison:No Surrender, London:Vintage Books ISBN 9780099431831

External links

* [http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/van_morrisons_c.html WFMU'S: Beware of the Blog] Morrison's Contractual Obligation Album