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Bang Masters [Original recording reissued]

Van MorrisonAudio CD
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Price: $11.99 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
MP3 Music, 18 Songs, 1991 $8.99  
Audio CD, 2008 $4.99  
Audio CD, Original recording reissued, 1991 $11.99  
Audio Cassette, Original recording reissued, 1991 --  

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Brown Eyed Girl 3:05$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  2. Spanish Rose 3:53$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  3. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye) 2:59$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  4. Ro Ro Rosey 3:04$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  5. Chick-A-Boom 3:13$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  6. It's All Right 5:00$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  7. Send Your Mind 2:52$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  8. The Smile You Smile 2:56$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  9. The Back Room 5:32$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen10. The Midnight Special 2:44$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen11. T.B. Sheets 9:38$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen12. He Ain't Give You None 5:51$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen13. Who Drove The Red Sports Car 5:41$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen14. Beside You 6:06$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen15. Joe Harper Saturday Morning 4:17$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen16. Madame George 5:19$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen17. Brown Eyed Girl (Alternate Take) 3:41$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen18. I Love You (The Smile You Smile) 2:22$0.99  Buy MP3 


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Biography

VAN MORRISON

The subtitle of Van Morrison's new album, Born to Sing: No Plan B, indicates the power that music still holds for this living legend. "No Plan B means this is not a rehearsal," says Morrison. "That’s the main thing—it’s not a hobby, it’s real, happening now, in real time."

This sense of absolute conviction, which has ... Read more in Amazon's Van Morrison Store

Visit Amazon's Van Morrison Store
for 155 albums, 15 photos, discussions, and more.

Frequently Bought Together

Bang Masters + His Band and the Street Choir + Moondance
Price for all three: $23.15

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (February 26, 1991)
  • Original Release Date: February 26, 1991
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Original recording reissued
  • Label: Sony
  • ASIN: B0000027GX
  • Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,457 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's a striking tension at work in these 18 tracks, which represent Van Morrison's first solo recordings. Conducted in New York in 1967 when the 21-year-old Morrison was formulating the spectral notions that took shape on the classic Astral Weeks, these sessions were helmed by hit-minded producer Bert Berns. Berns, who'd written and produced a successful single ("Here Comes the Night") for Morrison's old band, Them, came up with another worthy radio-friendly number with "Brown Eyed Girl." That oldies staple is an anomaly here, however. More representative is the diseased nine-minute-plus vamp "T.B. Sheets" and a couple of songs that turned up in more fluid form on Astral Weeks--"Beside You" and "Madame George." The latter two in nascent form are nearer to Morrison's gritty R&B roots than the dreamy, introspective path he'd soon explore. Bang Masters may be the work of a yearning visionary as reluctant pop star, but the friction feels right. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

Wonderful 18 track collection of his BANG output includes an alternate take of BROWN EYED GIRL. Disc graded only FAIR due to scuffs that will not affect play. SM.

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
(13)
4.4 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive early Van April 28, 2001
Format:Audio CD
Van Morrison's early transitional recordings (between leaving Them in 1967 and signing with Warner Bros. in 1968) have been packaged and repackaged many times, four of them through Sony Music alone (this disc, "T.B. Sheets" in 1990, "Blowin' Your Mind!"--which was the original--in '95 and again in '98, and the "Super Hits" budget compilation). Of these now-redundant rehashes, "Bang Masters" is by far the most complete, and therefore the definitive collection, let no one tell you differently. The liner notes say that, at the time of the CD's release (in early '91), this was the fourth repackaging of the Bang Records sessions. One dares not consider all the imports from small European and Asian labels.

One of the reasons I chose this one was because it had the complete "Brown-Eyed Girl" (unlike the inexplicable single edit on "T.B. Sheets," wherein "Making love in the green grass" was replaced by "Laughin' and a-runnin', hey hey"). As I have a copy of "Astral Weeks" (also highly recommended), I thought it would be fun to hear the original versions of "Madame George" and "Beside You," as well. The version of "Madame George" presented here sounds like a Johnny Rivers track (and Rivers would cover Van's "Into the Mystic" in 1970), but has an extra verse left out of the "Astral Weeks" version of the song. (In trying to learn this song on guitar, I actually went to the trouble of learning the extra verse from the first version while playing like the second, jazzier version.) "T.B. Sheets" is an absolutely riveting track--Van nervously edging towards the door while Julie, his terminally ill girlfriend, begs him to stay and keep her company. It's been rumored that, at the end of the final take, Van broke down in tears and further sessions were postponed (since this song is based on a real-life experience, that would have been understandable), but there is no evidence here of emotional upheaval, impending or otherwise.

