No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

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No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher cover
Studio album by Van Morrison
Released July, 1986
Recorded Studio D & Record Plant, Sausalito, Cal.
Townhouse Studios, London, 1985
Genre Celtic, Folk rock, Jazz
Length 50:50
Label Mercury
Producer Van Morrison
Professional reviews
Van Morrison chronology
A Sense of Wonder
(1985)		 No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
(1986)		 Poetic Champions Compose
(1987)
Singles from No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
  1. "Ivory Tower" b/w "A New Kind of Man"
  2. "Got to Go Back" b/w "In the Garden"

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is an album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1986.

Contents

[edit] Reissue and remastered album

In June 2008, Exile/Polydor will release this album as part of batch two of the four catalogue reissues of Morrison's albums dated from 1971 through 2002.

[edit] Songs

The song "In the Garden" was a favorite fan concert performance and in the words of Morrison, "I take you through a definite meditation process which is a form of transcendental meditation." There are references back to Astral Weeks with gardens wet with rain and a childlike vision. The words are poetic as in the line "you are a creature all in rapture/You had the key to your soul". "Got to Go Back" features Kate St. John's oboe and reminisces of school days back in the singer's childhood in Belfast. "Oh, The Warm Feeling" is also a song of feeling the safety of family and love in childhood. "Foreign Window" is a song concerned with dealing with some sort of self imposed therapy and having to go on no matter what. Brian Hinton remarks, "There is a grace and majesty here which I have experienced from little else in rock music." "Here Comes the Knight" is a pun on the Them song, "Here Comes the Night" and quotes from the epitaph on one of Van's favorite poets, W. B. Yeats' tombstone. The Yeats Estate had denied Morrison's request to transform a Yeats poem to music, but the gravestone was considered public property:— Here come horsemen through the pass/They say cast a cold eye on life, on death/". "Ivory Tower' echoes Yeats once more. The song, "Thanks For the Information" is a comment on the cliches of the business world.[1]

[edit] Reviews

This album was hailed by most critics as a return to form. John Wilde in Sounds remarks, "the crescendos here are never dampened by their subtle nature and never fall short of blinding. The whole album aches with a steady stream of sorrow." NMEs review was less enthusiastic and found, "He no longer takes the breath away and as a musician has been content to age with dignity."[2]

[edit] LP track listing

All songs written by Van Morrison

[edit] Side one

  1. "Got to Go Back" – 5:00
  2. "Oh the Warm Feeling" – 3:16
  3. "Foreign Window" – 5:20
  4. "A Town Called Paradise" – 6:13
  5. "In the Garden" – 5:46

[edit] Side two

  1. "Tir Na Nog" – 7:14
  2. "Here Comes the Knight" - 3:41
  3. "Thanks for the Information" – 7:16
  4. "One Irish Rover" – 3:30
  5. "Ivory Tower" – 3:34

[edit] Bonus tracks (2008 CD reissue)

  1. "Oh the Warm Feeling" (alternative take)
  2. "Lonely at the Top"

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Production

  • Van Morrison - Producer
  • Mick Glossop - Engineer
  • Jim Stern - Engineer

[edit] Charts

Album - UK Album Chart

Year Chart Position
1986 UK Album Chart 27

Album - Billboard

Year Chart Position
1986 The Billboard 200 70

Singles - Billboard

Year Single Chart Position
1986 "Ivory Tower" Mainstream Rock Tracks 21

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads, p.255-257
  2. ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads, p.257

[edit] References

Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X

[edit] External links

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