"Mystic Eyes" | ||||
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Single by Them | ||||
from the album The Angry Young Them | ||||
B-side | "If You And I Could Be As Two" (Morrison) | |||
Released | 12 November 1965 (UK); October 1965 (US) | |||
Genre | British R&B [1] | |||
Length | 2:43 | |||
Label | Decca Records (UK) Parrot Records (US) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Van Morrison | |||
Producer(s) | Tommy Scott | |||
Them singles chronology | ||||
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"Mystic Eyes" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison when he was leader of the band Them. It was the opening tune for the band's first album, The Angry Young Them that was released in June 1965. It was released as a single in the US in October 1965 and in the UK on 12 November 1965. It charted at No. 33 in the US but did not chart in the UK.
In 1965, Van Morrison explained to a Belfast reporter how the song had just happened during the first recording session for the album and the band was just "busking" around. "Someone started playing a fast riff and we all just joined in. The lyrics I sing at the end were just words from a song I had been writing at the time." Later in 1966 he told an American reporter how it was inspired by an occasion in Nottingham Park as he walked by a graveyard wall where some children played next to it. "You know, man, there was life and death beside one another so close...yet so different...And then I thought of the bright lights in the children's eyes...and the cloudy lights in the eyes of the dead." [2]
Tommy Scott who was acting producer of Them sessions after Bert Berns returned to America described how "Mystic Eyes" came about in the studio as being originally conceived as an instrumental: "After blowing his harmonica for about seven minutes, Van suddenly burst into this spontaneous lyric." The ten-minute take was condensed to a single's length by cutting from the beginning and ending of the instrumental. It was recorded at the Regent Sound, a mono studio in Denmark Street in London England. [3] The lead guitar runs on the song were provided by Jimmy Page, then a relatively-unknown session guitarist.
"Mystic Eyes" was not released as a single until four months after the album that it was the opening song on. It was the follow-up single release to "(It Won't Hurt) Half As Much", which failed to chart in either the UK or the US. "Mystic Eyes" was a successful single in the US, but in the UK it failed to chart. It was Them's second-most successful single release in the US ("Here Comes the Night" being the most successful).
Billboard said of the song that "with a hard driving Bo Diddley beat and a far-out lyric, this group has a hot winner here." [4] Billboard also praised the harmonica playing. [4] Greil Marcus said about hearing "Mystic Eyes" for the first time: "I'd never heard anything like that. A piece of music that was supposedly made for airplay, with this long instrumental introduction that was really the whole song." [5] Marcus also wrote in a 1969 Rolling Stone article on Van Morrison: "'Mystic Eyes' though, was a triumph for both Van as an artist responsible to no one but himself, and for the band. Van wrote it after watching children frolicking among the tombstones of an ancient cemetery, and the vocal consisted in the essence of Van chanting virtually demonic incantations over a mad tempo and the harsh chords of a biting guitar." [6]
This song heavily influenced the Grateful Dead song, "Caution, Do Not Stop on Tracks". In the Dead's earliest recorded versions, the influence is clear.
This was one of the songs included on the compilation album, The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison released in 1997 on the Deram Records label.
This song was featured in the HBO series The Sopranos , and appears on the 2000 release of The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series . [7]
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers frequently covered "Mystic Eyes" in concert. A 2006 performance was included in the 4-disc version of the documentary on Tom Petty, entitled Runnin' Down a Dream . [8] A different 2006 version is also included on their 4-CD collection, The Live Anthology . [9]
Sir George Ivan MorrisonOBE is a singer-songwriter and musician from Northern Ireland whose recording career spans seven decades.
Them were a Northern Irish rock band formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in April 1964, most prominently known for their 1964 garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching Van Morrison's musical career. The original five-member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Milling, Billy Harrison, and Eric Wrixon.
Tupelo Honey is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs in Woodstock, New York, before his move to Marin County, California, except for "You're My Woman", which he wrote during the recording sessions. Recording began at the beginning of the second quarter of 1971 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco. Morrison moved to the Columbia Studios in May 1971 to complete the album.
