La la la...

Hasta el gruñón de Van sonríe hoy :)

Reminds me of you

Ain't goin' down no more to the well
And sometimes it seems I'm going to hell
You'll find me knocking on your front door
But I don't have nothing to sell no more

Van Morrison

Let the whining boy moan

Need to make some real connection
Baby something's just got to give!

  

Van Morrison, Just like Greta

Cada cierto tiempo, ciclotímico como soy, entro en modo Van.

Entonces (ahora), sus canciones me resuenan aún más ciertas que en otros momentos. El gruñón que es él le (re)descubre verdades como puños al gruñón llorica ñoño en que me estoy convirtiendo (añado: o que siempre fui).

Hoy, por ejemplo, escucho esa línea y casi podría gritarla: Need to make some real connection! Baby something's just got to give!

Aunque, por otra parte (siempre hay otra parte...), muchas veces pienso que no hago nada por conectar con nadie, que he renunciado siquiera a intentarlo con la mayoría de la gente que me rodea. Que me mantengo a distancia de todos (y todas...), que defiendo mi independencia (¿?) como si de mi virtud se tratase, que me regodeo en esta sensación de soledad que me acompaña desde hace ya un cierto tiempo.

Y sé que algo hay de cierto en ello: me tengo por alguien solitario (¿alguien podría decir que no lo soy?), y épocas como ésta, por poco agradables que sean, me reconfirman en esa imagen de mí mismo que, en el fondo, no me disgusta del todo.

En fin, casi mejor me callo y le dejo a Van do the talking... (or the moaning)

Good ol' Van

Going back to the basics, once again (no descarto haberla puesto aquí ya alguna vez, pero paso de comprobarlo...):

Keep it simple

They mocked me when I was singing the songs
Trying to get back to something more simple than we have
They mocked me 'cos I told it like it was

Wrote about disappointment and greed
Wrote about what we really didn't need in our lives
Make us feel alive and whole

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold
Saying something hard edged is off the wall
And it might seem too bold

Mocked me when it got out of hand
Nobody tried to understand
Now we got to keep it simple and that's that

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold
Saying something hard edged is off the wall
And it just might be too bold

Well I'm down here on the running board
Where I've been many times before
But we got to keep it simple to save ourselves

Mocked me when I tried to get back
Said the train was completely off the track
And we got to get back to something simple to save ourselves

Whoa we got to get back to something simple just to save yourselves
Well got to get back to something simple just to save yourselves
Well you got to keep it simple, keep it simple just to - and that's that

Whoa you got to keep it simple nowadays and that's just that
Whoa you got to keep it simple nowadays and that's just the way it is
And you got to keep it simple these days 'cos that's the way it is

Well you got to keep it, keep it simple and that's that


Van Morrison

I guess I'm going AWOL...

(Actualizo: aquí en Spotify.)

Some days it gets completely crazy
And I feel like howling at the moon [like a dog in heat, que diría Leonard...]
Then sometimes it feels so easy
Like I was born with a silver spoon

Other times you just can't reach me
Seems like I've got a heart of stone
Guess I need my solitude
And I have to make it on my own

Well I guess I'm going A.W.O.L.
Disconnect my telephone
Just like Greta Garbo
I want to be alone

Need to make some real connection
Baby something's just got to give!
'Cos I've been too long in exile
I've been grinding at the mill

Too long to decode all the secrets
Have to get some elbow room
Most people think that everything
Is just what they assume

Well I know I'm going A.W.O.L.
Tell everyone I'm not at home
Just like Greta Garbo
I just want to be alone

Well I'm going out to L.A.
I wanna get my business done
Then I'm going on to Vegas
Then I'm going on the run

If anybody asks you have you seen me
Please just tell them no
'Cos I'm living on the outside
And I have nowhere to go

Well I guess I'm going A.W.O.L.
Disconnect my telephone
Just like Greta Garbo
I just want to be alone

I just want to be alone
Disconnect my telephone
Just like Greta Garbo
I just want to be alone

Van Morrison

[Desde el instante 2:38 minutos]

Willie (Timothy Hutton): You know how it is, the beginnings, when you first fall in love and you can't eat, you can't sleep, and getting a call from her makes your day, it's like you've seen a shooting star....

Andera (Uma Thurman): It's the best.

W: ...but, inevitably, it goes away, it quiets down, so this is my thing, see, why get married now? why not have two or three more of those beginning things before I, you know, settle into the big fade?

A: The big fade? That's an awful way to put it!

W: She's [Tracy] coming tomorrow.

A: That's obvious.