Ignore all the imitations. "Bang Masters" is the '67 sessions disc to get.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By J. Wade
Format:Audio CD
Since so many others have written quite well of the origins of these sessions, I won't rehash that. I simply wanted to say that these are excellent songs and the liner notes in this collection are concise in explaining the fact that Van did not intend for these songs to end up as an album by any title.

As it turned out, producer Bert Burns died and Van left Bang records through an escape "key man" clause. So that is why there have been endless repackagings of the 21 or 22 tracks that exist. "T.B. Sheets" is the most fascinating song in the Van Morrison collection as far as I'm concerned. It's almost like something Edgar Allan Poe or William Blake might have written had their art been music. The rest of the collection is a snapshot of the mindset of a 21 year old legend-in-the-making.

My only complaint with this album is the inclusion of an alternate version of "He Ain't Give You None". The better version appeared on the "T.B.Sheets" vinyl version. Presumably, that is also the version that Sony put on the CD, but I do not know. The other version is a more sinister reading, and the lyrics are altered slightly.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Packaging of Van's Bang Material September 21, 1999
Format:Audio CD
Anyone interested in the work of Van Morrison is aware that Van recorded this material without planning for a studio album. Ironically, this work has been rereleased over and over again on one rip-off album after another. This is the only release that deserves merit. Historically, these recordings provide interesting insight into the way Van developed from the soulful pop/rock of Them into the stream-of-consciousness jazz/folk of "Astral Weeks". "T.B. Sheets" and the seminal "Brown Eyed Girl" stand out, but such lesser-known songs as "Spanish Rose" and "Joe Harper Saturday Morning" are what make this collection really enjoyable. Add the rarely heard "Chick-a-Boom",the original versions of "Beside You" and "Madame George", and an alternate take of "Brown Eyed Girl" and you get an important piece of music history. Avoid all other repackaging of this material!!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Van Morrison what else can I say
I have liked Van Morrison since back when he was with the group Them. This a very good album, I purchased this album and his newest album Born to Sing: No Plan B, which is also... Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Schafer
5.0 out of 5 stars jill n
The more I listen to this the more I really like the songs, my taste for his music grows bigger and bigger with more music of his that I purchase
Published 5 months ago by jill
3.0 out of 5 stars The big Bang is a little chaotic
There have been several versions of Van Morrison's Bang Masters. This is the legitimate version. The one true classic here is "Brown Eyed Girl" but the rest of the album is an... Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Bynum
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the one to buy --
Ignore all other releases of his "Bang" material: this is all of it one needs, and excellently mastered.
Published on December 6, 2009 by JNagarya
5.0 out of 5 stars Seduced
I'm sitting on the couch, looking out through the living room window at the ocean a block away, when Bang Masters (side 2) starts coming through the speakers. Read more
Published on September 2, 2009 by S. Carpenter
5.0 out of 5 stars Bang Masters Rocks with the Blues
Having followed Van Morrison for years, I have to say that "Bang Masters" is my favorite of his albums. There are just so many smoky blues songs on this album that bend your mind. Read more
Published on January 5, 2009 by Susan S.~
4.0 out of 5 stars George Ivan goes solo
This collection of Bang Records digitally remixed and remastered (a relatively unusual ADD disc... and no, that doesn't mean "attention deficit disordered") studio recordings from... Read more
Published on October 24, 2004 by Don Schmittdiel
1.0 out of 5 stars Only for hardcore Van fans
Sorry for offending any Van Morrison die hards but I was disappointed in this album. My disclaimer is that I'm a novice Van Morrison fan - having only purchased Moondance until I... Read more
Published on November 24, 2003 by TomKat
5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Amazing!!!
The spontaneous raw intensity of this album gives it an almost live feel (but without the fumbles and poor sound quality of most bootlegs). Read more
Published on July 26, 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites!
Bang Masters is probably one of Van's Best. If I'm not mistaken, it is of his first recordings in the U.S. Without trying to sound fickle, it's raw and polished at the same time. Read more
Published on May 21, 1998 by oldersha@netscape.com
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