| "Vanlose Stairway" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Van Morrison | |
| from the album Beautiful Vision | |
| Released | January 1982 |
| Genre | Celtic, blue-eyed soul [1] |
| Length | 4:10 |
| Label | Warner Bros. |
| Songwriter | Van Morrison |
| Producer | Van Morrison |
"Vanlose Stairway" is a song written by the Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, and included on his 1982 album Beautiful Vision . It has remained a popular concert performance throughout Morrison's career and has become one of his most played songs. [2]
It was recorded in the summer of 1981 at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California. [3]
Morrison wrote the song about his Danish girlfriend, Ulla Munch, from Vanløse district in Copenhagen who lived on the fourth floor of an apartment building with no lift. [2] [4] [5] Clinton Heylin remarks..."he turned this mundane set of stairs in an uninspiring block of flats into a 'Stairway that reaches up to the moon/And it comes right back....to you'. [6] Peter Mills, author of the Morrison biography Hymns to the Silence, refers to "Vanlose Stairway" as this "dark horse of a song". [2]
The singer also includes the lines "Send me your Pillow" which referenced bluesman John Lee Hooker's influence on his music. [7]
The song has been performed by Morrison over seven hundred times, making it the seventh most played song at his concerts. [8] He performed a baroque rendition of this song with the Dallas Jazz Orchestra at the 1989 Montreux Jazz Festival. [9]
A live performance of "Vanlose Stairway" was included on the Morrison's 1984 album, Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast . Morrison often performed the song as a medley with "Trans-Euro Train" and Ray Charles' "A Fool for You". Live versions of the song in this format appeared on the 1994 album, A Night in San Francisco , and the 2019 deluxe edition of The Healing Game , from Morrison's 1997 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. It was remastered and released on the 2007 compilation album, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits .