Following from my Living Legends posting I (Satriani/Vai, 2004) and posting II (Eagles, 2006), I thought I’d better add a quick comment on last night’s Van the Man outdoor gig. I’ve always had an on-again/off-again appreciation of the guy, but it was too good an opportunity to miss. Plus, we escaped rain (luckily, given the current spate of awful weather), and had pretty decent seats.
In my view, Van Morrison has the stage presence and charisma of a turtle, and since I’m a sucker for strong presence, I suppose that was one big strike against him – but hey, he has written some great songs, and wow can he SING. His backup band was fabulous. The highlight for me was in fact not one of his own classics (which were there in ample and satisfying number), but rather his rendition of the Don Gibson-penned’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You” made famous by Ray Charles in 1962. That is one TOUGH number to cover, believe me: I’ve been a Ray Charles fan since before that 1962 hit (!!!) – and I didn’t think anyone could pull it off. But it was very moving, in fact, with a sequence of great surprises: wow, that voice, and then wow, those backing vocalists, and then wow, a wonderful pedal steel guitar solo and then wow, an even more wonderful fiddler… very enjoyable stuff! Plenty of G-L-O-R-I-A and Brown Eyed Girl, etc to get us old fogeys up out of our seats; nice evening!
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