Van Morrison [Paperback]

Johnny Rogan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: Proteus Publishing Company, Inc. (April 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862760402
• ISBN-13: 978-0862760403
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,783,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Looks in completely the wrong direction, October 4, 2005

By 

David T - See all my reviews

This review is from: Van Morrison: No Surrender (Hardcover)

On the face of it, Van Morrison appears to present a paradox: he's written and performed some of the most sublime and genuinely great music of the past 40 years. If you've never seen a Van Morrison concert when the man himself is on form - well, you've really missed something very special. On the other hand (and I can only quote others on this since I've obviously never met or spoken to the man) - he's supposedly an extremely difficult and downright unfriendly individual.

As has been the case with Johnny Rogan's other biographies, an incredible amount of research has gone into this book. The problem is that the research is largely aimed at providing the reader with great swathes of evidence of VM's fractious nature as well as using the opportunity to lay out sections of his past as if they should viewed as skeletons from his closet (e.g. Scientology).

So, are all the sordid facts interesting? Well, no, not really. After a while you just accept that the Author had a agenda of his own and though the pearls of poison continue to appear nothing really surprises. The book is useful as it does provide a reasonable timeline of Van Morrison's career (hence an additional star) but even then it moves far too quickly through key phases of his career.

The opportunity was missed. The book should have answered the question "how can someone so obtuse and difficult create something so magical?"

Sadly, it's muck-raking. No more, no less. Well written, though.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans, November 8, 2005

By 

kevnm "kevnm" (Costa Mesa, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Van Morrison: No Surrender (Hardcover)

This is by no means a profound biography, and its focus is clearly the man, not the music. I found it very entertaining, though, taken with a grain of salt, and can't imagine that the detail about the pop music business and Ireland in the 60s and 70s wouldn't be of interest to a fan. The book goes into great detail about Van's boorish, antisocial behaviour and his hilarious tendency to think he's the next W.B. Yeats. If you
see Van as a hero, this is going to hurt your feelings. If you can take this is stride I don't see why it should spoil your admiration for his music. Lots of interesting detail about a flawed, but fascinating musician.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Ambitious, September 21, 2009

By 

Toby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Van Morrison: No Surrender (Paperback)

This is an amazingly ambitious book, arguably more so than any other of Rogan's epic biogs. It not only tackles Morrison's career in fine detail, with lots of insights, but goes much further by placing his life and work in a cultural context. Much of the book deals with Belfast, which is seen as the font of his inspiration, and Rogan explains its pervasive influence on his music, lyrics, religious quest and character. It's never dry though. Many of the memories and revealing interview comments from his contemporaries are priceless and morbidly funny! The author takes us through Van's odyssey from Belfast, through New York, California, London and Dublin - and what a ride it is, full of incident with some incredible tales and characters. Rogan tracks down even the most evasive interviewees, although took years to do it. I like the way the portraits of even minor characters are finely drawn so that they come to life on the page. There's some insightful and provocative commentaries of the artist's best work (especially Astral Weeks, Veedon Fleece, Common One and Magic Time) and the penultimate chapter 'Poetic Champions Decompose' has the best overview I've ever read on Morrison as a songwriter. Even the Endnotes (over 100 pages long in small print) are a tour de force, full of esoteric info about politics and the minutiae of Morrison's early life - well worth a read. Pity the book came out just before the recent Astral Weeks concerts as I'd have loved to read Rogan's comments on that surprise event.