Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Introduction
Chapter One Imagining America: Jazz, Blues, Country, and the
Mythologies of the West
Chapter Two What Makes the Irish Heart Beat? The Irishness of Van
Morrison
Chapter Three Get the Words on the Page: Van Morrison as Writer
Chapter Four Caught One More Time: Themes and Thematics
Chapter Five Listening to the Lion: Van Morrison as a Singer
Chapter Six On the Burning Ground: Liveness and the Recording
Studio
Chapter Seven Down the Road: Van Morrison, Exile, and the Idea of
Eternal Movement
Chapter Eight A Three Cornered Quartet: Van Morrison and the Art of
Through Composition
Postscript Make It Real One More Time Again: Astral Weeks Live
Appendix One - The 2006 Shows
Appendix Two - Recording Studios
Bibliography
Discography
A groundbreaking study of every aspect of Van Morrison's artistic career - his influences, lyrical themes, vocal performances, his relationship with America, and more.
Peter Mills is Senior Lecturer in Media & Popular Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. Hewas singer and lyricist for the band Innocents Abroad who made two albums, Quaker City and Eleven. He has taught music, literature and philosophy at universities in the UK , Hungary, Romania and Croatia, and has published work on, amongst others,Samuel Beckett,Olaf Stapledon,Hungarian folk music, Pink Floyd, national anthems and The KLF.
"Littered with sparkling quotes from such artists as Kevin Rowland,
Maria McKee, Kate Rusby and Fiachra Trench (themselves armed with
an acute knowledge and understanding of Van Morrison's work), I
cannot praise this book highly enough. Its investigative validity
is agglutination to that of the musical importance of its subject."
www.davidmarx.co.uk May 2010
Review on
http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/as/index_news_hymns_to_the_silence.htm
"As a highly academic treatment of an artist who deserves as much,
Hymns to the Silence is a book that is long overdue, and Peter
Mills opens many doors for fellow scholars in a variety of
fields:music, literature, Irish studies, among many others. As a
comprehensive analysis of Morrison's multi-decade body of work (one
that remains very much "in progress" as Iwrite this), Hymns to the
Silence should initiate many subsequent conversations across
disciplines regarding Morrison's influences, songs, performances,
and place in the history of popular music." - John P. McCombe
- Popular Music and Society
"Hymns to the Silence represents an important contribution to the
critical literature on this enigmatic, compelling musician,
one that will hopefully inspire both a greater
appreciation and a wider acknowledgement of Morrison's
achievements." - Gerry Smyth, Irish Studies Review
Review on http://www.vanmorrisonnews.blogspot.com
"Mills, who clearly holds Morrison in the highest esteem and shows
an exhaustive knowledge of the singer's body of work, has written
an analysis of interest to academics in the field as well as any
devoted fan. The complexities of Morrison's oeuvre are made visible
in discussion that encompasses his vocal style; his use of jazz,
gospel, folk, and blues; and the meaning and possible symbolism of
repeated poetic themes and places in his music. In addition to
lines from the songs, many quotations from interviews with Morrison
are included." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
"Mills ... is clearly a huge fan [of Van Morrison] who has drawn a
lot of emotional succour from Morrison's work over the years."The
Word Magazine
Interview with author in Yorkshire Post, 18th June 2010
Record Collector - Terry Staunton
*Terry Staunton*
Reviewed in Leeds Guide, Wednesday 29th September ‘An in-depth,
passionate and eloquent study of Van Morrison as a performer both
live and in the recording studio'
'It is one of my favourite Morrison songs, a perfect ball of love
and desire, belief and rock'n'roll, and, perhaps more oddly, one of
the most frequently performed songs at his shows. Peter Mills, in
Hymns to the Silence, refers to it as ''this dark horse of a song''
- a way to describe the surprising appeal of a song that was never
a hit, but has proved compelling to many.'
*The Guardian*
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