"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison. Written by Morrison and recorded in March 1967 for Bang Records owner and producer Bert Berns, it was released as a single in June of the same year on the Bang label, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song spent a total of sixteen weeks on the chart. It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.
His Band and the Street Choir is the fourth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. Originally titled Virgo's Fool, Street Choir was renamed by Warner Bros. without Morrison's consent. Recording began in early 1970 with a demo session in a small church in Woodstock, New York. Morrison booked the A&R Studios on 46th Street in New York City in the second quarter of 1970 to produce two sessions of songs that were released on His Band and the Street Choir.
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart is the fourteenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1983. Morrison said he arrived at the title from a Shavian saying: "that idea of communicating with as little articulation as possible, at the same time being emotionally articulate". As his last album for Warner Bros. Records, he decided to do an album which had more than the usual complement of instrumental tracks. As he explained in 1984, "Sometimes when I'm playing something, I'm just sort of humming along with it, and that's got a different vibration than an actual song. So the instrumentals just come from trying to get that form of expression, which is not the same as writing a song." Although not expanded upon, of note is that a special thanks is given to L. Ron Hubbard in the liner notes. The reissued and remastered version of the album contains alternative takes of "Cry for Home" and "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart No. 2".
The Caledonia Soul Orchestra was the band created by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison in 1973. The band was named after an eighteen-minute instrumental outtake on the His Band and the Street Choir album.
"Here Comes the Night" is a 1964 song, written by Bert Berns. It became a hit for Northern Irish band Them, fronted by Van Morrison, in March 1965, charting at No. 2 in the UK and No. 24 in the US. Them's single is listed at either No. 33 or No. 36 in the Top 100 best-selling UK singles during the calendar year 1965, depending on source.
"Into the Mystic" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and featured on his 1970 album Moondance. It was also included on Morrison's 1974 live album, It's Too Late to Stop Now.
Them Again is the second album by the Northern Irish band Them, fronted by lead singer and songwriter Van Morrison. The album was released by Decca Records in the UK on 21 January 1966, but it failed to chart. In the U.S., the album was released with somewhat different tracks in April 1966 and it peaked at number 138 on the Billboard chart.
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass guitar the only instrumentation. The lyrics were heavily influenced by Symbolist poetry and bid farewell to the titular "Baby Blue". There has been much speculation about the real life identity of "Baby Blue", with possibilities including Joan Baez, David Blue, Paul Clayton, Dylan's folk music audience, and even Dylan himself.
Mudcrutch was an American musical group from Gainesville, Florida, whose sound touched on southern rock and country rock. They were first active in the 1970s and reformed in 2007, and are best known for being the band which launched Tom Petty to fame.
"Bright Side of the Road" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1979 album Into the Music. It was also one of the outtakes that made up the 1998 compilation album, The Philosopher's Stone. As a single "Bright Side of the Road" was released in September 1979 and charted at No. 48 in the Netherlands, No. 63 in the UK and just outside the Billboard Hot 100 in the US at No. 110. In 2020, the song reached its highest radio airplay chart position in Ireland, peaking at #2.
"Saint Dominic's Preview" is the title song of the sixth album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in July 1972 by Warner Bros. It was recorded at the Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco in April 1972, with overdubs made later on. Morrison wrote it in a stream of consciousness in the same vein as some of his earlier works, particularly those on Astral Weeks. The song's narrative moves from France to San Francisco, Morrison's place of residence at the time, to Belfast, where he grew up, to New York City.
Live at Montreux 1980/1974 is the first official DVD by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 16 October 2006. The films consist of two separate performances by Van Morrison at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. It was certified gold in May 2007 and platinum in June 2009.
Runnin' Down a Dream is a 2007 documentary film about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The 4-hour documentary chronicles the history of the band, from its inception as Mudcrutch, right up to the 30th-anniversary concert in Petty's home town of Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 2006, at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, University of Florida. The film features interviews with George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Jeff Lynne, Rick Rubin, Johnny Depp, Jackson Browne and more. Petty's solo career is also touched on, as is his time with The Traveling Wilburys.
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