W: I've got no feeling about that. I mean, I've got a feeling of overwhelming ambivalence. But I would rather dread her arrival than not give a shit either way.

Look. Look at you, I think it's amazing, there's a guy out there who gets to do all kinds of things with you, and gets to make you happy, and spend evenings with you...

A: Make me martinis, listen to Van Morrison... [Jeeeefa ;)]

W: ...smell your skin.

A: ...after a day at the beach.

W: And read the papers...

A: ...on a Sunday morning!

W: ...rainy Sunday morning. And pepper your belly with baby kisses.

Sorry.

A: The thing is, there's a guy out there that thinks the same thing. About Tracy. He's jealous of you. You getting to do all that with her.

W: Let me ask you something. Can you think of anything better than making love to an attractive stranger in the middle of a frozen lake with just an oil light to guide your way? Can you think of anything better?

A: Going back to Chicago. Ice cold martini. Van Morrison. [...]

W: Sunday papers. Got you.


Anoche vi Beautiful girls por enésima vez.

The beauty of the days gone by

When melancholy strikes, nothing like Van Morrison to let it possess you for a moment and quickly get over it...


When I recall just how it felt
When I went walking down by the Lake
My soul was free, my heart awake
When I walked down into the town

The mountain air was fresh and clear
The sun was up behind the hill
It felt so good to be alive
On that morning in spring

I want to sing this song for you
I want to lift your spirits high
And in my soul I want to feel
The beauty of the days gone by

The beauty of the days gone by
It brings a longing to my soul
To contemplate my own true self
And keep me young as I grow old

The beauty of the days gone by
The music that we used to play
So lift your glass and raise it high
To the beauty of the days gone by

I'll sing it from the mountain top
Down to the valley down below
Because my cup doth overflow
With the beauty of the days gone by

The mountain glen
Where we used to roam
The gardens there
By the railroad track
Oh my memory it does not lie
Of the beauty of the days gone by

The beauty of the days gone by
It brings a longing to my soul
To contemplate my own true self
And keep me young as I grow old

And keep me young as I grow old
And keep me young as I grow old
And keep me young as I grow old

Meaning of loneliness

No es ni mucho menos una de las mejores canciones del pequeño gran gruñón de Belfast, pero hoy me ha venido a la kabeza, no sé por qué... ;-)

Meaning of loneliness

Lost in a strange city
Nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets that
I came from
It can get lonely
When you're travelling hard
But you can even be lonely
Standing in your own back yard

Nobody knows the existential dread
Of the things that go on inside
Someone else's head
Whether it be trivial
Or something that Dante said
But baby nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

No matter how well you know someone
You can only ever guess
How can you ever really know somebody else?
It takes more than a lifetime
Just to get to know yourself
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

I have to say a word about solitude
For the soul it sometimes they say can be good
I'm partial to it myself I must confess
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Well there's Sartre and Camus, Nietzsche and Hesse
If you dig deep enough
You gonna end up in distress
And no one escapes having to live life under duress
And no one escapes the meaning of loneliness

Well they say keep it simple when it gets to be a mess
And fame and fortune
Never brought anyone happiness
I must be lucky
Some of my friends think that I'm really blessed
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Bright lights, big city nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets where I was born
I've been doing some travelling
Sometimes the road gets hard

But you can also be lonely
Standing in your own backyard

No, no, no, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
No, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Van Morrison

Aquí la podéis descargar. Y aquí puse unas instrucciones generales (o sea, para lerdos...) para descargar archivos en este tipo de páginas.

El trago que mejor sabe de una cerveza es el primero; dicen los fumadores que la calada que más disfrutan es la inicial.

Pues a mí me pasa algo parecido cuando escucho a Van Morrison: da igual que la canción la haya oído cientos de veces, cuando entra su voz, cuando grita la primera frase, flipo.

My brown eyed girl

Hey where did we go,
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow,
Playin' a new game,
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.

Whatever happened
To Tuesday and so slow
Going down the old mine
With a transistor radio
Standing in the sunlight laughing,
Hiding behind a rainbow's wall,
Slipping and sliding
All along the water fall, with you
My brown eyed girl,
You my brown eyed girl.

Do you remember when we used to sing,
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da

So hard to find my way,
Now that I'm all on my own.
I saw you just the other day,
My how you have grown,
Cast my memory back there, Lord
Sometime I'm overcome thinking 'bout
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium with you
My brown eyed girl
You my brown eyed girl

Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da.

Van Morrison


It isn't by far one of my favorite Van's songs, and I've read he doesn't care much for it either, but I've just heard it, for the millionth time, on the radio and for some reason :) it has struck me like never before...