And It Stoned Me (1970) – Van Morrison

Van Morrison 1970

Van Morrison is an artist who’s music catalogue I wish I had delved more deeply into. I can’t remember how I first came across him, it may have been when I bopped to Brown Eyed Girl in some dirty dive in my youth or it could have been hearing Moondance which saturated the airwaves in Australia. I only became aware of today’s song recently, but I instantly liked it. And It Stoned Me is the opening track on his 1970 Moondance album. Moondance of course was an immediate critical and commercial success.

I concur with fellow blogger Badfinger who described in his post, ‘The song reminded me of when I grew up’. One thing it’s not about is getting ‘high’. Morrison biographer Ritchie Yorke nailed it saying “how it was when you were a kid and just got stoned from nature and you didn’t need anything else”. The song for mine sounds so much like something you might hear Levon Helm sing from ‘The Band’.

Then the rain let up and the sun came up
And we were gettin’ dry
Almost let a pick-up truck nearly pass us by
So we jumped right in and the driver grinned

And he dropped us up the road
Yeah, we looked at the swim and we jumped right in
Not to mention fishing poles

Also his heralding ‘Oh the water’ over and over denotes it’s cleansing effect and perhaps spiritually signifies the purity and innocence of youth.

The song has been covered by a plethora of artists including Bob Dylan (with Van Morrison).

About observationblogger

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand